Birrarung Marr is an 8ha Park on the Yarra River’s north bank next to Federation Square and its also Melbourne’s newest major park. Opened in 2002, it hosts events and festivals and now hosts one of Melbourne’s largest stormwater harvesting systems and is a great example of WSUD.
Integrated stormwater management doesn’t get any more integrated into the fabric of an urban landscape than the Birrarung Marr stormwater harvesting project. Commencing in early 2013, the City of Melbourne commissioned a stormwater harvesting system based on Biofilta’s twin tank and recirculating bioretention design.
This system is big on output and small on footprint. Capturing stormwater from 37ha of Melbourne’s CBD and railway runoff the system provides over 30 Megalitres of fit for purpose irrigation water per annum for the Birrarung Marr landscape.