Universities in Australia strongly encourage sports and the ANU is no exception. Installation of artificial grass pitches has allowed their students to play a wide range of different sports such as football, cricket and hockey on their multi-purpose Desso Ambition pitches.

Natural grass demands a lot of time for repairs and is impossible to play on after heavy rainfall. Such issues prompted the biggest university in Australia to replace its natural grass pitches with artificial turf.

The Desso artificial grass has dramatically increased the available playing hours per year. Even more, the Desso Ambition pitch was awarded a FIFA 2 Star Recommended Certificate for football. After a short period of use the new synthetic pitch has been widely accepted by sporting groups who enjoy using the facility.

The switch to artificial grass fits in perfectly with the ANU environmental plans. It saves 15 ML of water per year because the pitches no longer have to be watered. Moreover, the shockpad and pitch infill can last for two generations of artificial grass.

"The new artificial turf surface exceeds the University’s expectations in terms of providing a very competent multi-purpose playing surface (…)", says ANU Project Manager Jeffrey Albrecht.