Lodging plans to help tackle worker bed crisis
Shire development
A new development project is pushing to provide more housing for Port Douglas’s seasonal workers, with some desperate to find accommodation so they can carry on living and working in Port Douglas.
With hostels across Port Douglas currently booked out, including long waiting lists, seasonal workers are posting on social-media chat groups messages such as this one: “I’ll be in Port Douglas next week for work and all the hostels are booked. Just wondering if anyone has a room/bed/tent space?”
With the demand for new housing for seasonal workers so high, some are aiming to help improve the situation for next season.
A project at the Coral Lodge is well under way, with about 120 more budget-accommodation beds expected to be available by early in the new year in seven bunker-style demountable buildings.
Coral Lodge owners Thomas and Kylie Cowlard said the town was crying out for more affordable housing for both workers and locals as the recovery from Cyclone Jasper and Covid-19 pandemic started to ramp up.
The Lodge was flooded out during Jasper, with 12 rooms completely washed away, but insurance money and a $250,000 joint-government disaster-fund grant has put them in a position where they can provide more dormitory-style rooms.
“Now there’s going to be seven demountables going across there and each one of the demountables will have four rooms in them, and each room will have its own bathroom,” Thomas said.
“And those 28 rooms will have access to a new kitchen.”
And the need will soon be even greater, with the popular Dougies Backpackers Resort and Pandanas Tourist Park expected to close within a couple of years to make way for a new resort.
“Whenever that happens, we have to be sort of ready, because there’s not enough accommodation in Port Douglas,” Thomas said.
Kylie stressed the new Coral Lodge rooms won’t just be for peak-season backpackers, however, with customers still needed at low season.
“It will be for locals too,” Kylie said.
The couple said they had spent more than half a million dollars doing up the Lodge.
“It’s time to give back,” Thomas said.
“I know housing’s a massive problem.”
“Without the backpackers, the town is shut down for sure.”
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