Mount Verde Estate Hydraulic Masterplan

Mount Verde Estate was planning a phased expansion comprising 91 subdivisions of 2 to 3 ha each, plus approximately 774 residential units. Before any infrastructure was committed, the estate needed a clear picture of what the completed development would demand from its water supply and how to get there in stages.

The estate already had a municipal water connection, an existing pipeline network and a 250 kL reservoir at the highest point of the property. The challenge was making those assets work as hard as possible for a development significantly larger than what they were originally sized for, across terrain with significant changes in elevation.

Ant Consult was appointed to develop a hydraulic masterplan before any major infrastructure investments were made.

The brief was explicit: prioritise ease of management and lower operating cost over minimum capital cost.

What the estate needed

The masterplan needed to establish five things before detailed design could begin on any part of the scheme.

• A clear picture of total water demand, broken down by development type and phase, so infrastructure could be sized for the long term rather than just the first phase.
• The right amount of storage, located where gravity could do as much of the distribution work as possible before pumping became necessary.
• A mainline routing that could serve the whole estate efficiently as it developed in stages.
• A pressure management approach suited to a site with significant elevation changes, without creating a system that needed constant intervention to stay balanced.
• Defined upgrade triggers, so the estate could invest in infrastructure at the right time rather than too early or too late.

Rather than sizing the system around current demand, we modelled the expected water requirements of the full planned development across three categories: domestic use on agricultural subdivisions at approximately 2,000 ℓ per day each, medium-density residential at 900 ℓ per day, and high-density residential at 700 ℓ per day. Combined, that gives an estimated average daily demand of approximately 711,000 ℓ across the scheme.

For storage, we recommended 24 hours of buffer capacity based on the reliability of the municipal gravity supply. That supply entered the boundary through a 160 mm pipeline at around 6 bar, enough pressure to feed the high-level reservoir without pumping. At the command reservoir, the high-level storage point that supplies the rest of the estate by gravity, we recommended adding a second 250 kL tank alongside the existing one to reach a combined 500 kL. A further 120 kL of storage was recommended at a secondary reservoir serving the Forest Hills area.

For the steep topography, the recommended approach combines pressure-reducing valves at key offtake points with break-pressure tanks on long downhill runs. The design retains the existing supply arrangement and mainline, adding targeted connections where elevation and distance would otherwise create pressure challenges. The design avoids putting pressure-reducing valves in series, which can cause pressure instability, and keeps the number of moving parts the estate team needs to manage as low as possible.

Pumping was kept to an absolute minimum. Gravity does the work wherever the topography allows it, reducing dependence on pumping and limiting energy use, equipment requirements and ongoing maintenance.

The masterplan gives Mount Verde Estate a coordinated framework for phased water infrastructure investment. Projected demand and storage requirements are quantified across all development categories, giving the estate a clear basis for assessing infrastructure capacity as each phase progresses.

The recommended configuration retains the existing municipal gravity supply and high-level storage, reducing the need for pumping where it can be avoided and keeping the system straightforward to operate. Where the terrain creates pressure challenges, the masterplan identifies where management infrastructure is needed and what form it should take.

The recommendations distinguish between decisions that can be made now and those that depend on the LiDAR survey, final development details or further design work. That distinction gives the estate a phased route to implementation rather than a single large infrastructure commitment made before all the information is available.

The engagement concluded with a hydraulic masterplan report and supporting drawing set ready for use in the next phase of detailed design.

The design philosophy throughout is the same one that shaped the brief: a system that is straightforward to manage and maintain over the long term, not one optimised for the lowest construction cost.

A site-wide LiDAR survey was the recommended next step. The survey improves the accuracy of the terrain model, which is needed to confirm pipeline routes, reservoir interfaces and pressure management requirements before detailed design begins.

The implementation sequence flowed from there: confirm terrain and levels through the survey, refine the masterplan and complete detailed design for the main pipelines and connections, then complete detailed design for each downstream network approximately six months before construction of that phase begins.

This gives the estate a practical basis for coordinating engineering work with the development programme and reduces the risk of committing to detailed infrastructure decisions before the necessary information is in hand.

Storage locations affect pipeline routes. Terrain affects pressure. Pressure affects how water can be distributed. The sequence of development affects when infrastructure needs to be in the ground.

A hydraulic masterplan brings those decisions together before capital is committed to building anything. For Mount Verde, that meant a coordinated framework that connected the estate's existing supply to the full requirements of the planned development, with a clear sequence for infrastructure investment at each phase.

This kind of work is relevant to any agricultural development, estate or bulk water scheme where phased growth means infrastructure decisions made today will determine what is possible later.

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