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Gerflor College of design and durability

Colour and design have been combined with safety and performance to deliver an unbeatable 4,500 square metres package of Gerflor flooring solutions at a leading Christian College in Melbourne.

After extensive research into the best flooring solutions for its massive new sports and recreation stadium, Oxley College decided on Gerflor Sports Flooring.  It was a decision that Principal of the 1,000 students college in Chirnside Park, Sally Broadley, is extremely delighted with.

“The purists said we needed to have sprung timber floors. We fully investigated that and after looking at all the research available to us, and talking to the Australian Institute of Sport, we were totally convinced that the top level of Gerflor Sports Flooring would result in less impact injuries to our students and community users of our facilities,” Mrs Broadley said.

Oxley College has installed 3,500 square metres of Gerflor Sports Flooring to provide five competition basketball courts that are also used for other sports, by the school and wider community.

“Choosing the right flooring was an important safety consideration. The care and safety of our students, and their wellbeing, is an extremely high priority. A school that seeks to provide best practice in educational experiences is going to make sure that the environment in which these experiences take place is entirely suitable for the safety of those students,” Mrs Broadley said.

An additional 1,000 square metres of Gerflor Brazilia and other designs have also been installed in the gymnasium, Refill Kiosk, 120 seat Café, Mezzanine level Function Centre and change rooms of Oxley College’s new facility. Here the emphasis was on maintenance and hygiene, but aesthetics also played a big role.

“I am a former teacher of Fine Arts and English so aesthetics are very important to me,” Mrs Broadley said.

“We were absolutely delighted with the incredible range of colours and designs that Gerflor offered. Because the stadium is so huge and box like, I decided to put in giant sweeping curves of brilliant colour. We’ve coved the Gerflor surfaces around the pillars in the sports café, which looks terrific and makes for ease of cleaning. In the multi-purpose area up on the Mezzanine I’ve used a grid inspired by the French abstract artist, Piet Mondrian to add interest and make it easier to align desks or cue dancers where to stand,” Mrs Broadley said.

“We have had the health authorities come and look at the Refill Kiosk and they said the flooring treatment we have used is a model for what should happen in food preparation areas,” Mrs Broadley said.

“We are totally delighted with the facility. We have waited a long time - since the school was founded in 1979, to have an undercover facility for our sports and physical education programs. It is a valued asset not only for the school but the local community and sporting organisations that are also making full use of it.”