SUSTAINABILITY REPORT - Landcom

CASE STUDY
PARK CENTRAL
CREEK
REHABILITATION
WHY THE CREEK AT PARK CENTRAL GOT AN EXTREME MAKEOVER
The creek that ran through the old Campbelltown Golf Course was highly degraded, with
little vegetation growing along its corridor other than some exotic plant species. Weeds such
as typhus were choking what remained of its flow.
The ecological value of the area meant Landcom was obliged to mount a rescue operation
of the creek’s 800-metre riparian corridor. The aim was to find an integrated urban and
environmental outcome that would allow Landcom to restore the site’s natural bushland
and wetland, create a “place” with a memorable feature and to build a new community.
A riparian corridor is the land directly adjacent to a natural or artificial waterway. Such corridors
provide a crucial link between land and water ecosystems. They provide food, shade and
shelter for terrestrial wildlife and aquatic organisms; they bind soil to provide bank and bed
stability; and they filter nutrients and sediments from entering a watercourse.
“We didn’t have much to work with when we started,” says Landcom Development Director
Michael Pring. “The aim was to treat the water entering the site, treat the water from the
catchment of the site itself and make sure the water quality that left the site was no worse
and preferably better than that entering the site. There was also a salinity issue because the
ponds connect to saline groundwater. So we had to select salt-tolerant plants for the
reconstructed corridor.”
The reconstruction involved work at the head of the creek and around the existing bushland.
Landcom built a large detention basin capable of retaining a one-in-100-year storm event, as
well as an outlet that fed into a pool and then into a man-made wetland at the top of the site.
The wetland comprises a macrophyte zone stocked with water plants that remove nutrients and impurities
from the water.
Landcom also had to ensure the passage of fish through the system, so culverts and light wells were built into
the creek corridor to allow light to penetrate to the water. Using rock mattresses for the creek bed gave the
watercourse a more natural base. Steps in the water level were made no more than 50mm so that after rain,
fish could travel through the watercourse and get from one end of the site to the other.
Today, this repaired riparian corridor is the focal point of Park Central, a 37-hectare Landcom development in
the heart of the Campbelltown CBD. When complete, Park Central will comprise 400 residences: a mix of
home offices, terrace houses, courtyard living and a waterway that has been transformed from a neglected
drain to a focal feature.
PARK CENTRAL
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