High-quality recycled water now being used to irrigate the award-winning Australian Garden and plant nursery at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne.
The $3.25 million project will deliver water from Melbourne’s Eastern Treatment Plant via a one-kilometre pipeline to a new water treatment plant at the Gardens, which will further clean the water of salts and nutrients to make it suitable for long-term irrigation of Australian plants.
This pipeline will save 35 mega litres of potable water per year, the equivalent of 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Parliamentary Secretary for Water Harriet Shing visited the gardens on Friday 18 February to turn on the tap to the treatment plant, along with Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards and Director and Chief Executive of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Tim Entwisle.
“The completed works allow the gardens to adopt sustainable water management practices ensuring the long-term viability of the gardens and its beautiful plants,” Ms Shing said.
The project began delivering recycled water to the Australian Garden earlier this month, helping to grow more than 100,000 plants representing 1900 different species, including 400 rare or threatened species and those from the Victorian bushfire recovery programme.
