Location
Yarrambat, Victoria
Client
Save A Dog Scheme Inc.
Value
$6 Million (total project)
Timeframe
2021-2025
Contractor
TBC
Consultant team
Structural & Civil Engineer – Adams Consulting Engineers
Services Engineer – BRT Consulting Engineers
Planning Consultant – Asplan Town Planning
Quantity Surveyor – Prowse Quantity Surveyors
Land Surveyor – Peter Rickard and Associates
Acoustic Engineer – Renzo Tonin & Associates
Building Surveyor – GE Building Surveyors
Returning to a project you have carefully masterplanned — watching it evolve from dilapidated buildings into a facility recognised as best practice — is one of the most rewarding aspects of long-term client relationships. Our continued work with Save A Dog Scheme Inc. (SADS) at Yarrambat is a case in point.
Following the successful completion of Stage 1 in October 2020, we progressed into the subsequent stages of this comprehensive redevelopment, working closely with SADS President Pamela Weaver, the Executive, and facility operators throughout.
The staging sequence was designed to maintain continuous shelter operations — critical for an organisation entirely reliant on its facility to fulfil its mission of rehoming companion animals.
The project’s complexities extended well beyond animal accommodation. Onerous town planning conditions, particularly acoustic management requiring a 6-metre acoustic fence, had to be reconciled with a sloping site complicated by varying floor levels, inadequate stormwater and sewage drainage, poor ventilation, and security issues. These were not challenges to be solved in isolation; each decision carried implications for subsequent stages, demanding a masterplan that was both rigorous and adaptable.
The progressive implementation delivers state-of-the-art animal accommodation including 136 dog pens and 40 cat pens, alongside isolation, quarantine and veterinary facilities, adoption rooms, offices, staff amenities and exercise yards. The rural setting allows generous outdoor exercise areas that support animal enrichment and wellbeing. Our design prioritises enhanced safety and efficiency for staff alongside improved living environments for resident animals.
When representatives from Townsville City Council visited the facility, they specifically cited SADS as exemplifying best practice for rural shelter environments. This validation from peers in the sector confirms what we have long believed: that thoughtful, operations-first design, delivered progressively within constrained budgets, can achieve outcomes that rival those of far more generously funded projects.
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