Darwin airport redevelopment nears completion as giant pool takes shape

The airport redevelopment is taking shape with the promise of spectacular tourist features. See pictures of how construction is going.

When Megan Dugdale joined Airport Development Group just before Covid began, she thought she’d be managing hangars and terminals.

Instead, within a few months she had oversight of the massive Darwin International Airport redevelopment being built in several stages over multiple years.

A former architect with experience at airports in Victoria and New South Wales, Ms Dugdale is project and design manager on the approximately $30m redevelopment.

Due to be open by September, Ms Dugdale took the NT News on a tour of the construction site with project manager Enda Murphy from THE Mining Civil Contractors.

Ms Dugdale has been involved from the get-go, developing concept plans into master plans, sorting designs, tenders and procurement as well as the small stuff like selecting fabrics, designing poolside features or picking towels and bathroom tiles.

Construction of new facilities to service Darwin’s two airport hotels. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The overall redevelopment includes the roads installed over the past couple of years, room upgrades, lagoon pool, children’s play area, bars, restaurants, conference facilities and extensive tropical landscaping.

This stage of the redevelopment began on June 1 2022 when the road between the Mercure and Novotel Hotels was shut to prepare for work on the project centrepiece – the million-litre, 2.4m feature pool that’s nearing completion.

The development has pools for kids with fun features like a tipping bucket and she’s enormously proud of the commitments made around all-areas access for guests with disability.

Also under construction are the porte-cochere and beside that the food and beverage area that leads to the sunken pit and into the pool.

The new hotels’ pool takes shape. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“This is the biggest show in town,” Megan said. “There will be nowhere else like this in the Northern Territory.

“It’s so incredibly special and is going to be representative of what the Territory is. It’s about water, it’s about leisure, it’s about food, it’s about family and it’s about fun.

“This project is a vision piece for Airport Development Group that we are making a really major stake in the tourism industry in the Northern Territory.

“I’ve been involved from the very beginning so it’s amazing to see this thing churning out and it will be a really significant addition to Darwin and the Northern Territory.”

The airport bought the Mercure and Novotel hotels and are upgrading the rooms to be operated by selected hotel chains with a 3.5 to five star range. A 100 vehicle RV park is also planned.

How part of the new hotel complex at Darwin International Airport will look. Picture: Supplied

Enda Murphy recalled that 12 months ago the building site was where road trains would drive to unload fuel. For all the external

“It makes me laugh to see how far we’ve gone and what was here last year,” he said. “This is a wonderful project for a contractor to be involved in and will be wonderful for the Northern Territory.”

THE Mining, which is playing a lead role in developing Northcrest, did the expansive roads project at the airport over the past couple of years and have had to relocate everything from water, sewerage, high and low voltage cables and communications. More than 130 workers have contributed to the project so far.

“We started the electricity in mid-October and poured first slab here mid-December,” he said. “For everything you can see above the ground, we’ve done the same value of work underground,” he said.