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New Shire base for Mallee Family Care

Posted on February 3, 2012

WORK is expected to get underway in coming weeks on Mallee Family Care’s new Wentworth Shire headquarters in Dareton.

Mallee Family Care executive director, Vernon Knight.

The $1million project, in Devenport Street, is expected to be completed in August and add to Mallee Family Care’s existing shop-front facility in Tapio Street, while replacing its Mitchell Street offices.

The Tapio Street address is a ‘walk-in’ centre where people can walk in off the street for information about Mallee Family Care’s services. The new Devenport Street base meanwhile will be primarily used for office accommodation.

Mallee Family Care executive director, Vernon Knight, said the new headquarters would improve the organisation’s outreach services to New South Wales while boosting its presence in the Shire.

“Last year, we identified this property in Devenport Street and felt it was ideal for our purposes,” Mr Knight said.

“It’s close to the centre of town, in a quiet residential area with adjoining access to parkland.

“We’ve since sold off the house that was there and it’s now headed up river for someone else’s use, and hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll start to see some action on the site.”

Mr Knight said one of the key uses for the new site would be to provide a base for Mallee Family Care’s outreach staff, who travel from Mildura to homes in the Shire on a regular basis.

He said having outreach staff based much closer to some of their regular clients in the Shire would be more convenient and save staff significant travel time.

“They’ll also serve to value staff and better respect those who seek our services,” Mr Knight said.

He said the new building would be named after long-serving Mallee Family Care supporter and board member, Anne Mansell, who is also a past president.

“We’ve in the past made a practice of recognising some of our stalwarts and this building will be known as the Anne Mansell Centre,” he said.

“Anne has not only been a stalwart for Mallee Family Care, but grew up in Dareton, so it seemed very appropriate.”

Mr Knight said while the new purpose-built office would better suit staff needs, it would also suit the organisation’s future plans in the Shire.

“There’s been a lot of pressure for us to extend our footprint, particularly in the north and east, because there are simply not enough agencies around to pick up those areas,” he said.

“Once we’re operating more efficiently, that will hopefully free us up to do other things.”
Mr Knight said with design work now completed and the site cleared, construction should start within weeks.

The new building is expected to be officially opened by former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer (AC), who has been a Chances for Children patron for more than a decade.

The Devenport Street development caps off a very busy six months for Mallee Family Care.

The organisation recently completed work on a new centre at Robinvale and before that took over the Eighth Street premises of Access Mildura Inc. in October last year.

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