Urban Forest Redevelopment

The revival of the Malvern Urban Forest is complete with the reconstruction of the central pond. The reconstruction was carried out in association with Melbourne Water, who contributed $75,000 towards the project.

The reconstruction is being carried out in accordance with Water Sensitive Urban Design guidelines to improve the quality of the drainage water that enters the pond and over flows into outfall drains and entering our creek and river systems prior to entering Port Phillip Bay.

Water quality in the reserve had been poor due to high turbidity and low flow, storm water run-off, nitrification as a result of fertilizer run-off and the presence of food scraps, and the permanent waterfowl and duck populations.

These issues have been addressed by increasing the overall size of the pond, reducing the size of the central island to provide an improved, more isolated environment for native wildlife, and improving the quality of drainage water entering the pond by constructing a 100 square metre filtration wetland cell on the inflow area to the pond and upgrading the drainage pipe from the street.

As well as enhancing the visual appeal of the ponds, these measures will eliminate blue-green algae blooms and attract more bird life.