The Challenge
Victoria’s State Netball Hockey Centre in Parkville is a world-class sporting venue catering to a variety of sports at a local, state and international level.
Maintaining the centre’s two synthetic wet hockey pitches to international standards required around 24 megalitres of drinking quality water every year.
This huge drain on Melbourne’s water resources was a concern shared by sportsmen and women, the wider community and the Centre’s management. In response, the State Netball Hockey Centre took up the challenge to find an alternative source of water.
The Project
The Centre was awarded a Smart Water Fund grant to research and introduce a recycled water harvesting scheme allowing for the irrigation of pitches with recycled water from a range of sources.
Instead of using water direct from Melbourne’s dwindling reserves, the scheme allows rainwater collected from pitch areas and roofing to be stored in four 45 kilolitre underground tanks.
The stored water is treated before use. Overflow from the tanks irrigates the centre’s native plants, while the bulk of the water irrigates the hockey pitches.
The Outcome
Lessons Learnt
The State Netball Hockey Centre has created the first hockey facility with a water-recycling system of this kind in the world.
“The Centre will host the hockey and netball competitions during the 2006 Commonwealth Games,” said Simon Weatherill, CEO, State Netball Hockey Centre.
“With the enormous influx of visitors expected to the centre during the Games, we will be able to display our world class sporting abilities and showcase a world first in water conservation,” he said.
The Benefits
The new recycled water system will save 19 of the 24 megalitres the State Netball Hockey Centre uses each year on the pitches, reducing its use of drinking quality water by 80 per cent.
The initiative will not only result in significant water savings but will also deliver financial savings for the Centre.
The Centre will be a highly visible demonstration of Victoria’s Green Commonwealth Games and will provide a blueprint for future sustainable water use projects both in Australia and overseas.
