CLICK TO ENLARGE CLICK TO ENLARGE CLICK TO ENLARGE

Lochiel Park: Keith learns about housing sustainability in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Lochiel Park, tucked away in Campbelltown is a Government residential development set up to show what sustainable living is all about. It sits on 15 hectares with the River Torrens on one side and the O'Bahn on the other. It incorporates just over 100 houses surrounded by open space for reserves, wetlands and a replanted urban forest. Just look at the houses and it's obvious the buzz-word is 'sustainability' - in water, energy, materials and ecosystems.

Wayne Gibbings, Land Management Corp: "We are asking people, particularly in the building industry to stop and think a bit more carefully about how you can design your home; how you can orientate it; where you put your living areas; where you put your windows. And how you can use energy and water more efficiently so I think it's very much in the main stream conscience of people these days."

One of the houses has been set up as an educational Sustainability Centre and Land Management Corporation boss, Wayne Gibbings says it's a bricks and mortar a lesson on how to live with nature. That includes keeping tabs on how much water and electricity you use inside and outside the house.

Storm water goes into the nearby newly created wetlands where it's cleaned, stored in the underground aquifer and redrawn to be used in the toilet, laundry and garden. The aim is to reduce reliance on mains water by 80 percent

On the energy side, all the houses in Lochiel Park have photovoltaic cells on the roof, gas-boosted solar hot water systems and a minimum 7.5-star thermal performance rating.

Kathy and Bruce Rossini were one of the first to move in and they're still reveling in the benefits. Kathy Rossini, Resident: "The first 12 months compared to the pervious 12 months there has been a 60 percent reduction in our electricity costs."

Bruce Rossini, Resident: "I've done 5,000 kilometres this year on one of the community bikes riding the Linear Park between Athelstone and Henley Beach. We're much healthier - I've left 18 kilograms on the bike path and Kathy has left13 kilograms there in 12 months."

And why not when the path past your front door goes all the way to the sea! Lochiel Park is certainly a far cry from Lochend House - built in 1842 by Charles James Fox Campbell after whom Campbelltown was named. Somehow think he'd approve that what was once Campbell Estate is now a leading light in sustainable living.

You'll find it at Lochiel Parkway in Campbelltown (off Hill Street which is off Lower North East Road). Contact the Sustainability Centre on 7127 7182. If you have any further questios please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

Lochiel Park
Lochiel Parkway
Campbelltown
Ph 7127 7182.

Published 22nd August 2010