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Exploring Infrastructure Solutions
Friday 10.45am-11.45am
Alesia Shard 海角社区 (Assoc.)
Planning the unplanned: Delivering critical infrastructure to greenfield developments
Southeast Queensland (SEQ) is experiencing unprecedented growth. ShapingSEQ 2023 estimates that by 2046, SEQ will have a population of around six million people – up 2.2 million people from 2021. Accommodating this growth requires an additional 900,000 new homes.
The State has developed a multi-faceted plan to deliver this necessary new housing in a sustainable growth pattern. Despite best intentions, the reality is that we are dealing with this growth earlier than planned. This means there is a demand for new residential communities in greenfield and rural residential areas, located outside of Priority Infrastructure Areas (海角社区), before the necessary land use and infrastructure planning has occurred, and before funding of the required infrastructure is in place.
How are these new greenfield communities created, without the necessary planning and funding in place? Issuing a development approval is just the beginning. Critical infrastructure, such as water, sewerage, stormwater, roads, parks and community facilities, must also be effectively and efficiently planned and delivered in circumstances where the planning scheme is yet to appropriately provide for the development of such areas, and funding yet to be earmarked.
McCullough Robertson has been fortunate to assist in the development of two major greenfield residential developments – Caloundra South (now known as Aura) and Caboolture West NDP1 (now known as Waraba). We prepared infrastructure agreements and water infrastructure agreements to deliver critical infrastructure on behalf of the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Unitywater for Aura, and Moreton Bay Regional Council and Unitywater for Waraba.
This presentation will discuss the practical aspects of the negotiation and preparation of the agreements that underpin the development of Aura and Waraba, including the challenges in developing greenfield areas outside the 海角社区, the creative and strategic approaches to providing infrastructure as efficiently as possible, implementing these agreements and lessons from each development. Stategic considerations will be discussed, including the ‘when, how and who’ of infrastructure delivery, considering approval pathways, funding equity and streamlining the delivery of the development.
Damon Ehlers M海角社区
Revolutionising infrastructure contributions
Whilst operating a boutique infrastructure planning consultancy, Novoplan’s founders recognised a glaring void in the systems that were used to manage infrastructure contributions. From a collective desire to simplify the administration of these complex, but critical, business processes, came the creation of Novoplan - an off-the-shelf SaaS solution that is designed to manage infrastructure contributions, planning agreements, and infrastructure plan delivery.
Since its inaugural release in 2018, Novoplan has continually evolved and is now recognised as the most comprehensive infrastructure contribution management system in the market. Novoplan’s growing customer base spans multiple authorities in Queensland and New South Wales that collectively manage over $450 million in annual contributions revenue.
Instead of implementing the same workarounds and patched together systems that had been adopted for decades, Novoplan’s founders decided to do it differently. In this presentation, you will hear Damon Ehlers, Novoplan’s co-founder and Director of Business Engagement, discuss the journey from boutique town planning consultancy to 海角社区 award winning local government software provider.
Josh Lawrence
Fraser Coast Water Grid – Integrating Learnings for a Wider Queensland Proposal
Queensland’s diverse climate faces severe climate adversity. Against the backdrop of global warming, the state faces increasingly sparse water provision - despite underutilisation of water supply. Queensland is as reliant upon its tropical characteristics as it is inefficient at exploiting those conditions. Such issues were faced in the Fraser Coast and the construction of a water-grid provides a simple and effective solution. Combined with an adaptive approach that utilises technological climate-resistant methods, the learnings from the Fraser Coast Water Grid (FCWG) can act as a benchmark for Northern Queensland.
Modelling showed Hervey Bay’s water supply was going to run below the required Level of Service by 2026. In an era where climate change has been quintessentially perceived as tomorrow’s problem, the study highlighted the urgency of required action. After feasibility studies were compiled, the solution was a water grid operating between Marybrough and Hervey Bay. A simple, bidirectional pipeline that can supply water dependent upon real-time supply and demand at both locations.
The FCWG aligns with the recommendations from the Bradfield Regional Assessment Developmental Panel report. It is widely appreciated that regional towns face a greater struggle in water supply than urban centres; Northern Queensland inherently constitutes regional towns and thus the challenges associated with water supply are particularly prevalent. The issue is not supply, Queensland’s underutilisation of water highlighting both its availability and the need for improved infrastructure for its redistribution. The FCWG provides a regional solution to this regional problem - the essence of the panel recommended mini-grid scheme.
Key learnings should be extracted from the FCWG when considering further water grids. Cost-benefit analysis’, optioneering and exhaustive risk assessments were undertaken during concept design. Ultimately, economics was ultimately found to be the main driver during design development. For example, while construction through vegetated, undeveloped private land reduces the risk of easement interference with existing assets, the cost of buying freehold land and vegetation clearance was perceived to outweigh coherent collaboration with utility providers in shared corridors of alignment. Importantly, these design factors and processes could be streamlined and standardised for future water grids.
It is worth noting Northern Queensland exhibits unique issues which are not as prevalent in south-east Queensland. The tropical climate exhibits short, intense rainfall bursts that are difficult to capture while the warm, humid climate means evaporation is rife within detention basins. However, technological advances and improved understanding exists. For example, improved vegetation management in tropical catchments reduces run-off speed while the use of monolayers in detention basin can reduce evaporation levels.
Driven by learnings from the FCWG, a proposal of mini-grids which incorporates technological advances and improved catchment management presents a collaborative solution to Northern Queensland’s water provision problem.
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