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It’s not often that a group of projects spans almost a decade, culminating in a connected landscape that encompasses several kilometers of restored waterways, habitat and creekline. Australian Ecosystems has collaborated with Melbourne Water, Villawood Properties, MDGLA, Stockland Living, Spiire and more to turn large sections of Clyde Creek into a wildlife & biodiversity corridor and a great space for nature and local communities to enjoy.
AE have landscaped and revegetated several sets of wetlands along this creekline that filter stormwater from adjacent housing estates, before it enters Westernport Bay. Over a 10 year period we have collected seed and cuttings, propagated and planted over 500,000 locally indigenous plants across a series of sections of this waterway in Melbourne’s south east; including Edgebrook and Delaray Estates, the Cascade wetland complex and others.
This multi-year project has enabled us to showcase leading wetland standards, achieving 80% plant coverage across the water treatment zones, with under 5% weed cover and over 95% survival rates of all plantings. Our nursery produced plants in formats to comply with Melbourne Water Wetland design manual, and we protected plants from rabbit and bird grazing as they established. All sections have been completed to the satisfaction of clients and responsible authorities.
Thanks to all of our partners for this wonderful project, and particularly Shannon at Villawood for your participation in this video that draws it all together. We are passionate about improving Melbourne’s waterways for biodiversity, water quality, urban cooling and recreational benefits, and we are very proud of this project at Clyde Creek.
Delaray Housing Estate in Clyde North is a Villawood Properties project that features a very large constructed wetland, which has been designed to intercept, retain and treat large volumes of stormwater from the estate and surrounding areas, and to filter out pollutants and improve water quality. The wetland delivers additional benefits including urban cooling, habitat for local wildlife, and public amenity.
Following the landscape plan designed by MDG Landscape Architects, Australian Ecosystems(AE) were contracted to collect seed, propagate and plant over 60,000 aquatic and ephemeral plants for the project, as well as install and ameliorate topsoil, install jute mat and install guarding enclosures to protect vulnerable species from bird grazing. AE have also been contracted to maintain the constructed wetland complex for 2 years, in readiness to hand over the asset to Melbourne Water at the end of the maintenance period.
The wetland and plant formats were designed to be compliant with Melbourne Water’s Wetland Design Manual. To ensure compliance with the manual, all shallow, deep and submerged marsh species were grown and supplied in 600cc plant formats, and all ephemeral plants were supplied in 93cc hiko cells or tubestock. The plant list included large numbers of Water Ribbons (Cycnogeton procerum) which is a very important wetland filtration and frog habitat species, and this species is also very palatable to several waterfowl species including Purple Swamp Hens (Porphyrio porphyrio) and Black Swans (Cygnus atratus)
Site preparation, topsoiling, jutematting and planting works were undertaken over the Spring and Summer of 2018/19, with all planting works completed by April 2019. The results have been outstanding, with plants achieving 80% coverage by Spring 2019, and the site being awarded PC by Melbourne Water without defect. The site is currently being maintained by Australian Ecosystems, with under 5% weed cover and over 95% survival rates of all plantings. The site is now a thriving ecosystem, and is a great centrepiece of Delaray Housing Estate and enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.
What our clients said about us:
“Australian Ecosystems has delivered a best practice wetland at Delaray, and the results have been outstanding, exceeding our expectations for the site. The wetlands are establishing beautifully and are now a great asset to Delaray Estate. The results at Delaray are a testament to the expertise, professionalism and enthusiasm that Australian Ecosystems bring to wetland and drainage landscape projects.”
– Rory Costello, Executive Director, Villawood Properties.