The detention centre was first established in late 2001 when a temporary facility was built. It was deemed inadequate in terms of size, amenity and security and so in March 2002 the Australian Government announced the replacement of the facility. They further reported that the construction of a purpose designed and built centre would substitute the facility with the capacity increased to 1200. In June 2002, a contractor was appointed to design and construct the centre on a fast track basis. Later in February 2003, the Australian Government announced their decision to cut back the positions available to 800 places after a reduction in boat arrivals around this time. The existing contract was terminated and in September 2003 construction proceed with an accommodation capacity of 800. This was based on 416 housed in designed and purpose built accommodation units and 384 in basic contingency accommodation. The $208 million dollar centre was built from January 2005 to August 2006 by a company called Baulderstone. In 2009, the capacity was increased to 1800 places and to a further 2040 in 2010. In February 2010 the Government announced a further increase to 2200-2300 places and figures showed there was 2208 people in detention April that year. In June 2013 there was a surge in boat arrivals forcing the capacity to exceed itself to 2960 people. Since then it has decreased with 1077 people detained in June 2014.