Cape Bridgewater, located on the southwest coast of Victoria beyond Warrnambool and the Great Ocean Road, is a quiet town with tourist attractions that include wildlife, beautiful beaches, and scenery. Visiting this town in early 2025 gave a glimpse of Cape Bridgewater’s Infrastructure upgrade, at the time, Stage 2 had been completed.
Cape Bridgewaters Master Plan Infrastructure Upgrade included revetment along the beach to prevent future erosion, a viewing platform and a boardwalk including accessibility ramps, and landscaping and footpaths that linked new carparks and barbecue facilities with the town’s foreshore amenities. Street furniture was supplied by Draffin and included an array of seats, benches tables and bin surrounds. At the time of the visit, this furniture had been in situ for over a year.
Materials
The Cape Bridgewater foreshore is notorious for salty offshore weather. Hard wearing materials were paramount for this project. All street furniture specified for the project used marine grade 316 stainless steel, and electropolished for further corrosion protection, while grade 1 spotted gum timber is protected with Intergrain Ultradeck. It is recommended that the timbers are recoated every 12 months to continue protection to extend the life of the timber.
At the time of the photos, it appears the furniture is due for routine maintenance.
Airlie Suite Furniture
The project used Airlie furniture along the boardwalk, with the majority placed closer to the boardwalk cafe. Improved accessibility was a key focus in this upgrade, so the furniture had to meet Glenelg Shire Council’s DDA requirements.
The Airlie Table Settings outside the cafe all included a shorter bench on one side, providing wheelchair accessibility. The shorter bench is 600mm long and placed on one end of the table providing over a metre of table access for a wheelchair.
The Airlie Suite enjoys two mounting styles: A freestanding style flat bar frame, and post mount style frames like the ones shown here. Post mount frames provide easier access for maintenance and cleaning, making them particularly easy to sweep or mow around.
Airlie Seats are sprinkled across the entire foreshore. Again, the project called for post mount bolt down frames made in marine grade 316 stainless steel and electropolished for extra corrosion protection.
Electropolishing: a chemical process that cleans contaminants off and polishes stainless steel. Microscopically, the polished surface is smoother and therefore less likely to hold on to dirt and corrosive elements that would start the corrosion process. This combined with the anti-corrosive properties of stainless steel makes the combination the optimal material for use in coastal installations.
Superior corrosion protection starts with good stainless-steel materials that have minimal impurities. Draffin’s knowledge of stainless steel is backed by Australian Stainless Steel Development Association (ASSDA). For more information about Stainless Steel, see Draffin’s Stainless Steel Guide.
900 Series Bin Surrounds
Another standard Draffin Street Furniture product, the 900 Series Bin Surround features battened panels and a variety of configurable covers. A combination of flat and low pyramid covers was specified for the location, source separating landfill from recycled waste. The same electropolished 316 stainless steel and spotted gum are used in their construction. The covers are mirror polished making them easy to clean, and the polishing process further extends the already bolstered anti-corrosion protection of this material.
What a stunning location! And a fantastic looking finished product. Worth a visit if you are in the area.
All Draffin Street Furniture products in this project adhere to standard specification selections. Glenelg Shire Council’s choice to use standard spec products underscores the style, quality, and reliability of Draffin Street Furniture’s standard range.
Spec your furniture and request a quote directly from the website or contact our friendly and knowledgeable sales team today!
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