The council recently completed stage one of its restoration work at Riverside Park. It involved reshaping the riverbank by using the existing silt to flatten the area in order to create a more open and usable space for residents and visitors to the park. 

Part of the work also included a free planting day held at last Saturday’s Macleay River Festival. Hosted by National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS), the event coincided with the festival’s River Ecology theme and saw festival goers join the NPWS ranger Cath Ireland to plant about 150 lomandra – a native grass plant. The plant will help stabilise the riverbank while acting as a natural barrier in the event of a flood.   

While the council is currently replacing the footpath and kerb and guttering along Lord St in East Kempsey, Rudder Park has also been receiving a much-needed face-lift with the installation of a new garden bed. 

The garden is part of the council’s Corridor Masterplan post bypass and has gained support from local community group Macleay Options. Members from the group have designed the garden and started the construction phase last week. 

Around 150 cubic metres of soil and mulch has been delivered to the garden and soon, an irrigation system will be installed as well as weed matting made out of recycled mattresses which were initially donated to the council’s Waste Management Centre. 

Centred around a ‘mountains to the sea’ theme, the garden will include wet and dry sclerophyll plants as well as river and coastal vegetation to represent the diversity of landscapes throughout the Macleay Valley. The group will start planting this coming week.