Ten years of Primus Line ‘Down Under’: a bold decision has paid off

2014 was the year of firsts for Primus Line in Australia: the first appearance at the ‘OzWater’ trade show with an Australian partner, the certification of the first local installation companies – with some of whom the collaboration continues to this day – and the discussion of the first project in Australia, which was put to tender in 2015 and realised in 2016: Primus Line^® prevailed over HDPE relining in the rehabilitation of a 460 metre long leaking uPVC drinking water pipe in Lismore, NSW. The reason for this was that the cross-section after the rehabilitation with Primus Line^® was significantly larger than with HDPE and it was possible to increase the pressure to 16 bar/1,600 kpa.

At the time, Australia was managed from the German headquarters. Andreas Gross toured the Australian metropolises of Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane several times a year for three weeks at a time to raise awareness of Primus Line^® Rehab among network operators. This also led him to Urban Utilities, one of Australia’s largest water suppliers, in 2014. Their interest in the innovative product was so great that in the same year, a delegation visited IFAT – the world's leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management – in Munich and a nearby construction site to qualify and evaluate Primus Line^® as a solution. It turned out that the flanges of the connectors had to be customised specifically for the Australian AS4087 standard, which the Primus Line engineers implemented accordingly. During these initial visits and return visits, a rehabilitation project on Ann Street in Brisbane was discussed, which was finally realised in 2020 following a trial project in 2018: The installation work took place exclusively at night to minimise the impact on residents and traffic. Urban Utilities carried out the installation itself after thorough training, with a Primus Line supervisor only on site to provide support.

The German engineer Heiko Manzke has been responsible for Australia and New Zealand since 2019. After many years at Primus Line’s headquarters in Germany, he has relocated to the east coast of Australia and is contributing his technical expertise to the network built up by his predecessor, expanding it further and acting in an advisory capacity.

In addition to many rehabilitated wastewater pressure pipes, also unusual projects such as the rehabilitation of a vertical pipe and the first 3-in-1 project implemented in Australia with Hunter Water fall in his period of activity. Projects were also realised in New Zealand and with the mine operator Rio Tinto. A milestone during the coronavirus pandemic was the partnership agreement with Interflow, one of Australia’s market leaders for water and pipework infrastructure: Interflow took Primus Line products into stock to reduce delivery times for emergency projects. The exclusive contract ended in mid-2024.

In future, Primus Line will work with regional specialists in the water sector alongside their existing installation partners, which will continue to include Interflow. The efforts to expand the use of Primus Line^® Overland Piping as a temporary, above-ground pipeline in mining are showing initial success.

• ‘ASTT Trenchless Rehabilitation Project of the Year’ 2019 for an emergency rehabilitation under Biggera Creek on the Gold Coast: Thanks to the combined material and human resources of various Primus Line installation partners, the rehabilitation was completed in just one working day.
• ‘Infrastructure Project Innovation’ at the AWA VIC Water Awards for the Mount Cole 2022 project in Victoria: This involved the rehabilitation of almost 1,400 metres of raw water pipeline in a sensitive area that is difficult to access.