Words: Peter Lumb. Photos: Lyndon Stacy

After more than a year’s gestation, the little sister to the Victoria Park wetlands has now been born, complete with newly-established reed beds, widened creek line, and trails.

Twelve months ago I wrote about Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) flood mitigation works: (“A Park in Transition - Wetlands Works in Park 20”):

“Where tall trees stood a few weeks ago, there’s now a shocking gap in the landscape. Heavy machinery has cages in which to live overnight and they noisily roam the Park by day. Goodness knows where the possums are living during all this mayhem.”

It’s spring again. There’s been even more rain than last year. The Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20) part of the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project is complete.

The grass seeds have been sown, and the promised 12,500 trees and shrubs have been planted. All the machinery has disappeared, but the orange flag barriers remain with signs asking people to stick to the paths while the grass and plants get established. The site looks raw, but ready to burst full of life.

It’s hard to imagine better conditions for germinating grass seeds and for getting shrubs and trees established.

New growth is visible now, only weeks after transplanting. I expect that in a year or two this area in Kurangga will have matured, and there will be little difference between the line of the South Park Lands Creek here, and the earlier works and plantings upstream in Parks 17, 18 and 19.

There’ll be lots of birds, and the possums will have made a comeback.

Here’s an idea. Today, and again for the next two or three spring-times, take a walk along the edge of the South Park Lands Creek, from the corner of Greenhill and Fullarton Road. Follow the creek around the Victoria Park wetlands, and continue through each of the Parks 17, 18 and 19 until the creek disappears under Greenhill Road just west of the Tree Climb.

During wet times, there is now a beautiful bushy bubbling creek, in your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands.

And when there’s a really serious deluge we can expect far fewer property inundations downstreaam between your Park Lands and the Patawalonga.

EDITORS NOTE:

Between 2017 and 2022, major earthworks were carried out to rehabilitate the entire length of the South Park Lands Creek with signage, education facilities, boardwalks and a range of nature play and recreation opportunities.

The overall plan included:

• a large wetland, or stormwater detention basins in Victoria Park/ Pakapakanthi (Park 16);

• broadening the creek bed throughout the south Park Lands for better stormwater flows and improved public safety;

• the removal of poplar trees, characterised as “woody weeds”, in both Victoria Park and here in Blue Gum Park; and

• the introduction of native vegetation in and around the broader creek bed.

The rehabilitation project began in 2017. The first few stages were carried out to the east of here, in Parks 16 through to 19. This Park was left until last, with work scheduled for completion in late 2022.

There were previously two separate creek-beds within Park 20.  These have been consolidated into one, which required re-aligning one of the footpaths.

The work has served five different purposes:
◦ FIRST, to protect both the Park Lands and nearby land in Unley and Wayville from flooding;
◦ SECOND, to increase safety for Park users, by getting rid of steep and dangerous eroded creek banks
◦ THIRD, to increase biodiversity along the length of the South Park Lands Creek;
◦ FOURTH, to replace woody weeds with native trees; and
◦ FIFTH, to create a seasonal wetlands environment to attract wildlife

The project was controversial because as part of the creek widening, a small number of kurrajong trees and significant eucalypts perched on the steep creek banks were removed.

The ground underneath those trees had to be dug away to widen the creek bed. However, backfilling of the old creek alignment has supported the health of the remaining large eucalypts, most of which have been retained.

Bringing the two former creek flows together, to a common point behind the mound (northern side) has enabled controlled flows to be discharged under Greenhill Road, reducing the risk of flooding downstream.

Read the official completion bulletin from the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project team.

For more information about the entire project see: https://bhkcstormwater.com.au/stormwater-management-in-the-south-park-lands/