Zedz Consultants

Our work

Selected projects

Nine of more than forty-seven. Each one is here because it ran into something — a refused application, a flood instrument imposed mid-assessment, a planned road corridor through the middle of the site, ground too soft to build on. The straightforward jobs aren't listed. The problems are where you can see how we work.

Service
Sector

01
Client
Private developer, Willawong
Location
Willawong, QLD
Service
Development management, approvals, finance and construction management
Status
Under construction and presales
Years
2020–
Land AcquisitionDevelopment ManagementDevelopment ApprovalsFunding & FinanceProject Management

Residential subdivision, Willawong — acquisition to settlement

A subdivision we secured on an option and held through a three-year court appeal — acquisition, approval, finance, construction and sales, one team across six years.

The challenge

The site carried heavy council and State ecological constraints, and council refused the application. The appeal ran three years. An option has an expiry date, and three years of argument can outlast the instrument holding the land — if it lapses, the site goes back to the market and the approval work goes with it. Ecology and land development are usually argued as opposites, and on that framing this site loses.

What we did

We secured the site on an option before the approvals were sought, giving the client control of the land without committing the capital, and we held that position for six years. As the appeal ran, we renegotiated and extended the option twice, so the site was never at risk while the argument continued. In the Planning and Environment Court we set the position, instructed and directed the planning and legal specialists, and held the case together across three years, on the argument that ecological protection and land development were not in opposition but could be balanced in the development footprint. We won. We obtained operational works approval in 2025, the land settled on the strength of it, and we carried the project on through presales, finance and construction management.

Outcome

Appeal upheld in the Planning and Environment Court in 2024. Operational works approved and the land settled in 2025, finance obtained in 2026, with construction underway. The site was never lost — secured on option in 2020, held through a three-year appeal, delivered to construction six years later.

Project phases

  1. Option secured over the site2020Complete
  2. Development application2021Lodged
  3. Appeal — Planning and Environment Court2022–2024Won

    Three years arguing for a balanced development outcome between ecology and land development. Option renegotiated and extended twice during the appeal.

  4. Operational works approval and settlement2025Complete
  5. Presales coordination2025–In progress
  6. Finance2026Obtained
  7. Construction management2026–Underway
02
Client
Community organisation, Browns Plains
Location
Browns Plains, QLD
Service
Site acquisition and development approvals
Status
Completed
Years
2023–2025
Land AcquisitionDevelopment Approvals

Community facility, Browns Plains

A community organisation had spent ten years looking for land. We found the site — then won a community use approval on ground carrying four separate constraints.

The challenge

The land carried a State koala overlay, a zoning conflict, traffic constraints, and a road corridor fixed on council's general planning layout running straight through it. That alignment also ran through an existing sewer storage, and council's position was that the road be built on the designated alignment with the storage relocated clear of it, at the applicant's cost. Any one of these is enough to stop a community use approval. Together they are the reason a site like this sits undeveloped for years.

What we did

We managed the community use application end to end — setting the strategy, engaging and directing the specialists each constraint needed, and negotiating with council rather than designing around the problem. On the road and the storage we proposed the reverse of what was asked: move the alignment, not the infrastructure. A council-designated alignment is normally treated as immovable, but shifting it resolved both problems at once — the road fitted the site, the storage stayed where it was, and the relocation cost disappeared. The case was built on merits that served the authority as much as the client, including keeping development clear of core koala habitat and the waterway corridor. Alongside it we resolved the zoning conflict and the traffic requirements, so every constraint arrived at the assessment already answered.

Outcome

Development approval granted by Logan City Council in August 2025. After a decade of searching, the client had the land and the approval they wanted.

03
Client
Independent school, Logan Reserve
Location
Logan Reserve, QLD
Service
Approvals, funding, hydraulic design and client-side delivery
Status
Completed
Years
2022–2026
Development ApprovalsFunding & FinanceHydraulic EngineeringProject Management

School building, Logan Reserve — concept to funding acquittal

A new school building taken from first concept through a contested approval, funding, a nine-discipline design set, construction and acquittal — five years, one team.

