COLORBOND® steel Springs To Life In The Alice

Posted: 13 July 2009 by Colorbond

Tags: fence, termites

For the people of Alice Springs, the spectacular steel fence which forms an edge to the CBD and runs alongside the Stuart Highway has become an integral part of the town’s everyday life.

The fence is an NT Government lifestyle project of the Moving Alice Ahead program and was designed by local architectural firm, Susan Dugdale and Associates. The brief was to create an ‘aesthetic screen’ that provides security for the railway yards, protects property, protects the public and replaces an existing chain mesh and barbed-wire fence.

The fence is an abstract representation of travel and movement, reflecting the function of the highway and the railway line. The variable band in the fence is generated from a map of the highway from Port Augusta to Darwin. It includes reference to the major towns and intersections along the highway in lettering that uses the cursive script of 19th century hand-annotated maps.

Sue Dugdale, who spent six months on developing the unusual design, commented: “Travel, movement and transience are major aspects of all cultures living in the region, historically and in the present. The fence encapsulates this iconic condition of the town: from early explorers to contemporary commercial transport, from the traditional Indigenous nomadic life to contemporary movement between remote communities and Alice Springs, from the transient young white population on one or two year employment contracts to the seasonal grey nomads, all have this condition in common.”

The fence is designed to be viewed while moving and gives the dynamic sensation that it is travelling with you as you move along the highway. From a car, the central band seems to leap and bounce along, from a bicycle it is a more fluid experience and to a pedestrian it offers a human-scale horizon line and a variable-height peep show to the view behind.

The fence is made completely of COLORBOND® steel, so it can withstand Alice Springs’ harsh environmental conditions including extreme heat, cold, dryness and termites. The bottom section of the fence uses the colours Headland® and Bushland® in the profile Lysaght Trimwall® and the top section uses the colours Jasper® and Sandbank® in the profile Lysaght Custom Orb®. Mesh is used to connect the two sections and to create a viewing panel.

Construction contractors, Ross Engineering, built a prototype section of the fence off-site in their yard as part of the contract. This was then approved before the construction of the new fence.

Managing Director Neil Ross commented: "As part of the prototype development we suggested alterations to the fixing method to minimize the time spent on site and the size of the panels to minimize material waste. We also drew each panel individually which was fortunate, as we had a fierce storm last year which brought a tree down on the fence. We were able to reconstruct it exactly as it was before."

Ross added: This has been a high profile project for us. The comments have been positive and it still looks good today. People were worried about the prospect of it becoming a target for graffiti, but it hasn’t happened very much so far. An anti-graffiti coating has enabled the few instances of graffiti to be removed quickly and easily. The fence has had such a positive impact on the community, helping us feel good about the town and our local environment."

Sue concluded: "The Alice Springs community has embraced the fence wholeheartedly. The highway and its’ pedestrian pathway is a main commuter route for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. The fence can be glimpsed at the end of CBD cross streets and between buildings. The public and cultural benefit of the fence is its’ broad appeal combined with a degree of abstraction that stimulates relationship and interpretation as a public art installation."

For further information on COLORBOND® steel, visit www.colorbond.com or call 1800 022 999.