MICHAEL SMITH AND ASSOCIATES
Northcote Golf Course Trail
Client | Darebin City Council
Year | 2023
The Northcote Public Golf Course was the site of local community pressure in 2020 for Darebin City Council to provide more public open space. Darebin City Council own and manage the golf course. Two golf greens and holes were realigned to allow for a buffer of space parallel to adjacent residential properties, to allow a 2.5-metre-wide path to extend along the eastern boundary of the golf course and take advantage of the existing grove of young River Red Gums and the close to the alignment of a tributary to the Merri Creek. The trail is ideally located to link Mayer Park to the north, to the Merri Creek and its iconic footbridge to the southern end of the trial.
We engaged Surfcoast Surveying to prepare the Feature and Levels Survey to the 800-metre-long corridor to the eastern edge of the golf course. A.S. James undertook the geotechnical and contamination investigation to the length of the trail. There were approximately forty young River Red Gum trees and a mix of large exotic and deciduous trees that Ryder Consulting assessed the tree protection zones to ensure the trail could avoid tree removal and encroachment over structural root zones. One small River Red Gum is scheduled for limb removal to enable the trail to extend through the grove of River Red Gum trees.
OPS Engineers worked closely with our office in the preparation of the concept design of a switch back path to a steep section, and a boardwalk to a wide and shallow valley.
Existing conditions, including grove of young River Red Gums