CSIRO
CSIRO is Australia's national science agency: behind many building product test methods, fire-resistance standards, termite-barrier research, and soil classification.
Ask Chalkline about this →The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) is Australia’s national science agency, founded in 1916 and currently the country’s largest research organisation. For builders it is the scientific body behind many test methods, product-development partnerships, and reference research that underpins the Australian Standards corpus.
Where builders see CSIRO turn up
- Product development: CSIRO partnered with Granitgard during the 15-year development of the graded-stone termite barrier, and similar partnerships sit behind other engineered building products.
- Test methods: CSIRO laboratories develop and validate test methods that get adopted into AS / AS NZS standards. The published test method is the basis on which products are accredited under the CodeMark scheme or NATA-accredited labs.
- Soil testing: the CSIRO Division of Land Research developed the AS 2870 reactive-soil classification framework used to set site-classification (M, H1, H2, E).
- Fire research: CSIRO is one of the lead bodies behind AS 1530 fire-resistance test methods.
- Climate and energy: CSIRO research underpins much of the NCC Section J energy-efficiency framework.
CSIRO vs NATA vs Standards Australia
Three different bodies with overlapping building-industry roles:
| Body | Role |
|---|---|
| CSIRO | Research, develops test methods, runs national-scale science programs |
| NATA | Accredits laboratories (including CSIRO labs) to perform tests to defined methods |
| Standards Australia | Publishes the AS / AS NZS standards documents themselves |
CSIRO’s labs test products against the methods, NATA accredits those labs, Standards Australia publishes the standard the methods sit inside.
For a builder
- A “CSIRO-tested” claim alone isn’t certification. It needs to be paired with a recognised certification scheme (CodeMark, WaterMark) and the specific Standards Australia reference.
- CSIRO-developed test methods are the foundation, not the proof. The product’s compliance lives in the test certificate from a NATA-accredited lab plus the certification mark on the product.
Category: Research and standards.
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See also
Last updated: 2026-05-29. Verified: 2026-05-29. Quarterly review for currency.