Greener pastures ahead for Garden City

A state-of-the-art medicinal cannabis facility could find its home in the Garden City, with plans to produce 80-100 tonnes of the product annually.

The Australian based company, Medibis, are planning to construct and operate a highly automated, pharmaceutical export grade medicinal cannabis cultivation facility in Toowoomba.

This facility is a state-of-the-art glasshouse concept design, covering an area of more than 11 hectares at full capacity.

Medibis are focused on advanced quality systems along with sustainable and efficient energy models with the entire facility being designed around these key concepts.

Medibis Managing Director and Executive Director, Angus Chapel, said the project would strongly support local Australian patients and licensed providers, create immediate job opportunities and long term advanced career paths.

“This project is expected to generate up to 200 jobs during construction, and almost 500 ongoing jobs when the business is at full capacity” said Mr Chapel.

“Some of these employment opportunities include security, managers, engineers, bio-economists, agricultural specialists, agronomists, warehousing, record keeping analysts, pharmacists, researchers, administrative and technical staff.”

“We also plan to work with local education providers, to create opportunities for tertiary students in a real-world agribusiness environment that is truly globally interconnected,” said Mr Chapel.

“We want to give Toowoomba locals the first opportunity to realise the investment potential.”

Medibis say they were attracted to setting up the facility in Toowoomba, not only thanks to the quality of transport via air, road and rail, which will also support their export plans but also the rich history of agribusiness in the region.

“With the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport and the newly opened Toowoomba Bypass, it is highly accessible with a high-level of local infrastructure available within easy reach.”

“At stage 6, the facility will be producing 80 tonnes of product per annum with a total value of $288 million for export,” said Mr Chapel.

In recent news Medibis have been awarded Major Project Status by the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, and are looking forward to getting underway with their strong network of partners bringing much needed jobs to the region.

Medibis not only plan to construct this world-class facility but aim to redefine cannabis products as a powerful medicine when properly prepared and prescribed appropriately, with the support of recognised research bodies and facilitators.

Their particular interests lie with plant health and the genetics and biochemistry behind the medicinal efficacy of the plants.

This means not only collecting continuous data streams but also having systems in place to analyse and interpret that data to bring real-time improvements not only throughout the growth stages of the plants but ultimately the end product for the patients.

“By supporting targeted clinical trials and evidence based data collection our products will become synonymous with the future of treatment options for specialists and practitioners around the world,” said Mr Chapel.

Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE) CEO Ali Davenport said that this is very exciting for the region.

“We welcome this investment in the region with Medibis bringing careers and opportunities for local businesses,” said Ms Davenport.