Published: Wednesday, 8 May 2019 at 11:29:00 AM
Local jobs, niche experience and graduate opportunities are at the forefront of the Yakamia Creek biofiltration wetland project currently underway in Albany.
The $1 million joint venture between the City of Albany and the State Government’s Regional Estuaries initiative aims to improve the health of the creek through water filtration and erosions prevention methods, and is also offering TAFE graduates exposure to a unique industry
Scott Bickford recently completed a certificate III and IV in horticulture and a certificate III in landscape construction and is currently working on the project.
“It’s really good to get out and do some work that has a bigger, practical purpose” Scott said. “I used to come down to this area as a kid and it never looked particularly good. It’ll be great to see it done up. And have that sense of pride and connection to the work that you do.”
City of Albany Senior Civil Engineering Officer Austin Rogerson is leading the project and said the City is delighted the project is benefiting the local community while improving the water quality flowing through Yakamia Creek into Oyster Harbour.
“Rather than hiring out to an external company, the City of Albany is the main contractor on the project. This means that we have kept control of who is doing the work – we get to pick local contractors that are specialists in the field and in doing so we are getting mums, dads and local businesses involved,” Mr Rogerson said.
“We are hoping Scott will be able to stay all the way through from the earthmoving program all the way through to planting – it would look great on his resume and give him commercial skills that he won’t be able to get in other areas of Albany because we don’t get site reclamation projects of this scale very often.”
The Yakamia Creek project is transforming 1.1 hectares into a basin vegetated with native sedges, low shrubs and tall trees which is designed to strip nutrients from the water before flowing back into the creek.
Earthworks are almost complete and planting will commence this month with the project expected to be complete later this year.
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