Judy Holt Park Birkdale is a closed landfill site. To maintain adherence to stringent environmental laws, critical remediation works are to be carried out by Redland City Council to protect the surrounding environment. This will include recapping old landfill beneath the park’s rugby union fields to prevent leachate breakouts, potentially affecting the environment. The works will also deliver improved playing surfaces, an extra playing field and provide better, higher-capacity sports facilities and a much-improved public open space.
If you’ve visited Judy Holt Park recently, you may have noticed a lot of activity behind the fence line. While the end result is a healthier, more resilient natural space for the community to enjoy, the journey to get there will be nothing short of monumental. Just how monumental? Let’s put some of the project’s impressive achievements into perspective.
First up: people power. To date, the project team has clocked up an incredible 28,999 hours on site. If all that effort were converted into walking time, it would equate to approximately 140,000 kilometres – that’s the same as walking three and a half times around the planet. Not bad for a local park project.
Then there’s the earthmoving – literally. Since the project started, 15,255 tonnes of waste has been moved, and 34,125 cubic metres of soil has been relocated within the site. To visualise that, imagine filling 13 Olympic‑sized swimming pools with soil. That’s a lot of digging, shifting, shaping and careful placement to restore and protect the park’s natural environment.
Additional material has been brought in too, with 7752 tonnes of soil imported from a local quarry. For comparison, the Statue of Liberty weighs about 255 tonnes, meaning the imported soil weighs roughly the same as 34 Statues of Liberty. Laid out another way, this volume would fill approximately 388 fully loaded dump trucks. Park them end to end and you’d have a convoy stretching 3.3 kilometres long – about the same length as Coochiemudlo Island.
For an environmental protection project, sustainability is obviously a major focus. When the old clubhouse was removed, an impressive 600 tonnes of material – including aluminium, steel and concrete – was recycled instead of going to landfill. That’s equivalent to recycling the weight of 100 hippos, or a fully loaded Boeing 747. A big win for reducing waste and reusing valuable resources.
While these numbers are fun to compare, they represent something far more important: a significant investment in protecting and enhancing Judy Holt Park for current and future generations. The project showcases what can be achieved when careful planning, skilled people and a commitment to the environment come together.
So when the project is finished and the park reopens to the general public, take a moment to appreciate the enormous effort beneath your feet – because sometimes the biggest achievements are the ones that quietly support the natural spaces we love most.
