NT government and CDU enter initial agreement for Woods St student accommodation build
A new accommodation building expected to house 350 students is planned in Darwin CBD, while the government lobby against caps on international students.
Northern Territory
Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Charles Darwin University and the Northern Territory government have entered an initial agreement to deliver a new student accommodation building in the Darwin CBD.
The government has allocated crown land at 56 Woods St for the project, across the road from the CDU city campus and on the site of the old Darwin Primary School.
The new accommodation, expected to house about 350 students, is not expected to impact the old school building.
CDU Vice-Chancellor Scott Bowman said meeting demand for student beds remained a challenge.
“There is a shortfall, but what we’ve done as a university is we have pulled out all the stops to find literally every spare bed that we have in Darwin,” he said.
“We have very, very ambitious growth targets for international students, and we know we’ve mopped up a lot of the free beds. I think we can get through the next couple of years but we desperately need this (new accommodation) going into the future – and more.
“This accommodation is the next piece in the jigsaw of really making Darwin an education city.”
More than 5600 international students are currently studying in the NT, contributing $169m to the local economy each year.
Targets hope to almost double that number to 10,000 international students by 2030.
Mr Bowman said lead time on the accommodation building would be about two years, but the university wanted to see it completed “as quickly as we possibly can”.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler said she had been “lobbying hard” to make the NT exempt from international student number caps being proposed by the federal government.
“We need to be exempt from any international student cap imposed on the East Coast or down south,” she said.
“This agreement with CDU will ensure the next generation of Territory workers can stay near where they study, making it easier for them to get the skills they need for their career.
“More students living and studying in the CBD will also deliver a big boost to local businesses and encourage more investment in Darwin.”
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the announcement showed “that this government continues to operate without a plan”.
“For eight years, Labor has talked about attracting thousands of international students to the Territory, but it hasn’t opened any new accommodation for those students to live in,” she said. “People don’t send their children halfway around the world if their child has nowhere to live.
“We’ve seen desperate calls from Charles Darwin University earlier this year, asking Territorians to open up their spare bedrooms … if that isn’t a crisis, I don’t know what it is.”
If elected, the CLP says it would fast track vacant CBD buildings for student accommodation.
“This will see hundreds, if not thousands, of units open up in the CBD … but it also means those vacant commercial spaces that are in our CBD and not being used for anything else can be vibrant once again.”
More Coverage
Originally published as NT government and CDU enter initial agreement for Woods St student accommodation build
Man, 19, arrested over alleged assault of two women after ‘forced entry’
A man has been arrested in the Red Centre over an alleged ‘forced entry’ which ended with two women being allegedly assaulted. Read the latest.
Tenth $10k barra reeled in just over a week into Season 10
A lucky fisho hunting a feed has become the latest success story of what has been a thrilling start to Season 10 of the Million Dollar Fish. Find out where he reeled in the latest prize catch.