It was once an unsightly patch in South Brighton – a tiny railway reserve with introduced woody weeds and not much else.
Now, the Silver Avenue nature reserve is lush and green and is already providing biodiversity benefits, with native bees and butterflies spotted at the site.
The transformation took place over several months last year, starting with the removal of the large shrubs and declared weeds, including olives and Italian buckthorn. None of the plants provided any biodiversity benefits, with little to no shading for the street.
Fast forward 12 months and the reserve has really come to life with many of the 800 local native tubestock plants now well established.
This is thanks to a wet summer and the installation of an experimental set of ‘leaky’ pipes that were attached to the back of the TreeNet inlets.
The inlets divert stormwater back into the verges or street trees, enabling more rain to penetrate deep into the site and support the new plants as they grow.
Six advanced South Australian blue gums, which are large canopy native trees, were also planted at the site.
The transformation of Silver Avenue was part of a larger project called Greening Seacliff, which was funded by a Green Adelaide grant.
Pine Avenue and Kauri Parade also received some love as part of the project.
In total, 43 new advanced trees were planted across the three sites, 200 local natives planted on verges opposite Seacliff Primary School and 23 new TreeNet inlets were installed.
