PARTNERING WITH JCU CYCLONE TESTING STATION

investigations, wind driven debris, fatigue of cladding, and full scale house testing.

Cyclone Testing Station has a proven track record of working with government, industry and communities to follow its research objectives and provide independent expert advice to stakeholders in Australia and internationally. Examples of the capabilities of the Cyclone Testing Station include:

• Undertake material testing service using in-house expertise and fully equipped facility for industry, United Nations agencies, insurance bodies and building regulatory authorities. Current testing facilities, including: windborne debris testing, airbox testing, full scale house testing, wind tunnel testing, and structural testing laboratories.

• Undertake wind engineering research into the performance of houses and other buildings in response to cyclones and other severe wind events. This knowledge is used to improve building regulations and standards to ensure that buildings are safe. Research themes have included vulnerability of housing to windstorms, boundary layer wind tunnel, post disaster damage

• Educate the building community and homeowners to improve the performance of houses, which has included working on key projects with academic and industry partners. A recent standout example was the Suncorp One House project. Collaborating over many months, a team comprising Suncorp Insurance, JCU Cyclone Testing Station, CSIRO, and Room 11 combined existing research on home resilience and respective scientific expertise to explore what resilient features would make a home safe, liveable and easy to maintain – while remaining comparative to the cost of any standard architecturally designed home built today.

• Translation of Australian standards and knowledge to the needs of South Pacific Island nations and their built environment including socio-economic factors impacting design, construction and recovery post events. Recent examples include work for the World Bank in collaboration with the Fijian government and local insurance companies. The project entailed an assessment and segmentation of Fijian housing stock to produce vulnerability curves for use by the risk industry in developing bespoke insurance products suitable for the socioeconomic environment of Fiji. - In collaboration with Geoscience Australia, developed a state-ofthe-art vulnerability modelling software, VAWS (Vulnerability and Adaptation to Wind Simulation). This software has been used to provide outputs to the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre as well as Emergency Service organisations.

• Successful pilot and ongoing delivery of government funded projects, including the North Queensland Strata Title Inspection Program funded by the Australian Government and administered by the Queensland Government. The voluntary program provides inspections and assessments for strata properties in north Queensland within 100km of the coast and provides reports to the body corporate on their cyclone resilience and recommended actions to improve resilience. The pilot concluded in July 2021, with funding expanded to Northern Australia.