It was a day eight years in the making.
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Community members and stake holders gathered at the Macquarie Home Stay site to watch the first sods being turned, with MAAS Constructions officially named as the builder for stage one.
It was a milestone day for the project, which aims to improve the health of people across the state’s west by giving them an place to stay while they undergo routine, or lifesaving, medical treatment at Dubbo Hospital.
“We certainly had a strong vision going back eight years ago,” managing director Rod Crowfoot said. “We started with a conversation in Dawn Fardell’s office … around the need for maternity.”
The project has since expanded to include emergency, ENT, paediatric, orthopaedic, diabetes, urology, neurology and day surgery patients. Oncology patients will also benefit once the cancer centre is built.
“Over 200,000 people from the region have to travel to Dubbo to receive their health care and Macquarie Home Stay is all about supporting those folk,” Mr Crowfoot said.
Former Dubbo MP Dawn Fardell said she was pleased her successor Troy Grant had “carried on the vision”.
“In politics a lot of the time they throw out somebody else’s idea and have one of their own but Troy has been very good to the vision that the committee had,” she said.
“This is not about Dubbo, this is about all those communities that we service.
“It’s wonderful that a local firm has been given the contract … workers that live in our community will be employed and on the project.”
Mr Grant – who 18 years ago slept on the floor of Dubbo’s maternity ward after daughter Taylor was born prematurely – told the crowd: “this is your facility”.
“This is the whole community’s facility and it’s one I know you’ll become immensely proud of. I had my own experience of this … it was a traumatic experience … I can see how important it is to community members across western NSW.”
The state government provided $3.3 million towards stage one, which will include 14 guest rooms and communal kitchen and living spaces. Crown land was acquired for the project with Dubbo Regional Council providing development approval.
