Manningham Council is breaking new ground in the area of water management with construction commencing on the $2.8 million Bolin Bolin Integrated Water Harvesting Facility.
The project, undertaken in partnership with the City of Boroondara and Carey Baptist Grammar School, incorporates a “Whole of Water Cycle” management approach and will enable the sustainable capture and treatment of storm water for reuse for the irrigation of sports grounds located at Bulleen Park, Carey Sports Complex and the Freeway Golf Course.
On average, the facility will harvest approximately 35 megalitres of stormwater annually:
- relieving demand for potable water consumption
- reducing pollutants going to the Yarra River (124kg of nitrogen annually)
- minimising the demand for extraction from the river for irrigation purposes
- ensuring sustainable environmental flows within the Yarra River
- minimising local flooding issues, by enhancing the drainage outlet from the local catchment.
The project involves:
- the construction of a 1.5 megalitre combined wetland and storage lake at the Crown Land site adjacent to the Bolin Bolin Billabong
- two 214.7 kilolitre storage tanks will be constructed within Bulleen Park, managed by Manningham Council
- a secondary 3.30 ML (minimum) storage is to be constructed within the “Freeway Golf Course” (Columba St, Balwyn North), on land managed by the City of Boroondara
The two storage facilities and the tanks will be connected by a distribution pipe line which runs through the Crown Land site, Bulleen Park and the Freeway Golf Course.
Storm water will be harvested from a 35 hectare catchment on the east side of Bulleen Road north/east of the crown land site, and treated through a gross pollutant trap system and wetland before being pumped to the storage tanks at Bulleen Park and the storage lake at the Freeway Golf Course.
The work on the project will be staged as follows between December 2016 and August 2017.
- Construct storage facility and wetland at the Bolin Bolin site (Dec 2016 – Feb 2017)
- Construct pipeline to Bulleen Park (Feb 2017 – March 2017)
- Construct pipe line to Golf Course and Bulleen Park storage tanks (Feb 2017 – March 2017)
- Construct pipeline to Yarra River (April 2017 – June 2017)
- Construct storage - Freeway Golf Course (April 2017 – August 2017)
Access to Carey Sports Complex, Bulleen Park and the Freeway Golf Course will be unaffected for most of the duration of the works.
The project has been supported by a number of partners, including:
- Melbourne Water, as part of its Living Rivers Stormwater Program
- The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
- City of Boroondara
- Carey Baptist Grammar School
The project has also been assisted with funding from the Federal Government.
For additional information contact Manningham Council’s Senior Project Engineer, Mr John Tinkler on 9846 0536
