The controversial Caloundra Watchhouse still remains idle – despite the state government abandoning plans in January last year to repurpose it as a youth remand centre after sustained community backlash.
Police officers continue to transport detainees on the southern end of the Sunshine Coast almost a further 40 minutes north to the Maroochydore Watchhouse.
But it seems that won’t be the case for long.
A Queensland Police Service spokesperson said it was expected the Caloundra Watchhouse would return to a fully operational Queensland Police watchhouse by August this year.
“The Queensland Police Service, in consultation with the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (CYJMA), is managing the project for the reinstatement of the Caloundra Watchhouse as an operational watchhouse facility,” the spokesperson said.
“The option to repurpose the facility to a youth detention centre was explored by the state
government and was ultimately rejected … Some modifications were made that are now being corrected to allow for the facility to continue as an operational Queensland Police watchhouse.
“Qbuild are managing the restoration process and works on site have commenced.
“The state government has allocated sufficient funding to the Caloundra Watchhouse project.”
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The Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs, which operates Queensland’s youth detention centres, announced in July 2021 that the police watchhouse at 3 Gregson Place had been chosen for a short-term holding facility for young accused awaiting trial.
As revealed by Sunshine Coast News, Youth Justice began awarding tenders and gutting the facility in November 2021, even though public consultation was ongoing and the centre was not formally approved.
Sunshine Coast Council expressed its opposition to the location of the facility and Member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie tabled a petition with more than 6000 signatures in State Parliament, supported by Member for Ninderry Dan Purdie, a former homicide and child protection detective.
After considerable backlash and a plea to the state government by Member for Caloundra Jason Hunt, Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard announced the proposal would “no longer proceed after extensive community consultation”.
Ms Linard said the department and Mr Hunt had been part of the extensive community consultation process.
“That process found that Caloundra wasn’t the right place for this temporary centre – we welcome the feedback, we listened to the community’s concerns and we have acted on those concerns,” she said at the time.
She said the watchhouse would continue to be used by police as an operational watchhouse.
But when pushing for the remand centre, Youth Justice had described the existing facility as “decommissioned”. Police always maintained it was operational and not in need of an upgrade.
In an article in June last year, Sunshine Coast News reported that the minimum cost of restoring the watchhouse was expected to be least $3 million.
That was on top of the $380,000 the government had already outlaid on the no-longer-relevant planning, design and consultation related to the defunct youth centre.
Mr Purdie said in the article that the government had blown a fortune in Queenslanders’ money on the failed ‘youth jail’ project.
“This watchhouse was fine. It did not need an upgrade and indeed had not been scheduled for one, and one had not even been mentioned or planned for in any budgets,” he said.
Mr Purdie said the overall cost would hit $3.5 million, which could have built a new police station or funded a much-needed boost to officer numbers in the region.
The spokesperson said last week that QPS worked in collaboration with partner agencies to prioritise the safety of the Queensland community, through maximisation of available custodial facilities.
“The number of persons in police custody can fluctuate across the state based upon the ability of Queensland Corrective Services and DCYJMA to admit those persons who have been remanded by the courts or sentenced to periods of imprisonment,” they said.
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