Moremac Property Group wins UDIA Award for environmental excellence for The Point in Point Lonsdale
The Melbourne-based house and land developer Moremac Property Group has taken the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) award in the Environmental Excellence category for their Point Lonsdale project The Point.
Moremac was recognised for having established the most sophisticated tidally based waterway in Victoria, as well as developing a complex sustainability master plan for its residential community.
The 600 home project, which is two-thirds in to its development, offers house and land packages with blocks ranging from 350 sqm to 700 sqm and priced from $374,000, as well as a collection of townhomes.
Moremac purchased the land on the Bellarine Peninsula in 2013 which had been unrehabilitated after having been mined for shell grit for over four decades.
They undertook a recovery plan to breathe life back to the area and grow an estate that protected and enhanced the natural ecosystem.
This included designing a fully monitored water quality solution to protect the RAMSAR-listed Swan Bay, Lakes Cutting and Lake Victoria which effectively blended environmental conservation with urban development and delivered a solution for potential sea-level rise from climate change.
Moremac project director Doug Vallance said that given the significant site degradation, rigid compliance frameworks and approval hurdles had to be overcome at Federal, State and Local Government level.
“We inherited an abused site with soil contamination and illegally dumped waste; parts of the site were hyper saline and the concentration of salinity was increasing," Vallance said.
“The nutrient load that was coming through from Lake Victoria was also something that needed to be managed.”
“It was a complex undertaking, one that required the team to address environmental, structural, political, and social challenges.”
Designed in harmony with the coastal landscape, The Point residences are built along 6.2 kilometres of winding canals, engineered to be self-sustaining by the flushing tides in a single direction to maintain water quality around the waterway.
“The Point has been a one-on-one lesson on how to undertake development within a coastal environment, and in one of the most challenging spots across Australia.”
“There is another set of culverts to be built under the Bellarine Highway, which will assist in completing the loop in the waterways so you get the full tidal flushing movement.”
“At the moment it’s a push-pull tidal movement, rather than a full flush - there is also some culverts to be built under Fellows Road as part of the next phase of construction.”
Vallance says The Point has been one of Moremac’s most rewarding projects.