Where industry meets the tide, nature reclaims the edge

For more than a century, Kiln Creek was one of the most industrialised waterways on the harbour. Its Ironbank edge was a hard line of steel bulkheads, cracked concrete and chain-link fence, with no way for neighbours to reach the water.

Starting with the ground

Before anything could grow, the ground had to be made safe. Working with the city's water authority and state regulators, we removed contaminated fill along the bank and installed a clean capping layer. We then reshaped the edge into gentle mounds and shallow channels, so the tide could return twice a day and spread across the site.

A marsh that plants itself

More than 40,000 native plugs went in over one growing season, arranged in bands by elevation: cordgrass at the lowest level, salt hay and sea lavender above, and a native upland meadow at the top. Invasive phragmites was removed by hand and kept out through the first three years.

Back to the water

A timber boardwalk now curves through the marsh to a small community pier, the first public access to this stretch of the creek in generations. School groups use it for water sampling, and the creek's first egrets returned the summer after opening.