Characterisation of microbial colonies on COLORBOND® steel substrates

COLORBOND® Steel is a hugely successful, branded, coil-coated steel product used in a wide range of building application throughout Australia and South East Asia. Fungal growth on light coloured COLORBOND® Steel used in roofing and walling material is both unsightly and absorbs solar radiation, negatively impacting the roof and underlying structure. Up until now, however, the extent and behaviour of such fungal growth on these unique substrates has been poorly understood. Methods of assessing the phenomenon have, likewise, been lacking. Future development of strategies to prevent and mitigate infestation of these substrates is dependent upon the mechanism of infestation being understood. To this end, the work detailed in this thesis seeks to develop and enact various methods to detect, quantify and identify the problematic organisms, building a knowledge base for future work in this area. In this study, over 200 test panels were deployed at each of two outdoor testing sites in Burrawang (Australia) and Kapar (Malaysia). A minimum of six panels were harvested monthly (later bi-monthly) over a two to three year period and examined using optical microscopy and mass spectrometry based lipid profiling.