80 Ann Street is a planted tower. The gardens are built into the elevation rather than sitting beside the building, on terraces that run up the facade, and the only sensible way to reach most of them is on rope.

That changes what maintenance means. A garden at ground level gets walked past every day and someone notices when it goes over. These ones are read from the street and from the floors above, and nobody is standing next to them, so they need a crew who can get to them on a schedule rather than when somebody complains.

At a glance

Location

Brisbane CBD

Services

Garden maintenance, height safety inspection

Access

Rope access, rigged from the roof

Frequency

Gardens monthly, anchors certified each year

Photos

On site

Abseil Pro technician on rope beside the flowering planters at 80 Ann Street Brisbane with the street far below — On the rope beside the flowering planters.

Looking down on a rope access technician working a planter at 80 Ann Street with green waste bagged beside him — Working a planter, bag hanging off the rope.

80 Ann Street seen from the Brisbane CBD with planting running across the terraces — The tower from the street, planting on every terrace.

Two Abseil Pro technicians on ropes at 80 Ann Street with the City Hall clock tower behind them — Two on rope, City Hall behind.

Technician on rope reaching into the planting at 80 Ann Street with Ann Street directly below — Into the canopy, Ann Street directly below.

Abseil Pro technician cutting back a mat of pigface hanging over the terrace edge at 80 Ann Street — Pigface cut back off the terrace edge.

Rope access technician hanging clear of the soffit at 80 Ann Street with a full green waste bag, City Hall below — Out under the soffit with a full bag, City Hall below.

Two Abseil Pro technicians at the top of 80 Ann Street with the Brisbane CBD behind them — Two of the crew at the top, CBD behind.

Rope access technician hauling a bag of green waste up past the glass at 80 Ann Street — Green waste hauled up rather than dropped.

Technician bagging prunings in a planter bed at 80 Ann Street — Every prune bagged on the terrace it came off.

Abseil Pro technician on a terrace at 80 Ann Street lowering a cut limb down the face of the building — A cut limb lowered down the face rather than dropped.

Abseil Pro technician on rope cutting back the succulent curtain at 80 Ann Street with a full green waste bag — In the succulent curtain, bag filling up.

Beneficial insect release sachet hung in a shrub on a planted terrace at 80 Ann Street — Beneficial insects released instead of spraying.

Building manager watching through the glass as Abseil Pro technicians prune a planted terrace at 80 Ann Street — The building manager watching a terrace get cut back.

Abseil Pro signage and bunting cordoning the ground level gardens at 80 Ann Street at dusk — Ground level cordoned under every live drop.

Planted terraces stepping down the 80 Ann Street facade with a rope access technician working between them — Planting built into the elevation, technician between levels.

The gardens

Garden maintenance on a facade

A planted facade fails quietly. Climbers get away over a few weeks, leaf litter fills the planters and blocks the drainage, and by the time it is obvious from the street a trim has turned into a rebuild. A monthly round keeps it at a trim.

On every round

Hedge back the climbers on every planter level, and anything reaching across the glass

Cut growth off the structure before it works into joints and sealant

Clear leaf litter and debris out of the planters and off the ledges so the drainage keeps working

Bag green waste on the rope rather than dropping it, and take every bag off site

Flag what a trim will not fix, whether that is drainage, dead stock or a planter that needs replanting

How a round runs

Rounds land monthly, so the planting never gets more than a few weeks ahead of the crew. A horticulturist and a qualified arborist are on the team, so what gets cut is a decision rather than a tidy up.

A report goes out at the end of every day on site, with photos of what was done and anything worth knowing about. Nobody has to go up on the roof to see what happened up there.

Height safety

The anchors that make all of it possible

Every drop on this building hangs off the roof anchor system, so it has to be in certification before anyone goes over the edge. We inspect and certify it each year.

What the inspection covers

Every anchor, static line and davit socket on the roof, inspected to AS/NZS 1891.4

Post installed anchors pull tested to 7.5 kN, everything else a visual inspection

A certificate and an asset register listing what passed, what failed and where each asset sits

Anything that fails tagged out on the spot so nobody can use it, and rectification quoted separately

Done while we are already here

The inspection runs on a morning the crew is rigging anyway. That is the cheapest time to have someone competent on the roof, and it means the certificate is renewed before it lapses rather than after somebody notices.

It also means the people who certify the system are the people who use it. Nobody signs off an anchor they would not hang off themselves.

How we get to it

Rigged from the roof

The job is rigged from the roof. Keys signed out from management, gear carried up, then down the elevation on rope. It keeps the work off the ground and out of the way of everyone using the building.

Getting to the planters

Planting set into the facade means a technician has to stop partway down and work, not just pass through. Drops are rigged so the crew can hold position at each planter level, cut it back, bag what comes off and keep moving.

Green waste comes down with the crew rather than going over the edge, and roof access doors are closed and secured behind them every time.

How we leave it

Tools tethered, and green waste bagged on the rope rather than dropped

Bags kept out of the way during the round and taken off site at the end of it

Keys and passes back to management before anyone leaves

Equipment, bollards and signage packed away where management has asked for it

Every access door locked and the building manager spoken to before the crew vacates

Photos uploaded the same day, so the record exists whether or not anyone asks for it

Challenges

What makes this one awkward

None of it is hard on its own. It is awkward because it has to happen every month, on a working building, without anything landing below.

The planting sits on the elevation rather than at floor level, so a technician cannot step out and reach it. Each drop is planned around where the beds actually are, and the rigging lets someone hold position and work rather than just descend.

Everything underneath is glass and ground level, so nothing comes off the building. Green waste is bagged on the rope and carried down. And because the tower is occupied, drops run elevation by elevation around whatever else is happening that day.

Outcome

What the building gets

The planting stays looking deliberate rather than overgrown, which matters more here than it would on a plain facade, because at 80 Ann Street the greenery is a good part of the face of the building. A monthly round means it never reaches the point where a trim turns into a replant.

Rigging a tower is most of the cost of working on it, so running the gardens and the anchor certification off the same ropes costs the building less than bringing two contractors in to rig twice. One crew who know the building, one point of contact. The quieter benefit is the paper trail: every visit leaves a report and dated photos of parts of the building nobody can see from the ground, so when the committee asks what has been done up there, the answer is already written down.