Kaiki Trail Penguin Rookery
The KangaTrak Boardwalk, Bridges, Jetty and Promenade Systems are the new generation of the original Ecoform boardwalk that was invented in South Australia by Franek Savarton, a Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner, in 1996.
The challenge was to design a highly durable boardwalk for the National Park Service on Granite Island 90 kilometres south of Adelaide. The boardwalk was part of the Kaiki Trail. This needed to allow visitors to traverse over and through a Penguin Rookery and respect the local Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Community Elders' request for any installation not to intrude into the ground surface.
Franek’s experience with Sydney coastal landscapes as a Building Scientist and Architect convinced him that a boardwalk using quality controlled precast concrete was the best material to use to achieve a long-life durable boardwalk. As concrete has dead load and therefore could be installed directly on ground, concrete would also avoid environmental problems typical to timber boardwalks. The precast components avoided the onsite problems of using in situ wet concrete.
The Rocla Era as "Permatrak"
After establishing the Ecoform boardwalk into Victoria and South Australia as a fully modular precast system, Franek licensed the patented System to Rocla, who renamed the Ecoform product as PermaTrak in 1998 for the Australian market. Rocla manufactured and sold the basic system up until 2018.
The International "PermaTrak"
The boardwalk system was further developed by Franek internationally also under the brand name of PermaTrak in The United Arab Emirates (with Consent LLC in 1998), then in the USA in 2009 with PermaTrak North America.
For North American projects visit the PermaTrak website.
Franek committed to ongoing research & development to progress the initial humble 2 metre wide Kaiki Boardwalk to become a high profile international product in the Middle East and USA.
With his Adelaide based Engineers (Magryn Engineers) he has improved the products structural performance and sizes to suit vehicle loads; in the Middle East he delivered quality architectural finishes (honed & timber look) for high profile urban promenades in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Franek has designed new systems suited to high profile tourist /educational applications in wetlands, coastal mangrove sites, and for high profile on-ground applications.
Franek continues to pursue new markets for PermaTrak and KangaTrak with an improved product performance and a range of new applications.
The Birth of KangaTrak in Australia
… the best way forward
In 2018 Rocla did not renew the License to manufacture and sell the PermaTrak product and therefore in 2019 Franek Licensed Sydney based high profile precaster 2 barrows polished concrete.
We now advise our Australian clients that we have renamed the PermaTrak product in Australia to KangaTrak with a commitment to deliver a new generation product with high quality Architectural finishes, with improved Engineering performance, and we are also introducing a range of new systems (see The KangaTrak Systems) suited to urban applications and high profile natural sites.
KangaTrak has adopted a mascot and his name is LUNA, he was orphaned back in November 2018, however is doing well and continues to grow like our business with a continued focus on the future.
Keep posted on our LUNA Blog for news on the World’s most durable and environmentally sustainable boardwalk and promenade systems.
