Creating stormwater infrastructure designs which serve both development and the environment

Little Creek Blacktown

As urbanisation continues to eat away at the natural resources of our cities, it’s more important than ever to keep remaining natural systems as intact as is possible. With this at the front of our minds, our team was engaged by the Blacktown City Council to investigate and design stormwater management works to facilitate infrastructure delivery for a development within the North West Growth Centre.

The development covers approximately 116 hectares of land within the Marsden Park Industrial Precinct. The challenge for the infrastructure design team was that stormwater run-off drained into a tributary of Little Creek. The Little Creek Tributary has been recognised as having high environmental value—it’s one of the few intact chains of creeks in western Sydney. As a result, the stormwater management works needed to meet stringent water quality and quantity objectives. To protect the creek system, the end detailed design set out two detention basins and associated culverts, rain gardens and bio-retention systems, a piped trunk drainage channel, a diversion drainage line, gross pollutant traps, and open vegetated channels.

These designs were coordinated with the adjoining road, open space reserve and urban development designs. With the project now complete, the management works have been implemented and help to protect the creek system from environmental damage.