COMMENT
“Another contract for an iconic Territory construction project has been awarded to an interstate company.
“This is a contract I would have thought a local company would have been well equipped to manage.
“Operators of local construction companies would be justified in asking why this contract has been awarded to an interstate builder.
“This appears to be happening all too often and seriously compromises the Buy Territory campaign.
“It sets a very poor example if Government won’t support local businesses.
“Loyal Territory builders have endured a tough time over the past few years as private investment and housing construction have slowed – so it’s frustrating that Government contracts are going across the border.”
No, this isn’t the Opposition commenting on the storm of disapproval of the current $30m hospital contract. In fact Labor has so far been silent on the issue.
The text above is a media release on March 20, 2012, from then Shadow Construction Minister, Adam Giles, about the new Wangi Falls visitor centre at Litchfield National Park, awarded to TCS Queensland by the Labor government at the time.
We thank the reader who has pointed this out.
ERWIN CHLANDA, Editor
Thank ya! Thank Ya! Erwin Chlanda for picking up on this gem. The reader who saved this item needs to be presented with an award for those who have very good memories.
It might be worth recalling that the tenders for the construction of the existing hospital complex in the early 1970s was awarded to an interstate firm from Brisbane – Barclay Brothers, I think it was.
The same company (I think) also built the Alice Springs High School (now Centralian Middle School) – the architecture is very similar – and the now-demolished Melanka Hostel.
Incidentally, planning for the redevelopment of the old Alice Springs Hospital commenced in 1963, the year I was born here.
An official announcement was made in 1968 for the commencement of the construction of the new hospital – it was to be four storeys high, with a helipad on the roof!
This was the first project intended to be built above three storeys in Alice Springs. I don’t know why this project was subsequently revised to be built as the existing three-storey complex; however, in late 1969 the report into the future development of the tourism industry in Alice Springs and Central Australia (the HKF Report, commissioned by the Australian Tourism Commission) recommended the imposition of a three-storey height limit for the CBD area in Alice Springs, and I suppose the hospital redevelopment complied with that recommendation.
I worked on that hospital in 1974. Safety was non existent. During the three months I was there two people were killed.
One fell down a unguarded lift shaft, and the other sitting on the edge up three stories fell to his death after someone threw a bucket of ice water on his bare back.