The 64ha, 788-lot Orchard estate in Tarneit, in Melbourne’s thriving western corridor, boasts a planned local town centre, non-government school, parkland and public open space.
Client
APD Projects
Location
Tarneit, VIC
Spiire was engaged by APD Projects to provide Civil Engineering, Surveying, Water Engineering and Construction Consultancy services at Dahua Group’s Orchard Estate in 2016.
The site was dissected by an existing electrical transmission line easement including Barwon Water’s Melbourne to Geelong Pipeline, which ultimately dictated the urban design layout of the estate.
The successful delivery of this project was a significant achievement for our clients, contractors Winslow and Spiire’s project team, who were able to overcome several challenges throughout the life of the project to bring this development to life.
Due to the project being delivered ‘out of sequence’ and significant servicing challenges, our engineers were able to secure an interim solution for sewerage via eduction under an agreement with City West Water (now Greater Western Water), whilst also coordinating the delivery of a permanent external branch sewer negotiated across two separate landowners and the Melbourne-Geelong rail corridor.
Gas, potable, and recycled water also required 2.2km of external infrastructure delivered through three adjoining properties, requiring extensive stakeholder engagement to secure land access and easement rights.
In response to downstream flooding concerns raised by a neighbouring landowner midway through the project, we worked constructively with Wyndham City Council to open previously built but blocked Leakes Road culverts whilst negotiating access agreements to extend the culverts and direct flows into the Heartlands estate wetland.
Due to the resumed flows, landscape works which had not been completed on the wetland previously, were then designed and constructed to Melbourne Water standards to mitigate any stormwater quality issues upstream.
Given Orchard’s location directly adjacent to Peet’s 1000-lot Newhaven estate, Spiire was able to play a key role in brokering a drainage agreement between both estates, enabling delivery of an interim retarding basin, ultimate drainage infrastructure beneath the Regional Rail Line, and staged development sequencing.
Acting as consulting engineers for both Orchard and Newhaven, our multidisciplinary team ensured integrated outcomes that met the needs of both developers and safeguarded downstream capacity.
Our Surveying team’s scope of works included re-establishment and feature & level surveys, subdivision asset recording as well as drone fly throughs to satisfy Department of Transport requirements.
The project reached practical completion in May 2025 with all 20 stages titled by June 2025.
