City Botanic Gardens Water Reticulation Upgrade

Sixteen directional drilling bores carried a new potable and irrigation network under 18 hectares of Brisbane's City Botanic Gardens. The network supplies the garden beds, the café, RiverStage, the QUT ferry terminal and the services on the Goodwill Bridge, which all relied on an aged supply that had been failing regularly.

The gardens are a State Heritage Place with continuous horticultural history since 1828, and the ground carries exceptional archaeological potential. An open trench across them was out of the question. Bores joined a small number of pits, and several ran near and directly beneath historical trees, guided by arborist advice. Walkers and cyclists used the gardens as normal for the whole job, and the one open cut was a live connection to the cast iron main in George Street.