Breakout Creek / Purruna Pari – Transforming a drain into a river

The Breakout Creek Stage 3 Project has transformed 1.6 km of River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari from an artificial channel with limited biodiversity and limited community access, into a vibrant new ecosystem integrating significant community amenity, recreational opportunities, and bespoke sculptures expressing Kaurna life and heritage. Attendees will see how the former featureless, straight, grassed trapezoidal drainage channel is now barely recognisable following in-channel works to create new aquatic planting zones and a more sinuous main channel morphology; how two re-entrant blind channels create new quiescent aquatic habitat zones; and how the construction of two new contra-flow wetlands situated above the main river channel improves the quality of urban stormwater flowing into the river and the gulf. We will see some of the 245,000 locally indigenous terrestrial and aquatic plants that have been planted, covering some 80 different species and appreciate the sculptural artworks commissioned for the project from Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri and Yankunytjatjara artist Allan Sumner.

Breakout Creek / Purruna Pari (‘River of Life’ in Kaurna language) is the final 3 km of River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari (‘Red Gum Forest River’). It’s an artificial channel constructed in the 1930s to help manage the flooding both caused by and affecting Adelaide’s urban development. Before urban development, River Torrens flowed into extensive wetlands east of the Gulf St Vincent dunes. These wetlands, The Reedbeds / Witongga, only connected to the sea via Port Adelaide River / Yerta Bulti to the north and Patawalonga Creek / Pathawilyangga to the south. For half a century after its construction, Breakout Creek was effectively a drain, with limited value to the community beyond its flood management function, and limited biodiversity value. From the 1980s, various initiatives improved community accessibility with the construction of paths and use as horse agistment, and improved biodiversity with the planting of a range of locally and nationally indigenous tree species. From the 1990s, an ambitious plan was developed, and implementation commenced, to radically improve community accessibility, manage weed species, increase the range of locally indigenous plant species, and increase the aquatic and terrestrial habitat value of the river corridor. This tour will take attendees through the final stage of this 30-year transformation, the 1.6 km reach between Tapleys Hill Road and Seaview Road.

Our Tour Guides

Dr Stuart Collard, Manager, Landscape Operations, Green Adelaide / Green Adelaide Project Director, and Project Steering Committee Chair, Breakout Creek Stage 3 Project

Stuart leads Green Adelaide’s delivery of on-ground projects and programs to create, enhance and protect green space and biodiversity across greater Adelaide, with a team of over two dozen ecologists, environmental scientists, natural resources managers, and engineers. Stuart is Green Adelaide’s Project Director for the third stage of the revitalisation of Breakout Creek, and chairs the Project Steering Committee, collaborating with senior personnel from the co-funding and project delivery partners to guide project delivery. His background includes extensive cross-sector project and program management and delivery across south-eastern Australia, flowing from his passion for the protection and restoration of urban environments for native biodiversity and community wellbeing, with core skills in landscape science, ecology and ornithology.

Sam Phillips, Senior Water Projects Engineer, Green Adelaide / Green Adelaide Project Manager, Breakout Creek Stage 3 Project

Sam is an engineer from Green Adelaide, working on better management of urban water. Sam is Green Adelaide’s project manager for this latest stage of Breakout Creek’s transformation, and has worked closely with our co-funding partners from City of Charles Sturt and City of West Torrens, as well as construction project manager SA Water, the design team led by T.C.L, construction contractor Bardavcol, and a host of other contractors and stakeholders. Sam was the project manager for the previous stage of Breakout Creek transformation work in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with the former Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board. He’s also worked on a number of stormwater recycling wetland projects around Adelaide, including Oaklands Wetland, Adelaide Botanic Garden First Creek Wetland, and the Grange, Royal Adelaide and Glenelg Golf Club Wetlands. Sam is also Green Adelaide’s project manager for Water Sensitive SA, South Australia’s water sensitive urban design capacity-building program.

Adelaide Sustainable Building Network respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna People on whose unceded lands this event will take place. We acknowledge their elders past and present and their strong connections to this land.