A Moonee Valley City Council project to turn an historic but dilapidated ornamental lake into a cutting-edge rain garden was highly commended recently at the Stormwater Victoria Excellence Awards.
The project was led by Venta Slizys and Liz Chapman from the council’s Open Space and Urban Design team, with support from staff from teams across council including Parks and Gardens, Infrastructure, Environment and Engineering Services.
Venta said Maribyrnong Park’s historic rotunda and lake had a great deal of heritage value for the community, but over the years of drought it became obvious that design improvements were needed to sustain the lake and improve the health of the surrounding landscape.
“We are very pleased with the outcomes of this project. We’ve been able to redesign the existing ornamental lake and historic rotunda to bring about important environmental benefits while still retaining the area’s heritage value.”
The new sustainable wetland system and rain garden will treat over 30 million litres of stormwater (more than an entire Olympic-sized swimming pool) each month according to Liz Chapman.
“Stormwater carrying pollutants is pumped into the rain garden which treats the water and removes pollutants. The clean stormwater then flows into a feature pond which stores the clean water before entering the Maribrynong River.”
The new irrigated landscape will also have a passive cooling effect, reducing the impacts of hot summer temperatures on the park. And native Victorian plants have been used to provide much needed habitat for local wildlife.
