Restoring contaminated land for Woodlea Estate
Restoring contaminated land on Former Defence site for future use while upholding cultural heritage and endangered wildlife protections
The brief
The Rockbank Receiving Station was used to transmit and receive radio signals from 1942 until the 1980s (when satellites rendered the former technology obsolete).
Sold by the Commonwealth Government in 2001, its new owners earmarked the site for a master planned community, now known as Woodlea Estate. Prior to construction commencing, the developer needed to excavate and remediate two former landfills, abate and reclassify soil and rock contaminated with illegally dumped asbestos and to prepare the land for landscaping. Adding to the complexity, the site was subject to both Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and endangered species protections.
Industrial Environmental was engaged by the developer to deliver services to address all the above requirements and prepare the land for future use.
Execution
About 30 per cent of the proposed Woodlea footprint would be dedicated to open space – including wetlands – so great effort was made to protect the existing natural landscape. The green spaces have also been designed to protect important Indigenous heritage sites in perpetuity.
A Cultural Heritage Management Plan outlined measures to manage and protect Aboriginal cultural heritage (and artefacts) in the activity area. This meant the entire site was mapped as to where we were able and unable to move and work. Instead of accessing contaminants via a path of least resistance, we accessed the waste through a tree line. We also built a temporary above-ground driveway to ensure the ground surface wouldn’t be disturbed.
As part of the Wetland Management Plan, our team undertook training on how to handle the endangered Growling Grass Frogs. If we found any wetland inhabitants in our work areas, we followed a process to safely transport them back to water and/or relocated to different work areas.
Two former landfills containing mixed waste were excavated and remediated. We sifted through the soil to remove everything from old prams through to demolition rubbish. Thanks to illegal dumping by external parties, an area of 30,000m3 required asbestos abatement and reclassification.
11,000m3 of large volcanic rocks were recovered from the waste site. Where possible, we processed the rocks onsite, removing contaminants, and either replaced them for landscaping or crushed them for road base.
Once the work areas were cleaned and all contaminants removed, jute matting was rollout over the work areas to prevent erosion until the landscapers commenced planting.
Outcome
This project was nominated for Project of the Year by the Australian Land and Groundwater Association due to its scale, duration, protections and result.
Despite the challenges of working around heritage sites and endangered species, the projects were delivered on time and budget (in line with the progress of development construction). No frogs were harmed during the remediation works. We removed the temporary driveways, ensuring cultural sites remained undisturbed, returning the land to the client in a better state than we found it.
Today, more than 3,500 lots have been completed since construction of the estate commenced in 2015. Construction is still ongoing and is anticipated to continue until 2030.
