State says upgrade will “increase the capacity of the complex to help meet the needs of the community”
A courthouse in regional New South Wales will soon be receiving a major upgrade.
The courthouse in Dubbo, which the state’s attorney general Mark Speakman said is one of the busiest in inland NSW, is set to have its largest upgrade in more than a decade, with the addition of a new courtroom.
Speakman said the $3.6 million upgrade will “increase the capacity of the complex to help meet the needs of the community.”
“Adding another courtroom to the complex will help manage demand and increase the capacity for sittings,” said Speakman. “The upgrade will enable a much more efficient use of space internally and it will open up two rooms in the heritage building and create a better flow between the cells and the custody courts.”
The new building will be connected to the heritage courthouse, with facilities including a registry, interview room and chamber facilities for the judiciary and associates. The project will bring the number of courtrooms in the Dubbo courthouse from three to four and is expected to be completed in mid-2021.
The Law Society of NSW, which has advocated for additional court resources in rural and regional NSW, welcomed the upgrade.
“I’m particularly pleased that the new multi-purpose state-of-the-art courtroom will be equipped with the latest audio-visual link (AVL) technology,” said Richard Harvey, president of the Law Society of NSW. “In these COVID times, when our court system has had to rely more on the use of AVL technology than ever before, and we have seen first-hand the benefits it can provide in the delivery of justice, it’s important that we future proof our state’s court facilities at every available opportunity.
