$120m new home for ambos
A large plot of land in Mile End will be the site for a new headquarters for the South Australian Ambulance Service.
One of the new energy efficent ambulances unveiled by the state government today along with an aerial shot of the plot of land in Mile End earmarked for a new SAAS headquarters and Adelaide ambulance station. Photos: supplied
Health Minister Chris Picton today revealed a 10,000 square metre parcel of land at 71 Richmond Road, Mile End will be the home of a new $120m SAAS headquarters.
The land, located between South Road and Railway Terrace in Adelaide’s inner-western suburbs, is currently leased out by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport.
The new HQ, a pre-election promise, will feature a new emergency operations centre and a state health control centre hosting staff from across different local health networks.
It will also be co-located with a new Adelaide ambulance station, housing two 24/7 ambulance crews (32 paramedics).
An aerial view of the new SAAS HQ site in Mile End. Photo: supplied
Picton said the Mile End site was selected due to its proximity with the CBD and its potential for future expansion.
“We made it clear coming to Government that a new ambulance headquarters as well as a new central station was required – and that’s exactly what we’re delivering,” he said.
“An open market process was launched to find suitable land and deliver the best possible location for the new HQ, while fulfilling the long-term needs of our ambulance workforce and patients.
“I’m pleased we’ve been able to secure such an ideal future-proofed site and we will now get on with building these important new facilities.”
Picton said the SAAS’s current headquarters on Greenhill Road, Eastwood, were “outdated and insufficient”.
Asked why the new HQ wasn’t located in the CBD as previously flagged, Picton said: “Certainly, we did look at could we comprise all of this in the CBD, and the amount of land that we would need is just so significant.”
“This is clearly a fantastic option to do this here at Richmond Road, the advice from SA Ambulance is that this will meet the need that they have in terms of improving access to responses from within the CBD.”
Construction on the new station is scheduled to begin in late 2023 and be completed by the end of 2025.
Picton also today revealed a new ambulance design that will be added to the SAAS fleet over the next three years.
The new ambulances will be more energy efficient than the state government’s current fleet, Picton said, because the decal on the vehicles will have less weight.
“We’re buying a significant number of extra ambulances, and you’ll be seeing more and more of these ambulances hitting the road,” Picton said.
