The Project
Located in Fishermans Bend Melbourne, the Ferrars Street Education and Community precinct is a ground-breaking example of integrated community infrastructure. Home to Melbourne’s first government vertical primary school, the project offers shared facilities that enhance accessibility and connectivity. Kirrip Park is adjacent to another school at 2-4 Buckhurst Street and integrated within the school design to deliver community infrastructure and improve accessibility and connectivity including pedestrian, cyclist and public transport access.
Kirrip Park services the school and provides increased community open space in a traditionally commercial and industrial area, by demolishing an existing building and designing for a partial road closure, the space created a dynamic and community focussed environment.
Technical Solutions
Working with the City of Port Phillip, Hayball Architects engaged WGA to deliver the streetscape and park by providing civil engineering design for the project which also included extensive stormwater design. The streetscape upgrades facilitated improved access and created a safer environment for access to the school, integrated traffic calming, water sensitive urban design, and connections to a new Public Transport Victoria tram stop. Sustainability was at the core of WGA’s design – New roads and pavements were designed to drain into water sensitive urban design rain gardens and swales, passively irrigating the landscape, while improving water quality before runoff reached the Yarra River. Swales across the site maintained existing flow paths, captured and treated runoff, and created naturalistic green spaces for urban cooling, as well as providing additional flood storage capacity in local flood events.
The school’s building finish floor level was also set higher than the existing ground to protect against future flooding from climate change and sea level rise. Ramps and retaining walls were added to smoothly transition from the lower surrounding roads to the new building.
Additionally, earthworks shaping on the site allowed for onsite remediation through clean fill capping of potentially contaminated material, which reduced removal of spoil to offsite disposal.
Client Focus
A challenging site, the project team overcome many challenges, including contaminated land, undocumented abandoned infrastructure, flooding and backflow from the Yarra River. As a holistic design solution, the project has led to improved safety, accessibility, and environmental resilience, delivering a lasting impact for the school and wider community. Upon completion, Kirrip Park has redefined the area’s green footprint, increasing open space from less than 10% to over 80%, by addressing the site’s complex challenges with smarter solutions the site will serve Fisherman’s Bend for generations to come.
Key Personnel
- Emma Hendy Adelaide | Sustainability Technical Lead
- Chris Pay Melbourne | Sport & Recreation Lead - VIC
The South Melbourne Primary School Streetscape Works and Kirrip Park Redevelopment is included in the following sectors & services.
Click on one to find out more about that sector or service.