Design and Construction Overview

¨  In 2012 the then Department of Community Safety (DCS) opened its new Emergency operations centre located in the Brisbane suburb of Kedron located 5km from the heart of Brisbane city. The new centre comprises of 2 facilities one is the State Disaster Management Centre and the second is the new Triple Zero Communications Centre for both the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) and the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) for the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane. Also housed within this facility is the Queensland Co-ordination Centre which looks after aeromedical services across the state.

¨  The QEOC project started in 2007 when a decision was made that the current aging facilities that the department currently had it’s Communication and EOC facilities in required to be replaced to ensure that these functions were able to maintain their critical functions now and into the foreseeable future in an ever changing environment, the decision to do this was proven to be the right one with the devastating floods and cyclone which the state lived through over the 2010-2011 Christmas New year period.

¨  The complex covers an area of 6800 square metres and of that 6200 is useable work area with the remainder taking up mechanical, Hydraulic and other essential functions to the building. The buildings are made up as follows the SDMC has 2 levels of secure underground parking and 3 levels of work areas. The first level houses the ICT functions this includes the Departments State wide data facilities along with the technical support areas for both the SDMC and Communications centres. Also contained on this level is the QAS Communications Centre Management

¨  The second level contains the 2 operational hubs of the facility these are the State Operations Co-ordination Centre (SOCC) and the State Disaster Management Centre (SDMC). Also on this level are the supporting work units for the 2 hubs this includes the DCS Geographical Information Services (GIS) who can produce detailed mapping etc.. for any area currently under threat and relay this into the ops centre in both hard copy and electronic versions in a very quick time thus assisting in maintaining up to date situational awareness enabling effective operational responses.

¨  The third level of the building houses the management functions of both operational hubs as well as a purpose built media facility which enables the rapid dissemination via all aspects of media out to the Queensland public so they are kept informed on what is happening, how to prepare and the efforts in place to assist them during an active crisis, this media function worked extremely well during our recent flood and cyclone events with media from around the globe using this facility inside QEOC to keep all informed. The other function contained with in this third level is the large conference centre which has the latest in technical infrastructure such as Tele and Video conferencing the ability to send and receive any type of information to any location via the electronic stream. The room is big enough for 50 persons to be linked in on a video conference as well as feeds to and from laptops etc.. during the recent events here in Queensland this room was used by the senior executives from the department as well as all government agencies to make plans and decisions on the best way forward.

¨  The Communications Centre has 2 levels of underground secure parking and has 2 levels of work area. The first level contains both the support and operational functions of the Queensland Ambulance Service Communication Centre. The support function is handled by the QAS Operational Support Unit (OSU), who looks after the Computer Aided Dispatch system which is ESCAD part of the Visicad Tritech family. Another area located with in the QAS area is Queensland Clinical Co-ordination (QCC) which is a joint venture between the QAS and Queensland Health (QH) their role is the co-ordination, tasking and deployment of all fixed wing and rotary aircraft across the state this includes the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) in response to both primary aero medical support or the transferring of patients from any where in the state wether it be adult, paediatric or neonatal to the major tertiary facilities around the state or here in Brisbane.

¨  Also inside the QCC is a state of the art telemedicine facility which can link to any hospital in the state and provide them with the access to specialist consultants with in QCC or any other specialist unit or consultants etc. located around the state. The QCC facility is staffed by QAS officers as well as Senior medical officers and Senior Nursing staff who have a vast wealth of knowledge in the area of medical retrieval services the centre is staffed 24 hours a day 365 days a year and is critical to ensuring that Queenslanders get the same level of care no matter their location across the state.

