Sustainable Partnerships: Supporting Central Coast Zoo

Branching Out for Sustainability

The team at Wyee are busy at work installing 2.4km of wastewater and two new pumping stations for Hunter Water. As part of our work, we needed to remove a number of native trees located in one of the pumping station sites. Building off our recent success partnering with the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra, the team reached out to the Central Coast Zoo to see if the foliage, limbs and mulch would be useful.

Innovative Reuse of Resources: Turning Construction Challenges into Conservation Wins

The zoo was super happy to receive the call, and a site visit was quickly organised to identify feed for koalas, limbs suitable for enclosures and mulch requirements. Working with our arborist, the trees were cut into useful lengths, the leaves were taken off and preserved for Koala feed, and mulch was put aside before delivering directly to the zoo.

Environmental Responsibility in Action: A Closer Look at Diona’s Approach to Sustainable Project Delivery

Diona’s Project Manager, Iain Thomas, says that the initiative is a wonderful way to not only reuse this vegetation, but also support local business. “Delivering our works in an environmentally responsible way is very important to us and we’re constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to reduce our impact and create positive outcomes for our clients and the community. “Thank you and well done to the community engagement teams at Hunter Water and Diona for making this happen.”

A Win-Win for Wildlife and Community: The Impact of Thoughtful Vegetation Management

Interesting things we learnt about the process:

• Koalas are picky eaters – with only native 4 trees out of the 20 removed suitable for feed.
• Koala leaves only keep for 48 hours before reaching their ‘best before’ date.
• The Central Coast Zoo travel 2-3 hours each day to find food due to loss of habitat, often by the side of the road and through initiatives such as this one.

“We are proud to be working with our local communities and these initiatives are testament that organisations are always in need of repurposed products across our sites. We encourage out of the box creative thinking!” said David Crowhurst, Head of Stakeholder Engagement.

Great work by Project Manager Iain Thomas, Site Supervisor Josh Brincat, Eamon Cahill’s crew and Head of Stakeholder Engagement Dave Crowhurst for going above and beyond to show care and commitment to supporting our local communities and delivering a good outcome.