The much-heralded push to decentralise state public service jobs is well-under way in Ballarat, with GovHub soon to be full of workers from across the city and from Melbourne.
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VicRoads, the Department of Education and Training, Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Department of Justice, Service Victoria, Regional Development Victoria, and the State Revenue Office will become tenant agencies at the new building, as well as the Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning.
Jobs will range from high level operations and management roles to training and IT, and entry-level call centre positions.
The building has the capacity for 1000 workers, but the state government has consistently spruiked that 600 will be "relocated or new" - many will relocate from other Ballarat offices, though there are some coming from Melbourne.
The Department of Justice set up a "staging post" in Camp Street some months ago, and will be delivering services for Consumer Affairs Victoria and Working With Children Checks from the new GovHub building.
Nick Eaton and Daisy O'Keefe are two Melbourne employees who decided to make the move to Ballarat.
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It was an easy decision for Mr Eaton, who studied at the former University of Ballarat and is now an operations manager for Consumer Affairs.
"The idea of investing back into this community where I did all my education at uni, to bring back some roles here that allow people to get those entry level positions, then move up in the Victorian Public Service, it's really important," he said.
"I think the fact that there's so many business units in the one building allows us to create those career pathways between different VPS departments - they might start with us on the phones, but then they might move on to other roles in other areas."
Ms O'Keefe, a team leader at Consumer Affairs, said she had wanted to move away from Melbourne's hustle and bustle.
"I absolutely had a choice, all my colleagues had a choice, we were given a lot of support from the department as well so we could make the best, informed choice for ourselves and our families before moving," she said.
"I was excited for the opportunity to work in a regional area - I'm from Tasmania, so I was really used to the tight-knit community."
Construction work on the building's external cladding is still ongoing, and expected to be finished soon, according to Regional Development Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.
"My understanding is there's a little bit of cosmetic work to be done for the site to be complete, but it's functionally complete, and the most important thing is that workers will be moving in from next week," she said.
The building is furnished with 200 underground car parks - the state government previously promised another 1000 free car parks at the last election, complementing a separate fund to replace a multi-level car park knocked over for GovHub's construction.
"Ballarat is also a very walkable city, it has great public transport, and I expect that people will choose many different ways to get to work," Ms Thomas said.
Wendouree MP Juliana Addison said she would support a review of the city's bus network to help ease the load.
"People will have to weigh up their options in terms of what's in their best interest, in terms of getting to work," she said.
There was no word on where the new free car parks would go, or when they would be installed - council's paid off-street car park on Creswick Road was mentioned as an option for workers.
City of Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said the project's completion was a "beacon" for more private sector investment.
"We're already starting to see a whole range of planning permits in the very early stages come in for development sites around this precinct, all the way to the Bridge Mall," he said.
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He added he "would not be surprised" if the building was as beloved in 50 years' time as its neighbour, Civic Hall.
"We'll be reading newspapers talking about how controversial this building was, but people will want to register it for its heritage significance, and we found that exactly next door at the Civic Hall," he said.
"In many cases, it was not so loved by locals, they saw it as a retro building out of keeping with the whole area, that was during the '56 Olympics Games it opened, and now we've got people wanting to register the Civic Hall - give it 50 years, it'll become quite the place that's loved in Ballarat."
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