Melbourne Revisited

We have come down to Melbourne for the Stormwater conference.  It is being held this year at the Sofitel Hotel on Collins.  It is a beautiful location for what is the second National Conference.  There are presenters from overseas as well as from around the country and we are here to learn from each other.

It is interesting to see what our peers in Melbourne are working on.  The large presence of Melbourne Water in the industry makes it a lot easier for projects to get funded and implemented.  We learn about the 10,000 rain garden project where residents are encouraged to build their own raingarden at home.  Well thought out pamphlets explain how this can be done simply and they have now passed the halfway mark in this ambitious goal.

We visit the Melbourne goal on our only evening off, and learn about the horrific treatment these inmates suffered.  Ned Kelly himself met his end at these gallows.

The technical tour is one of the best I have been on.  We visit a stormwater harvesting projects and marvel at the technology that can treat water that was once considered a nuisance to a quality that is virtually fit for drinking.  We visit an aquifer re-charge project and once again are taken aback at the scale of the projects here.  It is a great day of learning and looking and we leave Melbourne exhausted but full enthusiasm and ideas to share and implement.

 

“Water is the driving force of all nature.”   Leonardo da Vinci