Council is committed to addressing community concerns relating to the Beach Milieu Pond at Aquarius Park.

To address these concerns, Council has engaged AECOM Australia Pty Ltd (one of Australia’s leading Engineering Consultants) to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the Beach Milieu Pond.

The purpose of the investigation is to provide Council with a better understanding of the function of the pond and determine how the pond should be best managed and optimised.

The investigation is being delivered over 3 phases as follows:

Phase 1 – Data Collection

Following our last progress update in April 2022, sediment sampling of the pond has been completed.

Sediment samples were collected from multiple different locations within the pond. Since then, AECOM has undertaken a fertility assessment of the samples which included an analysis of the nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and heavy metals present in the soil.

Undertaking sediment sampling has been a vitally important part of the investigation to inform us of the sediment composition within the pond.

This phase of the investigation is now complete.

Phase 2 – Optioneering

Unfortunately, due to COVID and key AECOM team members leaving the organisation, progress on this phase of the project took longer than anticipated.

AECOM finalised their investigation and we have undertaken a detailed review, with the findings presented to Council.

The investigation and outcomes will now be made available to the community for your input and feedback. We are planning to undertake this in November, and we will continue to keep you updated on our progress.

Phase 3 – Finalisation

Based on outcomes of the investigation and community feedback, recommendations on how to best manage and optimise the Beach Milieu Pond will be finalised.

We appreciate this investigation has taken longer than anticipated to complete, but given the long history of community concerns, it is important for everyone that the information is well understood, and we determine the most appropriate management strategy for the Beach Milieu Pond.

Draft Report

You can read the Draft Report here.

Whitepaper

You can read the Whitepaper here.