Cairns housing: QBuild modular home factory opens in Portsmith

A portable house factory in Cairns has begun churning out prefabricated modular homes for social housing and use in remote disaster-impacted areas throughout the state.

The Queensland Government has opened a new facility at Portsmith under the Homes For Queenslanders program, building modular housing for Far North Queensland communities. QBuild apprentices Jade Elu, Hunter O'Donnell and Madi McDonald work on the first of 10 modular houses, which will be built in Cairns and trucked to Cooktown. Picture: Brendan Radke

A portable house factory in Cairns has begun churning out prefabricated modular homes for social housing and use in remote disaster-impacted areas throughout the state.

The first order of 10 houses being built at the new Cairns Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre in Portsmith and will be delivered to Cooktown by the end of March.

The portable homes are built and fitted out at an undercover hangar on Redden St to avoid weather and heat challenges often associated with remote onsite construction.

Homes are then trucked into position and unloaded using a 40-tonne crane.

The design of a QBuild one bedroom dwelling as part of a duplex to be built by the state government. Picture: Supplied.

Under phase two of the Rebuild QBuild program announced last year, the state’s construction arm was funded to double a workforce to 1000 tradies, including 200 apprentices by 2026.

First year apprentice electrician based at the QBuild facility, Madi McDonald, said she had left a job in the resources sector as a FIFO worker to work closer to home.

“I’m learning heaps of new skills that I haven’t had before in heaps of different areas and it’s different to the big industrial stuff, so it’s cool to do all aspects of things,” she said.

“We do a wide range of jobs compared to what I’m used to.”

First year apprentices Jade Elu, Hunter O'Donnell and Madi McDonald. Picture: Brendan Radke

Premier Steven Miles said homes built at the Cairns Rapid Accommodation facility would help the state deliver 53,500 social homes by 2046 through the Our Homes for Queenslanders scheme.

“In order to achieve that ambition we need to look at innovative ways to build homes like modular housing, and build our construction capacity with more apprentices,” he said.

“This new facility will do just that.”

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said whatever the weather the Cairns factory could produce homes quickly and efficiently.

“The Far North is no stranger to heavy rainfall and natural disasters but it often means building sites can be shut down for long periods of time,” she said.

The design of a QBuild three bedroom dwelling. Picture: Supplied.

“These homes also take a fraction of the time it would take to build a home from the ground up, especially in regional communities where construction can be challenging.”

First-year QBuild apprentice carpenter Hunter O’Donnell from Ravenshoe, currently working on one-bedroom duplexes for frontline workers in Cooktown, said the new homes would take pressure off the local rental market.

“I think it’s really important work to be helping people into homes here in the Far North, and this really hit home after the recent floods,” she said.

Cairns MP Michael Healy said homes produced at the centre were a big step towards easing the housing crisis.

“But it will also provide much needed jobs in the region for tradespeople and young people,” he said.

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Originally published as Cairns housing: QBuild modular home factory opens in Portsmith