Sturt River Greening Project

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From London to Paris to Sydney to Adelaide, there is a global trend to ‘green cities’ through the reintroduction of trees, plants and gardens for a range of health, comfort, biodiversity, and psychological reasons. Embracing this movement, the City of Holdfast Bay has committed to ‘re-greening’ part of the Sturt River, known to the Aboriginal (Kaurna) people as Warriparri.

A scientific study across the council area demonstrated that parts of the council area are lacking in flora and fauna. A biodiversity assessment, conducted in 2018, identified Glenelg North as having low levels of biodiversity in the City of Holdfast Bay. This project is an opportunity for council to work with the local community on the urban greening sites along the Sturt River.

The Sturt River Greening Project will revegetate small pockets of land along the Sturt River. It will result in a refined corridor of greenery along the river system that will create biodiversity, amenity and wellbeing benefits for the community and for local flora and fauna. In all of the reserves identified for planting, only small parts of the reserves will be planted, not the entire reserve, leaving more than 50% of each site with plenty of open space for recreational activities.


From London to Paris to Sydney to Adelaide, there is a global trend to ‘green cities’ through the reintroduction of trees, plants and gardens for a range of health, comfort, biodiversity, and psychological reasons. Embracing this movement, the City of Holdfast Bay has committed to ‘re-greening’ part of the Sturt River, known to the Aboriginal (Kaurna) people as Warriparri.

A scientific study across the council area demonstrated that parts of the council area are lacking in flora and fauna. A biodiversity assessment, conducted in 2018, identified Glenelg North as having low levels of biodiversity in the City of Holdfast Bay. This project is an opportunity for council to work with the local community on the urban greening sites along the Sturt River.

The Sturt River Greening Project will revegetate small pockets of land along the Sturt River. It will result in a refined corridor of greenery along the river system that will create biodiversity, amenity and wellbeing benefits for the community and for local flora and fauna. In all of the reserves identified for planting, only small parts of the reserves will be planted, not the entire reserve, leaving more than 50% of each site with plenty of open space for recreational activities.


  • Planting is complete

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    13 July, 2020

    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.

  • Work is underway

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    25 May, 2020

    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.

  • Community Engagement Results

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    06 May, 2020

    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.