Community
4 March, 2024
Homes, sweet homes
THE first modular home factory in Cairns will build 26 portable houses a year for remote communities across the Far North.
Modular one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes are already in the making at QBuild’s new facility on Redden St – the Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre (RAAC) – which aims to produce and ship 26 homes to remote communities annually to address the housing crisis in the region.
Premier Steven Miles said the $3.86 billion ‘Homes for Queenslanders’ project would help deliver 53,500 homes by 2046, while also creating more jobs and providing a more immediate solution to the housing crisis aggravated by the recent cyclone and floods.
“We’re building homes for the future, and particularly for our remote communities there’s going to be new ways of building,” he said.
“And that’s what the RAAC is for. We will build 26 new homes in the QBuild factory in Cairns, and we can ship them from here to remote communities to deliver new better accommodation for government workers in those towns and in the process freeing additional houses for the community. “What’s so powerful about these factories is that they can continue building year-round. They’re not affected by the wet season as we are when we’re building outdoors ...”
The facility was modelled after the Eagle Farm factory in Brisbane and will operate with 48 staff members, 13 new apprentices, 26 trainees and nine support staff, where the teams will be pulling together complete homes, bathroom modules, flatpack kitchens and timber frames.
“It’s a great exciting opportunity for QBuild and FNQ, putting on further apprentices and trade staff to build, not just faster for Queensland, but build the industry where we’re really short on skill trades,” said QBuild FNQ acting regional director Wayne Pavey.
“Initially we’re starting with one-bedroom modules first, using innovative ways of building and much faster. Our biggest challenge will be ramping up and keeping up with industry. We’re doing it right and we’ve based it of what’s working in Brisbane.”
Mr Miles said despite the remoteness of communities and poor roads, “we’re working through different ways of shipping these modular homes”.
