The Doneraile Court Reserve Wetland is a Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) initiative for the City of South Perth that has transformed an existing drainage basin into a neighbourhood asset that improves water quality, enhances biodiversity and provides a safe and flexible open space for local residents.
The 1,000 m2 wetland receives and treats stormwater runoff and shallow groundwater from subsoil drainage from an 11.7ha priority catchment in Waterford. Prior to the initiative, the catchment exported significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Canning River via the basin. The new wetland has been successfully operating since August 2015. Monitoring has commenced.
The project harnessed Syrinx’s capabilities to design and implement multiple WSUD components, consisting of the following components in sequence:
- Underground gross pollutant trap (GPT): removes litter, debris and coarse sediments;
- Sedimentation basin: settles fine sediments and splits the flows;
- Wetland vegetated zones (low flows) and open water zone (high flows): plants and microbes remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in addition to hydrocarbons and metals; High water flows are bypassed to the open water zone, which allows energy dissipation, settling of solids and protection of the vegetated zone from scouring;
- Outflow zone: slowly discharges treated water flows to the Canning River via the existing piped stormwater drainage network.
Complementary work – including an appropriate vegetation palette, safer regraded and densely vegetated batters, localised fencing and interpretive signage – has encouraged the return of native fauna species whilst providing educational recreation opportunities at a suburban scale.