Wellcamp quarantine hub: International flights still not approved for landing as work gets under way

Early works have started on a 1000-bed regional quarantine hub in Toowoomba but the state government doesn’t even have approval for international flights to land there and won’t say how much it’s costing taxpayers.

Early works have started on a 1000-bed regional quarantine hub in Toowoomba but the state government doesn’t yet have approval for international flights to land and won’t say how much it’s costing taxpayers.

People could be bussed from Brisbane to the Wellcamp facility and Covid-positive patients would either be flown or taken by ambulance back to the southeast to be treated.

In a jab at the Commonwealth, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the facility could have been built months ago.

Pressed on why, then, the state government didn’t build it earlier this year, Ms Palaszczuk said authorities had details to work through.

The facility will accommodate both domestic and international arrivals with Deputy Premier Steven Miles saying he hoped flights would be able to land at the adjacent Toowoomba airport.

“We would expect that once the facility is built we will have support to be able to do that,” he said.

“We do know that airlines and crew are happy to fly in here and we do hope that once it’s built and once the heat is out of the issue, the Commonwealth would support that but if not we currently bus arriving travellers from Brisbane to hotel quarantine accommodation on the Gold and Sunshine Coast.”

Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner said his company was working through the final design criteria to ensure they had the best fit for purpose facility, with 500 beds to come online by the end of the year.

Its design and operation will be closely modelled on the Howard Springs facility in the NT.

It will be cabin-style with balconies meaning there will be no hallways and adjoining rooms.

Mr Miles said the financing arrangement was commercial in confidence but the government had an initial one year lease with options of extending to two and three years.

The Premier refused to reveal how much it was going to cost, instead saying it was cheaper than the Pinkenba facility which the Commonwealth was building.

But it’s expected the Wagners will cover the capital costs and the government will cover operational.

“This is going to be a great boost for our defence against the Delta virus in this country and in fact, I believe we need regional facilities right across the country,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We are going to be dealing with Delta for some time and if we want to open Australia, we want to open our states up - regional quarantine facilities are the second part of the answer.

“The first part of the answer is vaccine.”

Pictures of old sheds at the Damascus Barracks, Pinkenba.

She said she would expect hotels would not need to be used when Wellcamp and Pinkenba were online.

Pressed on the fact the Commonwealth needed to approve arrivals entering Australia, Ms Palaszczuk said several times, “If you build it, they will come.”

She couldn’t say whether she saw a point in time when arrivals didn’t need to quarantine, instead saying, “That would be lovely. I think we all would dream of that day.”

“Everyone wants to go back to the life we had,” she said.

“And I think we’re trying to do everything we can to get to that point.”