Manidis Roberts congratulates CIC Australia for receiving their recent approvals for the Googong township, in the separate but parallel areas of the integrated water cycle and urban development.

The integrated water cycle (IWC) is the first of its kind proposed within Australia and has been developed to provide potable, recycled and wastewater services to a new township that will ultimately accommodate an estimated 16,000 people (in 5,500 lots) over 25 years (www.googong.net). The key outcome of the project is enabling the residents to use the same amount of potable water that would support a population of 6,500 – representing a 60% reduction in potable water demand. The project has provided an innovative solution to the supply of scarce water resources to new urban developments within inland Australia.

Due to the complexity of the project, approvals have been required to be obtained from each of the Commonwealth, NSW state and local governments. Additionally, due to the proximity of the ACT and various cross-border agreements, extensive consultation with the ACT government was also required. The IWC received approval under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act on 19 May 2011, concept plan and (stage 1) project approval was granted in accordance with Part 3A of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A Act) on 24 November 2011. Consent under Part 4 of the EP&A Act for the first two stages of the urban development was obtained on 12 December 2011.

Congratulations to CIC Australia’s Mark Attiwill, Craig Harris and Michael Nolan on achieving these major milestones for the project.