Bradshaw Field Training Area, Australia

The Bradshaw Field Training Area, an 8700 km² former cattle station in the Northern Territory, will provide a Defence controlled area for the Army's 1st Brigade to perform live firing and manoeuvre activities.

Appointed project manager in 1997, we had to adjust our procurement approach significantly due to an unforseen delay preventing construction. Rather than adopt a design and construct strategy for building works as initially intended, we awarded a single consultancy for all building works with construction works to be let as a series of more traditional head contracts.

Given the complications of the wet and dry season, this strategy will not only allow a quick start to construction but may also allow construction to commence late in a dry season when a design and contract would not be feasible. This could potentially save up to nine months of construction time.

In addition to project management, we also developed a comprehensive Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to ensure the property is utilised in an environmentally sustainable manner in the future. Never before has our study team generated the sheer volume of land resource and environmental data required for a project of this size.

This included long running field investigation on flora, fauna, soils archaeology, anthropology and fire management; as well as the highly skilled interpretation of satellite and gamma radiometric data. Our GIS was invaluable in managing this enormous amount of baseline information.

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