Wellcamp COVID facility opens, hotel quarantine closes

The facility near Toowoomba, which was announced in August, was built by the Wagner Corporation and is leased by the government.

Speaking from Wellcamp, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she understood the last person in Brisbane hotel quarantine left about 3pm and that the opening of the new facility was tremendous news.

"It's tremendous for the community - from the local bakery supplying food here to the police, and all the learnings that we have learned over the last two years of the pandemic," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"I'm very proud of this facility. It's something that Queenslanders supported and it's something that we have absolutely for the future, and who knows what's around the corner?"

The first 500 beds are complete and stage two will see 500 more beds added to the facility.

During the height of the pandemic, 127,772 people in total have been through hotel quarantine in Queensland - 77,000 of those have been international, with the remainder being domestic.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the facility had welcomed a small number of people prior to the official opening.

"We've had nearly 60 guests through here already over the last week or two," Mr Miles said.

"The current guests are a mix of unvaccinated travellers and mariners. But we anticipate an ongoing number of arrivals, particularly from countries where the vaccines aren't recognised by our TGA and therefore will be required to quarantine, as well as farmworkers, and refugees from other countries that haven't been able to access vaccinations."

Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner said it was a proud day to be a Queenslander.

"It's been an extraordinarily difficult task, particularly with the weather last year. But we're now open for business and we look forward to the Queensland government taking a lot more guests here to our facility," Mr Wagner said.

The Queensland government has taken a 12-month lease to operate the centre, with an option for an additional 12 months.

When pushed by reporters to reveal the cost of the facility, the Premier continued to stay on message, saying lease arrangements such as these were commercial in confidence.

However, when pushed further, she said she would release the figures if the federal government released theirs.

"The federal government is also building the Pinkenba facility. If at some stage they want to release those costs, we are more than happy to release our costs," she said.

"It seems to be one standard for the state and one standard for the federal government."

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