CLIENT: Chisholm Institute – Frankston Tech School
LOCATION: Frankston – Vic
YEAR: 2026
Fresh by Design delivered a custom educational seaweed culture and life support system for Frankston Tech School (Chisholm Institute), designed to support hands-on learning while reflecting real-world aquaculture practices.
The system provides students with a practical platform to explore seaweed cultivation, water quality management, and marine system operation in a safe, flexible teaching environment.
Project Overview
The installation combines a modular bench-mounted culture system, mobile life support, and an external seawater storage and filtration system. Together, these components allow the system to operate either as a recirculating setup or with fresh truck-delivered seawater, depending on teaching requirements.
All systems were supplied, installed, commissioned, and documented by Fresh by Design.
System Features
The project includes:
- A custom FRP seaweed bench with bunded containment, overhead gantry, lighting, seawater supply, and aeration
- A range of interchangeable acrylic culture tanks, allowing flexible layouts for different experiments
- Programmable full-spectrum LED lighting to support seaweed growth and observation
- A mobile filtration and life support unit, incorporating mechanical and biological filtration, UV sterilisation, heating, chilling, and aeration
- An external 3,000 L seawater reservoir system with bag filtration and UV sterilisation for storing and conditioning trucked seawater
Designed for Education
The system was purpose-built for an educational setting, with a strong focus on:
- Safe, intuitive operation by students and staff
- Clear system layout and labelling
- Easy reconfiguration to suit different learning outcomes
- Reliable, low-maintenance equipment selection
Outcome
The completed installation provides Frankston Tech School with a robust and adaptable teaching system that bridges the gap between classroom learning and real-world aquaculture operations. The project highlights Fresh by Design’s capability to deliver professional-grade aquatic systems tailored for education and research environments.