Parks--Corridor Projects
Murrumbidgee River Metro Park--Tuggeranong,
Australia
Thirty five kilometers of this major Australian river system winds its way
through Tuggeranong . It's character dramatically
changes several times in
that distance
and presented major opportunities for us as we developed plans for this massive
new city. Shown below is an early stage analysis
of the "Bidgee" and how it's
awesome beauty might be preserved and sensitively utilized at the same time.
A
dozen of so best practice zones were
established for the river park after months
of careful analysis of topography, ecological communities, proposed storm water
systems and development
planning impacted by the river.
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Ecological-geophysical input was
incorporated into over 2200--100x100m
SYMAP
grid cells in the massive river corridor alone. Data
included soil information, vegetation analysis and rating, terrain mapping,
primary & secondary existing, natural drainage structures and many other
parameters that were critical in shaping the best use model of the river
corridor that followed. Much of the current use of the corridor today was
based
on these early studies.
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Typical
SYMAP data
collected that proved instrumental in shaping the plan for the giant river park
was a rating of over 42,000 single trunk trees and
3000 vegetation groups in the entire project. This rating system was also
used throughout the Tuggeranong project. Each tree was rated
as to specie type--age--size and quality and was part of all consultants briefs
that were working on parts of the project. Huge quantities of quality
vegetation
were saved via this technique and the poorer, more expendable
vegetation was destroyed in the construction process. For example,
a
Eucalyptus Melliodora
(yelow box) rated EM-B-1-H would be a priority rated
save tree. A Melaleuca Leucodendron (cadjeput) rated
LS-D-3-C would how low priority re say for example making choices for a
storm water channel alignment or a building siteing, etc.
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Another critical parameter for the engineers,
architects and landscape architects was the extensive geological analysis that
was incorporated
into the SYMAP grid. Soil groups, sediment patterns, fault lines, rock
outcroppings were all sensitive design input that help make hundreds best
practice decisions
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The Wild Gorge Zone segment with
updated development data overlaid with the
SYMAP format
that took over 14 months to compile.
The developed portion of this view is the western portion of Kambah.
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One of many early concept sketches I
completed for the 1820 ha (4500 acre) River Park. Over 164 use categories were evaluated ranging
from
very passive in nature (nature study, special habitat zones, etc) to the more
active ranges( sports complex's, riding stables, swimming beaches,
polo,
archery, boat rental, fishing zones, etc.)
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I've designed and built many park
schemes over the years and I can say accurately that the International Polo
Center at Tuggeranong was
one of the most rewarding challenges of them all. The sprawling
20ha(50acre) site had over 800m(2600ft) of pristine river frontage with large
quantities
of natural flora. Space prohibits a full listing of all the hundreds of species
evaluated for preservation and re use but a (very) short list would be:
larger trees ---many species to 40m(120')-- yellow
box's (eucalyptus melliodora)--silky oaks (grevillea robusta)--kurrajongs (brachychiton
populneus)
medium trees----ironbark ( eucalyptus sideroxylon) --river gums
(eucalyptus platypus)- river pines (casuarina cunninghamiana)
small trees--sydney golden wattle (acacia longifolia)--cootamundra
wattle (acacia baileyana)--hakea multilineata grass leaved hakea
larger-smaller shrubs--ground covers---lemon and redcall
bottlebrush (callistemon citrinus and c.pallida)--tea shrub (leptospermum
squarosum)
wandering heath (westringia ericifolia) red flame hakea (hakea longifolia)--many
proteas (protea wallenii, p. robusta, etc)
The center was planned from the beginning for an international level
facility that meant a minimum configuration of:
--2 4ha(10acre) irrigated polo fields with international furniture eg 300
min seat dual view covered stands--test level goals, etc
--stables for a minimum of 30 horses with full service tack rooms, adequate
parking for home and visitor teams, food court and rest rooms
-- a dressage circuit designed to international competition standards
--a minimum of 200 parking spaces for spectators and provisions for overflow
parking for the two outdoor fields
--a 800 sm(8600sf) polo center with educational facilities, emergency
first aid center and rest rooms
--a 800 sm (8600sf) riverfront outdoor restaurant for spectators-visiting teams
and general public use on a privately operated basis
--an indoor polo center with seating for 2000 with a 50 x100 m illuminated ,
indoor prepared earth playing surface
--adequate site wide parking spectators, teams and vendors. This included a 160
car elliptical shaped parking facility for use by the main center.
The 800 sm polo center required
minimum parking for 125 cars and 12 tour buses at any one time. My parking
solution reflected both a practical need
for easy drop off and exit as well as an aesthetically pleasing shape that
avoided that "parking lot" look so common to long straight solutions. The
regional
128km multi trail had to be accommodated thru the center of the scheme as well
700sm wildlife retention basin that drained the parking lots, roof drains
and any fertigated areas that had possible high nitrogen runoff. The carpark
surface was constructed of porous hollow masonery units with grass seed
impregnated into the backfill. The finished look was a highly appealing "grass
court" look that went a long way to soften the impact of such a large,
potentially negative site element as a parking lot
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The 20 ha (50 acre) site demanded great
attention be given to the quality of storm water from the 160 car parking
scheme, 800 sm (8600sf) of roof
runoff and over 12 ha (30 acres) of fertigation for the 2 outdoor irrigated polo
fields, dressage area, etc. 100 % of the sites storm water runoff was
routed thru several major retention basins that functioned as water scrubbers
and filters . The retention basin principle is quite simple in that the
heavier pollutants settle to bottom of the retention lagoons and clean water
near the surface drains slowly thru several outfalls back to either the main
river channel or the billabong network so common along this part of the river. I
designed the polo center site with the parking area sloping inward
towards the retention basin and routed all roof runoff into the basin as well.
The vertically distorted cross section below illustrates this concept quite
well.
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Two important furniture items in the
drainage scheme were the 2.4m(8') square x 1.8m(6')high outfall structure in the
recreated 700sm(7500sf)
polo center wildlife retention basin. Another detail that I used a lot was my
simplified catch basins that were comprised of a 762mm(30") x
914mm(36") standard pre cast concrete pipe section with a factory made
711mm(28") cast iron inlet grill. The catch basins were quick to install
and looked great with a 304mm ring of smooth river stones embedded in 100mm of
concrete edging. The basins were kept in place by four
25mm steel dowels cast into the 100mm concrete support pad. The outfall was
designed to well established rules for these types of structures.
Their function is simple and effective. The non corrosive aluminum grill
structure at the top of the units allowed water to seep gradually into the
structure with had a 150 mm silt pit that could be vacuum cleaned every about
once a year
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The Atanga billabong near the main "Bidgee"
channel looking north towards the metro park drive. I put a lot of hard work
integrating this marvelous
feature into the main polo complex scheme. It's also an important part of the
sites drainage system. Billabongs are old river routes with entrapped water
and create a major wetland habitat zone in their own right. In the northern
hemisphere their known as "oxbows", "barpitts", etc. If you look closely at the
center of the photo you can see a massive flock of
red tipped
cockatoos ready to take flight due to all the noise I was making trying to
get the best pic possible.
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kent mccoy landscape architect
email:
kentmccoy40@gmail.com