Pakenham Racecourse Relocation: Balancing Stormwater Needs

Pakenham Racing Club purchased a 250-ha greenfield site at Tynong to develop a new racing and training facility. The site is located within a floodplain and external to local drainage schemes, so extensive investigations were required to prepare a stormwater strategy. Environmental assessment identified growling grass frogs (an endangered species) residing on the site.

Pakenham Racing Club engaged Dalton Consulting Engineers (DCE) as principal consultant for the design and construction of the new facility. In addition to new habitat ponds for the growling grass frogs, the stormwater strategy also needed to provide overland flow paths for major-events, a stormwater harvest system to ensure adequate water for irrigating the racecourse and stormwater quality treatment.

DCE developed RORB, MUSIC and TUFLOW stormwater models to simulate stormwater flows on-site. The modelling was used to ensure that all aspects of the stormwater strategy would function as designed and that vegetation will be protected from scour. DCE received a 12d International Innovation Award in 2012 for design work on the project.

The first works to take place on site were the environmental works to construct suitable habitat for the growling grass frogs. Once the habitat ponds were established, construction on the remainder of the site began in 2012. Pakenham Racecourse received a grant from the Office of Living Victoria (state government) for rock and vegetation components of the low-impact development infrastructure in 2014.

The paper and presentation will be a case study of the Pakenham project from a low-impact development perspective. The technical problems overcome via flood modelling will be addressed.