Grampians Health today (Wednesday 4 September) delivered a special thank you gift to staff and the community at the reopening of the expanded multi-deck car park at the Ballarat Base Hospital.

To thank everyone for their patience and support during construction works to create an additional 400 car parks, Grampians Health is offering free parking for all until the end of the year. 

Minister for Regional Development Gayle Tierney officially opened the expanded car park which was delivered as part of the $655 million Ballarat Base Hospital Redevelopment and funded through the Regional Car Park Fund. 

CEO Dale Fraser thanked staff and the community for their patience over the past 11 months and said the health service was pleased to offer free parking until the end of the year as a token of appreciation. 

“The City of Ballarat has been extremely supportive in allowing us to use the City Oval as our temporary car park along with neighbouring businesses who provided after hours parking for our on call medical staff. We are extremely grateful for the community’s support,” Mr Fraser said. 

“I would also like to thank our redevelopment team for helping to deliver this vital piece of infrastructure while minimising the impacts of construction and allowing the hospital to continue to operate.” 

Chief Redevelopment and Infrastructure Officer Veronica Furnier said today’s reopening of the expanded multi-deck car park marked another significant milestone in the Ballarat Base Hospital Redevelopment. 

“In addition to delivering new facilities and vital clinical capacity for the hospital, the Ballarat Base Hospital Redevelopment will address the critical need to improving access for staff, patients and visitors,” Ms Furnier said. 

“We’re so pleased that our expanded car park now includes eight levels, including the ground floor, providing staff and our community with greater access to parking seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” 

Ms Furnier said it was exciting to see the upgrade of our Ballarat Base Hospital taking shape with the first building delivered as part of the redevelopment expected to be completed by the end of the year and works for the main tower now underway. 

The redevelopment will be completed over multiple stages, with construction of the main tower, as part of the final stage, expected to be completed in 2027. 

Once the Ballarat Base Hospital upgrade is complete, it will have the capacity to treat at least 18,000 more emergency patients and an extra 14,500 inpatients.  

Grampians Health is committed to providing free public parking now and into the future for patients and visitors as a result of this exciting new development.

Free parking is available to all (including staff) without time restrictions until Christmas as we work through the operational requirements to ensure carpark access, safety and flow is optimised at all times. Long term operational details will be confirmed in 2025, such as time limits to ensure public parking accessibility.

The Free Park & Ride bus service that has been operating from the hospital’s temporary car park at the City Oval will finish on Friday 6 September at 11pm.