Vol. No. Vol. 2518No. 2627
Wednesday, January January 11, 13, 2023 2016 Wednesday,
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Healthcare housing site confirmed A
BY JESSICA GRIMBLE
housing development for healthcare workers in Horsham could welcome its first residents within a year.
BIRTHDAY CHEER: Wimmera personality Dorothy Armstrong, known to many in Horsham and the Wimmera as ‘Aunty Dot’, has been showered with love and appreciation on the occasion of her 90th birthday this week. Family and friends organised an open-invite birthday party at Horsham Plaza on Monday for Mrs Armstrong to celebrate her birthday with lifelong friends, who joined her for a coffee and a chat. Story, page 9. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Property developer Elmstone Property Group and Grampians Health have confirmed a 3.5-acre block of land, with frontage to both Byrne and Tucker streets in Horsham, as the site of an $8.3-million, 36-unit development exclusively for healthcare professionals. The self-contained units, within walking distance to Wimmera Base Hospital, will have individual bathrooms and private kitchenettes. Four units will be designed with full Disability Discrimination Act, DDA, accessibility and more than half will meet a ‘silver standard’ of DDA compliance. Eight units will offer dual access to cater for families. Elmstone Property Group director Stuart Benjamin said negotiations with a local contractor to lead the project were in final stages. He said his firm was engaging survey, engineering and planning teams to prepare plans and permits. Subject to council approval, construction would start in mid-2023. “If things go well, we think we could have the first doctors and nurses living here by this time next year,” he said. Mr Benjamin said six months of due diligence on 10 sites within about a one-kilometre radius of the hospital — including advice from organisations such as Wimmera Catchment Management Authority and GWMWater — had identified the eventual site. “It has been a pleasure for our team to work with referral authorities that understand the
importance of this project to make Horsham a healthy and thriving community,” he said. He said engagement with residents nearby the development site had been positive. “We’ve been quite comforted on the fact that the community, without us needing to tell them, understand how important the development is,” he said. “There wouldn’t be a family here who hasn’t struggled to see a doctor or get an appointment. Local residents have been incredibly positive about anything they can do to ease this pressure on behalf of their broader community.” He said the original business case for Grampians Health — the result of the amalgamation of Wimmera Health Care Group, Edenhope and District Memorial Hospital, Stawell Regional Health and Ballarat Health Services in November 2021 — had identified housing as a critical need to attract workers to the region. He said the development could ‘free-up’ more than 100 bedrooms across the region. Grampians Health chief executive Dale Fraser said the health service rented 38 properties across Horsham for specialists and their families, who are recruited locally and from overseas, along with rotating interns and nurse agency staff. “Our goal is to free-up all those houses back into the local housing market,” he said. “There are greater rental needs. We are trying to reduce that burden on the local community and being responsible for our own people and ensuring our impact on the local economy is strengthened by bringing investments such as these to Horsham.” Continued page 9
IN THIS ISSUE • Weather trends in review • Eight-ball tourney gears up • Tigers’ netball return Phone: 03 5382 1351 Read it online: www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au
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