Choosing a site

Stage One – Preliminary Investigations, October 2006 to April 2007

Finding the right site for the new Royal Hobart Hospital is one of the most important parts of the project.

To do this, a Site Assessment Panel was established that was made up of ten people with expertise in health planning, transport policy, hospital development, hospital operations, local government, financial and facilities management.

The first guideline for selecting a site was that is must be close to or within the Hobart central business district (CBD), as recommended by the Conrad Gargett report. The panel established two other preliminary guidelines to help in choosing a suitable site. They were:

• Development potential - a minimum of 3ha, preferably more than 4ha and ideally more than 6ha
• Availability – A significant proportion of the potential site shall be currently in State ownership.

Using the preliminary guidelines, four potential sites were identified:

• The railyards site at Macquarie Point
• The Campbell Street Primary School
• The Tasmanian Cricket Association ground and the surrounding area of the Domain
• Expanding the existing RHH site.

Twelve criteria were then identified to assess the potential sites.

The panel and the public rated the criteria in order of which they perceived to be most important. The factors they considered to be most important were the suitability of the location (i.e. site access and proximity), its development potential (i.e. size and future expandability) and the sustainability of services.

After examining the potential sites against the selection criteria, the Hobart Railyards was named as the preferred site.

Read the Initial Site Assessment Report for more details on the site selection process