In July last year, paramedics responded to an incident at the university within two minutes, but were unable to find the student because most of the roads are unnamed and buildings are not addressed to the roads they access.

University of New England Student Association president Koady Williams said students have expressed concerns about the system in the past.

“I am concerned that this issue has not been addressed sooner,” he said.

“In fact, I am again finding myself frustrated with the fact that action will only occur following an incident that ‘warrants’ the change.

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“Addressing this issue should be paramount, and I am confident that the changes proposed will make the campus safer for students in emergency situations.”

Following construction, new buildings were given a consecutive number irrespective of where it was located on campus, a move that does not comply with Australian and New Zealand Addressing Standards.

Armidale Regional Council became involved in the issue after it was copied in to an email between NSW Ambulance and the university.

UNE chief operating officer Peter Creamer said it’s not the first time an incident like this has happened.

“Many large institutions with internal private roads, universities, Defence Force bases, zoos – do not use the standard addressing systems applied to residential areas,” he said.

At last Thursday’s council meeting, Cr Margaret O’Connor said the work is extremely critical.

“When the addresses are inadequate there can be proper phone calls made to 000, the ambulance is out there but they don’t know where to go and people die in that gap,” she said.

“We are so lucky this matter came to our notice without a fatality, I really hope councillors appreciate the quality of our staff who went to the university to get their cooperation on this.

“This is a potential death prevented by bringing it to the attention of council.”

Council is the addressing authority for the university, but didn’t have the time to commit to the project.

Instead, Spacial Services, the state government mapping agency that provides daily data to emergency services took it on free of charge.

For the last seven months, each building at UNE has been given an individual address.

Mr Creamer said 10 internal roads and 170 buildings need to have their names and numbers changed, with four roads still to go.

“A unified addressing system will allow for quicker response times for emergency services, and as such, should lessen risk,” he said.

Once finished, UNE will be the first university in NSW to comply with Australian Addressing Standards, but in the meantime the institution will have to supply road names to council, erect signage and install street numbers.

Mayor Simon Murray said Fire and Rescue NSW and Police and Ambulance NSW will update their systems with the new addresses.

“The addressing will make it easier for emergency and delivery services to reach their destination in the shortest time possible,” he said.

“Consultation and meetings between the collaborators takes time, the University is known as a complex address site which is a large site comprising of multiple buildings, tenants and access points. 

“Until recently, the practice at the University was to allocate its own addressing as the University is a private site; however, the addressing didn’t conform to the Addressing Standards. 

“The University’s Business Continuity & Safety Project Officer, Theron King was instrumental in these changes going forward.”