When beds will open at new quarantine facility

An “aggressive time frame” has been set for the new quarantine hub in Melbourne’s north. Here’s when return travellers will able to get a bed.

Renders depicting the village-style quarantine facility proposed for the Mickleham site.

The first 500 beds at a purpose-built quarantine facility in Melbourne’s north will start to be filled by returning travellers in early January.

And works are on track to open a further 500 beds at the Mickelham hub the following month, Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria has told businesses hoping to work at the site.

During the industry briefing, Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria executives outlined plans for a “bespoke” internal portering system where dedicated staff transfer waste, meals and supplies, in bid to reduce the risks of internal coronavirus spread.

An artists’ impression of a room at the purpose-built facility.

The facility has been modelled on a hub in the Northern Territory and includes outdoor verandas.

Tenders for this work and other services would likely be for one year initially, but participants were told some contracts could be extended by a total of 12 years.

This would see work continue on the site even once the pandemic has subsided and the Victorian CQV team finishes its operation.

The potential for the facility to be expanded from 1000 to 3000 beds was also discussed, but no decision has been made on funding that “scale up”.

Executive director of implementation at CQV, Greg Lake, said most early works were now under way and running to the “aggressive time frame” that had been set.
“They are on track to deliver the first 500 beds complete by the end of this year and we would expect that we could commence operational services in early January,” he said.

Outdoor verandas are being built as part of the program, which has been modelled on a quarantine hub in Howard Springs in the Northern Territory.

Executive director of hotel services, Abigail Trewin, said site visits and engagement with Howard Springs staff had been important to the development of the Mickelham structure.

She said providing quality visitor experience would be a crucial part of the staff’s job because it would improve compliance, mental health, and overall outcomes.

All staff would need to be fully vaccinated and would be banned from working or studying in person at other sites in what was called “workforce exclusivity”.