¨  The final area contained on this level is the QAS 000 Communications Centre it comprises of a Communication Centre Supervisor Position (CCS), Clinical Deployment Supervisor Position (CDS), Regional Operations Co-ordinator Position (ROC),4x Secondary Triage and Referral Positions (STAR), 10 Dispatcher Positions and 34 Call taker positions. A further enhancement to this area is a Major Incident Room (MIR) located at the rear or the Communications Floor which has 3 Dispatch / Call taker consoles set up for use during an MCI or any major event such as New Years Eve, Sporting events and large concerts. The centre has a high ceiling of 9 meters and a gallery in which visitors etc. to the facility can see how we conduct operations with out having to walk out onto the floor. The centre also has a large video wall which enables the Communications Centre staff to receive and disseminate information out to responding crews this information includes but is not limited to traffic camera feeds, hospital statuses, weather information as well as live news feeds etc..

¨  The second level of the Communications Centre contains the Queensland Fire and Rescue Communications Centre (QFRS). It also has the support services similar to the QAS floor these are the Communications Support Unit (CSU) who preform the same as the QAS OSU by maintaining the ESCAD system for QFRS. The Communications Centre comprises the following 2 x Communication Centre Supervisor Positions and 16 x Dispatcher/ call taker positions. The QFRS also has a large video wall which is capable of the same inputs as the QAS wall and the gallery that allows people to view the QAS operations floor is also running along side QFRS so visitors etc. can also view their operations without having to enter on to the operations floor. As with the QAS the QFRS also have a facility at the rear of their Communications Centre which preforms similar functions to the QAS MIR however this facility know as the Regional Operations Co-ordination Centre (ROCC) does preform some additional functions that are pursuant to QFRS operations at the time.

¨  The QEOC facility is an as designed 5 star plus green star rated facility some of the features used to achieve this are listed below:

¨    ¨  The use of a displacement Air condition system and effective air

circulation to voids which is extremely energy efficient. ¨  Natural materials on the outside of the building which assist the

buildings ability to respond to the different changes in temperatures and assisting in the use of energy.

¨  Through out the complex the use of natural or low energy production techniques where ever possible.

¨  Water treatment to enable the reuse of as much water as possible through out the building and the grounds.

¨  Energy efficient light fittings through out. ¨  Also contained in the facility is a large cycle centre which provides cycle

parking and amenities for the staff ¨  The use of automated blinds and external shutters to allow light to enter

the building with out excessive heat entry.

¨  The QEOC facility is an as designed 5 star plus green star rated facility some of the features used to achieve this are listed below:

¨    ¨  The use of a displacement Air condition system and effective air

circulation to voids which is extremely energy efficient. ¨  Natural materials on the outside of the building which assist the

buildings ability to respond to the different changes in temperatures and assisting in the use of energy.

¨  Through out the complex the use of natural or low energy production techniques where ever possible.

¨  Water treatment to enable the reuse of as much water as possible through out the building and the grounds.

¨  Energy efficient light fittings through out. ¨  Also contained in the facility is a large cycle centre which provides cycle

parking and amenities for the staff ¨  The use of automated blinds and external shutters to allow light to enter

the building with out excessive heat entry.

¨  With the facility using a lot of natural light this gives the staff working within it the feeling of being part of the outside world and not one of being in a fish bowl or concrete box cut off from the rest of the world. To further ensure this QEOC has been constructed with large timber decks and pergolas over head outside and large landscaped areas with native Australian flora etc. as well as an outdoor barbeque area to create an area were the staff working inside have a place were they can go and sit have a break eat, talk or just catch up with each other as well as conduct meetings, training etc. as all outdoor areas are equipped with furniture, power and WIFI to enable this level of collaboration to occur.

¨  The entire facility is also using displacement air conditioning which is new to a facility of this type here in Queensland the system cools from the floor up and enables very effective and energy efficient air conditioning as it pushes the heat and the associated heat load from equipment and staff up and out of the building this also has beneficial health benefits for our staff working inside. In conjunction with the displacement air we also have a task air system which provided additional cooling to the staff whilst at their console or workstation.

¨  Each position has two vents located on the desk which can be controlled by the person sitting there they have the ability to turn the AC on or off as well as controlling the flow and angle of the air flowing across their area. The reason for this is to again enable the movement of heat load etc. away from the workspace and out so it can be removed by the displacement air conditioning system.

¨ Questions