Wagner Corporation still finishing final design for Boeing assembly plant at Wellcamp defence, aerospace precinct

The creation of a massive defence and aerospace precinct outside Toowoomba will feature building designs not seen before in the Garden City. Find out when construction will start here:

Toowoomba’s new multimillion-dollar defence and aerospace precinct at Wellcamp Airport will contain design features the city has never seen before.

That’s according to precinct owner John Wagner, who said the recent arrival of Virgin Orbit to the concept will pave the way for more companies to sign up.

Richard Branson’s aerospace company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Wagner Corporation to establish Wellcamp as its next satellite launch site and spaceport, in a move that could deliver hundreds of jobs to the region.

Wagner Corporation is also hoping to start construction soon on the new Boeing defence plant in 2023, with the facility to host the assembly of seven new MQ-28A Ghost Bat unmanned aircraft as part of the Loyal Wingman program.

Mr Wagner said the complexity of the buildings meant final designs had yet to be completed.

“We’re going through the final design, we’ve already spent millions on design and getting the buildings right,” he said.

“That’s being finalised over the next couple of months and hopefully we start construction in 2023.

“Boeing is a very complex building, it doesn’t come any better in the world due to all the automation and robotics, the level of security you’ve got to have.
“No one in Toowoomba has ever seen anything like this building.”

While council approved the Boeing plans back in July, Mr Wagner said no applications would need to be submitted to the TRC for Virgin Orbit at this point while the precinct and airport secured licensing to be designated as a spaceport.

“We’ll put Boeing into one of our existing buildings and we’ve got to get the licensing sorted from the Australian Space Agency and CASA for Virgin,” he said.

“What Boeing and Virgin all bring to the table is their customers and suppliers, and people who will get into manufacturing.

“And Virgin will bring a lot of university and education-type people — I think it’s going to be an exciting few years ahead for us.

“It’s not just Wellcamp (that benefits but) the entire city, region, state and country — aerospace is a global business, whether it’s satellites or aircraft.”