GenesisCare Werribee’s main purpose is a cancer-treatment bunker that has solid concrete walls 700, 1100, 1400, and 2100mm thick, and a roof slab 1000/2100thick. We worked with BRD Industries Concreters (Pete and Garth), who did all the piling and ground beams, before setting up an enormous amount of formwork to contain the bunker’s 5m high walls, which were poured on one single day in November 2025 with 450cum of concrete poured continuously over 12hours at the rate of 400mm/hr. Midway Concrete supplied a 50% slag mix, with a lower-heat of-hydration, that cured and achieved the massively thick 1.1/1.4/2.1m thick walls, and roof lids after that. It was a massive relief and success on site to get these very thick concrete walls poured and cured without cracking. In comparison, the rest of the project was quite straightforward thanks to an excellent steel-subbie and intrec site team alice, paul and nina, who have delivered a wonderful looking facility along with Brad from Mode.

42 The Esplanade Torquay. We got called in to take over the concrete package of this three-storey mixed use development, and smashed out the footing/GF slab/L1 suspended slab and precast/seismic package in a month for the revised building permit and start building. We reduced footing reo by 70% and L1 reo by 50% on the original design, and got the design back to being financially viable. BDH are the builders, with GF slab complete and precast going in next week. It’s all going well.

Fabcon Stairs - every stair is different, and we have learnt, that the base-build building that the stair fixes to and for switchback stairs has to be rigid enough to prevent the head/base of the stair from twisting, is the more complicated aspect to design and detail. We work with lots of engineers who are the base-build / fitout engineer & model out to the nearest column grid to work out what is required to support the stair, and if any geometrical changes need to be made. We’ve designed and delivered forty stairs with Fabcon over the past five years, starting with Bunnings HQ @ Botannica, that is still one of our best. We are proud to work with Fabcon who are meticulous fabricators and installers who control the entire stair turnkey package and provide clients with absolutely fantastically well built and finessed feature commercial stairs to enjoy well into the future.

One thing that’s great about getting random calls is that we continue to learn.

We got asked to design/certify the seismic restraints for glass block walls at the new Kaya Gym at Chadstone, and met the guys who are flat-out building glass-walls every day. Seeing their install process and proficiency first hand was great.

Over the years, we’ve faced many challenging projects. ETFE-cushions at Springvale Road Train Station, old-coal-mines under HMRI in Newcastle, a gold-mine shaft at Novotel Ballarat, a well at SVPHW. Ash designed Thomastown Train Station bridge for train derailment loads of 500T = 5000kN, and designed almost every type of complex steel connection at the MICE Roof and Retail Canopies in Singapore. At GESAC glen eira swimming pool, we designed and signed off 50types of infill walls and floors including ortech (straw-bail) walls. Over the years, we’ve learnt a lot about LGS framing & got called in to sign off all the LGS-framing at Darley PS in Bacchus Marsh, where we learnt that 150LGS walls are super-strong. For Fabcon and others, we have designed almost every steel balustrade imaginable, and are enthralled by the 12dia rods at 100ctrs that are in many old-school 1940’s spiral stairs work in practice, but are impossible to justify on paper! We have worked with many sawtooth 2/EA chord-trusses, and in our demo projects, seen many amazing 300dp x 100w oregon timber trusses done with.

There is a huge amount to learn about past and present building typologies, we just hope the next generation has the work-ethic and diligence to be able to continue to provide structural advice based on first-principles calculations and logic.

340 Melbourne Road - this has been another storied project. In 2022, we did tender-docs for a new motorcycle superstore, with the site then getting sold and gutted/revamped for a new Savers & Petstore. We took out 350sqm of 5kPa mezzanine so the main shopfloor is open above to its curved portal-frames. We had new EA’s welded in to strengthen bent/twisted 1950’s sawtooth trusses. We lifted up beams and moved seven columns to fit the new grid, and cut in three new entries with new canopies. The north canopy has a 13m long 380PFC to bridge over major 2m dia water/sewer pipes that drain a few suburbs, and had to explain to Barwon Water that our canopy footings increased pressures on their pipes by <2%. Petstore got a new loading bay and we halved the purlin centres to support the mech-gear mounted above the roof, on a bespoke plantdeck. We worked closely with BDH Construction who ran an efficient site and Edgar Fabrications who site-cut most of the steel & did a great job. In the end, we turned a dilapidated mish-mash of warehouses into good-looking retail spaces.

We’re lucky to have many long-standing relationships that makes us feel like we are part of other people’s businesses and they rely on us to help deliver the next project and work through the next series of problems. We have about twenty or thirty repeat clients that make the phone run hot, as we often get called to respond asap to immediate issues. We solve problems from first-principles and do hand-calcs all the time, I was bemused to have my hand-writing called out by a checking engineer the other day who couldn’t make out ‘‘M20’’. We have designed a huge amount of steel over the years, and are good mates with fabricators, installers and shop-detailers. We met HiLift at the Airport T4 terminal project who welded in steel to transfer the leg loads of a 150m long temporary walkway (Templink) between the Virgin and Rex terminals, so the T4 conveyors could get installed at GF. Ever since, we’ve done jobs with HiLift including ten temporary retention gantries, many for HMB and Rafferties.