The challenge

A flood Temporary Local Planning Instrument constrained the site during assessment. Beyond the approval, the building had to be funded before it could be built, and capital grant funding carries reporting, certification and acquittal obligations that run for years after practical completion. Then nine design disciplines had to converge on a single set of documents a builder could price and construct without a queue of requests for information — a clash discovered on site costs many times what the same clash costs on paper.

What we did

We held the project from concept to acquittal. We carried the development approval through the flood constraints, secured the Block Grant Authority funding, and coordinated nine disciplines — architectural, structural, civil, geotechnical, hydraulic, mechanical, electrical, fire and energy efficiency (Section J) — to a construction-ready set, designing the hydraulic and fire services ourselves. We then ran the tender and acted as the client's representative through construction to handover, with client-side review of progress claims and variations, and closed out the funding acquittal afterwards.

Outcome

Approved, funded, designed, built and handed over across five years, with the funding acquittal completed in 2026.

Project phases

  1. Concept development2022Complete
  2. Development approval2023Approved

    Overcoming flood TLPI constraints on the site.

  3. Block Grant funding secured2023Secured
  4. Detailed design and coordination2024Complete

    Nine disciplines brought to a construction-ready set; hydraulic and fire designed in-house.

  5. Construction2025Complete

    Tender, then client's representative through construction to handover.

  6. Funding acquittal2026Complete
04
Client
Transport and logistics operator
Location
Loganholme, QLD
Service
Development approvals and full project management
Status
Approved on appeal; in detailed design
Years
2022–
Development ApprovalsProject Management

Warehouse development, Loganholme

A warehouse refused when a flood planning instrument changed the rules mid-assessment — overturned in the Planning and Environment Court.

The challenge

A Temporary Local Planning Instrument for flooding came over the site while the application was being assessed. A TLPI changes the rules applying to a development mid-assessment, and this one prohibited development in the high flood risk area. Council refused the material change of use in September 2024 on that basis. The application complied with everything else — the flood classification alone defeated it.

What we did

We had already positioned the application to withstand scrutiny: the development footprint sited outside the ecological area, the buildings elevated above flood level. That left a single question — whether “high risk” was the right measure of the actual hazard on this site. We worked with the flood consultants on it. The classification is driven by flood height, and here the velocity is close to zero; they prepared the flood analysis and the flood emergency management plan, and we built the case around it, put it to council, and ran it through the Planning and Environment Court to a consent position. We continue to manage the project through delivery.

Outcome

Refusal set aside and the development approved by consent in the Planning and Environment Court, August 2025. The project is now in detailed design.

05
Client
Independent school trust, Durack
Location
Durack, QLD
Service
Funding, hydraulic design and client-side delivery
Status
Completed
Years
2023–2025
Funding & FinanceHydraulic EngineeringProject Management

Childcare centre, Durack

A childcare centre and associated civil works on an operating school campus — funded, designed and delivered on schedule and on budget.

The challenge

A childcare centre is a fixed-date business. It cannot open late, so schedule and budget were not preferences but conditions — and the bank funding behind it attached its own reporting and drawdown requirements to every stage of construction. All of it happened on a campus that stayed open and occupied throughout.

What we did

We arranged the funding, designed the hydraulic services, and ran the project as the client's representative from tender through construction to handover — reviewing progress claims and variations on the client's behalf, managing the lender's requirements alongside the construction programme rather than behind it, and sequencing works so the campus kept operating.

Outcome

Childcare centre and civil works completed and handed over in 2025, on schedule and on budget, with the operation and maintenance manual issued.

06
Client
Private landowner, Willawong
Location
Willawong, QLD
Service
Development approvals and project management
Status
Completed
Years
2023–2024
Development ApprovalsProject Management

House site beside a closed landfill, Willawong

A house approval beside a closed council landfill, where the gas testing council asked for was replaced by data council already held.

The challenge

The site adjoins a closed council landfill and sits inside the mapped landfill gas risk assessment zone, the area where council can require a gas risk assessment before approving anything habitable. Council asked for full intrusive testing of the site. That is a significant cost on a single dwelling, and the kind of requirement an applicant usually just pays, because the alternative is no approval.

