THE VICTORIAN DESALINATION PROJECT AND ECOLOGICAL RESERVE

Wonthaggi, Australia
Aspect Studios

The world’s first commercial desalination plant was built in Malta in 1881. While non-industrial desalination has occurred for hundreds of years, mainly by boiling water and collecting salt, the cost of industrial desalinization has remained prohibitive. Only recently has the cost of desalinated water has decreased by half, and the number of operational desalination plants across the world has grown to over 15,000. Desalinization plants require high pressure on water resources and many available energy resources, as the process is energy, and therefore often carbon intensive when fossil fuels are used as a source. In Australia during the Millennium Drought from the late 1990s to 2009, several desalination plants were built. The Wonthaggi, or Victorian desalination plant is the largest project in Australia, completed in 2012 as a heavily criticized public-private partnership between the Victorian Government and AquaSure consortium. Part of the criticism over the project is the salty wastewater that is discharged after the desalination process, which can kill marine life, and, at its peak operating capacity, will only supply one third of the city’s drinking water. The project includes the largest green roof in Australia, planted with low irrigation, low weight grasses that camouflages the plant, as well as a wetland area where 225 hectares were restored that had previously been used for mining and recreation by colonial settlers who seized the land from its traditional owners, the Bunurong/Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation. The ecological preserve includes recreational trails that are open to the public and is managed by the development company.

2012
556 acres
160 feet above sea level

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