About the project

Cutting edge technology keeps Darling Street green and healthy

To the untrained eye, Darling Street looks just like any other quiet residential street in East Melbourne. But in this innovative project, the City of Melbourne has used new stormwater harvesting technology – with infrastructure installed below ground.

The centralised underground system captures, treats and stores stormwater to irrigate Darling Steet’s neighboring trees and green spaces. Taking advantage of existing plans to upgrade the local streetscape, it offers unprecedented levels of space efficiency and has been so well integrated into the landscape that it’s reduced the surface footprint by 90 per cent.

The world first inroad stormwater harvest scheme will help to save more than 20 million litres of water and safeguard the health of Darling Street’s surrounding parks and trees. This sustainable source of water will replace the use of mains water, bringing environmental benefits to the community as well as saving a great deal of money.

The project enables Melbourne’s extreme weather to be used to our advantage. As well as conserving the city’s water supplies, treating and reusing water that would otherwise gather pollution from the streets and be lost to the rivers and creeks, is sustainability at its best.

Benefits

• Water catchment and treatment
• Beautification
• Enhanced habitat

For more information on this and other City of Melbourne urban water projects visit: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/urbanwater

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