wagonga inlet living foreshore

This small but seminal project addresses Council’s aspirations and the community’s vision, combining the delivery of open space, environmental performance, resilient infrastructure and community amenity.  The need to replace an obsolete seawall was an opportunity to explore instead the restoration of the estuarine edge, as both expanded ecosystem and a unique catalyser of activity, for a diverse range of constituents, human and non-human.

Instead of a new seawall, we proposed a living foreshore, expanding salt marsh and mangrove habitats and offshore oyster reefs.   Investment in hard infrastructure was obviated in favour of establishing overlays of social infrastructure, allowing for a radical co-existence between human inhabitants and existing and re-established coastal ecologies.  The network of bank habitats, saltmarsh, mangrove and oyster reefs are overlaid with walking and kayak access, boardwalks, viewing platforms and a pier and jetty reinstating access to a historic swimming hole.

At the heart of our response is a recognition of the uniqueness of place, and its  ecologies, at the threshold between land and sea.  The integration of diverse ecosystems with human systems creates a new foreshore, offering a civic place responsive to changing conditions, now and into the future.