Project Name

Parklakes 2

Location

Bli Bli, Sunshine Coast

Client

Parklakes II Developments Pty Ltd

Description of Project

Master Planning and project management of large residential development that comprises 550 lots, school, retirement village, community park, K-12 catholic education, and various key environmental management systems to support this community as sustainably as possible.

Value of Project

$180 Million

In 2004 Covey was tasked with the job of developing an innovative, sustainable and inclusive master planned community that families would flock to. Over the next 15 years, we worked tirelessly with the developers to deliver on that vision.

“We didn’t want to create a cookie-cutter development that just had rows and rows of houses” said the developers Peter Shadforth & Robert Flipp. “We wanted to create a real community”. The project needed to be
functional and accessible for all types of people. The idea was to create a central hub with lakes, a playground, walking tracks and a bustling café. Other key considerations for this master planned development were to include a Catholic Education facility, that catered to kids from Kindergarten all the way through to Year 12. Halcyon Lakes, a premiere Over 50s’ Community, is also part of Parklakes 2, truly making this community one that considers all demographics, and the results have been outstanding.

With a vision to create this inclusive, diverse and sustainable community, the Parklakes 2 developers gave the scope of works to Covey to manage in its entirety. The team at Covey set to work on creating some world leading systems that now set the benchmark for master planned communities in Australia moving forwards, including a world first floating wetland system, an all-abilities playground, a popular local cafe, and a K-12 Catholic educational facility.

“We wanted to do something new and innovative to treat water and manage the health of the three central lakes. So to achieve this, we established a design to incorporate the largest floating wetland established in a greenfield development to date.” Said Dr Chris Walker - Covey’s Water & Environment Manager..

Covey has a highly skilled and innovative Bushfire team on staff and so this was all part of or service to the developers. As the development was surrounded by preserved bushland, careful attention was required
to manage all aspects of bushfire risk. In another novel approach, the Covey Bushfire team managed prescribed burns in the area as part of the early site works to significantly reduce fuel loads and weed species within the bushland area... These prescribed burns were carried out prior to any building works and bushfire management plans were created with the end development in mind. Covey has a highly skilled and innovative Bushfire team on staff and so this was all part of or service to the developers.

Covey has an extensive range of capabilities and highly skilled and experienced key staff. Collectively, we were able to expertly handle all facets of the master planned community, including all elements associated with Civil, Environmental, and Landscaping design, flood modelling analyses, Bushfire management, Planning, and the Hydraulics design for the Catholic Education facility.

This project commenced in 2014 and works are largely finalised. The end result of well-conceived, sustainable, and innovative community that hundreds of families now call home.

Covey has been instrumental in the project management, planning, civil design and documentation, supervision of construction and contract administration for delivering this Sunshine Coast estate.

This iconic development won the Queensland UDIA’s Consultants Excellence Award in 2017 and was also a finalist in the Master Planned Developments and Environmental Excellence categories. Robert Flipp concluded, “Covey certainly came up with some amazing concepts that ended up winning UDIA awards, we couldn’t be happier with the end result.”

• The estate comprises of 550 residential lots
  
• A large K-12 School (with 1500 students)
  
• A Retirement Village
  
• 1.4ha Central community park with 7 senses, all-abilities playground
  
• Bustling Cafe
  
• A tiered detention lake system
  
• A Floating Wetland Treatment System to manage stormwater and lake health
  
• Sewerage pump station & rising main
  
• New intersections and roads to better manage traffic flow
  
• Novel and innovative bushfire management systems