BUILT BY NATURE PRIZE: MARYBOROUGH

HYNE’S TIMBERS LET THE DESIGN SING.

Some traditional fire station features remain: here a slide for getting between floors quickly.

The Fire and Rescue Station was assembled in just two weeks after fabrication.

Last week, Enews began sharing some of our favourites from the 2025 Built By Nature Prize. This week, our pick is close to home, the prosaically named but visually delightful Queensland Fire and Emergency Services North Coast Regional Headquarters and Maryborough Fire and Rescue Station.

The building added three new timber buildings to the existing 1950s Art Deco fire station, providing a home for the Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service as well as the regional QFES outpost.

Designed by Baber Studio and built by Hutchinson Builders in active partnership with Hyne Timber and the Queensland Government, the refurbishment uses locally produced glulam (GLT) from Hyne and CLT from sister company XLam.

The judging notes say: “The retained heritage bays provide a public museum and community venue, while new CLT and GLT structures host regional operations, training, and response facilities.

“Locally sourced, certified timber, processed and manufactured by Hyne and XLAM, was central to the design, reducing embodied carbon by over 500 tonnes compared to concrete. Prefabricated panels cut waste, improved efficiency, and enabled rapid erection in just two weeks. The project stores carbon, supports Queensland’s timber economy, and shows that mass timber can effectively deliver complex public infrastructure initiatives.”

As well as the embodied carbon, the choice of construction materials and methods saved 1742 tonnes of carbon on the project in total. It used 500m3 of locally grown pine, which was regrown in 38 minutes on Hyne’s plantations.
Because so much of the build was prefabricated offsite, the disruption of the build was minimised and the speed of the build maximised: both vital for important urban services.

But, as you can see from the images, the end result is every bit as beautiful as the original building, while being highly practical and – as you would expect for a home for our treasured fireys – extremely fire resistant.

 

MAIN PIC: The new centre, which houses the operational areas, backs onto the old fire station. All images: All images: copyright Christopher Frederick Jones, used with permission. www.cfjphoto.com.au