WORK is underway on the long-awaited $5 million Nowra Veterans Wellbeing Centre.
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The Patterson Building Group is undertaking construction of the purpose-built centre at Wallace Street, Nowra, adjacent to RSL LifeCare's Jonathan Rogers GC House at Dumaresq Village.
The Nowra Veterans Wellbeing Centre is currently operating out of temporary premises at Unit 1, 19 Nowra Lane until the new facility is completed.
Already the new site has been excavated and the concrete slab laid, along with the beginning of installation of other services.
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However, the recent weather has led to some delays in the build, with meetings later this week to determine when the site will be ready.
The sod turning for the project was performed in January by Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel Andrew Gee, State RSL president Ray James, RSL LifeCare director and navy veteran Trevor Robertson, Department of Veterans Affairs Repatriation Commissioner Don Spinks and NSW Senator Jim Molan.
The centre will aim to provide an extended range of health and wellbeing services for local veterans, current serving Australian Defence Force members and their families.
The centres will also connect veterans and their families to a range of services that include support for transition, employment, health and social connection.
The facility has been carefully designed to include a mix of communal, recreational and clinical spaces to meet the needs of veterans and their families.
Plans, available at the sod turning, have shown the facility will provide three separate meeting and three consultation areas, an agile meeting room, designed as a multi-purpose area that can be used flexibly based on the needs of the local veteran community, a hall area, kitchenette and other amenities.
There are more than 7000 local veterans and their families in the Shoalhaven and neighboring local government areas, as well as personnel from the local Royal Australian Naval bases HMAS Albatross and HMAS Creswell and the Army Parachute Training School.
The centre is part of a $43.2 million investment by the Australian Government in a network of Wellbeing Centres across the country.
Nowra is one of six centres initially being developed, with others planned for Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide and Wodonga, while the 2021-22 Federal Budget announced further funding to expand the Veteran Wellbeing Centre network into Queensland and Tasmania.
The building was expected to be completed by the middle of the year but that's of course dependent on the weather.