Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Annual Report 2018-19

A Red and Blue Damselfly (Xanthagrion erythroneurum) in Melbourne Gardens
Working Wetlands
In comparison with 2017–18, there was a
42 per cent increase in pumping energy
use during 2018–19 for Working Wetlands’
re-circulation pumps, water treatment
facilities and irrigation pump stations.
This was attributed to the increased need
to re-circulate lake water to manage and
mitigate the negative impact from the
blue-green algae outbreak in summer.
Energy generated from the photo voltaic
(PV) system was slightly 4 per cent less in
2018–19 compared with 2017–18. The grid
electricity use offset is 60 per cent for
2018–19.
Table 14 Working Wetlands energy metrics Period WW Grid electricity use (MWh)
Period
WW Grid electricity use
(MWh)
Photovoltaic generation
(MWh)
Grid Electricity Offset
2015–16 105 70 66%
2016–17 78 66 85%
2017–18 91 81 89%
2018–19 129 78 60%
IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Update on new booking system
In January 2019, the Visitor Experience
team transferred the online booking
system to Bokun, which has been
integrated into the Royal Botanic Gardens
Victoria website. This initiative has
made the customer journey seamless by
providing a quick and convenient booking
process. There has been a continuous
increase in online bookings for the last
couple of years, as people were able to
use the flexibility of the system to book
outside normal trading hours. The system
was also beneficial to international guests
who could use the system from their own
time zone. Whilst more improvements to
bookings infrastructure continues behind
the scenes, Bokun allows the Gardens
access to an international network of
operators and markets. The team is now
able to spend more time interacting faceto-face
with our visitors and providing
exemplary customer service every day of
the year.
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