International partnership for Woodfordia site

A three-way international partnership has been signed over the use of Woodfordia, the 500-acre environmental parkland in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region. It operates on the principles of the arts, humanities and environmentalism.

It is best known as the site of the Woodford Folk Festival, which over the 2015/6 New Year period drew a record aggregate attendance of over 130,000 visitors over its six days, injecting $21 million into the Queensland economy.

Yesterday Arief Rabik from Indonesia’s International Bamboo Foundation, architect Nici Long of Sydney artist and bamboo design collective Cave Urban and Woodfordia Executive Director Bill Hauritz finalised a partnership that had been in the pipeline for 12 months.

The team-up will develop a two-hectare experimental bamboo forest, and build a world-first water preservation facility on the site.

The three said, “This aims to bring organic disinfected wastewater together with soils created from recycled food scraps from the festival.”

According to Rabik, “This is the first time all of these sustainable components have been integrated into a single project.”

The first stage of the project has already seen 50 clumps of bamboo already planted. These were rescued from the ravaged area of Rockhampton in the aftermath of Cyclone Marcia in 2015 and are flourishing.

Raibik is a speaker at Woodford Folk, and the preservation facility will be launched on December 29 as part of his presentation.

A mature bamboo clump can absorb more than 5,000 litres of water in 5-10 rainfalls, and will hold on to this water for 6-8 months, which allows it to give water back to top soil in the dry periods

The current trial planting, with the aim of irrigating bamboo forests with effluent water, is being conducted as a research partnership between Ben Kele of Arris Water, world leaders in water technology, and Central Queensland University.

Woodfordia GM Amanda Jackes said, “Ben Kele, since the implementation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant at Woodfordia, has been an inspiration for us.

“His science and generosity has been a big part of this project’s development, and the wastewater from his irrigation system will be the key ingredient of its success.”

Cave Urban’s Nici Long is credited as instrumental in bringing the partnership together. “I’m so excited about what this project can produce both for Woodfordia and the creation a bamboo industry in Australia,” she said.

Woodfordia’s use of bamboo began in 2012 when, with Cave Urban, it created a number of large-scale sculptures using bamboo. They still exist on the site.

The current sculpture is a two-story tree house created under the leadership of Taiwanese master bamboo artist, Wang Wen Chih as a part of a teaching master class leading into the Planting Festival.

The Planting is a three-day event on the site, covering environmentalism, music and the aers, and which draws 3000 to 4000 people each day.

Woodford Folk Director Bill Hauritz pointed out: “When this project started, it was to supply us with incredibly cheap raw materials to build our sculptures, portable buildings, shade, fencing and many other products for festival purposes.

“This will be a cost neutral project for Woodfordia and we are delighted to be applying it to our site use for altruistic purpose, and to continue the innovative traditions of Woodfordia.”