Wagonga Inlet awarded at 2023 AILA NSW Awards

Last week Wagonga Inlet Living Foreshore was recognised at the AILA NSW Awards, receiving awards for both Landscape Planning and Regional Achievement.

Wagonga Inlet is a small but seminal project that addresses local council’s aspirations along with the community’s vision, combining the delivery of open space, environmental performance, resilient infrastructure and community amenity. The need to replace an obsolete seawall presented an opportunity to instead explore the restoration of the estuarine edge, as both an expanded ecosystem and a unique catalyser of activity, for a diverse range of constituents, both human and non-human .

Instead of a new seawall, a living foreshore is proposed, expanding salt marsh and mangrove habitats and offshore oyster reefs, while overlaying social infrastructure and interaction.

Acknowledgment from the Jury:

This project highlights the importance of landscape architects leading strategic partnership across government and the private sector to plan forward-thinking coastal infrastructure to ensure both people and nature thrive in sensitive and environmentally significant shared spaces. The project ambitions provide an example of how other towns along the coast can rethink the treatment of coastal infrastructure to protect rich marine environments and retain the outstanding scenic qualities which make the South Coast so special.

A huge thank you to the jury and congratulations to our collaborators and all those involved in this project:

Marine engineer: Royal HaskoningDHV

Coastal Architect: Nicole Larkin

Marine Ecologist: Short Pants Consulting