Aura and Harmony Program

Most people would shy away from a major construction project happening next door, but not Harry Butler and his parents Jeanette and Troy, who embraced the opportunity so much, the private road to a new water reservoir has been named after the four-year-old.

Harry is non-verbal and autistic and when Unitywater’s Harmony Water Project began in 2022, Harry, who was two years old at the time, became captivated with the hive of activity happening on the other side of his fence.

“It was all about construction – his first word was ‘truck’,” mum Jeanette said.

“We actually built a climbing platform for him so he could scramble up and watch what was happening.

“He was so focused on the construction next door with all the big trucks and diggers and all the exciting things happening, it really engaged him.”

Over the past three years, construction partner McConnell Dowell has kept the Butler family informed of works and crews have always made time for Harry.

“They would give Harry ‘truck toots’ and ‘bucket waves’ with the excavator, the whole team were wonderful,” Jeanette said.

“Harry would build rock piles when we’d go on walks and the ‘boys’ never knocked them over – they knew they were Harry’s and they’d move their safety fences around the piles.

“They always had Harry’s interests in mind and if they thought the construction works would be too loud, they would make me aware so I could manage Harry in the way that I needed to. That was really special and really important.”

Describing her reaction to Harry’s very own ‘street’, Jeanette said: “It’s his little stamp on Tanawha. It’s going to be one of those forever stories.”

Unitywater Executive Manager Strategic Engagement Joshua Zugajev said Harry’s story had filtered through the organisation, and it was a pleasure to name the slip road to the new water reservoir ‘Harry’s Lane’.

“Harry has truly captured our attention and hearts and this has been a beautiful example of how we’ve worked with our local community through a substantial infrastructure project,” Mr Zugajev said.

“We’re in the process of putting ‘Harry’s Lane’ into our GIS mapping system. It’s been wonderful to see this outcome through our collaboration with our construction partner McConnell Dowell.”

McConnell Dowell Stakeholder and Communications Manager Purdey Wikman said: “Little Harry (who is now getting really big by the way), Jeanette and Troy have been such a wonderful family to work with side by side at the Tanawha Reservoir, we honestly don’t think we could have done this project without all their amazing support.

“Like all good relationships, it started small and has grown to something so special, it will leave a spot in our hearts for a long time to come. We remain hopeful of recruiting Harry into MCD when he finishes school, given his amazing aptitude for all things construction!”

The Harmony Water Project will help meet the Sunshine Coast’s growing population demands, both now and into the future, including the 21,000 residents who will live in Harmony by 2036.

As Unitywater helps to prepare our communities for growth and expansion with the installation of safe and reliable water and wastewater infrastructure, this also includes our environmental community, and each of our projects must adhere to rigorous Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) requirements.

One of the ways we are minimising impacts on our environment is the use and installation of purpose-built temporary frog exclusion fences on work sites to protect the native frogs known to the area during construction.

In particular, the Wallum Froglet (Crinia tinnula) is a species of ground-dwelling frog, currently listed as 'vulnerable', that are associated with Wallum swampland.

Pictured above is our Environmental Officer, Glenda English, with principal contractor, McConnell Dowell's Environmental Manager, Rowan Sweeny, inspecting a recently installed fauna and flora friendly exclusion fence at one of the construction sites.

These temporary fauna and flora friendly fences are designed to protect native fauna and flora, preventing animals from entering construction zones and high trafficked areas, and protecting local plant species also.

Unitywater's Operational Readiness Team had an insightful visit to the Aura Water Reservoir recently. It's a great example of how seeing an asset in person can provide valuable context that photos and spreadsheets just can't fully convey. The fact that they were able to observe the large number of crew members and the equipment on-site gave them a better grasp of the scale and complexity of the project.

This kind of hands-on involvement also helps ensure that all aspects of the asset are properly captured in Maximo (our asset management system), from cost details to geographic data, making it easier for Unitywater to manage moving forward.

Pictured left: Double thumbs up from David Gates - Unitywater's Financial Accountant Lead and Nathan Sweatman - Financial Accountant, both from Financial Control; Rukman Gangoda Elapathage - Senior Estimator, Commercial Delivery; Deirdre De Swardt - Contract Administrator, Commercial Delivery; and Mick Behan - Operational Readiness Coordinator, Capital Delivery.

Just ahead of International Women's Day (IWD), we'd love you to meet Shruti Srivastava... a Project Engineer working for our principal contractor on the Aura and Harmony Program.

Shruti arrived on the project in September last year and she's based at the main site office in Meridan Plains, Caloundra. We thought it was a great idea to share some of her thoughts on what it is like to be an Engineer working on Unitywater’s biggest infrastructure program to date.

Well hey Shruti can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Hi there, I am currently a Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) worker for McConnell Dowell. I am based in Sydney and lucky to be spending some time here on the Sunshine Coast. I studied at the University of Sydney after which I worked for Transport NSW for many years and was fortunate enough to be exposed to various roles in alliances and projects in the heavy rail field.

What do you love about Engineering? I enjoy the real time problem solving aspect of it, which at times can feel larger than life! It’s very satisfying to be presented with a challenge and to find a way to resolve it or come up with a suitable solution which works hard to keep our stakeholders happy.

What do you love about working on the Aura and Harmony Program? It’s a new scope for me and I really enjoy learning all the details and intricacies of the water and wastewater infrastructure work. The positive and supportive team are always smiling and ready to help make it easy to want to come to work every day. Working with a professional and friendly client makes a big difference also. The seaside location is also a massive bonus.

