New Town Rivulet Estuary Restoration Project

The City of Hobart, in partnership with Glenorchy City Council, has started work on a New Town Rivulet project. The project is to return the heavily concreted outlet to a natural, estuarine environment.

Access to the rowing club will be maintained throughout project.

It is expected to be completed by August 2025, weather permitting.

Why is this project important?

• The concrete embankment walls are up to 60 years old. They are beginning to degrade, risking bank erosion.
• It will help bring back native waterbirds, aquatic life and create a beautiful natural area for residents. This is through replacing the concrete walls with bouldering and other natural materials. As well as planting out the area with native plants.
• The project will formalise parking and walking tracks to improve accessibility and amenity.
• Native plants and landscaping help trap sediment and historical contamination of river beds. They help stabilise embankments.

What to expect from this project

The current weir will remain. Its structure will be improved to help prevent sediment build-up at the rivulet mouth.

Excavated materials will be managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. They will be re-used for landscaping near the rivulet mouth. A new maintenance access ramp off Marine Esplanade will allow for the regular removal of accumulated sediment.

This project will:

• benefit local birdlife
• improve estuarine health in the River Derwent
• create a beautiful recreational area for residents.

The plans have been updated following feedback from the community. This included suggestions to widen new gravel paths to ensure they are accessible for people of all abilities.

Native plantings

The project will involve major earthworks and landscaping. We will plant almost 45 000 native trees, shrubs, water plants and grasses.

More than 30 different native species will be planted as part of this project. The species Tasmanian blue gums, white gums, silver banksia and Tasmanian flax-lily.

Nearly half the plants that will be used onsite have been grown and cared for by our own nursery team.

We have collected local seeds of the rare plant species sea clubsedge. We are growing them into tube stock specially for this project.

This will be one of, if not the largest tree planting initiatives we have ever undertaken.

Background

The community provided feedback on the draft designs through the Your Say Hobart website.

The project builds on a concept described in the New Town Rivulet Sediment Weir Removal Feasibility Report. This was prepared by Dryside Engineering in October 2021, and complements the 2009 Selfs Point Masterplan.

The project consists of two distinct phases:

Stage one: Design, investigations, approvals and stakeholder relations.

Stage two: Construction of the approved design solution.

Extensive site investigations were conducted as part of stage one, including:

• detailed site survey
• geotechnical assessment of site stability
• assessment of legacy contamination from past land management practice
• flora and fauna assessments, including arboreal assessment of existing mature trees.

Stage two is the the construction phase. It will involve some disruption to public access of the area. Surrounding residents and organisations will be kept informed of project developments.

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Location

Marine Esplanade, New Town 7008  View Map