Richard Crookes Constructions secured the tender for the $30 million first stage. With offices in Tamworth and Newcastle, the company built Narrabri Hospital, worked on the Tamworth and Armidale hospital redevelopments and on Moree East Public School. 

“I’m absolutely delighted that this company has won the contract, because they have a very strong track record of delivering health projects in country NSW and in this region,” member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall said on Tuesday morning. 

“This is marvellous,” local hospital campaigner Bob Bensley said. He said many community members had grown tired of the long fight and felt the redevelopment was just a pipe dream.

“Today, as far as I’m concerned is the start of the breakthrough that was needed, and that’s all been due to Adam Marshall,” he said.

With demolition starting in a few weeks, Richard Crookes Constructions have already begun contacting demolition and early works trades people.

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General manager for Hunter and New England Luke Gerathy said the company is finalising the design to ensure co-ordination with hospital services, in particular the emergency department and ambulance bay, which are nearest to the initial construction site. 

“The next six months is going to be demolition, some services co-ordination and digging a rather large hole in some pretty hard rock, and once we get through that process, we’ll come out of the ground pretty quickly,” Mr Gerathy said.

“By Christmas we’ll be looking at some concrete structure and starting to work through that.”

To counter issues caused by noise and vibration, Mr Gerathy said the company will keep an open line of communication with hospital staff, and will co-ordinate construction around the operating theatre’s schedule. 

There will be a tenders process for sub contractors, and Mr Gerathy encouraged locals to keep an eye out for advertisements and contact Richard Crookes Constructions’ Tamworth office to show their interest.

He could not guarantee how many Inverell workers will be hired for the project, but noted that the Armidale Hospital redevelopment used around 35-40 per cent of local trades people. 

Inverell mayor Paul Harmon said he was looking forward to seeing the first sod turned.

“It’s been a long hard road, but certainly we’ve got the result that our community has desperately needed,” he said.

He said Mr Marshall and Mr Bensley were both instrumental in pushing for the redevelopment, and that there were many community members who remained persistent and hard workers behind the scenes. Cr Harmon said local clinicians came on board with a focus on the community’s future needs. 

“Bob Bensley has been fantastic… really rattling the cages and making noise and not going away, and saying ‘we cannot tolerate this, we need to make sure we get the best for our community,’” he said.

General manager for the Tablelands sector Wendy Mulligan said it was a very exciting day and Hunter New England Health were pleased to work with Richard Crookes Constructions once again.

“The planning for this has been going on for several years and we’ve had lots of community consultations and included the community, but also the staff in it - because the staff are the ones that are going to have to work through this building,” she said.

“Inverell’s been waiting for a long time, so I think it’s really great that it’s now come to fruition for them.”

The $30 million second stage of the redevelopment, secured in the recent NSW Budget, is being designed by NSW Health Infrastructure and Mr Marshall expects the tender to go out publicly for the works before Christmas this year.

Mr Marshall thanked and paid tribute to the unwavering strong support of the Inverell community for the redevelopment of the hospital.

“It has been a tough slog at times to get this point and more than a few times many thought we would never get to this day,” he said.

“Now we have a builder and we are just weeks a way from seeing ground broken on this project – it is incredibly exciting for everyone involved and the Inverell community.”