Footscray Hospital a step closer as cranes come down

Footscray’s new hospital will give families in the west access to the “very best facilities”. See inside the world-class building set to open in 2025.

In the heart of Footscray there’s a fancy new hospital in the making that has at its heart the diverse community who has made one of Melbourne’s oldest suburbs home.

Footscray has always been a gritty industrial town; tough like its AFL team the Western Bulldogs, colourful like its local characters: think furniture salesman Franco Cozzo.

The city’s architecture is equally eclectic: beautiful art deco homes and stately Italianate villas sit comfortably alongside timeworn weatherboard cottages.

Located in Melbourne’s west, the new $1.5b Footscray Hospital announced by the Andrews’ Government in 2018 will be a collection of five buildings. These will surround a central village green that will, says Stephen Sabbatucci, pay homage to the city and its history.

Senior project manager at Multiplex Rob Walker Multiplex (left) with the project director at VHBA Stephen Sabbatucci. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Sabbatucci is the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) project director. The project is being delivered by the VHBA in partnership with Western Health, Plenary Health and Victoria University. The Plenary Health consortium is building it with partners including Multiplex.

It will be operated by Western Health and provide a range of services including intensive and coronary care, mental health services and drug and alcohol services.

In an exclusive tour, Mr Sabbatucci points out the terracotta-coloured panels on the Geelong Road entrance that will house one of the country’s largest emergency departments when the hospital opens in 2025.

An artist’s impression of the new Footscray Hospital that is expected to open in 2025. Picture: Supplied.

The panels represent, Mr Sabbatucci says, the colours and textures of surrounding homes.

Artwork is now being commissioned for the entrance that will highlight a unique story of migration to Melbourne’s western suburbs.

In practical terms, the hospital will offer almost 200 new beds, treat an extra 15,000 patients and see an additional 20,000 people in its emergency department every year. The goal will also be to reduce waiting times and ease the load on surrounding hospitals.

There will be 50 mental health beds, 16 alcohol and other drugs (AOD) beds, and a mental health hub to offer those in need of urgent care tailored, specialised and fast-tracked treatment.

Terracotta panels on the new Footscray Hospital pay homage to the historic homes in the area. Picture: David Crosling

This week some of the massive cranes that have dominated Melbourne’s skyline for months at the site have come down to reveal an elegant collection of curved buildings on the corner of Geelong and Ballarat Roads.

They will form the new world-class health hub that will include a new College of Health and Biomedicine at Victoria University.

Premier Dan Andrews says the cranes coming down are a step closer to delivering the landmark hospital.

Health and Infrastructure Minister Mary-Anne Thomas says it also means Victoria’s biggest hospital project under construction is now structurally complete.

“And in just two years, families and our dedicated healthcare workers in the west will have access to the very best facilities.”

Western Health CEO Russell Harrison said the new hospital would be a world-class facility for patients and staff.

Rob Walker (senior project manager, Multiplex) and Stephen Sabbatucci (project director, VHBA) on site at the new Footscray Hospital. Picture: David Crosling

Key stats:

• Construction started in March 2021 and the hospital is expected to open late 2025

• It will require more than two million hours of work

• More than 150,000 tonnes of concrete will be poured onsite

• 125,000 hours have been completed by apprentices, trainees or cadets and more than 245,000 hours by disadvantaged Victorians.