With the new Footscray Hospital is finally set to open this week, local residents are being warned to not expect any redevelopment of the old hospital any time soon.
The future of the six hectare Gordon Street site has been speculated about since its $1.5 billion replacement was announced, with schools, parks and housing among the options that have been canvassed during community consultation.
But as the opening of the new hospital has neared, local residents have accused the state government keeping them in dark about the future of the old one.
“There’s been no public update on the process and no further consultation since the government’s initial online survey in 2024,” Kate Breen from the Reimainging the Old Footscray Hospital community group said.
But Footscray MP Katie Hall said there was a good reason why no announcements about the future of the old hospital had been made.
“It still has to function as Western Health facility for the coming months because they have to decamp from the facility and remove all the furniture. It’s quite an extensive process,” Ms Hall said, adding she’d recently met with Reimainging the Old Footscray Hospital group to allay their concerns.
Even once vacated, Ms Hall said the nature of the site meant it would be a long time before it’s repurposed
“The car park’s an old quarry,” she said.
“There is an extensive environmental audit and remediation process that needs to take place due to asbestos.
“You can’t put in temporary parks while they’re removing asbestos and remediating the site.”
Ms Hall said demolition works should be complete by mid-2027 and that she was hoping to establish a community reference group to work with Development Victoria in the meantime.
Maribyrnong council also owns part of the site and mayor Mohamed Semra said they’d already made clear what they would like to see it become.
“This would ideally include green spaces, affordable housing, essential community services, and respectful heritage reuse of old hospital facilities,” Cr Semra said.
“We are also advocating for the restoration of the heritage-listed but derelict brutalist Psychiatric building so it can be used as a multi-purpose facility, and for the retainment and expansion of the Brenbeal Children’s Centre.”
