After the devastating floods along the Brisbane River in 2011, Brisbane City Council lost eight ferry terminals. The new permanent ferry terminals needed to be practical, long lasting and flood resilient.

Architects Cox Rayner were commissioned with the Council’s challenging design brief.

“We set about designing a terminal that could not only cope with the next flood but also the everyday wear and tear of being in a semi-saline environment on the Brisbane River. People were really looking for an iconic design; certainly the client was looking for an iconic design and I think we’ve managed to deliver that for Council and the state”, said Brendan Gaffney, lead architect from Cox Rayner.

The roof sheeting chosen for the job was LYSAGHT LONGLINE 305®. According to Gaffney, “There is a lot of wide profile, high ribbed profiles on the market. A lot of the other products have ribs that are not particularly aesthetically pleasing. The LONGLINE® 305 profile has a very crisp, sharp rib that is very appealing from an architectural viewpoint because it catches the light nicely and leaves a crisp, sharp shadow. Also its got fantastic weathertightness being a concealed fixed product.”

Lysaght’s team worked closely with the architect to ensure the project’s success. Ray Knight, Lysaght Business Development Manager QLD, understands the architect’s choice of sheeting.

“LYSAGHT LONGLINE 305® is a very unique product. It has flat, clean pans and high skinny ribs on the profile which gives it excellent water carrying capacity for the Australian conditions. Also, the concealed fixing of the product means that there are no screw fixings that can create potential areas for corrosion.”

There were some demands that needed to go beyond the standard issue. Lysaght’s Zelko Nagy explained “In addition to traditional LONGLINE 305® been in 0.70mm BMT, we we’re able to manufacture the LONGLINE 305® product in BlueScope COLORBOND® Ultra steel. So that is the next level premium steel that is available from BlueScope, and it’s suited to the harsh environments here on the river.”

Installer Havendeen Roofing worked with Lysaght to deliver an on-time project. “We’ve worked with a lot of different roofing materials, but we’ve been impressed with the Lysaght team and the ease of installation of the LONGLINE 305® product”, said Rob McKinnon of Havendeen Roofing.

“By working closely with BlueScope on the steel coil requirements for this project we were able to secure the COLORBOND® Ultra coil to produce the LONGLINE 305® in a little over half the time of the published lead time from BlueScope”, said Zelko.

“There were a few hiccups here and there as there always are on these big projects, but we were kept in the loop and Lysaght bent over backwards to get us back on track with our installation works”, said Rob.

“We worked with many excellent teams on this project from the architects, to engineers and roof contractors. We worked closely with the architect to come up with some finishing touches to avoid any potential problems. We also worked closely with the roofing contractor to ensure the finishing touches were looking excellent on the finished project”, said Ray.

According to Brendan Gaffney, “We’re very, very pleased with how the terminal roofs have shaped up and now that they are complete I am sure that everyone looking at them sees that it was worth the effort in the design team’s part, and the support of Lysaght has been key to that. I think LONGLINE 305® is a very good commercial and architectural profile because it has a very good aesthetic and can be detailed very crisply – that’s what we liked about it. We’re very confident is say to council that they’ve got a very good, long-life product out there on the river that will go the distance.”

The terminals’ striking but practical design incorporates new technology that will safeguard from future floods and other natural disasters. A win for Brisbane and a win for all teams involved.