Australian government via Rail Projects Victoria (RPV), will fund tunnel training center to train thousands of people on Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operation and other underground techniques. The a A$16 millon centre will be built at Holmesglen Institute's Chadstone campus and will be called 'Victorian Tunnelling Training Centre' (VTC) after the Australian state of Victoria that it will be located in.

Training Facilities: Real tunnels as well as Computer simulations of tunnels

VTC will have training facilities with real-size replica tunnels, shafts as well as bleeding-edge virtual and augmented reality training equipment.

The centre will include  both mined tunnel and TBM replica tunnels enabling workers to familiarise themselves with the different tunnelling methods required to build major infrastructure projects.The TBM replica tunnel will be the exact diameter of the Metro Tunnel, while the mined replica tunnel will be as wide as a three lanes.

Basic training for workers on the Metro Tunnel project is already being delivered by Holmesglen, including virtual reality tunnelling, mined and bored tunnel inductions and self-rescue techniques. The VTC will take this specialist training to the next level.

VTC is  modelled after London Crossrail's Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy and the Tunnel Training Academy in Kuala Lumpur. It will be the first such facility in Australia, and one of the very few, if not the best, in the whole world. It is estimated that, by 2021, each year up to 5000 students will participate in training courses of the centre. The centre will support thousands  of apprentices, trainees and cadets who will deliver Victoria’s pipeline of infrastructure projects, completing at least 10 per cent of work hours under the Victorian Government’s Major Projects Skills Guarantee.

Victoria Tunnelling Bonanza

The aim is to make Victoria state a world-leading tunnelling hub by creating a new tunnelling workforce to work worldwide as well as Victoria's tunnelling projects which are expected to span a period of over a decade.

In Victoria, major tunnelling projects like Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel projects are about to start and then to be followed by North East Link, Melbourne Airport Rail Link and the Suburban Rail Loop. These projects will utilize more than 15 gigantic tunnel boring machines (TBMs) of which at least 10 will be used for the Suburban Rail Loop alone.

VTTC aims to help meet the demand for this tunnelling bonanza.

The tunnelling bonanza also attracts the attention of big TBM manufacturers. German giant Herrenknecht is also very interested in the potential of the tunnelling in the area and recently announced that it would set upa a Melbourne office and a maintenance facility,

Accepting student "expression of interest' applications

Holmesglen Institute already started accepting applications for interest for VTC.

form (click)

VTC website for info (click)