Special Features

Environmental Initiatives

Water Sensitive Urban Design

At Sandhurst, all urban run-off is collected and treated on-site. This includes the installation of "water sensitive urban design" features instead of traditional concrete pipe drainage. On Sandhurst Boulevard, a crushed rock drainage channel has been installed in the central medians to collect and filter run-off. In residential and golf areas, biological retention systems composed of swales planted with native wetland species, as well as sand and crushed rock drainage filters have been used extensively. All urban run-off is then collected in large wetlands for further biological treatment prior to discharge.

Catchment Management

Sandhurst is located on the overland flow path of the Eastern Contour Drain, which collects run-off from over 2,000 hectares of largely rural land upstream. Sandhurst is installing sedimentation ponds within its site to collect rubbish and sediment from this catchment run-off prior to entering the lake system. These ponds will improve the catchment water quality in the streams and waterways downstream of Sandhurst, eventually discharging into Port Phillip Bay.

Sandhurst will also retain stormwater over and above that which it produces, reducing the amount of local flooding and evening the stream flow in the downstream catchment.

Protection of Historic Trees

The site at Sandhurst hosts over 100 mature River Red Gum trees, some estimated to be over 500 years old. Sandhurst has catalogued and will retain each and every mature River Red Gum tree. The health of these trees will be monitored and ongoing care and maintenance, including irrigation, should improve the appearance and longevity of the trees.

Re-establishing Indigenous Vegetation

In over 150 hectares of non-residential areas, Sandhurst will, where possible, seek to restore the indigenous River Red Gum environment that existed prior to settlement. This includes a wide variety of wetland species, native trees (especially gums), shrubs and the additional planting of hundreds of River Red Gums.

Maintaining Stream Flows

An environmental flow pipe currently under construction will collect a base amount of water from the upstream catchment and transport it 2km directly through the site to the downstream discharge point. The pipe will ensure greater regularity and quantity of stream flow to the downstream catchment by reducing water loss on the site.

House Building Design

An architectural review process applies to all houses to be constructed at Sandhurst Club. All house designs are reviewed against a set of guidelines that include site requirements for solar orientation and design features such as wide eaves to reduce the requirement for artificial heating and cooling.