Thomson Hay Project
Landscape Assessment and Landscape Plan for the Midland Highway (St. Peters Pass area), Tasmania
Client
Department of State Growth (Tasmania)
Collaboration
Landscape Impressions
The Midland Highway runs from Hobart to Launceston and passes through several areas of heritage and cultural significance, including a 10km section though Oatlands, York Plains, Kenmore, St Peters Pass, Antill Ponds and Woodbury that includes significant trees, hedges, clumps of planted trees and landscape plantings.
Our brief was to minimise and mitigate impacts of the Midland Highway road upgrade works in the St Peters Pass area, including road re-alignment and widening, added overtaking lanes and road safety barriers. To achieve these road safety improvements several historic trees and hedging had to be removed.
The Pioneer Avenue, planted along the Midland Highway from Hobart to Launceston during the 1930’s, was an important focus for our landscape character assessment and design basis. The avenue trees are mainly exotic species planted in a variety of arrangements to create visual effects and enhance the driving experience, although there are also significant mature remnant indigenous trees within the project area.
We undertook a detailed landscape assessment and research, working closely with engineering consultants and Department of State Growth to prepare photo simulations, landscape concept plans and landscape documentation plans for tendering and construction purposes. The proposed planting included 280 advanced trees, nearly 1km length of Hawthorn hedgerows, and over 10,000m² of native embankment planting.
