Build for Living. Report.

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In the design of bricks and concrete masonry, the focus is very much on lighter-weight products, an example being Austral Bricks® Boxer Lite™ clay bricks and blocks that, thanks to a revolutionary new core hole design, weigh up to 22 percent less than conventional units and use 20 percent less raw material and require commensurately less energy in manufacture. Boxer Lite™ bricks and blocks are also designed for manufacture using recycled clay and water.

Austral Bricks® Everyday Life clay bricks are a range of attractive, lightweight face bricks developed to complement the Boxer Lite™ bricks. Increasing the core hole percentage resulted in a similar reduction in weight, material and energy use to that of the Boxer Lite™ series.

Austral Masonry’s® Port Kembla NSW plants manufacture Alphalite® concrete masonry units which have a high, 85 percent, recycled content including waste by products of the local steel industry. These grey blocks, the workhorse of the commercial building industry, are light weight while retaining excellent loadbearing capacity. They also achieve a high fire rating and have excellent sound attenuation and thermal characteristics.

Elimination of products with excessive waste

We are currently investigating products that produce excessive waste and researching ways in which these can be reduced.