A commercial kitchen and mess hall capable of catering for 600 people is expected to be operational before the end of the month at Emergency Victoria’s Rochester South “pop-up town’’ at Elmore events centre.
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The giant marquee is being transported from Queensland for long-term use at the site as the population of the site will next week outgrow the current dining hall, in the field days kitchen alongside the administration building.
Construction will continue on site as the displaced flood victims are slowly introduced to their new living quarters, contractors still preparing enough caravans and modular units for 400-plus people.
Developers of the site, Johns Lyng Group, was continuing construction of the temporary accommodation village last week, almost a month after the announcement was made of the site’s role in the flood emergency.
A majority of the 70-plus caravans are now on site, but more than half still remain uninhabited as preparation is completed for underground services to be attached to the mobile homes.
The first of an expected 122 one, two and four-bedroom units have been put in place and will soon be occupied as Anglicare slowly works in conjunction with on-site contractor Downer to triage the flood victims into their new accommodation.
While the site is operating under the auspice of Emergency Victoria, there are several key players in its development — disaster recovery accommodation expert Johns Lyng Group working in tandem with Ward Constructions to complete the preparation of the site.
They will then hand over the management of what is now widely referred to as Rochester South to the Downer Group, which has already advertised for staff to service the growing population of the Emergency Victoria site.
Food safety supervisors and catering assistant positions have been advertised, along with office, maintenance and service delivery positions.
There has been no timeline attached to the new roles, but the amount of work being done to prepare the Rochester South site for an influx of people indicates that Rochester South has at least a 12-month life-span ahead.
Insurance assessors are, according to the regulatory authority (Insurance Council of Australia), 12 to 14 months behind on work in communities outside of the Campaspe region.
That will mean a significant wait for those who have already made claims to their insurer.
Builders of the new community are have problems accessing units for the site due to the significant amount of flood events in other regions and a major shortfall in mobile buildings availability.
JLG project manager Hayden Benefield said demountable units were slowly coming in from across the country.
He said the Jayco and Kingman caravans would be occupied in the next week and the aim was still to provide 419 beds on site.
“We are completing construction of 20 units now, several with different configurations to be fit for purpose for families,” he said.
“We have one family moving into a home that has is made up of two units.”
Mr Benefield said there was as much work happening under the ground as there was on top of it.
“We have put in more amenities, showers and toilets, and in some instances are customising the living arrangements for families,” he said.
“The units are being built at the same time as we are building the commercial kitchen, a cold storage facility and a laundry.”
Mr Benefield said the facilities would be functional to coincide with the arrival of people onto the site this week.
“Things are happening at a rapid pace,” he said.
Mr Benefield is working in tandem with Bendigo-based operations manager Adrian Hall.
Mr Hall worked in the development of a similar emergency site during the Gippsland bushfire disaster.
He said the Rochester South site would be much larger than the facility that was built to support people from the South Gippsland region — including the devastated Mallacoota township.
He said the availability of pods had made the expansion of the site difficult, but all parties were going “above and beyond’’ to get the site to completion.
“One example is the 32 pods we have coming from a mining camp at Karratha,” Mr Hall said.
“In order to truck the units out of the camp we have had to rebuild a large section of road and then zig-zag through floods to get them here.”
The leading figures in the development of the site are meeting daily with the various parties involved in the establishment of the new community, which has now expanded to include recreational facilities.
“We will be putting in a playground on the site, because there is very little for the kids to do here,” he said.
Bendigo-based sport and recreation company, Sports Focus, is also involved in discussions with the managers of the site to provide equipment to the site.
Meanwhile, the field days committee will continue to operate its scheduled events, among those a scout jamboree booked in several months before the flood disaster.
“The horse events are continuing and the scouts are ere here this weekend,” Mr Hall said.
Contracts are being awarded on an almost daily basis to electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other Campaspe-based businesses.
“We are getting our timber supply from Rochester Mitre 10 to continue the local theme,” Mr Benefield said.
“That is the same with our gas supply and, as far as I know, other workers are being sourced to work on the site.”
The infrastructure being developed on the Rochester South sight was decsribed by the lead contractors as “massive” and in coming weeks — as units are completed and become available — the Anglicare organisation will slowly be filtering people onto the site.
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