The Yarra Park Water Recycling Facility was designed to meet the requirements of the Melbourne Cricket Club and the various regulators, with the water used to provide secure, long-term sustainable supply to the heritage listed Yarra Park, Punt Road Oval and the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Arup has been working on the sewer mining scheme since 2008 when we were engaged by the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) to prepare an integrated water management plan for Melbourne's world class sporting precinct. This was followed by a concept design phase where a number of varying waste water treatment options were considered and evaluated.
Project Summary
$15m project
600m3per day


The Yarra Park Water Recycling Facility is located in a highly sensitive heritage listed park. Key project drivers dictated that the project should not subtract from the appearance of the grounds or impact on the use of the space for parking during events. These facts drove the decision to place the entire treatment plant underground. The siting of the plant also introduced stringent requirements on noise and odour control which has been carried through the design from project inception.
The 600m3/day sewer mining plant comprises inlet screening and grit removal, biological nitrogen removal, chemical phosphorus removal and membrane bioreactor, followed by low pressure ultrafiltration, UV disinfection and chlorination.
The plant was designed to provide two distinct modes of operation, summer and winter, which allows lower volumes of recycled water to be produced during winter, as well as varying the nutrient removal levels when irrigating.
Our team provided multidisciplinary services on this AU$15m project developing the functional design and performance-based specification for the Class A Recycled Water Plant. In addition to the treatment plant, Arup undertook the design and specification of the recycled water purple pipe system within the MCG to transfer the Class A water around the grounds.
Arup has been further engaged to provide technical support to the MCG during the plant's inaugural year of operation.
The Yarra Park Water Recycling Facility was presented with the President's Award at the 2014 Engineers Australia Victorian Engineering Excellence Awards, the Infrastructure Project Innovation Award at the 2012 Australian Water Association Victorian Branch Awards and was Highly Commended for Sustainability in Design at the 2013 Consult Australia Awards for Excellence.