birrarung marr upper terrace

location melbourne design andrew brophy - urban initiatives

with jones & whitehead, cardno & biofilta

stormwater harvesting and landscape integration project

Landscape illustration of urban greenery with trees, street lamps, raised garden beds, and a pathway.

Birrarung Marr, is a relatively new 8ha city park on the Yarra River’s north bank next to Federation Square. Opened in 2002, the park suffered from the millennium drought that lasted in Melbourne until 2010. Following the ten-year review of the park by Jones and Whitehead, Urban Initiatives were commissioned to integrate a stormwater harvesting system with the site’s upper terrace landscape.

In collaboration with Ron Jones, CARDNO and Biofilta, Andrew Brophy worked on the integration of this large-scale infrastructure. The system captures, treats and stores for reuse, approximately 35 million litres of stormwater annually (runoff from 37 hectares of Melbourne’s CBD). It is a high output system (large volumes treated) that has a relatively small, well-designed surface footprint (100 sq. metres).

A landscaped park with trees, pathways, and designated planting areas, including a large grassy field, garden beds with palms, and a walking bridge across the park.

A renewed landscape sits above the 2.5 megalitre underground storage tank. The landscape features a 60 metre long formal terrace and seating, with an adjacent bio-filtration bed and extensive embankment plantings. The formal upper terrace plays out as promenade and viewing platform, offering commanding views of the city, river and gardens. 

A staggered stairway adds a critical axis connecting the high ground of the park and the city at Exhibition Street to the riverside lower terrace. The stairway was conceived as a hillside escarpment where the staggered stairs are punctuated with terrace like outcrops, planted with dwarf Yellow Gums. The stairs include short run bike ramps that replace a goat track worn by cyclists, while the concrete terraces allow casual occupation of the hillside.

Diagram of a wastewater treatment process with numbered steps and a legend. The steps include catchment, pollutant trap, pump, sedimentation, detention tank, biofiltration, storage, UV filtration, and reuse, with corresponding flow arrows and color-coded boxes.

stormwater harvesting, treatment, storage and reuse schematic

Rendering of an outdoor staircase with seating areas on a hillside, lined with trees and people walking and sitting.

the project was highly commended in the landscape design category in the 2014 BPN Sustainability Awards

  • People relaxing and children playing on a grassy hill in a city park during late afternoon with skyscrapers in the background.

    credit: drew echberg

  • A person sitting on a bench in a park, looking at a cell phone, with four tall streetlights and a stadium or arena in the background, along with green trees and a bird on the grass.

    credit: drew echberg

  • View of an urban park with wooden benches, grass, and pathways, with city buildings and traffic lights in the background.

    credit: drew echberg

  • Two children, a boy and a girl, playing on outdoor concrete steps, with the boy jumping and the girl holding his hand, surrounded by greenery and modern metallic structures.

    credit: drew echberg

  • Concrete stairs leading up a grassy hill with trees on either side and a person walking toward the top of the stairs in a park on a sunny day.

  • Four women walking up outdoor stairs surrounded by greenery, with two more women sitting on the grass in the background.

    credit: drew echberg

  • City park with modern white sculptures lining a pathway, trees and greenery in the background, and tall city buildings under a blue sky.

  • A city park with a walking path, modern street lamps, a bench, and buildings in the background, including a hotel labeled Hyatt.

    credit: drew echberg

  • Two people in a city park: one standing near a row of street lamps, and another sitting on a long bench with a grid-like pattern, surrounded by greenery and tall buildings in the background.

    credit: drew echberg

  • A yellow fence with small square and rectangular cutouts, with pink flowers and greenery in the foreground, and a city skyline with trees and tall buildings in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

  • A forest trail with tall, dark trees and green bushes on both sides, covered with fallen leaves and some patches of sunlight filtering through the canopy.

  • Decorative shrub with long, thin green leaves in front of a bright yellow fence with rectangular cutouts, and trees in the background.

  • A long, curved metal bench with armrests on a sidewalk next to a forested area.

Construction

Aerial view of a city with a river, construction site, amusement park, and sports stadium.

26 April 2013

A cityscape showing a river running through a park with trees, a sports stadium, and residential buildings in the background. Construction equipment and a foundation are visible in the foreground.

18 June 2013

Construction work on a bridge over a highway near a park with green lawns, trees, and a river, with sports stadiums in the background.

18 November 2013