Hotel quarantine alternative: Mickleham pet facility site emerges as contender

The site of a pet quarantine complex in Melbourne’s north has emerged as a contender for Victoria’s alternative quarantine facility for returning travellers, with the state government set to make an announcement as soon as Thursday.

Following almost three months of assessing various locations across the state, the Mickleham Post-Entry quarantine site could soon also host cabin accommodation, similar to the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs site, as an alternative to hotel quarantine.

The federally owned pet quarantine facility at Mickleham spans 144 hectares.

Currently used by the federal Agriculture Department to quarantine animals, including cats, dogs, horses, birds and bees, the site is about 30 kilometres north of Melbourne Airport and 45 kilometres north of the CBD.

The announcement will dash Avalon Airport’s hopes of hosting an alternative to hotel quarantine. Avalon was one of the favourites touted by Premier Daniel Andrews when he revealed plans to build cabin-style quarantine accommodation in February.

“It’s just a matter of how big it is and the more precise details of where, but Avalon and Melbourne airports are standout candidates,” Mr Andrews said at the time.

The Premier’s department commissioned construction giant AECOM to assess 10 locations and prepare reports that were passed on to state cabinet. A Victorian delegation also went on a research mission to Howard Springs.

Victoria’s facility will likely replicate Howard Springs’ cabin-style accommodation.Credit: Louise Radcliffe-Smith

The government narrowed down the options to a small list of preferred sites that included Avalon Airport, a youth jail site in Cherry Creek in Melbourne’s western suburbs and Mickleham.

Avalon and Cherry Creek would have likely meant an increase in the number of flights into Avalon, an international airport.

However, earlier this week The Age revealed Avalon, owned by trucking magnate and Mr Andrews’ friend Lindsay Fox, was no longer the government’s preferred choice. Melbourne Airport also confirmed it had decided not to bid to host the facility.

The land at Cherry Creek was chosen for a youth justice facility after an earlier proposal in Werribee caused community outrage.

About five kilometres from the small town of Little River, the remote property is also adjacent to a quarry and tip.

The nearest hospital is the Werribee Mercy Hospital.
Construction on the justice facility is due to finish in 2022, with a purpose-built road already connecting it to major transport links.

On Wednesday, one source close to the government’s negotiations, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the cabinet had nominated Mickleham as its favoured option. They said the government was expected to announce its decision at a press conference on Thursday.

The northern location is closer to Tullamarine, Melbourne’s main airport, and is next to the Hume Highway and about 25 minutes’ drive to the Northern Hospital in Epping.

All pet dogs and cats that arrive in Australia from specified countries currently quarantine in Mickleham for a minimum of 10 days.

The land spans 144 hectares and currently includes 400 climate-controlled dog pens and 240 cat pens.

Mr Andrews announced Victoria’s intention to build cabin-style quarantine after repeated leaks of COVID-19 from hotel quarantine. Outbreaks have also occurred from hotel quarantine in Perth and Brisbane.

It has previously been revealed that the Andrews government wants the first guests at the facility by September or October.

Victoria has 23 active cases of COVID-19 in its quarantine hotels, which the state reopened earlier this month with 1000 returning Australians flying in to Melbourne each week.

The developments come in the same week the Australian Medical Association criticised hotel quarantine as unfit for the job of housing returned travellers in light of coronavirus leaking out of a hotel in Perth, triggering a three-day lockdown.

“[It] was always a short-term measure and we’ve been calling for a while now for governments to consider longer-term measures,” AMA national president Omar Khorshid said.

Mr Andrews also spruiked the quarantine facility as a long-term emergency accommodation facility during natural disasters such as bushfires.

The government has been tight-lipped throughout the alternative quarantine assessment process and bidders remained in the dark on Wednesday afternoon.

A Victorian government spokeswoman declined to comment.

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