Another advantage to this design approach is that it has inbuilt flexibility. Any species that fail to perform as expected can be replaced with little disruption to the impact of the whole.
The responsibility of organising the contractors fell to Camden Council’s Capital Works Engineer, Paul Fairweather. Turf removal, hard landscaping, soil remediation, irrigation and lighting – all were accomplished in a linear bed, with not much room to move around the existing trees.
Adam Beckingham of Lamond landscape contractors describes how it was done. “All existing turf was carefully stripped from around the advanced trees, this being done with a mini excavator and a very good operator.”
At this point TerraCottem was added at the specified rate along with worm castings – “to create a biological base where microbial activity will be boosted which in turn improves nutri-ent availability” – and cultivated to a depth of 200mm.
Things became more complicated when it was time to put in the conduits for the irrigation and lighting. Says Paul Fair-weather, “We’d hoped to make use of the existing conduits but couldn’t. Some, which weren’t deep enough, we ended up encasing in concrete for safety. We also had to under-bore the road through the old macadam pavement. This is a section of the old Hume Highway and we were told that there’d be no way we’d get through, but we did, up and into the centre median without hitting the services.” By the time all site preparation was done it was a little like the proverbial mad woman’s knitting. “It didn’t look like there was much room left for the plants.” And in this case the planting density was high, with the sections of English Box sourced as advanced hedge almost 500 high.
As Adam explains, from go to whoa the project took three weeks. “Camden main street is busy, so we worked between six pm and six am the next day, five days a week, under lights.” But the result has been worth it. “In the six months since planting the plants have established and are showing good signs of health.”
Paul agrees. “We’ve had a minor loss here and there but otherwise it’s looking good and the trees are looking much better.” As for the community’s response, “Apart from one crack about the caged tree lights looking like dingo cages, everyone has been really positive about the project. We’ve specified TerraCottem on other projects around Camden, and one in particular- the Narellan Urban Forest Cumberland Plain remnant woodland - has done really well with long periods without rain and no plant loss.”
Adam’s thoughts on TerraCottem are similar. “When we apply anything we use it as per manufacturer’s instructions with no exceptions. It’s a good product. It retains moisture in the soil – you can see it.”

Stat Power

Anyone who was at last year’s Parks and Leisure Conference will know that John Murray* won the TC sponsored award. John makes no secret that he thinks TerraCottem works, but that’s not why he won.

Those people who heard him speak will know why. It’s because he is worth putting up on a pedestal - an open space manager who deserves a closer look. His background, experience, methods and results are all good, and he’s a no-nonsense person who is happy to share what he can with anyone, without a hint of smugness or self-promotion. He’s also a record-keeper, so if you missed the chance to catch up with John at the conference, here’s the essence of what he had to say. But before that, let’s get a sense of the scope of his role at South Perth.
John’s patch is small – 19.9 square kilometres, which includes 19 kilometres of Swan River frontage – but it’s made up of a high proportion of green space to built environment (4.66 square kilometres to be precise). John and his team of 19 are responsible for everything green apart from the turf, and that includes the City’s nursery.
As you’d expect, water for irrigation heavily influences the de-cisions of how best to manage these spaces. “We don’t have a lot of water. The bores are licensed from the authority and we’re told how much we can take each year. Given there’s been up to a metre and a half loss in the bore heads, we’re actively reducing and in some places eliminating our dependence on water.”
And this they’re doing though hydrozoning – in this case differentiating between active and passive recreation areas and irri-gating accordingly. It may not be a ground-breaking approach, and neither is making these decisions based on accurate data collected over time. What is almost astonishing is that John actually has this data, and that’s because he puts into practice what too many of us agree we should be doing, but, for whatever reason, don’t. And he’s been doing it for years…
“I was taught to do it right at the outset and I’ve done it in
every job since. It started in viticulture, making notes: when we

pruned; when we sprayed; what we sprayed; how much we put on. Keeping records is ridiculously easy. Without them you can’t go back to work out what you did.”
As John points out, it’s even easier to keep records now that we’ve moved on from hard copy to spreadsheets. “I monitor growth each quarter, taking with me the last print out. I make my notes on the sheet then enter it into the spreadsheet later.”
It was this combination - the need to use less water together with John’s stash of rock-solid records - that led to South Perth’s testing TerraCottem back in 1999. In short, John was limited by the water truck which was stretched trying to establish 200 new trees each year. He’d been looking for something to help the sandy soil retain precious water, and it was his own record keeping during trials that showed that TerraCottem was the answer. These same records would also help him convince those approving the purchase orders.
“I ran the trial for two years, planting some very poor tree stock from the old nursery in a range of situations. In each the last five trees were planted without TerraCottem and in every case they died. We replanted several more times and again they failed. On the fourth planting we used TerraCottem and they thrived.”
But there was more to be gained than just survival. “The pho-tos tell the best story but the measurements backed up their overall performance. So I went to the boss with the requisition and when he picked himself off the floor – it’s not cheap stuff – I said, “Look at this. Look at what this stuff’s done”, and there was no argument about the savings.”
Obviously record keeping pays off. In this case South Perth is being made greener with less water and less money – the data proves it. “We’ve gone from 200 trees planted per year, up to 1200 using no extra resources apart from the TerraCottem.”

For anyone thinking of making better use of data collection – which for John has proved to be an essential adaptive management tool – here are some tips from the man himself.
Be factual. Keep your notes short. It may seem obvious to say so, but note both what the planting stock looks like and when it was planted. Make a record of how the soil was amended – with what and how much, and in the case of a trial, which plants are to act as the control. Then monitor progress quarterly, noting height, girth and an overall sense of their performance. Tuck it all away in a spread sheet and just keep adding in the updates.
*John’s family ran Wilson & Johns (1895–1966), the famous Western Australian wholesale and retail nursery; he’s spent 35 years in horticulture and is currently Streetscapes and Environ-ment Supervisor for the City of South Perth.