Site works have started for a Wellcamp regional quarantine facility as the State Government today announced a deal with landowner, Wagner Corporation.

Wagner Corporation will build the facility, with the accommodation modules to be manufactured in Queensland, and expects the first stage to be ready for use by the end of 2021. 

The Queensland Government will operate the facility once it is up and running. 

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was clear there was an urgent need for more fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities throughout Australia.

“As Australia contends with the dangerous Delta variant, Queensland must have alternatives to hotel quarantine that offer enhanced public safety,” she said.

“That’s why we’re getting on with building the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre, a 1000-bed, dedicated facility near Wellcamp airport that will greatly reduce reliance on hotel quarantine.” 

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the Palaszczuk Government would continue to work collaboratively to progress the Commonwealth’s Pinkenba facility, but the state needed more options to get returning Australians home safer.

He said the Wellcamp proposal will be ready months before any other proposed facility in Queensland. 

Earlier this year Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner indicated the proposed quarantine accommodation facility near Toowoomba would create 350-400 jobs in construction and could be completed in 14 weeks.

He said today the group was working through the final design criteria to ensure the best fit-for-purpose regional accommodation facility for returned travellers.

“This is going to be a great economic boost for Toowoomba. It will create a lot of local employment,” he said.

“Our local producers, just by the fact that we have to produce 3000 meals a day, will really benefit from this and it will help get Queensland out of COVID and on the road to economic recovery, which we desperately need.”