New Victoria Park wetlands flood after heavy rains, extra water drained in fine-tuning measure
Heavy rain this week was the first test for the new Victoria Park wetlands, but all was restored after a bit of fine-tuning – see the before and after pictures.
SA News
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Adelaide’s newest wetlands will be fine-tuned after heavy rainfall that led to them briefly overflowing.
The $15m Victoria Park/Pakapakanthi wetlands are part of a flood mitigation scheme aimed at preventing widespread flooding across Adelaide’s western suburbs.
They consist of several large lagoons to control the release of water into a neighbouring creek, which is being widened to reduce the risk of flooding in the southern parklands and nearby streets.
Visitors earlier this week were greeted by full lagoons, with submerged footbridges, paths and benches. Within 24 hours, water levels had returned to normal with most of the lagoon’s structures escaping unscathed.
Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project director Peta Mantzarapis said the wetlands had performed the role they had been designed for – capturing and holding large volumes of stormwater before controlling its release.
Ms Mantzarapis said engineers had closely monitored the wetlands after the heavy rain that saturated large parts of South Australia last weekend and on Monday.
“When delivering a project like the wetland, the first real opportunity we have to monitor its performance is a large rain event, like the one we saw earlier this week,” she said.
“Our project team carefully monitored the site and have been really pleased with what we’ve seen.
“In terms of its flood mitigation function, the site has operated as it should, with the wetland basin holding the water and releasing flows downstream in a controlled manner.”
Ms Mantzarapis said there would be some minor engineering adjustments but, overall, the wetlands had exceeded expectations.
“As the water receded, we continued to assess the site and impact of the rain event,” she said. “We will continue this process of evaluating performance over the coming months to ensure the wetland is operating as it should and establishes successfully.”
Ms Mantzarapis said the performance of the wetlands was vindication of the tens of millions spent so far by five metropolitan councils and the state government on the stormwater project.
Appeals before the recent federal election for $70m in funding to complete its final two stages were unsuccessful.
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