Royal Far West Gets Approval for new Development

With the approval of its Centre for Child Health and Learning recently by the Joint Regional Planning Panel, the Royal Far West (RFW) will shortly launch its Caring for Country Kids Appeal to secure funds for the building, and future service delivery. 

An artist's impression of the new Centre in Wentworth Street.

The new Centre for Child Health and Learning will be erected on the site of the existing Elsie Hill Building in Wentworth Street, adjacent to RFW’s guest accommodation in the historic Drummond House.  No building or reconstruction will take place on RFW’s oceanfront land under this Stage One development. 

When completed, the new purpose-built Centre will replace the old Medical Centre on the oceanfront site. 

It is understood that the NSW Government provided a $10m grant towards the faciliy, with a proviso that no hotel be built on the waterfront land as part of the Stage Two development.

The proposed hotel was a controversial part of the RWF original plans to redevelop their site, and was strongly opposed by the general community.  Since then the RFW has been working closely with the community in an endeavour to create a masterplan for the site, which would be considered more community-based.

Currently the Royal Far West’s clinical programs support 1,500 rural families each year and the dedicated specialist clinical team delivers over 27,000 occasions of service.  The new Centre for Child Health and Learning will enable the Royal Far West to reach as many as 15,000 families in the future providing services such as Tele-speech and Tele-mental health using advanced internet services.

It is envisaged that the building of the new Centre will take around 18 months, and will be completed in early 2017.

---