Project Value: $15 million

Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy (QCESA) is a purpose built training centre providing disaster simulators for the Department of Emergency Services.

Disaster simulators such as the QCESA allow the QLD Fire and Rescue, Qld Ambulance Services and State Emergency Services to simulate a diverse range of life-like rescue scenarios providing an effective learning environment for the testing and training of rescuers.

The learning facility comes complete with a simulation of a ship’s hull, hazardous incident site, shop, petrol station, bank, café, residential building and hospital emergency room. Each training section is connected by a series of complex equipment to simulate fires, chemical spills, cyclones and accidents. Petrol bowsers spill water to simulate a fuel leak and the confined space and trench rescue props are used to educate rescuers in confined space manoeuvering and recovery techniques.

Each disaster scenario is controlled from a central control room facility which also monitors the rescue training operations. One noticeable feature is that this state of the art facility uses a water recycling system and every effort is made to recycle water used for fire hose training in an effort to ‘go green’.

On completion of the complex project, Northbuild Construction handed over more than $20 million worth of tools and technology to the QCESA. The inclusion of sophisticated monitoring equipment and up to 150 cameras were installed throughout the training sections so that training exercises could be carefully monitored to create safer working environments and improve levels of emergency preparedness.