The Tarcutta headquarters of Trans-Help Foundation has been sold.
Trans-Help Foundation has sold its Tarcutta headquarters but continues to support truck drivers and their families with its 24-hour helpline, four mobile health unit vans and a team of dedicated volunteers.
CEO Dianne Carroll says the increasing popularity of the foundation’s four health vans and its partnership with a tele-health provider reduced the need for the 12-room building at Tarcutta.
Selling the Tarcutta facility will not affect Trans-Help’s popular 24-hour helpline, 1300 787 996, Carroll says.
And the Trans-Help website will continue to offer information on a variety of topics including road trauma, road deaths, grief, finance, and domestic violence against men.
Trans-Help Foundation was founded in 2006 and established its headquarters in Tarcutta’s former nursing home in 2008.
“We felt [Tarcutta] was a good central place, midway between Sydney and Melbourne,” Carroll says.
Increasing popularity of health vans reduced the need for the 12-room building at Tarcutta.
Posted by Owner Driver on Thursday, 1 October 2015
The foundation initially planned to attract a team of health professionals to the building so drivers could call in for appointments as they travelled the Hume Highway.
But the proposal proved too expensive. The foundation instead helps drivers access health professionals through a tele-health provider, GP2U.
Tarcutta was bypassed from the Hume Highway in 2011, and the foundation’s fleet of mobile health unit vans has proven an effective means of offering support to the trucking community.
“So we refocused and looked at offloading the facility and focusing more on the on-road stuff,” Carroll says.
The sale will enable Trans-Help to repay money it borrowed from Royans Wagga to buy the Tarcutta building.
Donated by Iveco, the health vans are based in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Using fuel donated by BP, the vans travel to businesses, truck stops and industry events throughout Australia.
Carroll says she is grateful for the support of a team of volunteers and major sponsors – Royans, Iveco, BP and Westrac.
You can read the full story in the October edition of Owner//Driver.
Photography: Tamara Whitsed