Construction on a $400 million medicinal cannabis facility in Toowoomba is due to begin in August, creating hundreds of jobs.
When it opens, the 40-hectare farm, just 250 metres from Toowoomba's Wellcamp International Airport, will be the largest of its kind in the world, producing 500 tonnes of cannabis per year and employing about 1000 people.
The crops will be grown in three glasshouses spread over the 40 hectares, the equivalent of 74 football fields.
Asterion's high-security facility will also house a processing plant, transforming the crop into medicine.
"We have to plant 20,000 a day and harvest 20,000 plants a day," Asterion CEO Stephen Van Deventer said.
Demand for medicinal cannabis is set to soar, with prescriptions tripling in Australia over the last year and low-dose CBD oil soon to be sold at pharmacies without prescription.
Asterion has also signed a $92 million contract to export the product to Europe.
"That ripple effect of all those jobs and the needs of all those people will be tremendous," Toowoomba Regional Mayor Paul Antonio said.
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