Queensland's property development community has taken another leap forward with Austcorp's largest eco friendly development, Coomera Waters, which successfully combines environmental sustainability with all the benefits of a unique living environment.

Coomera Waters, a 496 hectare site on the picturesque Coomera River on Queensland's Gold Coast, will boast over 1,300 homes, a 17 hectare harbour and a 72 berth marina for its residents. The development is a haven for birds and wildlife with nature reserves, wetland and parks all nurtured to support the local flora and fauna.

The properties themselves have been designed and built to maximise their ability to be environmentally sustainable so as to reduce their long term impact on the environment and to promote eco friendly living in the community. To do this Austcorp has focused on various ways to promote energy efficiency across the project.

 

Both the latest design principles and building products have been used across Coomera Waters to preserve visual aesthetics and ensure thermal efficiency in the homes to reduce air conditioning costs and electricity consumption.

As the first surface the sunshine will hit, light and mid coloured roofs made from COLORBOND® steel are mandatory across the development.

Roofs made from COLORBOND® steel are lightweight with a low thermal mass to help reduce the amount of heat radiated into the homes as the outside temperature cools at night. Also, it is 100 per cent recyclable, so at the end of its service life it can be used again and not wasted.

Gas and solar hot water systems are used across Coomera Waters to further reduce costs and damage to the environment and an architectural code has been established to assist residents in designing their homes in the most energy efficient way possible.

In recognition of its environmental achievements, Coomera Waters was named the finalist for several Queensland Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) awards in May this year including Best Master Planned Development and Excellence in Sustainable Development.

Peter Lemon, senior development manager for Coomera Waters explains: "This is a huge and exciting project for us. Eco living now guides many people's expectations and Coomera Waters is proving very successful with our target market. We spent and continue to spend a lot of time researching the best way to make this a unique and environmentally sustainable development and we are very pleased with the results.

"Austcorp decided to make roofing made from COLORBOND® steel mandatory across the development because it helps us to satisfy our energy efficiency goals. Also, it is desirable in terms of look and feel because of the range of colours available, it helped us create the overall contemporary, luxury style of Coomera Waters."

According to Simon Charrington, Market Development Manager at BlueScope Steel: "We are delighted to be involved with Austcorp on an eco development such as this. Steel is a great choice for this type of community because it is fully recyclable, energy efficient and can withstand extreme weather conditions, which is a real issue in Queensland. Everyone involved in Coomera Waters is proud of it."

Summary

Development	Coomera Waters
Developer	Austcorp
Steel Cladding	Roof COLORBOND, Walls COLORBOND
City	Queensland
Country	Australia
Region	Oceania
Climatic Condition	Sub-tropical
Housing Type	Multi-family

Key information

Number of storeys	Varies
New-build home

Location of steel solutions

Roof

Types of steel used in the building

Metallic coated flat carbon steel
Organic coated flat carbon steel