If you had one positive piece of advice for women thinking about entering the construction industry, what would it be? It’s easy to feel intimidated by the industry and feel out of your depth, but keep chugging along one day at a time and learn from the experiences and knowledge of those around you. Everyone has unique and interesting stories to pass on and most people will happily share. It’s also good to remember that women bring such an important dynamic and different perspective to the industry, so don’t be afraid to question the norm and try things a little differently.

There you have it… thanks for having a chat with us today Shruti and keep up the great work!

Pictured: Unitywater's senior project engineer for the Aura and Harmony Program, Scott Mackie, is currently working closely with Shruti as the program moves into the commissioning phase.

Sometimes nature's wildlife have funny ways and means of finding their way into our facilities. No better example than this Striped Marsh Frog that appeared in the bottom of the wet well at the Aura Wastewater Pump Station.

The good news is “Stripey” the lost frog was carefully captured by our principal contractor, McConnell Dowell, and is now back enjoying life in his nearby wetland.

#itsafrogslife #frogadventures #catchandrelease #auraandharmony #wildlifewarriors

We're excited to share a fantastic moment in our journey with the Aura and Harmony Program. As part of our ongoing commitment to the communities we work in, our principal contractor, McConnell Dowell, has donated a Milwaukee Kit valued at $1500 to the Caloundra Men’s Shed.

This generous donation is the result of McConnell Dowell's promise to Unitywater – they committed to donating any extra small tools at the end of construction, and with the Aura and Harmony Program now about 90% complete, it’s wonderful to see this pledge come to life.

In the picture, you can see Grant Gibson, Construction Manager, and Purdey Wikman, Stakeholder Engagement Manager from McConnell Dowell, alongside Alex and Mick from the Caloundra Men’s Shed. These guys are part of a vibrant community of over 80 men and women from the Caloundra area who come together for good conversation, great company, and meaningful projects!

The Men’s Shed is a fantastic spot for people of all walks of life – whether you're working on a community project or just enjoying a cuppa and a chat. It's all about creating a safe, welcoming space where everyone can share their time, skills, and stories. And hey, the only rule? Stay safe while having fun with your projects!

This wonderful initiative is also playing a big part in boosting health and wellbeing, helping men become active, valued members of their community again. How great is that?

Learn more about the Caloundra Men’s Shed.

Learn more about Unitywater's Aura and Harmony Program.

Some of the Aura and Harmony Program team joined with Sunshine Coast Council and the Bellflower Retirement Resort to celebrate the replanting of 80 native Ivory Curl trees along Bellflower Road, Sippy Downs.

The replanting comes after the installation of a new water pipeline that will assist in meeting the Sunshine Coast’s growing population demands, including the 21,000 residents who will live in Harmony by 2036.

The success of the project so far wouldn’t be possible without the patience and understanding of the local community along this road, including the residents of Bellflower Retirement Resort and surrounds. Thank you to the residents and road/pathway users for your patience while restoration activities along this pipeline alignment are completed.

Pictured: Celebrating the Bellflower Road tree planting are (L-R) Mandy Poynton - Manager of Bellflower Retirement Resort, Allan Smith - Unitywater's Senior Project Engineer and Andrew Parker - Program Manager for McConnell Dowell.

We do poo too! That was the message shared by our senior project engineer at a recent school presentation with local Pacific Lutheran College Year Two students. Our construction site office is situated just down the road from the college and it made sense to connect to share a little bit about the project taking place close by... and to help explain the why there is a large long pipe being strung across the back of the college sports fields!

In other social good news, in addition to our meaningful work with The Compass Institute, together with our principal contractor, McConnell Dowell, we are supporting several other social enterprises as part of the Aura and Harmony Program. With numerous hours of our team’s time donated in kind, we have also spent more than $28,000 with social enterprises to date. This is an important factor of the program’s success, and we will continue to grow this number as we complete our work.

Over the coming weeks, we will profile some of the incredible social enterprises we're supporting... watch this space!

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a trenchless drilling technique which can be used where underground pipe needs to be installed horizontally beneath existing infrastructure and environmentally sensitive areas.

In total, we are installing more than 27 km of underground pipeline for the Aura and Harmony Program:

• 12 km between the Ewen Maddock Water Treatment Plant and Aura
• 2.6 km between the new Tanawha reservoir and Harmony, and
• 12.5 km between Aura and the Kawana Wastewater Treatment Plant

Twenty per cent of this pipeline will be delivered by HDD to protect culturally and environmentally sensitive sections of the pipeline alignment such as adjacent to the Mooloolah National Park and through a section of the Kawana Forest Bushland Reserve.

We avoided major traffic disruption by drilling under Caloundra Road, near the intersection with Racecourse Road.

The HDD process involves the following steps:

1. Above ground, the pipe is strung out and drilling rigs are in place.
2. Entry and exit pits are dug and a small diameter pilot hole is drilled through the bore path.
3. Drilling fluid is pumped through the drill pipe to the drill bit where high pressure jets and the bit cut through the soil. The fluid carries the cutting material back to the entrance pit.
4. The pilot hole is enlarged to the required size, which may take several passes of increasingly larger reamers.
5. The pullback of the pipe within the pre-reamed hole.

Unitywater is committed to utilising technologies like HDD that deliver better outcomes for our community and help to protect our environment.

Pictured: HDD drilling rig in Kawana Forest.

Unitywater took part in the Aura Youth Fest as part of Queensland Youth Week. Project engineers were onsite to connect with interested youth and share information about the Aura Water and Wastewater Projects and chatted about job opportunities in the water and wastewater industry.

Unitywater offers career pathways to young people through apprenticeships, scholarships and work experience for graduates and undergraduates.

Find out more on our website unitywater.com/career-pathways or email careers@unitywater.com.