Our River. Our Future

Revitalising kanamaluka/Tamar estuary

The kanamaluka/Tamar estuary is a special landscape that connects our community. We appreciate its importance to Launceston and the wider community, which is why we are making investments today to ensure its health for future generations.

As part of the Tamar Estuary River Health Action Plan (TERHAP), we will be delivering new sewerage infrastructure for the city to improve the health of kanamaluka/Tamar estuary and the environment that surrounds it.

This transformative pipeline project, which is one of the largest infrastructure projects of its type in the southern hemisphere, will increase our capacity to transfer sewage and stormwater, significantly reducing the frequency and volume of overflow events.

Construction of the new pipeline involved installing large pipes up to 45 metres under the estuary riverbed at two river-crossing between the Margaret Street Sewage Pump Station and our Ti Tree bend Sewage Treatment Plant. The river crossings were connected via pipeline trenched on the Western Foreshore at Trevallyn.

Project update

25 November 2024

At our Kings Park construction site, works are underway with connection works for the New Sewer Pipeline. The sheet piles we installed to provide stability for the levee and buried ends of the new pipeline have now been removed.

From late November we began pouring the final lift of sand and cement, as well as trench excavations and building concrete works.

The new pipeline is nearly ready for connection to the New Margaret Street Pump Station and will be completed by the end of 2024.

During the first half of 2025 there will be ongoing works at our Kings Park site. While these works continue, the double stacked shipping containers will remain on site to provide important noise mitigation.

In Trevallyn, we have finished reinstating the ground, completed fencing and placed new asphalt on the public pathways in the western foreshore area. The pathways are now fully reopened for public use.

Our construction works in the Trevallyn area are now complete.

The project is expected to be completed late 2024.

What you will notice during our works

Hours of work

The majority of construction works will take place from 7am to 5pm Monday to Sunday. There may be times when we need to work outside of these hours, but we’ll let you know in advance if this is required.

Managing pedestrian access to community spaces

Kings Park

Now that our major construction machinery, including the Horizontal Directional Drilling rig, has been removed from our Kings Park site, the footpath along Paterson Street has been reopened for public use.

We’re currently working with the Council on the project’s final landscape designs for this area and will share these in a future update.

Western foreshore and Valley Street

In Trevallyn, we have finished reinstating the ground, completed fencing, and placed new asphalt on the public pathways in the western foreshore area. The paths are now fully reopened for public use.

We thank the community for their understanding while we delivered this important project.

The Tamar Estuary River Health Action Plan (TERHAP or the Plan) is an initiative of the Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce (TEMT) and the Launceston City Deal, to improve the health of kanamaluka/Tamar Estuary.

TERHAP is jointly funded by the Australian and Tasmanian governments, the City of Launceston and TasWater.