Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre, Gold Coast, QLD

The Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre (Carrara Sports Precinct) is split over two sites (Carrara and Metricon) and incorporated six major projects including the new Carrara Sport & Leisure Centre (CSLC), Gold Coast Suns Elite Training and Administration Facility (GCS-ETAF), refurbishment of the existing Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium (CISS), new northern elite sport and training fields, new community grade football fields and the upgrade of the existing Metricon Stadium lighting. Games Overlay provisions were also built in to each project as a separate sub-project.

The Precinct has an expected design life span of 40 to 60 years and was built to world class sporting standards. It was the headline venue for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, hosting wrestling, badminton, weight lifting and athletics, with some 70,000 people passing through the gates each day.

The City of Gold Coast also hosted the 2017 World Badminton Federation Sudirman Cup in the CSLC and has an ongoing annual arrangement to host the Big Day Out music festival.

But the Precinct focuses on more than major events. Legacy and long term benefit to the Gold Coast were a major driver in design and functionality.

Features and Innovations:

• Sports halls are set up for four modes of ventilation; full natural ventilation, hybrid natural ventilation with fan assisted roof ventilators, full mechanical ventilation utilising smoke spill fans and dull air conditioning (chilled water cooling)
• Sports hall facades and roof that incorporate translucent panelling to allow natural daylight when possible
• Player amenities incorporate energy efficient point of use instantaneous hot water, activated only when required. Solar hot water with gas backup to permanently occupied spaces
• Home for the Gold Coast Suns with a state of the art administration and training facility including fully equipped gymnasium, altitude room and rehabilitation pool
• Energy metering for all electrical, central chilled water and gas usage
• All lifts are Queensland Ambulance Service and BCA stretcher compliant
• The new CSLC and all critical services are elevated above the Q100 food plane (substation, switch rooms, communications rooms, mechanical plantrooms)
• Undergrounding of overhead HV in front of the neighbouring Westpac rescue helicopter base to allow safer pilot visibility and landing and broaden the fight paths
• Full acoustics and pole mounted sports lighting CiD studies undertaken to ensure minimal impact on neighbouring residential properties
• Sports hall distribution boards incorporate plug-in type connection points for bump-in generators during event modes.