Joint Ops Command heads for new home

The new Headquarters Joint Operations Command will be located at Bungendore in NSW, about 30 minutes from Canberra. Photo provided by Bungendore Australia Images

THE new $300 million Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) project near Bungendore in New South Wales has been approved by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works.

The works will cover the construction of facilities and infrastructure and the installation of the command, control, communications and information systems to provide a more responsive and flexible operational command and control capability for the ADF.

The headquarters will combine seven existing military headquarters and agencies currently situated in and around Sydney in the new, state-of-the-art facility.

The HQJOC project will be the first in which the Government will seek to privately finance the construction and maintenance of a major facility at a greenfield site.

A two-stage tender process for the headquarters has begun, with companies asked in April to register interest in financing, constructing and maintaining the facility and providing ancillary services. A Request for Tender for the delivery of the facility will be issued soon, with the preferred tenderer to be appointed by early next year.

Construction is scheduled to start in the middle of next year. Preliminary engineering and design studies have been undertaken.

It is expected the new headquarters will be fully operational in 2007-08 with Defence retaining responsibility for the delivery of the command, control, communications and information systems.

According to the Minister for Defence, Senator Robert Hill, when the facility is commissioned, Defence will lease the headquarters for a term of 30 years and private financing arrangements would provide the Government with some significant advantages, including cost effective transfer of risk to the private sector, improvements to financial and risk management throughout the life of the lease period and reduced financial exposure because lease payments are not required until the facility is successfully commissioned.