Rain garden, Fadden Plain Reserve, Fadden
Fadden Pines reserve – with its picnic areas, playgrounds and skate park – is already popular with locals. The new rain garden is a great addition to this recreational area while also improving the quality of water that flows into Isabella Pond, Lake Tuggeranong and then the Murrumbidgee River.
Seating areas will allow visitors to enjoy the rain garden and also provides outdoor classroom opportunities for students from the two schools nearby. Eleven Radiata pines (classified as an environmental weed in the ACT) were removed and replaced with native trees.
The completed rain garden (comprising two separate pods) has a combined treatment area of approximately 2,100 square metres and remove over 36,000kg of nitrogen, phosphorous and suspended sediment every year.
A two year macrophytes (water quality plants) establishment period has commenced. Establishment period refers to the process by which a plant becomes established in a new habitat.
The establishment period may change depending on ground and weather conditions. During the establishment period, flows into and through the asset will be managed to suit the conditions and to protect and nurture the plants.
Some areas of the site may remain closed to allow for plants to establish.
Design changes
During the final design phase, some changes were made to the original concept designs to accommodate services, community feedback and maximising water quality benefits.
- The final design includes two rain garden ponds instead of three. However, although there has been a reduction in the overall size, the optimised cells will enable better distribution of the stormwater across the surface of the rain gardens, resulting in healthier vegetation, better performance and fewer maintenance issues.
- To reduce the potential for clogging of the filter media, the final design includes a sediment forebay in addition to the original gross pollutant trap (GPT). Together, these will remove about 90% of suspended matter from the stormwater, better enabling the rain garden to remove dissolved contaminants such as nutrients.
- To improve road safety, the access point for maintenance vehicles has been moved to a new position west of the underpass.
- The existing shared path between the pods will be upgraded and widened to provide additional access for routine maintenance.
- The existing sewer will now be diverted around the northern pod.
More information
Find out what you can do on your own block to improve water quality in our lakes and waterways.
Landscape design
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