Biodiversity sensitive urban design @ the cape

The Sustainable Landscape Company is contributing to the delivery of The Cape – a zero emissions housing community in Cape Paterson, bursting with thriving wildlife and urban biodiversity.
 
The Cape estate overlooks Bass Strait near Phillip Island and is rapidly transforming a degraded former cattle station into thriving habitat site for residents as well as flora and fauna. A growing number of carbon neutral, solar powered, energy efficient homes are being built across the 230 dwelling estate, while the landscape team is simultaneously taking cleared paddocks previously covered in pasture grass and weeds, and creating wetland, habitat corridors and wild zones. A range of habitats are being designed and constructed, followed by planting programs that are installing hundreds of thousands of biodiverse coastal plants. The result is a rapid increase in wildlife numbers and diversity being recorded on the site in the past three years, with more than 95 species of birds recorded on site to date, as well a dramatic increase in the frog population, reptiles, insect diversity and an increase in observation of mammals on site including kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, microbats and swamp antechinus.

The Cape is well known for setting a national benchmark for sustainable energy efficient housing, with homes averaging over 8 star energy efficiency coupled with solar power and energy efficient fitout, a national first, and is the home of Victoria’s first 10 star home. A recent RMIT/Renew study showed that the homes are using 88% less energy than a state average dual fuel home. Establishing an energy positive, operationally carbon neutral estate underscores the Cape’s leadership in taking positive action on climate change which is a major threat to global biodiversity.

However, The Cape is less well known for its championing of Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design, implemented at the estate using the skills of The Sustainable Landscape Company (TSLC). The Cape has put in place a wide range of initiatives to create viable habitat for an increasing population of flora and fauna now cohabiting with the growing residential community. This process commenced with the decision to choose a cleared and degraded ex-cattle farm as the site to build the estate, instead of choosing to build housing on significant bushland, The Cape has made a firm commitment to actively restore the site to support some of the biodiversity that would have existed on the site before it was cleared for cattle many decades ago.
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TSLC Construction Manager, Paul Oakley, onsite at The Cape

​​Working with The Cape, TSLC has designed and built the estate landscape including a shared path network connecting formalised parks, a community garden, and play spaces with informal sheltered viewing points and rest stops within the wetland and habitat corridors. Other biodiversity-focused initiatives include: ​​

​Plantings

• Collecting a diverse seed bank and curation of cuttings from locally indigenous plants from remnant vegetation in the area to grow hundreds of thousands of plants to provenance in TSLC's Nursery, to replant on site
• Restoring creek lines, wetlands and waterways throughout the estate
• Undertaking earthworks to transform steep-walled cattle dams into biodiversity wetlands, which creates a gentle gradient that is better suited for a wide diversity of indigenous aquatic and ephemeral plants to establish
• Installation of habitat rocks and logs to encourage basking and perching for native frogs and waterbirds
• Wetlands have been designed to filter stormwater runoff from roads, and planted out with a large diversity of indigenous plants
• Vegetated swales have been created along roadsides to capture and filter stormwater, helping with urban cooling and creating significant habitat
• Careful preparation of planting areas including installation of jutemat and mulch to suppress weed competition during plant establishment phase.
• Planting of all habitat areas with a high density of indigenous plants to allow for rapid establishment of plantings and to outcompete weeds
• Maintenance of revegetated areas by skilled and qualified staff to control pests and weeds as plantings establish, minimizing the use of herbicides
• Residents are encouraged to use local habitat plants in their own residential landscapes

Planning

• TSLC has used earth works and vegetation to blend the public and private landscapes whilst balancing residents' privacy with opportunities for social and habitat connections 
• Wildlife corridors have been created to connect to the nearby coastal reserve to extend range and habitat of local animals
• 'Stepping Stone' tree and shrub habitat plantings to allow small coastal birds such as Fairy Wrens to travel safely into new habitat areas and connect to productive home gardens and streetscapes
• 'Wild Zones' are fenced off, with remnant and restored habitat areas and wetlands to allow waterbirds and wildlife to live undisturbed by residents and dogs
• Habitat 'Stag' trees have been installed to recreate perch points for birds that disappeared when all of the trees were cleared from the property decades ago
• Cape Paterson is home to a remnant koala population, and The Cape is replanting a number of Eucalyptus species that are the preferred habitat and food source for this species. 
• Roads within the estate have been traffic calmed to slow traffic movements, reducing chance of animals being hit by cars

Policy

• An off-lead Dog Park has been built to allow dogs to exercise in a protected, fenced zone-- with the rest of the development requiring dogs to be leashed
• The Cape is a 'cat free' development, based on research showing that cats exact an enormous toll on bird and native animal populations
• The Cape's housing design guidelines require permeable fencing when homes face out onto habitat zones, in order to facilitate safe passage of wildlife, such as echidnas, through the estate
• Landscape design guidelines encourage and specify local coastal plants for household landscapes and prohibit a range of invasive weed species

Positive outcomes

• The Cape's residents are becoming actively involved in observing and recording wildlife, with bird enthusiasts living in the estate recording bird species visiting the site and residing in the expanding habitat areas. They have counted over 96 species!
• Residents are also getting involved in growing plants for the ecological restoration of the site
• Enhanced habitat areas and wetland are now resulting in special species calling The Cape home, including Japanese Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii), an international migratory bird. Wetlands and paths have been redesigned in order to expand habitat for the Japanese snipe
• Residents are also building bird and microbat nesting boxes and insect hotels to enhance the habitat values of the site, and encourage residence of native insects such as the Blue Banded Bee
• Floristic diversity has expanded onsite with the introduction of over 100 species of indigenous plants
• Frog, mammal, bird, insect and reptile populations have boomed due to these biodiversity plantings and prioritisation

The usual image of a housing project is bulldozers clearing remnant vegetation followed by asphalt, concrete, lawns and suburbia, followed by the decline of nature in that area. The Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design approach is showing that good design, science, clever planting and site management can create the conditions for the growth of biodiversity on degraded sites in housing estates. Best of all, the residents have embraced it – creating habitat and introducing nature back into our urban form is beneficial for people’s wellbeing and mental health.
 
Going for an evening walk and watching parrots and microbats feeding on wetlands, or seeing echidnas gamboling across front yards and kangaroos lazing in the parks is attracting nature-loving residents and giving children the opportunity to delight in our natural world. We are delighted to see this site rebound with nature moving in alongside our residents, and this unique wildlife friendly approach is proving up a model for how housing estates and communities to show that some of the investment in housing estates can also create space and habitat for wildlife including species that are increasingly under pressure from urbanisation, habitat fragmentation and climate change.

Kangaroos at Sunset, David Hartney 2020

Thanks to resident of The Cape, David Hartney, for the amazing images of animals onsite at the estate.
All other photos of landscape are credited to Will Hamilton-Coates, 2020.