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The brightly coloured playground equipment provides physical, tactile and visual entertainment for children of all ages and abilities.  A number of educational pieces allow for passive play and the ‘village road and shops’ concept incorporated into the design encourages children to role play.  The gardens surrounding the playground extend the exciting play space.  The garden design and plant selection encourages children to explore the gardens and discover the variety of plants.  A ‘secret’ entrance to the playground features mosaic artwork incorporating designs created by the children living and playing in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Tenterfield Playground brochure [PDF]
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Baxter Park is an extremely popular district level recreation setting catering for a wide range of sporting and recreational activities.  The park is approximately 60 hectares.  Frankston City Council proposed to further develop the park to create a focal point and central community hub for local residents and visitors.  Collie was appointed by Frankston City Council to:

• review of the existing Landscape Masterplan and assess its implications for the design development stage.
• resolve vehicle access and parking and introduce new exits to the site.
• integrate pedestrian and bicycle pathways.
• incorporate existing drainage swales in design layout and identify those needing relocation or crossing points.
• design the central hub and recreational facilities including location for picnic shelter and associated facilities and toilet block.
• identify opportunities for habitat creation and planting.

 The Collie proposal included a dynamic central hub for community activity within a setting rich in character and sympathetic to the environmental setting.

Baxter Park brochure [PDF]

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The project site, on which the Kodak factory was situated for many years, is now undergoing redevelopment.  It is approximately 20 hectares in area and is bounded by residential development to the east, north and south with Edgars Creek running along the western boundary.  Collie was asked to prepare a water sensitive urban design landscape concept for the site.  The landscape concept plan aimed to improve water quality, increase recycled water storage and minimize direct surface water runoff to the creek.

Key features of the landscape concept plan include:

• the incorporation of rain gardens, bio swales, permeable paving, bioretention basins and a detention tank.
• plant species selected on the basis of their sustainability and ability to withstand minimal watering regimes.
• feature canopied spotted gums on the entrance avenue for immediate visual impact to differentiate the entrance avenue from other roads in the development.  A centre median strip as part of the avenue containing a bio swale and planted with low growing ground cover to enhance the natural landscape.
• individual streets each planted with a consistent species for a visual cohesive presentation. 
• permeable paving for the lower order streets and laneways. 
• strategically located bio swales and bioretention basins within the street layout. 
• planting in streets on the edge of the development to assist in integrating the site into the surrounding area.
• a centrally located local park situated halfway between the neighbourhood hub and Edgars Creek, featuring a rain garden.
• a combination of trees, shrubs, grasses and groundcover planting on pedestrian and cycle paths along with a raingarden and a bioretention basin.
• enhanced accessibility to Edgars Creek for existing and future residents.
• provision for a retention tank, a bioretention basin and a bioswale abutting the Edgars Creek reserve to minimize direct surface water run off into the creek.
• selected trees retained from the original site for their aesthetic value.

Kodak brochure [PDF]

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The Port Fairy School had undergone major extensions and upgrades in recent years.  For this project, the key guiding objective was to provide imaginative and exciting outdoor spaces for the students.  The main issues to be addressed by Collie included, the worn out surface treatments, the limited play opportunities, the poor condition and limited welcoming appearance of the existing school entrance, the adhoc additions and upgrades which have created potential hazards, the degraded open areas and the lack of play and social interaction opportunities.  As well as resolving these issues, the Collie masterplan has extended and incorporated a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden site, fruit and vegetable growing areas and a recycling zone, into the overall landscape theme, along with artificial turf areas and large open green areas for children to play and socialise.

Port Fairy brochure [PDF]

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Located along Taylors Creek, the Lakes Reserve is a wetland and lake system designed to treat and retain surface run off from surrounding residential areas. Collie was appointed by Brimbank City Council to prepare a landscape masterplan for The Lakes Reserve district park. As part of the masterplanning process, Collie was involved in detailed site analysis and engagement with local community and stakeholder groups to determine requirements for the site.

The final masterplan was developed with the following objectives in mind.

• Protection and conservation of existing fauna and indigenous vegetation.
• Encouragement of public access to all areas of The Reserve.
• Creation of structured and safe access to water bodies.
• Ensuring efficient use of resources available.
• Ensuring the provision of facilities of a high standard (in terms of safety, durability, suitability and compatibility) and ensuring these standards are maintained.
• Creating an attractive park setting.

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A new community in the west of Melbourne, Tenterfield will eventually be home to over 3500 people over 108 hectares.

Collie has been involved form the beginning of the project providing the developer, with landscape architecture and urban design services. Key outputs have included:

• design, documentation and contract administration of landscape works including streetscapes, open spaces, playgrounds and entry features;
• collaborative design, documentation and contract administration of water sensitive urban design features including streetscape swales and wetlands;
• community consultation, including workshops and events with the residents;
• sourcing and co-ordinating public art work;
• agreements and approvals from various stakeholders including Melton Shire Council, Melbourne Water and the Wurrundjeri Tribe.

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Planning, urban design and landscape architect services for the redevelopment of the 25 hectares Laurundel Hospital site. The development was in three main precincts – the residential, Village and mixed use retail precinct. The project work included:

• collaboration with a multi-disciplinary consultant team;
• production of an initial landscape assessment report;
• assistance with the preparation of urban design options in response to site and to client requirements;
• formulation of a landscape masterplan;
• assistance with the development of the urban design manual for the residential precinct;
• asistance with tree sensitive design of residential lots;
• facilitation of statutory planning approvals for the residential precinct;
• development of statutory planning approval models for the Village and the mixed used retail precincts.

Awards

• AILA 2005 Awards (Vic)
• Peter Todd Prize in Landscape Architecture

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Tenterfield is truly an ecologically sustainable development. Water sensitive urban design principles are a core part of how Tenterfield has been designed and constructed. Bio-retention swales are included in most local streets and on main roads and as part of the over 32 hectares of public open space at Tenterfield. Collie has also designed a 1.7 hectares wetland complete with boardwalks and habitat planting. Collie has helped VicUrban achieve a development that improves significantly the water conservation and quality prior to it reaching Kororoit Creek and Port Phillip Bay.

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Collie was responsible for the documentation of the landscape works made necessary by the diversion of the Moonee Ponds Creek.

The works were part of the Victoria Dock Redevelopment aimed at improving the layout of the Port of Melbourne and as a means of separating the new Docklands development from the Port activities.

The project was the winner of the 2003 Victorian CASE Earth Awards and received a high commendation for Environment and Sustainability in the 2003 Victorian Engineering Excellence Awards.

Awards

• Victorian Engineering Excellence Awards 2003 Highly Commended in Environmental and Sustainability
• CASE EARTH Awards (Vic) 2003: Winner (Category 3) for Environmental Excellence

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The site extends along the 15 kilometres of the Upfield Railway line from Royal Park to Upfield.

The aim of the concept was to restore appropriately planned and selected indigenous vegetation along the upgraded line.

Work included community workshops, assessment of remnant vegetation, landscape analysis and the setting of strategies and priorities.

Awards

• 2001 Landscape Architects Victoria Awards
• Award of Merit in Environmental and Ecological Masterplanning

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