Sturt River Greening Project

We received positive feedback from residents about the proposed borders of native plants and new trees for Fordham Reserve. A report on the results of the consultation will be available soon.

In the meantime, we've had to crack on with organising the work. From next week, contractors will be on site undertaking a range of works, including tree removals, spraying the turf to make room for the new plants, and spreading mulch.

Please note that the turf will be sprayed with herbicide on Tuesday 27 April in preparation for mulching and planting at a later date.

Tree removals are scheduled for 5th May.

During March council continued to meet with and hear from residents along Sturt Creek as part of their commitment to greening the Sturt River.

On Saturday 13 March, a Community Drop-in session was held at Fordham Reserve. Run by the City of Holdfast Bay staff with landscape and community engagement experts, the session was an opportunity for residents to meet the project team, hear more about the project and make suggestions for the garden beds and planting proposed for Fordham Reserve.

As a valued partner in the regreening process, the Friends of Sturt River Landcare also worked with us to provide knowledge and input on how they are supporting the greening effort.

Despite the unseasonal wet and cold weather, a small but steady group of enthusiastic residents and users of the reserve braved the conditions. Discussions included what people value about the reserve, satisfaction levels associated with the new proposed gardens beds, and the planting of new trees.

Information from the drop-in session and survey will be written up in a report over the coming month with planting of the site commencing with a community planting day in June 2021.

Further to the information that we shared with you late last year on stage three (3) of the Sturt River Greening Project, a community drop-in session will be held at Fordham Reserve in early March 2021.

Fordham Reserve is the third reserve in this project to receive a greening upgrade that will contribute to a refined corridor of green spaces along the Sturt River system. The outcome will create biodiversity, amenity and wellbeing benefits both for the community and for local flora and fauna.

The Fordham Reserve Community Drop-In Session is an opportunity for residents to meet the project team, hear more details about the project, ask questions, and contribute to the project design.

Details are as follows:

• Date: Saturday 13 March 2021
• Time: Any time between 9.30am – 12.30pm
• Location: Fordham Reserve

The drop-in session will incorporate COVID-19 community protocols.

This project reflects the City of Holdfast Bay’s commitment to embrace the global trend to ‘green cities’ through the reintroduction of trees, plants and gardens. Regreening of cities is now internationally aligned with health, comfort, biodiversity, and psychological benefits.

We look forward to your involvement in this exciting and progressive project.

If you have been to the Stewart Reserve in the last week you will have noticed lots of green tree guards. Approximately 1,100 native Adelaide plains plants have been planted, let's hope that the wet winter continues, so that they can establish before the summer. You may also have noticed that the SAPN building has been painted and now looks clean and tidy.

The final element for the reserve is the new bench. It's waiting at the depot to be installed by our civic team, who will get to it in the next month or so, depending on their schedule.

We very much hope you enjoy watching the plants growing, flowering and filling out the reserve to create a beautiful and bio-diverse green space.

The plan for the upgrades to the Stewart Reserve has been finished and can be found here. We will be putting in more than 1,110 plants, a new bench and a habitat log.

The work will progress as follows:

• Work begins on Tuesday 26 May, with contractors spraying some of the turf to create the new garden beds. ü
• After this a habitat log will be installed and three shrubs will be removed from the north-eastern corner.
• Next mulch will be spread over the new beds.
• The planting will occur once the mulch is spread.
• Finally, after the plants are all in then the new bench will be installed.

The process will take a few weeks due to the need to leave time in between some of these actions.

We will attempt to reduce any impact this will have on your use of the reserve but for safety reasons we may occasionally need to block off access to the reserve for short periods of time.

Thank you to all those who either complete the online survey, or sent us the completed paper form to tell us your thoughts about our proposed upgrade of Stewart Reserve. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and you can see more details in the Engagement Findings Report.

What's next?

The report has been shared with our landscape architect who is going to work on a final detailed design taking into account your comments. We will share this with you by hand delivering printed copies as soon as we have finished this.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.