By PAUL MILLAR
LARA residents will sleep easier after a heavy-duty transporter revealed it would move away from their homes to a growing industrial precinct near Corio.
Rocke Brothers’ around-the-clock shipping container movements have prompted complaints about slush, mud and excessive noise as the company operates from part of a Josies Transport depot.
But in a win-win situation Rocke Brothers announced this week it would move its Lara operations, including 45 employees and contractors, to the council-owned precincet in a $10 million investment deal.
The company expected to be operating out of the Corio depot early next year.
Managing director Matt Simmons said Rocke Brothers was “committed to being part of rebuilding economic enterprise in Geelong”.
The industrial site, called Geelong Ring Road Employment Preinct (GRREP), opened for land sales eight years but ward councillor Tony Ansett said it was now going from strength to strength.
“The City has invested a lot of resources in getting the land at the GRREP to this stage and it’s certainly paying off.
“With excellent access to the Geelong port, Avalon Airport and the regional road and rail infrastructure, it’s an ideal location for the establishment of large, export-oriented manufacturing and production support industries.”
Mayor Darryn Lyons said almost half the 130-hectare development was now sold or under contract.
The mayor said the GRREP was a case of ‘build it and we will come’, with new tenants on the way.
“The City is in the process of negotiating the sale of nine blocks of more than 60 hectares of land,” he said.
“We’re talking over $1 billion of investment and over 1000 jobs.”
Cr Lyons officially opened two new roads at the precinct on Wednesday.
Former Geelong mayor Ken Jarvis said in 2013 that City Hall had spent “at least” $10 million on the precinct for only one land sale in six years.
