Howard Springs Quarantine Facility
 The huge site | |
| Date | 2020 - Present |
|---|---|
| Website | https://aecom.com/projects/manigurr-ma-village/ |
| Description | Australia's first concentration camp, with two thousand beds, used from November 2021 for mandatory quarantine. Closed in July 2022 |
The Howard Springs Quarantine Facility[1] was the first of its kind in Australia. Constructed for quarantine during the "COVID-19 pandemic", it was officially built with the official reason of travellers entering Australia having to go here and stay for a fortnight before being able to leave.
In November 2021, the government started using it for interning citizens. The army removed people from aboriginal communities that had "tested positive or been in close contact" and transported them to Howard Springs.[2]
Located on Howard Springs Road, the site had close and easy access to the Stuart Highway, one of Australia's main highways. It runs across Australia; from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Port Augusta in South Australia.
It closed in July 2022, with the Northern Territory government saying "dedicated isolation and quarantine facilities are no longer required". The Australian federal government committed $5 million to keep Howard Springs on stand-by as a quarantine facility for the next year[3]
The Australian military showed interest in using the site as accommodation during military exercises[4], as the Territory is seeing being used as a base area for a large-scale deployment of US troops as part of the Encirclement of China.
Melbourne’s Centre for National Resilience was modelled on this site.
History
| Unherd: Inside Australia's Covid internment camp |
It was formerly known as Manigurr-ma Village, built north of the locality of Howard Springs just outside Darwin. It was built to house Japanese migrant construction workers. The facility was closed and abandoned in 2018. In 2020 it was taken over by the Australian government.
The facility has a 2,000 capicity.[5]
References
- ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9886465/Coronavirus-Australia-Howard-Springs-NT-used-quarantine-facility-five-years.html
- ↑ https://t.me/melbournefreedomrally/509792
- ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/howard-springs-quarantine-facility-shuts/101194130
- ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-12/nt-howard-springs-quarantine-facility-potential-defence-lease/101761364
- ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-07/nt-howard-springs-set-to-reach-capacity-quarantine/100358058
