$2m expansion of Goldfields Women’s Refuge now fully funded and expected to be open in May

An early Christmas gift to the tune of $100,000 has been delivered to the Goldfields Women’s Refuge this week for its $2 million expansion project, which will more than double the beds available for women escaping domestic violence. The Lotterywest cheque was delivered on Friday by WA Labor Member for Kalgoorlie Ali Kent as the final piece of the funding puzzle for the crisis accommodation project, which will create 36 additional beds for women in the region. Six two-bedroom modular units have been built in Bangkok and are now being shipped to WA, with staff expecting their arrival in mid-January. The units will then be painted and furnished and a teenage-friendly playground developed, with an expected official opening date in May. The beds will boost the centre to be able to help many more women and children at a time, with only 17 beds now available. The project started out with a price tag of about $1.3m, but because of cost blow-outs in the building industry and other issues, the team has been scrambling to obtain additional funding to meet the new costs. However, it did not take long to secure additional funding, with the Lotterywest grant meaning the project is now fully funded. Having had to turn 12 people who were seeking refuge away on one day this week, GWR Finlayson House chief executive Suzie Williams said the units would completely change the impact the service could have in the region. With the Christmas and new year period often the busiest time for the refuge, Ms Williams said she was hoping this was the last Christmas she would have to turn multiple people away. “We desperately need this accommodation,” she said. “These women and families desperately need this accommodation.” Kasey Venter of Elite Compliance, who is leading the project, said it was extra-special that Lotterywest was the last to provide a financial top-up to the project — having already contributed $450,000 — because they were also the first grant secured for the project. “Their generosity and commitment to this has been outstanding. They’ve been very supportive right from the start,” she said. Ms Kent said she wished the community did not need the refuge at all, but sadly that was not the case. She said it took a lot of courage for women to front up and leave a situation of family and domestic violence, and she could only guess how disheartening it would be to be told there was no room, and alternative accommodation must be sought for them. “This project . . . it’ll bring it up to 53 beds that will be able to house women and their children, and behind every one of these women is a tragic story,” she said. “So Lotterywest and the State Government, to be able to contribute that extra $100,000 to meet the extra costs of building these units, it’s just I’m so grateful that (they) were in a position to be able to do that.” GWR board chair Sheryl Liddicoat recently visited Bangkok to see the units being made, and said it was an emotional time seeing the rooms, kitchens and bathrooms that would be invaluable to women escaping domestic violence situations. She also announced the new units would be named Lesley Grill House in honour of one of the refuge’s founding members, who recently died. One of the units will also be dedicated to fellow founding member Michelle Campbell.