The truck is a roving Medicare, Child Services and Centrelink office. 

Brimarco managing director Matt Kirwan-Hamilton said it was a good project for the Ballarat company because the government was a reliable customer. 

“The government’s a good client to build for, because (the departments) have very good decision-making processes. They’re less emotional than some private clients,” he said.

Brimarco is one of two companies in Australia with the skills to do such complicated fitouts, and has previously done mobile medical centres, mobile stores and motor racing support trucks. 

This new truck, called Golden Wattle, is smaller than the other two, which means it can go on dirt roads closed to the B-double trucks. 

Mobile service centre manager Barbara Tait said they reached people who did not have any identification, let alone a Medicare card. 

“A lot of our work out in these places is education – people just don’t know about the services available to them,”  she said.

Ms Tait said the truck, which was also fitted out for hearing tests and had four staff travelling with it, would make a “massive” difference to people’s lives. 

“Some of these places don’t even have internet, so (this program) means they have access to these services,” she said.

In a statement, Human Services Minister Maris Payne said the truck would also contribute to the emergency work done by the DHS.

The service currently visits 350 towns a year, which will extend to more than 500 with the new office.

The 19-tonne truck took six months to build at Brimarco’s factory in Wendouree, and when opened up is 15 metres long. 

Brimarco is now working on a mobile renal care centre for the Kimberly area, which will provide dialysis to remote Aboriginal communities.

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au