Fish River Ranger Accommodation Upgrade

Beating the Heat

The project aimed to improve the living conditions of the rangers by retrofitting the current structure and updating the facilities to allow for a comfortable accommodation and to better cope with the demanding climatic conditions true of NT.

Sector: Sheds
Location: Fish River Station. SA
Products: AIR-CELL Insulbreak

The Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), building on a history of indigenous housing in remote locations, invited the Design Construct program at the University of South Australia (Uni SA) to propose upgrades to the current accommodation located at Fish River Station in the Northern Territory.

Fish River Station has been sheltering Aboriginal rangers, employed from the nearby community of Daly River, since it was acquired by the ILC in 2010. The rangers shelter as it began, was an open tent shelter; a simple wooden structure with a canvas roof for protection from the sun.

The project aimed to improve the living conditions of the rangers by retrofitting the current structure and updating the facilities to allow for more comfortable accommodation and to better cope with the demanding climatic conditions true of the Northern Territory.

The Uni SA’s Design Construct program engages architecture, engineering, and design students in community projects in rural areas. Students involved in the program have the opportunity to aid in building, planning and design.

The Uni SA students’ involved in the Fish River project visited the site in 2016 before beginning the design process and worked closely with key local rangers throughout the project.

The final design included a new kitchen and dining facilities, upgrades to insect screening, installation of insulation, a passive design, improvements to privacy and the ability to house eight rangers.

Renovations to the roof of the building saw existing canvas roofing replaced with a steel roof and insulated with Kingspan AIR-CELL Insulbreak under a 100mm air cavity and 12mm plywood ceiling, reducing the reliance on air-conditioning to cool the quarters.

The remoteness of the location meant that much of the building process was done by pre-fabrication, offsite at Design Construct’s facility in Mawson Lakes and moved to site in July of 2018, for the final building stage. Research will be gathered by data loggers to measure the overall effectiveness of the upgrade.

Kingspan Insulation is proud to get behind this great project, sponsor a portion of the AIR-CELL used in the renovations, and show our support for the local community in the Northern Territory.

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Images from Fish River Accommodation

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