EcoBlanket tackles Toowoomba Range’s steep slopes

The Toowoomba Range’s major road upgrade is being transformed into a greenscape thanks to world-leading groundcover process and organics blanket, EcoBlanket.

Delivered by Groundworks Australia, EcoBlanket has been applied across 10 hectares of the site since October 2013 and is already delivering outstanding results.

The team was set the challenge of achieving immediate batter stabilisation while delivering a revegetation design that supported the community’s long-term aspirations.

Groundworks Managing Director Tony Rees, winner of the 2014 Queensland Minister’s Award for Leadership in Sustainability, said the project was ideally suited to EcoBlanket’s unique application process.

“The majority of our work was delivered on very steep slopes, with varied rock types and soil structures,” Tony said.

“This is where EcoBlanket comes into its own. We tailor the organics to each site using soil and other environmental tests, and then incorporate seeds as the organic material is blown on to the surface,” he said.

“This effectively plants them instantly using state-of-the-art machinery that can treat thousands of square metres daily.”

Made from 100% organic materials, EcoBlanket achieves 100% soil coverage and more than 99% sediment and erosion control.

Guaranteeing a 90% or higher germination rate within a few days, where instructions are followed, it is estimated that more than 200,000 healthy plants are now flourishing across the project’s site.

The Groundworks team collaborated with the project’s landscape architects and local environmental group to develop the species list, which features four different seed mixes to suit varying heights from the roadside to the Range.

Groundworks has won industry accolades for EcoBlanket including the 2013 WRIQ Innovation Award, with partner NuGrow, and 2013 IECA Australasia Environmental Excellence Award in Innovation, and was a finalist in the prestigious 2014 UNAA World Environment Day Awards.

EcoBlanket delivers the market’s least expensive whole-of-life solution for advanced erosion control and unmatched revegetation and rehabilitation.