A new $82 million clinical teaching building at La Trobe University, Melbourne will host audiology training, research and offer audiology services to the public, as well as help relieve Australia’s allied health workforce shortage.
The La Trobe University Health Clinic, being built at La Trobe’s Melbourne campus in Bundoora, will be the largest interdisciplinary university clinic in Victoria, helping train an additional 400 allied health professionals each year from 2026.
“The building will house a new audiology clinical service,” a La Trobe University spokesperson told Hearing Practitioner Australia.
“It will also house an expanded speech pathology clinic service, led by students under supervision, that will provide an expanded range of speech pathology clinical services.
“The intention of both clinical services is to expand the opportunities for students to undertake clinical placements, enabling La Trobe to enrol additional students into both courses.”
Operating as a state-of-the-art healthcare facility serving the public, the centre will provide cost-effective healthcare for people on public waiting lists and provide students with clinical placements and hands-on experience.
It will offer a broad range of allied health services to the public including audiology, speech pathology, orthoptics, podiatry, psychology, dietetics and nutrition, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy.
The building, due to be completed in July 2026, is part of La Trobe’s $170 million investment in health innovation. It will deliver teaching, research and infrastructure to boost Australia’s healthcare workforce by an extra 4,000 professionals by 2030 in areas of need.
It also forms a key part of La Trobe University City, a long-term development to transform the 235-hectare Bundoora campus into a vibrant city that will include world-class sports, research and innovation, education, commercial, retail and residential developments, the university said.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Theo Farrell said the university’s strategic investment in health research and teaching positioned La Trobe as a dynamic centre for innovation and collaboration.
Health workforce crisis
“La Trobe is making a significant investment in health teaching, research and infrastructure across key areas of need in both metropolitan and regional areas, helping address Australia’s serious health workforce crisis,” Prof Farrell said.
“The new infrastructure in which we are investing, including our exciting new clinical teaching building in Bundoora, will offer huge community benefits, including regional development and jobs from capital investments. Our vision is helping to solve a national policy issue plaguing governments and policymakers.”
Professor Russ Hoye, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Health Innovation and Dean of the School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, said the new facility would streamline the journey from student to qualified health practitioner.
“This new facility will help prepare 400 additional allied health professionals and psychologists to enter the health workforce each year to 2030,” Prof Hoye said.
“Our new state-of-the-art facilities will give our health students the very best environment to learn and succeed, which in turn will benefit the local workforce, leading to more and better healthcare professionals for communities across Australia.”
Allied health is Australia’s second-largest clinical workforce after nursing and midwifery with about 300,000 registered allied health professionals nationwide. The federal Department of Health and Aged Care says there is a shortage in some allied health areas and demand is expected to grow over the next decade.
Prof Hoye said many allied health workers left their professions after the COVID-19 pandemic which, combined with an ageing population, had exponentially increased demand for students.
“Our clinical teaching building will be a valuable asset for both La Trobe and its local community,” Prof Hoye said. “Our new health facilities will create more training placements for students, giving La Trobe a key role in growing Australia’s health workforce and alleviating current staff shortages.”
Plenary Group will develop and finance the building. It is the university’s preferred master development partner for the $5 billion La Trobe University City project.
Mr Damien Augustinus, Plenary Group’s managing director, said Plenary was excited to have started the first project under the partnership. “We’re proud to be partnering with La Trobe to deliver such an important project that delivers on the university’s vision to be a centre for innovation and collaboration,” he said.
La Trobe’s health innovation investment is delivering multiple new facilities across Victoria, including already operational nursing and midwifery clinical simulation facilities in Bundoora, Bendigo, Wodonga and Mildura, and a new Dentistry and Oral Health Clinical School in Bendigo.
The university is also investing heavily in research to support key areas of health innovation, including around the care economy with the establishment of Australia’s first Care Economy Research Institute and in rural health.
