Stormwater to keep Melbourne’s heritage public gardens green

Work has started on a five million-litre underground stormwater storage tank that will supply three heritage-listed public gardens in Melbourne.

Marking the start of construction of the tank at Fitzroy Gardens today, Senator Don Farrell, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water, said the tank is part of the Eastern Melbourne Parks and Gardens Stormwater Harvesting Scheme.

“The Australian Government is investing $4.88 million in the scheme through its National Urban Water and Desalination Plan under the Water for the Future initiative,” he said.

“This investment enables Melbourne City Council to supply an estimated 124 million litres of recycled stormwater a year to irrigate three heritage-listed Melbourne public gardens.

“The Fitzroy and Treasury gardens have been allocated $2.12 million to support the harvesting and re-use of stormwater for irrigation.

“Recycled stormwater will now irrigate the gardens, saving valuable drinking-quality water.”

The five million-litre capacity tank will be one of the city’s largest underground tanks and will provide 69 million litres of recycled water every year, which is more than half of the annual irrigation needs of Fitzroy Gardens.