Leaky pipes are not normally a cause for celebration, but on an unseasonably hot Sunday in October the water spilling from the joins of three bright-yellow drainpipes provides cool relief for children playing at the Archerfield Wetlands District Parkland playground.
The leakage looks like a plumber’s nightmare, but it’s deliberate.
Like the industrial-looking tube slide and the metallic catwalks, it’s part of the playground’s design that pays homage to the site’s former purpose as a wastewater treatment plant.
Opened in 2024, the Durack playground is at the centre of the council’s $22 million Archerfield Wetlands Parkland project, itself part of a broader $100 million commitment to transform Oxley Creek.
Now the project has taken out a Landscape Australia Public Design award, beating 26 shortlisted projects from around the country.
Brisbane Sustainability Agency turned the 150-hectare site back into a wetland, with a network of walking and cycle trails, play areas, picnic sites, event spaces and a community centre.
More than 150,000 native plants were planted to rebuild habitat, and more than 170 bird species, gliders and possums have returned to the formerly heavily polluted wetland.
“It’s about transforming a site that was really underused and degraded into a site that’s a public asset,” awards jury chair Emily Wong said.
“I think it’s part of a bigger trend of bringing nature into the cities and seeing them as part of the one broader ecology.”
Brisbane city councillor Tracy Davis said the project turned a former industrial site into something Brisbane families could enjoy for generations.
“Archerfield Wetlands Parkland shows we don’t have to choose between protecting nature and creating more to see and do. We can do both,” Davis said.
A major feature of the development is the adaptive reuse of concrete tanks, channels and piping from the former sewage plant into landscaping attributes.
“These remnants have been transformed into seating, feature gardens, informal gathering spaces and stormwater management features, giving the parkland a unique character that connects visitors with its past,” Brisbane Sustainability Agency chief executive Tracy Melenewycz said.
The former Inala Wastewater Treatment Plant was commissioned in 1958 to service the growing residential population of the area, originally known as Servicetown.
The plant operated for almost four decades before being decommissioned in 1997. The area was also used for cattle grazing, the former Oxley Bacon Factory, and landfill.
Wong said the project’s approach to flood management was another reason it won the award.
“Rather than trying to keep the water out, it absorbs the water and slows it down, and also cleans it. That means that the spaces can be open to the public relatively quickly after that happens.”
Other projects nominated for the inaugural award included the Barangaroo Station Park in Sydney, the new Sydney Fish Markets, Duncraig Adventure Hub in Perth and the Girraween Visitor Precinct in Girraween National Park.
Brisbane’s Green Grid, a proposal for the city’s urban landscape for the Olympics, was named co-winner of the Landscape Australia Award for Analysis and Planning.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
