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from Latrobe Valley Express Wednesday 19 October 2022

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Preserving heritage: The Traralgon Courthuse is getting a $98,000 spruce-up. photograph supplied Traralgon court work

By MICHELLE SLATER

THE Traralgon Court house is getting a $98,000 spruce-up through a state government grant to restore the 1886 Franklin Street landmark. The Living Heritage Grant will help conserve the heritage-listed building. The money will be used to tackle mildew, replace defective cast-iron downpipes, repair plasterwork and a new lick of paint on the ceiling. Friends of the Traralgon Courthouse president, Jenny Hammett, said the restoration would help stop the courtroom deteriorating and enable more community events to be held in the building. “The courtroom is really significant, you could still hold a court session in there. This building has a significant level of craftsmanship and it’s a tribute to our cultural heritage,” Ms Hammett said. “These bricks were made in a brickworks in Traralgon and all the joinery was done locally. It’s a piece of history that should stand for all time and if we don’t use it and restore it, it will disintegrate.” The Traralgon Courthouse originally held the court of petty sessions, as well as post office and treasury. The Traralgon Magistrates Court convened there until the late 1980s. The building was left vacant for some years until it was used briefly as a family court and then left vacant again. The building had been heritage-listed at a state and national level because of its considerable historical importance to Traralgon and as an example of Federation-era public works architecture. It is now owned by the state government and managed by Latrobe City Council, with the Friends group using the space for weekly community events and opening it to tourists. “It was built because the [government] at the time believed the Latrobe Valley had a bright future. The younger generation comes in and says,‘Wow! I never knew about this’,” Ms Hammett said. “There’s very little left in Traralgon that is significant to our community. You go around the country and there are many buildings in other towns that represent their heritage.”

Hospital expansion by 2024

By MICHELLE SLATER

LATROBE Regional Hospital structural works have been finished as part of stage three of a $223 million expansion that is on track to be in operation by early 2024. With structural construction now complete, work can now start on the hospital facade and internal fit-out. The multi-storey project includes a recently announced Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs Hub. LRH chief executive Don McCrae said the stage three expansion would bring all the acute care services into one location, making the hospital more efficient. Mr McCrae said it meant that LRH would have 10 operating suites, 16 critical care beds, 64 acute surgical beds and new medical imaging and pathology. Once complete, the expansion will allow for an additional 6200 elective surgeries per year. He said the expansion also included new maternity services with a six-bed birth suite, adult in-patient beds, special-care nursery and a one-bed paediatric unit with family spaces and children’s play area. “For our community and the Gippsland region, it means better health care facilities and expanded health services close to home,” Mr McCrae said. “Plus more employment opportunities with an estimated additional 200 full-time equivalent employees required across a number of disciplines to deliver the expanded services.” The project is being delivered by the Victorian Health Building Authority in partnership with Latrobe Regional Hospital and Built. Stages 1 and 2 have already been completed with the Gippsland Regional Cancer Centre, a new emergency department, a cardiac catheterisation lab and two new medical in-patient units. The expansion consists of more than 20,000 cubic metres of concrete, 640 tonnes of structural steel, 2500 tonnes of steel reinforcement and 180,000 bricks, providing 600 construction jobs. The Minister for Health, Mary-Anne Thomas, said the expansion was taking shape and meant Latrobe Regional Hospital could meet the needs of a growing community. “Increased capacity and purpose-built treatment spaces will ensure patients don’t need to travel to Melbourne for complex procedures,” Ms Thomas said.