City of Bayswater

Peters Place Reserve Living Stream

By transforming the drain to mimic a natural living stream, nutrients from stormwater are now captured rather than transferred to larger waterways. Since carrying out the transformation, the City has seen a 30% reduction in the amount of nutrients entering the Swan River from the Bayswater Brook, the City’s wider drainage system.

The barren patch of grass and remnants of a long drainage channel has been replaced with a flourishing micro wetland.

Improving liveability in the neighbourhood

Through their transformation of Peters Place, the City has improved amenity and liveability in the local area. Once barren and overgrown with weeds and grass, Peters Place is now a suburban sanctuary home to a plethora of reintroduced, native wildlife and plant species. The City also credits this project for helping them reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect and build their resilience against climate change.

As part of our Drainage for Liveability Program, the City of Bayswater have managed to improve the water quality whilst maintaining the drainage needs for the area. The City recognised the link between water management, healthy green environments and liveability, and therefore the need to improve the quality of water running into our major waterways.

Living streams are a natural way to strip nutrients from wastewater and prevent this runoff. Peters Place was planned and designed to replicate the way water travels in the natural environment, allowing groundwater to be recharged.

This innovative method of addressing stormwater quality at the source, and the City’s commitment to improve liveability in their neighbourhood, has had countless social and environmental benefits.

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