New Footscray Hospital Project newsletter #9 | May 2024

And that's a wrap on the façade

The last piece of façade has been installed, marking the completion of the exterior of the hospital.

Work continues on the internal services and fit-out of the hospital. Let's take a look at what's been happening over the past few months.

Footscray locals and construction enthusiasts of all ages stopped to watch the installation of the pedestrian footbridge over Ballarat Road in March.

Spanning Ballarat Road, the 57-metre-long elevated footbridge, weighing 120 tonnes was carefully craned into place. The footbridge now provides a direct link between the hospital and Victoria University.

The bridge links to Victoria University’s research and education centre dedicated to health and medical training. This includes research and learning facilities for students studying:

• nursing and midwifery
• physiotherapy
• speech pathology
• dietetics, biomedicine, and psychology.

Ongoing works on the bridge will include a concrete pour and façade works. This will involve additional traffic impacts. More information will be provided to neighbouring residents in advance.

Congratulations to Multiplex and all those involved in the planning and successful installation of the bridge. Watch the bridge being lifted into place!

The new Footscray Hospital will house a 10-metre-long hand-woven tapestry, designed by First Nations artists Maree Clarke and Mitch Mahoney.

Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung) and Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Barkindji) collaborated on the design, incorporating microscopic images of river reeds from the Maribyrnong River and skeletal drawings of local native flora and fauna.

Plenary Health New Footscray Hospital Project Chair, Kelvyn Lavelle, said: 'Mitch and Maree have designed a tapestry that will greet the public and staff with a striking visual connection to the local landscape, community and history of the west.'

Working closely with master weavers from the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Clarke and Mahoney’s artwork will be transformed into a three-dimensional tapestry spanning 4.2 x 10 metres, making it one of the largest tapestries ever produced for a public hospital in Victoria.

The new Footscray Hospital tapestry is the second major tapestry that forms The Premiers Suite, a partnership between the Tapestry Foundation of Australia, the State Government of Victoria and the Australian Hotels Association to fund the production of major tapestries in new hospitals in Victoria.

The tapestry is a collaboration between Plenary Group, the official arts partner for the new hospital, Footscray Community Arts, the Australian Tapestry Workshop, and the Tapestry Foundation of Australia, in collaboration with the Victorian Health Building Authority and Western Health.

The Western Health Graduate Program Awards were held in March, with nursing and midwifery staff recognised for their studies and ongoing learning.

Presenting two Plenary Health ICU nursing scholarships valued at $10,000, Chair of the New Footscray Hospital Project, Kelvyn Lavelle congratulated the graduate nurses on their achievements.

'Congratulations to Mawite and Axel on their commitment to their continued nursing studies, developing their knowledge and providing best care for their patients.'

During the five-year construction phase of the new hospital, Plenary Health will award $50,000 in ICU scholarships to Western Health nurses to support health outcomes in Melbourne’s west.

Now in its fourth year, the annual scholarships are part of Plenary Health’s partnership with the Western Health Foundation during the delivery of the new Footscray Hospital.

Nursing scholarship recipient Axel D’emmerez de Charmony said: 'Beyond the incredible financial support, this scholarship represents recognition of my dedication to becoming a critical care nurse and a vote of confidence in my ability to excel in this demanding field. It frees me to focus on studies, gaining deeper knowledge and hands-on experience to become a highly skilled critical care nurse.'

Congratulations to all Western Health nursing award recipients.

Hundreds of people braved the rain for WalkWest, hosted by the Western Health Foundation, on Sunday 7 April. Plenary Health and Multiplex entered teams and sponsored the event, more than $145,000 toward the purchase of two extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines for Western Health.