Small Creek Naturalisation
Small Creek was once a meandering chain-of-ponds creek through Raceview in Ipswich. In the 1980’s—like like many waterways—it was straightened, channelised and concreted. Great for whisking away floodwaters but offering little in the way of local amenity and environmental benefits.
Ipswich City Council engaged Bligh Tanner, along with project partners Landscapology, Streamology and Nicoleap, to help recreate 1.6 km of healthy functioning waterway.
“We knew we needed a deep level of community engagement that would sow the seeds for long-term community ownership – a critical element of successful waterway revegetation projects” said Alan Hoban, Bligh Tanner’s project manager. “So we created ‘Design Your Creek Week’ – a hands-on co design process where the design team immersed itself in the site for five days and worked with over 180 participants, including local kids, school students, traditional owners and Councillors”.
That was 12 months ago, and after a rigorous detailed design process combining landscape architecture, engineering, flood modelling, geomorphology and ecology, the project is ready for construction and the first section of concrete will be ripped up before the end of 2017 (and yes, all concrete is being reused within the project).
Small Creek Naturalisation project has been recognised as one of the most significant waterway restoration projects in Australia, and was recently awarded the AILA National Landscape Award for Land Management, and a Stormwater Queensland Excellence Award for Strategic or Masterplanning.
Stay tuned for more updates as we bring this creek back to life.
