Places of Refuge - Building Resilience

Abstract

The development of places of refuge for remote locations such as Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria is critical infrastructure. The island is threatened by tropical cyclones several times each storm season which has financial, safety and health impacts for those living and working on the island. As the island does not have a cyclone shelter, Mornington Shire Council and individuals are required to fend for themselves in many cases. Many people on Mornington Island feel distressed during cyclone season due to the lack of safe locations to shelter in. Council has flown staff off-island on numerous occasions due to this. Many of the Council owned buildings are either legacy buildings from missionary days, dating back to the early and mid 1900s, or demountable buildings in service long past their use by date, due to competing Council services and the high cost of building and transporting materials and buildings to the island. Building work on the island has a locality loading of 70 to 85 percent due to the remote location, limited freight options, cost of living, delays in supply chains, limited infrastructure, resources and machinery. This means that a building costing $500,000 to construct in Cairns would cost between $850,000 and $925,000 to construct on Mornington Island. Peak Services successfully applied for funds for a small NDRP grant to investigate the suitability of Council owned assets to withstand cyclones and determine which assets could be engineered to meet the required cyclonic resilience. Peak Services on Council’s behalf engaged engineering consultants Bligh Tanner, over a 5 day period engineer Simon Kochanek inspected over 100 buildings delivering a 280 page report recommending works required for each building, detailing engineering tie-downs and specifying suitable materials and systems. Simon, who has extensive building remediation experience said, “The inspection works identified numerous existing buildings with significant deficiencies making them unsafe if exposed to even moderate wind speeds”. Peak Services and Bligh Tanner worked hard to develop cost effective methodologies that could be readily delivered on Mornington Island by the resources available. Some inspiring outcomes were achieved that had multiple and exponential positive impacts for Council and the community. Whilst many of the engineering solutions were straight forward in terms of design and delivery, an old disused tavern had a multitude of deficiencies as well as historical modifications and decay which left the building unsafe. The true unsafe nature of the building was masked by what appeared to be a robust reinforced concrete masonry structure. Of great concern was the fact that the building was regularly used by large groups to shelter in during extreme weather events. Previous engineering solutions required extensive expenditure and downgrades to amenity and functionality of the tavern. Peak Services and Bligh Tanner developed solutions which maintained existing clear span spaces whilst upgrading the buildings external appearance, internal ambiance, building security, operational function, as well as meeting the required and regulatory cyclonic resilience for the region.