Drought is an inevitable part of Australian life—so, right from the get go, drought-proofing was a key focus for Googong, a new inland residential community south west of Queanbeyan, New South Wales. Googong was master planned from the ground up as a water resilient town, and in 25 years, the population is expected to be around 20,000 people in approximately 6,000 dwellings.
So, what was the goal? A water-resilient town with an integrated water cycle (IWC) concept that would reduce potable water consumption by up to 60%. Our job was to plan, design, and deliver the IWC concept with a state-of-the-art water recycling plant at its heart. In our plan, recycled water and rainwater are used for irrigation, toilets, gardens, and firefighting—reducing the demand on potable supplies. Additionally, the water recycling plant has a sludge treatment system that produces biosolids for reuse.
With two out of four stages of the IWC complete, Googong can support a population of 4,700 (the first of whom moved in around 2014). Stage three augmentations will up the population support to 9,400, and—with some preliminary flow monitoring analyses—we’ve seen that Googong is well on its way to supporting all 20,000 potential residents on the same amount of water that would usually support 9,000.
