How Mickleham’s quarantine hub went from essential to mothballed in less than a year

As Victoria endured a snap lockdown after yet another COVID-19 leak from hotel quarantine, Premier Daniel Andrews reached for a solution he hoped would ease the political pressure on his government.

The answer, he announced in February last year, was a purpose-built quarantine facility that would eventually be constructed in Melbourne’s north.

“It’s just a matter of how big it is and the more precise details of where,” Mr Andrews said at the time.

Ventilation at the Victorian Quarantine Hub in Mickleham.Credit: Paul Jeffers

But one year after a paddock in Mickleham was chosen as the preferred location for Victoria’s quarantine hub, the assumptions behind its construction have changed dramatically.

This weekend, the final international travellers will leave Mickleham just two months after it opened, with authorities now looking to repurpose a facility that cost $580 million to build.

As Victoria sought to maintain COVID-zero in early 2021, it was anticipated that quarantine was here to stay.

The state government’s business case sent to the federal government in April last year stated that quarantine was “expected to continue in some form at least over the next two-to-three years” with 2100 international arrivals coming to Victoria per week.

The Mickleham facility includes a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen.Credit: Paul Jeffers

“The best time to start an alternative quarantine was 12 months ago, the next best time is now,” said acting premier James Merlino.

By the time Mickleham’s cabin-style camp welcomed its first residents in February this year, the necessity of quarantine had already begun to wane.

The elimination of COVID-19 was a distant dream as impressive vaccination rates and soaring case numbers prompted Victoria to reduce restrictions, including those on international arrival.

Guest rooms at the Mickleham quarantine facility.Credit: The Age

Until Saturday, only unvaccinated arrivals were required to complete seven-days quarantine at Mickleham at their own expense.

But even getting to Australia as an unvaccinated traveller was a major challenge, with big airlines like Qantas only taking vaccinated passengers.

Last week, The Sunday Age revealed how little the facility was being used, with 200 travellers completing quarantine since February. More than 180,000 people have arrived at Melbourne Airport in the same period.

The internal layout of the Mickleham quarantine centre.Credit: Paul Jeffers

It’s clear demand was anticipated to be higher. Mickleham originally opened with space for 500 residents, with capacity doubling to 1000 people in March. That second stage was finished but never opened due to low uptake.

Figures show that 311 people from the community with COVID-19 had used the facility to isolate, which Health Minister Martin Foley identified earlier this week when asked about the ongoing need for Mickleham.

“[For them] it’s been an invaluable resource,” he said.

Police Minister Lisa Neville said the ventilation could be seen “from the moon”.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Foley also attacked the federal government for not building it sooner: “It would have been extraordinarily handy to have two years ago,” he said.

While the federal government owns the land and paid for construction, the state government is paying for the operating costs during the pandemic. So far, that figure has not been provided.

As a comparison, Howard Springs, the former mining camp that Mickleham was based on and improved upon in the Northern Territory, costs about $350,000 per month. Mickleham employs 550 staff, more than double the number currently working at Howard Springs.

COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria said it was communicating with staff about ongoing workforce plans, noting that it operated with a “flexible work model” allowing for personnel to be scaled up and down.

The site in Mickleham chosen for the quarantine hub in April 2021.Credit: Joe Armao

“CQV has always been designed to respond appropriately and proportionately to whatever COVID has thrown our way,” a spokesperson said.

“We are clearly now in a different phase of this pandemic, but we still need to remain alert to the number of cases circulating in the community and what the winter months may bring.”

While Delta and then Omicron reshaped the way Victoria approached COVID-19, a new variant may come along that changes the game again.

Health minister Martin Foley announcing travellers would no longer need to quarantine. Credit: Simon Schluter

But that would go against political sentiment, which is moving to fewer restrictions, not more. Andrews intends to end the pandemic declaration in July.

What happens to Mickleham after the COVID-19 pandemic ends is still an unanswered question. The facility’s official name is the National Resilience Centre and the federal government will decide what its next use will be.

As well as future pandemics, there are suggestions it could be used as crisis accommodation for bushfire-affected communities.

There have also been proposals to turn it into a new infectious diseases hospital (the Kennett government closed the last one in 1996) or to take Ukrainian refugees displaced by the Russian invasion.

“No formal request has been received from the Commonwealth to utilise the Victorian Quarantine Hub for refugees at this stage,” said a state government spokesperson.

Premier Daniel Andrews wants to remove all restrictions by July.Credit: Joe Armao

Those purposes are quite different to the justification for building Mickleham, which includes ventilation seen “from the moon”, contact-free food ordering from a commercial kitchen and a health service with capability for infusions and ultrasounds.

There is also the question of how quickly or effectively such a facility can be mothballed and then fired back up. Authorities say Mickleham was built to be “scaleable”.

Until it is repurposed, Mickleham is likely to face questions about being a potential white elephant. Some have even likened it to the desalination plant that the Bracks and Brumby government built at a cost of $5.7 billion.

That project was announced at the height of the Millenium drought, as water levels fell as low as 27 per cent. By the time the project was finished, heavy rain had fallen and dams were filling back up.

The federal government owns the quarantine centre and can decide what to do with it next. Credit: James Brickwood

Those comparisons don’t really apply in this case, with the decision to build Mickleham made by both the state Labor and federal Coalition governments.

Perhaps that is why the state opposition has not criticised the project, even with an election approaching.

The exercise has shown how difficult it is to respond to a pandemic that has constantly defied predictions.

In government terms, Mickleham was built at light speed in six months but was still not finished fast enough to prevent anything meaningful like lockdowns.

The facility has now become a type of insurance policy for the state’s next disaster. Victorians would be hoping any such event is a long way away.

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