Pinkenba quarantine centre’s opening date and purpose still up in the air

The federal government’s proposed $400 million quarantine centre near Brisbane Airport is months behind schedule and unlikely to be ready before Christmas.

An inspection by Brisbane Times suggested the incredibly busy Pinkenba site – where several hundred tradesmen and women were clearing land, shifting huge mounds of soil and assembling accommodation units – was many months from completion.

Significant work remains to be completed at the federal government’s proposed new quarantine centre at Pinkenba.Credit: Tony Moore

But on Tuesday evening, a spokeswoman for Finance Minister Katy Gallagher insisted the centre would be completed “in the coming weeks”.

The site, on land previously used as Damascus Barracks, was found to have been contaminated, with one area still cordoned off with tape warning of an “asbestos dust hazard”.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner suggested on Tuesday the 1000-bed facility could be used to help the estimated 700 women in Brisbane over the age of 55 who are “homeless and sleeping in their cars”.

“The good news is they [governments] don’t have another use for the facility right now, and the door is open to looking at new ideas,” he said.

The 1000-bed Pinkenba facility, beside Brisbane Airport, seems many months away from completion.Credit: Tony Moore

But Gallagher’s spokeswoman said the facilities “were specifically designed to provide a long-term capability for quarantine”. However, she added they would “also be available for other uses in the future”.

Under the August 2021 plan for a quarantine centre, the federal government was to pay for construction, while the Queensland government would operate the facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is a joint project where we effectively build it, as the Commonwealth, and the state government will run it for the duration of the pandemic,” a spokesman for then finance minister Simon Birmingham said at the time.

“We then take it back and use it as an evacuation centre for cyclones or bushfires, or whatever.”

Tape warns “Danger asbestos dust hazard” at the site, which used to be a military facility.Credit: Tony Moore

Gallagher’s spokeswoman said the facility could be used for crisis accommodation linked to “natural disasters”.

“The design opens up possibilities to support health systems, future health emergencies, humanitarian efforts, and/or temporary or crisis accommodation in responding to natural disasters or other events,” she said.

Questions about the centre being used for emergency housing for the homeless went unanswered.

More than 39,000 Queensland women over the age of 55 face a lack of affordable housing options, and this is predicted to double by 2036. Of those, 700 are living in cars.

The Forgotten Women’s “Live Like Her” campaign asks people to live in their car for one night on September 8 at a secure location at Eagle Farm and donate money to buy fit-for-purpose housing.

Founder Teresa Reed said women over 55 comprised the fastest-growing homeless demographic.

“We seem to have forgotten about the fact that 45 per cent of them have less than $40,000 in superannuation. They are living on $445 a week, when the average rent is more than $500 a week here in Brisbane,” she said.

Reed said repurposing the Pinkenba facility was “a fantastic idea”.

“I think any supply we can get right now is needed,” she said. “Nobody wants to be dressing their kids for school in a car.”