Trees Planted with Stratavault Clearly Outperforming those Planted without
In 1917, Bulcock Street was established as the main street of sunny Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. One hundred years later, competing against new urban centres, big box malls and online retail, the rundown street was in decline. In a $12 million four-stage project, Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) transformed the tired main street into a vibrant and liveable community space through the Bulcock Street Revitalisation Project. This project is Australia’s first smart city streetscape demonstration and testing facility, showcasing the latest smart city technologies.
Sian Crawford, Landscape Architect at SCC, said, “With the Sunshine Coast Council’s Landscape Architects acting in many roles; the client, the project manager, design lead, and project delivery, our challenge was to take the community and organisation on a journey to re-imagine the high street experience through a holistic place-making framework. As Landscape Architects, we listened, learned and shaped the streets cape forms, layout, infrastructure, selected materials and plants species, and collaborated with engineers and artists, as key participants in this process of collective leadership.”
Scott Howarth, Landscape Architect at SCC, said, “The design responded to the community’s desire for a green street with substantial tree planting and garden areas. To ensure success we instigated investment in underground tree health using Citygreen’s Stratavault system, specialist soil mixes and tree grow-on contracts. Between 2016 and 2018, 35 Elaeocarpus Obovatus were installed in the Stratavault system. These trees were 700L when installed and were grown by council’s nursery specifically for this is project.”
In total, the project saw a total of 105 extra trees planted in the street, though not all were installed in the Stratavault system. A few years down the track, this has provided an insightful comparison – with trees planted in stages 3 & 4 using Stratavault clearly outperforming those planted in stage 1 that didn’t use any type of Stratavault or Strata-cell system.
Sian Crawford said, “Feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. In terms of the physical outcome, Bulcock Street is now a vibrantly-green, comfortable place to be. Momentum following the streets cape has resulted in a community embracing innovation and activation, with an increased sense of identity and self-determination. Eclectic in character, fun and colourful, the street has evolved into an ‘alternative’ retail experience that appeals to all ages and is uniquely ‘Caloundra’. Retail outcomes support this, with Caloundra experiencing an increase in the total spending during the 2017/18 financial year of 8% above the 2016/17 results (equating to $39.3 million in extra trade). An overwhelming success, the project was nominated for the 2020 Queensland AILA Landscape Architecture Awards.”
Images below show the results from Council’s initial trial – where the same species trees were planted at the same time, in the same street – with Citygreen structural vault system (on the right), and with rock-soil ‘structural soil’ mix, on the left.