Bendigo Kangan Institute Fire Detection & Evacuation Upgrade
Completed Project — Fire Detection & Evacuation Upgrade
Two Campuses, One In-House Team — And A System That Finally Matched What The Client Asked For.
Client: Bendigo Kangan Institute | Sites: Kangan Institute, Broadmeadows (Building L) and Charleston Road Campus, East Bendigo (Buildings C, ET & S)
Scope: New FDAS and EWIS at Broadmeadows; site-wide FDAS and occupant warning upgrade at East Bendigo onto a common Ampac platform, with site-wide networking completed while the campus was already mobilised
Role: Head contractor — all fire detection and evacuation works self-delivered in house, no subcontractors
Key outcome: Networkable, staged-evacuation-ready systems across both campuses, delivered without a cost blowout — and around TAFE teaching schedules
The Challenge
Bendigo Kangan Institute needed its fire detection and evacuation systems brought up to standard across two campuses — one in Melbourne’s north, one in regional Victoria.
At Broadmeadows, Building L required an entirely new Fire Detection and Alarm System (FDAS) and Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System (EWIS), with the appointed contractor taking on head contractor responsibility and conducting a detailed site investigation to determine exactly what equipment and interfaces the upgrade required.
At the Charleston Road Campus in East Bendigo, Building C was served by an existing FDAS and Occupant Warning System, while Buildings ET and S had no fire detection or occupant warning at all. The Institute’s objective was a common, site-wide fire detection system on a single platform — their preferred platform being the Ampac FireFinder Plus — so the equipment could be networked in future and would be simpler to maintain and service.
Two things made the project harder than a standard upgrade:
Regional delivery. Work in regional Victoria is often subcontracted out by metropolitan contractors — which is exactly where quality control tends to slip, because the company that won the job isn’t the company doing the work.
A scope that had drifted. The project ran across stages with different fire consultants. What the Institute had originally asked for at Stage 1 — a networked system capable of staged evacuation — was not what the Stage 2 scope was going to deliver. Somewhere between consultants, the intent had been lost.
Why The Institute Chose CED
We do the fire works ourselves. CED self-delivered every element of the fire detection and evacuation works in house, without subcontracting the regional works. Our own technicians travelled and worked away from home at different stages of the project. That means one team, one standard, and one company accountable for the quality — not a chain of subcontractors 150 kilometres from the office.
For a client with sites in both metropolitan and regional Victoria, that consistency was the deciding factor.
Getting The Client The System They Actually Asked For
The most valuable thing we did on this project wasn’t installation — it was speaking up.
Reviewing the Stage 2 scope against what the Institute had originally wanted, it was clear the two didn’t match. The client wanted staged evacuation on a networked system; the scope in front of us wouldn’t get them there.
Rather than simply build to the drawings, we:
- Investigated on site to establish what was actually installed and what the existing infrastructure could support
- Identified the gap between the Stage 2 scope and the Institute’s original intent
- Recommended completing the site-wide networking at Bendigo now, rather than deferring it to a future stage — coordinating our fire system works with the underground conduit and pit installation carried out by others while the campus was already opened up
- Sought and received approval from the Stage 2 fire consultants before proceeding
The result: the Institute ends up with the networked, staged-evacuation system they asked for in the first place — and future stages become simpler and cheaper, because the groundwork is already in.
What We Delivered
Broadmeadows, Building L
- New Fire Detection and Alarm System (FDAS)
- New Ampac EvacuElite EWIS, selected to future-proof the site and allow networking across future stages
- Integration of the existing WIP phone system into the main EWIS panel
- Head contractor role, including detailed site investigation and all equipment necessary for satisfactory operation, control, maintenance and safety — including all statutory OH&S requirements
Charleston Road Campus, East Bendigo
- FDAS upgrade to Building C
- New fire detection and occupant warning to Buildings ET and S, which previously had none
- All equipment brought onto the Institute’s preferred Ampac FireFinder Plus platform, giving a common site-wide system that’s simpler to maintain and service
- Site-wide network connection between buildings, delivered over underground conduits and pits installed across the campus by others. Bringing this forward sat outside the original scope — we recommended it be done while the campus was already opened up, so the Institute got the networked system it wanted without having to dig the site up again in a future stage
A CED technician testing and commissioning one of the new fire indicator panels on site at Bendigo Kangan Institute.
Working Around A Working Campus
Both campuses are active teaching environments. We planned works around TAFE terms, holiday periods and teaching schedules to keep disruption to students and staff to a minimum — the same approach we take on every occupied site.
Why It Matters
Fire upgrades on multi-campus, multi-stage projects carry three risks: inconsistent quality when regional work gets subcontracted out, scope drifting between consultants across stages, and paying twice because early stages weren’t built with later ones in mind.
Bendigo Kangan Institute addresses all three — fire works self-delivered by our own team across both campuses, scope corrected back to the client’s original intent with consultant approval, and the networking brought forward so the campus only had to be opened up once.
Multi-Site Or Staged Fire Upgrade Coming Up?
We self-deliver across metropolitan and regional Victoria — and we’ll tell you if the scope in front of you won’t get you what you actually want.