Queensland’s Medtech footprint has expanded today with the official opening of the techadvanced medicinal cannabis facility in Brisbane. Medcan Australia’s state-of-theart 3,000sqm vertical farming facility can produce six-million grams of dried cannabis flower, twice as much as it’s currently selling. Aside from producing an estimated $60 million worth of product from the new site, the team expects to create more than 100 new jobs in the next 12 months. “Up until now, we have been selling more medicinal cannabis than we can produce,” said Medcan Australia CEO and co-founder Craig Cochran. “The Heathwood facility, which has been purpose built and uses a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, allows us to perpetually harvest our crop in an environment that is totally controlled by our cultivation team,” he said. Medcan has invested more than $12 million in developing this fully automated vertical farming operation that encourages consistent quality growth. Cochran and his business partner Gareth Ball have spent the past seven years perfecting Medcan’s processes. In doing so, they’ve crafted an ‘environmental recipe’ that is consistent and able to support its continually expanding patient and doctor network. “In terms of indoor cultivation, by Australian standards our facility is one of the biggest. “The HVAC system we use is similar in size to what an international airport terminal uses.” Pictured: Joint CEOs and cofounders of Medcan Australia Craig Cochran and Gareth Ball.