What we did

We did not accept that the testing had to be done. Council itself held years of landfill gas monitoring from bores immediately adjacent to the site — twelve monitoring events across 2016–17 and quarterly data from 2021. We engaged a DESI-approved Suitably Qualified Person for contaminated land to obtain that data through a Right to Information request and review it independently, rather than drill new holes to generate it again. The monitoring returned a very low risk classification, recorded at points closer to the landfill than the site itself, so the readings were conservative. That turned a testing problem into a design problem: the house floor was lifted 980 mm above ground to leave a ventilated void acting as a gas venting layer, and the shed was detailed with sealed slab joints, no slab penetrations, side-entry services open to atmosphere, and extractors for air exchange. The reviewer endorsed the design and council approved it.

Outcome

Development approval granted by Brisbane City Council in September 2024, with no intrusive site testing required and the gas risk managed by design.

07
Client
Independent school, Durack
Location
Durack, QLD
Service
Funding and client-side delivery
Status
In progress
Years
2025–
Funding & FinanceProject Management

Campus road works and site services, Durack

Campus roads and services where a soft spot found mid-works threatened a cost in the millions — resolved by testing the risk instead of paying for it.

The challenge

Partway through the works a significant soft spot was found in the middle of the site. The geotechnical engineer's recommendation was complete removal and replacement, at a cost running into the millions. It is the kind of recommendation that gets paid, because the alternative looks like carrying an unknown risk under a finished road.

What we did

We put an alternative to the team: a rock mattress and lime stabilisation to cut the volume of soft material removed, then all pavement layers built and chip sealed rather than asphalted. That kept the road trafficable while we watched it. We gave it six months to observe settlement. Had significant settlement appeared, only the affected area needed to come out — and with no asphalt to saw and relay, that repair would have cost a fraction. The approach turned a certain, immediate expense into a monitored risk with a cheap remedy.

Outcome

No significant settlement occurred. The pavement was asphalted and the works completed, without the full removal and replacement the original recommendation called for. Block Grant Authority funding was secured for the project.

08
Client
Private landowners, Willawong
Location
Willawong, QLD
Service
Development approvals
Status
Approved
Years
2023–2026
Development Approvals

Three residential sites, Willawong — approvals through the overlays

Three sites carrying heavy ecological and flood overlays, all taken from concept design to residential development approval.

The challenge

The sites sit under significant planning overlays — ecological values across the land and flood constraints over it. Overlays of that weight usually do one of two things to a development application: stop it, or force a scheme so compromised the site is no longer worth developing. Council assesses each overlay on its own terms, so a proposal has to answer all of them at once or it answers none of them.

What we did

We resolved both constraints by design rather than by argument. On ecology, a development footprint that delivers a balanced outcome between ecological protection and development yield. On flood, an elevated design that gives the dwellings flood immunity — so immunity is demonstrated by the building, not negotiated against the mapping. We set that strategy, directed the consultant team to it, and carried the applications through to approval.

Outcome

Residential development approvals obtained at all three sites.

Project phases

  1. First site — concept design and DA2025–2026Approved
  2. Two adjoining sites — concept design and DA2023–2026Approved
09
Client
Independent school trust, Durack
Location
Durack, QLD
Service
Funding, hydraulic design and client-side delivery
Status
Completed
Years
2023–2025
Funding & FinanceHydraulic EngineeringProject Management

School building with hospitality kitchen, Durack

A new school building with hospitality kitchen and classrooms — funding secured, hydraulics designed, delivery managed through to handover.

The challenge

The building had to be paid for before it could be built, and capital grant funding carries reporting, certification and acquittal obligations on top of ordinary construction risk. It also had to house a hospitality kitchen alongside general classrooms — a commercial kitchen places demands on hydraulic services that a teaching building is not otherwise designed to carry.

What we did

We secured the Block Grant Authority capital funding, designed the hydraulic services, and acted as the client's representative from tender through construction to handover, with client-side review of progress claims and variations. Funding case, services design and delivery sat with one team, so the acquittal and certification evidence was assembled as the work proceeded rather than reconstructed at the end.

Outcome

Completed and handed over across 2024–2025, with connection certificate and operation and maintenance manual issued.

Facing something similar?

Most of these looked straightforward until they weren't. If yours has hit a constraint, it is worth a conversation.

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