A win for wildlife and the community with SMART solar lights along Throsby Creek in Newcastle
Client
Carrington Community Council
Lighting Compliance
AS/NZS 1158.3.1 PP4 (PIR on) PP5 (PIR off)
Project Overview
Feeding into the Hunter River flowing out of Newcastle Port and into the Pacific, Throsby Creek is an iconic part of Newcastle’s geography and history. Unfortunately, until locals began campaigning for itsrejuvenation in the late 1980s, it had experienced a long period of neglect and was heavily polluted.In 2001, a major rejuvenation strategy was released, and in recent years, members of a community council from the suburb of Carrington began a campaign to fund lighting for a previously unlit 750m stretch of pathway along the creek.
A history of neglect meant a highly contaminated site
Despite the rejuvenation work, the creek’s long history of neglect and pollution had resulted in a site containing highly reactive soils due to built-up toxic metal and waste residues. The Carrington Community Council’s two initial applications for lighting funding from the Newcastle Port Authority were unsuccessful, mainly due to concerns that the conventional grid lighting initially proposed might further disrupt the environment – whilst also coming with a significant financial cost.
Carrington Community Council's third funding application proposes Leadsun’s
For their third application, it was crucial that the committee – under the project management of Moir Landscape Architecture – find the right supplier to design a lighting system that would be robust enough to endure the test of time and not introduce further contaminants into the soil. They invited Leadsun to design the solution, which included EZYfoot concrete-less, footings using stainless steel micro-piles that would not corrode nor release further contaminants into the soil.
Leadsun delivers well ahead of required 6 months
Under the conditions of the grant funding, the lighting solution needed to be delivered within six months. However, given the easy installation afforded by the innovative design of Leadsun lights – which require no trenching, use concrete-less footings and are easily raised by two people with the help of EZYtilt poles – Leadsun was able to take the project from procurement to installation within 8 weeks.
Win for the budget, for the community and for the wildlife
In total, Leadsun installed 26 lights with warm 3000K LED modules along the 750m stretch of Throsby Creek pathway, at 30% of the cost of the original traditional cabled lighting proposed. Community safety has also been positively affected by the new lights, with evening foot traffic along the path significantly increasing.
From an environmental perspective, not only do Leadsun’s stainless steel lighting components mean no corrosion nor contaminants re-introduced into the soil, the installation itself causes minimal disruption to the wildlife ecosystem. Also, Leadsun’s lighting designers ensures adherence with various technical lighting specifications around base lighting tones and levels designed to cause minimal disruption to wildlife, especially those that are nocturnal.
People visiting this stretch of Throsby Creek now report not only feeling safer thanks to the lights, but seeing a lot more native wildlife back enjoying the area – which in the end, is the ultimate path back to the creek’s rejuvenation.
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