Brookwater golf resort to bring hundreds of jobs

YOUNG Ipswich jobseekers are going to be the major beneficiaries of the imminent construction of the $550 million Dusit Thani Brookwater Golf and Spa Resort

STUNNING SCENERY: Shots of the Dusit Thani Brookwater Golf and Spa Resort that will be built overlooking Brookwater Golf Course. Picture: Contributed

YOUNG Ipswich jobseekers are going to be the major beneficiaries of the imminent construction of the $550 million Dusit Thani Brookwater Golf and Spa Resort.

Fifty guest services officer jobs in the resort will be available in the initial intake of employees with local staff to be engaged.

There will be 500 jobs created in the construction phase alone with a further 300 operational positions to be filled when the resort opens in early 2017.

The resort, to be built overlooking Brookwater Golf Course, will sleep 1500 people and include a convention centre, water park, retail emporium, restaurants, recreation clubs and a tennis complex capable of hosting International WTA tournaments

Brookwater Resort Investments CEO Richard Turner said "a unique employment and training opportunity" awaited Ipswich jobseekers.

"I would have thought by June next year at least 50 people from the local area would be hired," he said.

"Call for applications would probably be in the last quarter of this year towards Christmas."

"At this stage Dusit's technical services team are due at the end of July or early August and from there they will put together a program which will include when they want to start interviewing for positions and conducting training.

"Training will be for at least six months prior to opening and we are talking about at least 50 staff for that initial training program.

"We are unique in that there hasn't been a five-star resort or hotel of any significance opened in Australia in 20 or 25 years and the international norms that were available back then where every person had a defined role no longer exist.

"Now, on completion (of the resort) we will have 100 staff all with the same title of guest services officer, which means any individual staff member can be trained in half a dozen or more roles.

"That gives people flexibility to work in any department at any time on an on-demand basis."

Mr Turner said the resort would ideally be seeking young, enthusiastic staff along with a certain percentage of experienced employees.

Local employees are considered a must.

"We want people to be available and on call 15 or 20 minutes from the resort," he said.

"We don't want people driving an hour or an hour and a half to get to work.

"This is not just about employing local people.

"It is about doing a significant amount of training with local people, especially the young kids who will also have an opportunity to work overseas for Dusit in the future as their skills become more enhanced.

"Young people vibrate an energy and they are the best people to have around these resort-style facilities.

"The young people in the Ipswich area need a start and they need training and the more economic prosperity we can provide for the area the more the area comes up, and that is what we are all about."

Construction was due to start in the early part of the 2015 but the tech services team has been engaged on other projects in south-east Asia.

Now the first work on the project is expected to start in July of this year.

The 500 construction jobs will likely be shared between Brisbane and Ipswich.

"The main contractor will be out of the south-east corner and that main contractor will sub-contract the other trades," Mr Turner said.

"I would imagine with Ipswich having a fairly good trade base and manufacturing sector that it will be widely involved in a lot of those sub-contractual arrangements."

The major contractor will be announced in eight weeks with the short list of five reduced to three.