ANU Hail Remediation

Like many other parts of Canberra, several buildings at the ANU Acton Campus were seriously impacted by the 2020 Canberra Hailstorm. The large hailstones caused extensive damage to the buildings’ roofs and left them requiring urgent repair. As the ANU Acton Campus has heritage significance—both as a whole as well as individual elements—expert heritage advice was required to guide works.

GML was engaged to assist in the hail remediation works at numerous significant ANU buildings, including the School of Music, Lennox House Complex, Leonard Huxley building, Jaeger Complex, Florey building, Jaeger 6, Forestry building and Banks building.

GML ensured the hail remediation works were completed in accordance with heritage legislation, with all required measures taken to protect the buildings’ heritage values.

Working closely with the architectural and construction teams, we provided advice to guide the design development of the roof repairs and associated works to damaged interiors, to ensure impacts to the heritage values were minimised. In some cases, this included careful redesign of roofing elements where like-for-like replacement wasn’t feasible, ie to allow for increased rainfall and weather events in the future.

We also assisted with the approvals process through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), ensuring that the ANU was meeting its statutory obligations.  GML’s heritage impact assessments were prepared to a high quality with detailed guidance on mitigation measures to reduce impacts.

In addition, GML prepared archival recordings to document the existing condition and original building fabric, prior to any changes occurring.