BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 743 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2011
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Princess heads our way Page 3 ■ Ruffell attacks council Page 5 ■ New Year Page 3
Hospital project offers all-round Bendigo boost
HEAT PETITE: Rosie Harrington-Barker cools off in readiness for the sweltering days ahead. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
ALL’S WELL By ANTHONY RADFORD
Sweltering start to new year WITH temperatures rising close to 40 degrees over the next few days, Bendigo’s pools are sure to be a popular place to be for the new year.
The heat continues until mid-week prompting warnings to be fire ready in the hottest period since January of this year. Story Page 2
WHEN the clock strikes midnight tomorrow night, Bendigo will enter one of its biggest and most important years since the goldrush. The construction of the new $630 million Bendigo hospital will begin this year, the largest infrastructure project in modern times. To put it in perspective, it will cost more than six times the amount of the Goldfields Superpipe and the Bendigo Bank building. The hospital will have 372 new acute inpatient beds, 10 new operating theatres, a new Integrated Cancer Centre, a mother and baby unit and research and education facilities. It will be the largest regional hospital development in Victoria and one of the largest hospital projects across Australia. During construction, 735 jobs will be created, 500 of those will be maintained for at least three years during the peak construction time. The project will also boost the local economy and the city’s housing market at the same time. Expressions of interest for the project have closed, with a short list of bidders expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The preferred bidder is expected to be announced later in the year. One of the first stages of the re-
URN T R U O IT’S development, the relocation of the Arnold Street ambulance station, is in full swing. The Bendigo Weekly can reveal one of the five relocated ambulance stations – at Epsom – is up and running, with Eaglehawk’s new station expected to open by the end of January. Other stations will be built at Uley Street and Edwards Road in Strathdale, with a depot and workshop being built on Holdsworth Road, North Bendigo. Health Minister David Davis said everything was on track. “The new Epsom ambulance station became operational in early December and is staffed by a peak period unit who work from 8am to 6pm,” he said. “The crew attends cases in the Epsom area and supports colleagues in Bendigo and outlying areas.
Continued Page 2 EDITORIAL Page 12
JANUARY SALE NOW ON 10%-50% OFF STOREWIDE Cnr Havlin and Mundy Sts Phone: 5443 4322 www.viafurniture.com.au Closed January 1st & 2nd