Gum Scrub Creek wins 2014 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Award

Gum Scrub Creek at Officer, designed by Outlines Landscape Architecture and part of a Places Victoria urban development project in south-east Melbourne, received the 2014 state award for land management at the recent Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Victorian awards event.

Officer is a demonstration project of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC). Gum Scrub Creek incorporates a number of biosponges developed by the CRCWSC as part of a strategy to protect and enhance the ecological values of the waterway as urban development occurred within the catchment.

The CRCWSC congratulate Places Victoria and Outlines on this award which recognises excellence in built ecology as well as the restoration, conservation, enhancement or maintenance of landscapes.

In their award submission, Outlines described how the project transformed a narrow agricultural drain into an innovative multifunctional landscape that responds to the physical, environmental and social context of the site. Outlines also noted that a significant aspect of their work was ensuring good collaboration between multiple organisations and stakeholders – land management is ultimately about effective communication.

The Gum Scrub Creek design process led by Outlines Landscape Architecture enabled water sensitive concepts to be developed and embedded in the detailed design, and ultimately to be implemented as part of the constructed waterway corridor landscape. Beyond their technical ability to mould a range of innovative concepts into a highly functional landscape, it was of Outlines willingness and ongoing commitment to engage with and apply new research that sustained this collaboration and enabled potential innovations to be realized.

Biosponges are an adaptation of the natural swamps which characterised this area prior to its clearing and draining for agricultural purposes. Together with stormwater harvesting, biosponges provide a means of significantly reducing the excess volume of stormwater and associated pollutants from urban areas reaching the stream and creating a more natural flow regime.

The CRCWSC is hosting a site visit to Gum Scrub Creek at Officer for CRCWSC partners on Tuesday 16 December 2014. Details of the event are available on the CRCWSC website.