Barwon Women’s and Children’s Newsletter #1 | September 2026

Delivering more women’s and children’s services closer to home

The more than $500 million project is the biggest ever health infrastructure investment in Geelong.

The new Barwon Women’s and Children’s will provide health facilities to ensure families in Geelong and surrounding communities can continue to access the very best care, closer to home.

This includes a new children’s inpatient unit, new neonatal and parent care unit, specialist clinics, more operating theatres and more facilities for women’s health.

This large-scale infrastructure project, in the heart of Geelong, is expected to support around 1,500 jobs during peak construction.

Main construction works are well underway, with major milestones already completed.

The new specialist clinic building and the multi-storey tower have reached their highest point, and the exterior façade is completed, with façade panels installed in blue, silver and green tones.

The new Barwon Women’s and Children’s is now set to be completed in 2028 and is being built within the University Geelong Hospital precinct.

Read on to learn more about how the project is progressing.

Building progress

• The new specialist clinic building and eight-storey tower are structurally complete and have reached their highest point. The façade is also complete on both buildings.
• The structures for link bridges have been installed, connecting the new buildings to the existing hospital.
• Three tower cranes have been farewelled from site.

Coming up

• Installation of walls, floors and ceilings inside the new tower and specialist clinic building will continue progressing
• Works to improve the main hospital entrance
• Chillers, tanks and plant equipment will be lifted into place
• Procurement of medical equipment to kit out the hospital

Headsets on: Barwon Health steps inside the spaces of tomorrow

Using virtual reality (VR) headsets, Barwon Health staff - including nurses, midwives, doctors and support staff -  toured the new women’s and children’s areas and tested how the spaces will work in practice.

Four immersive sessions were held to ‘virtually’ put clinicians into the critical areas they will be working in, such as a theatre, neonatal cot bay and procedure rooms, birthing room and support spaces. These sessions allow clinicians to test layouts and provide feedback on how the spaces will function in practice.

Design grounded in connection to nature and Country

Your new Barwon Women’s and Children’s is designed to be safe, inclusive and family-friendly. Drawing inspiration from the local landscape, the designs express a strong connection to place and community identity.

Designed by project architect, Lyons, the design includes natural colours, shapes and forms drawn from the Barwon River, You Yangs and Bellarine Peninsula.

The theme of water

Water as a symbol of life and connection runs throughout the facility, reflected in the stepped “waterfall” design of the façade and water droplet imagery. Reinforcing the relationship between people, place and nature.

Located on the sixth storey of the new tower the paediatric unit features a skylight that scales three floors, allowing natural light to filter through from the very top of the eight-storey tower into a central lounge. This design is inspired by the peeling bark of Manna and River Red Gums, representing renewal, growth and helping to create a calm and comforting atmosphere for young patients and their families.

The theme of water continues inside the new tower, with imagery of a water droplet falling from the leaf of a Manna Gum serving as the inspiration for the design of shared spaces in the new paediatric inpatient unit.