Melbourne Water Hobsons Bay Main Sewer Upgrade wins Gold at Industry GOV Awards
The Melbourne Water Hobsons Bay Main Sewer Upgrade has won Gold at the global Better Futures GOV Design Awards, held in New York last night, for its innovative and engaging design of the hoarding around the construction site at Scienceworks.
Commissioned by Melbourne Water, together with delivery partner John Holland, and designed by GrowCreative, the creative hoarding creates a colourful and engaging communications platform to connect and educate curious minds on how the new sewer pipeline will transfer 30 percent of Melbourne’s wastewater to the Western Treatment Plant and support Melbourne’s growing population, while highlighting the pipeline’s history and the technology behind the project through a playful and fun journey of discovery.
“Winning Gold at the Better Future Gov Design Awards in the Marketing – Print category is a testament to the collaboration and dedication of the entire project team, including especially GrowCreative, who helped us to bring our vision to life,” said Melbourne Water’s HBM Communications and Engagement Lead, Julia Crellin.
The colourful elements of the hoarding were specifically designed to capture the curious minds of the children and families visiting Museums Victoria’s Scienceworks in Spotswood. It is an interactive journey of discovery, bringing the project to life with poo-like characters on holiday and a hungry Tunnel Boring Machine spouting educational facts about the sewer history and the need for the project.
“Our objective was to approach the topic of sewage waste with fun and humour, and to make this important topic more engaging and enjoyable for the community,” GrowCreative, Creative Director and Owner, Glen Rowbottom, said.
The hoarding design also features QR codes linking visitors to Melbourne Water’s ‘Drip Trip’ game to learn more about the project.
The construction is located on the grounds of Scienceworks. The creative design with nine-viewing windows around the hoarding, creates a fantastic opportunity to inspire kids to see science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in action and to learn about real world applications.
General Manager of Scienceworks, Jonathan Shearer, said, “Every day we see families engaging with the content and peering excitedly through the viewing windows, looking at a real-life engineering project.”
The Hobson Bay Main Sewer Upgrade will provide an improved sewerage system with capacity for future flows while ensuring local amenity, environment, heritage, and community interests are protected and enhanced during its delivery.
About the Better Futures GOV Design Awards:
The GOV Design Awards 2023 celebrate the courage of commissioners and creators of design projects within the government, community, and public sectors. It is a global program, accepting international nominations from local, state, and federal government-funded projects across 10 major categories and 99+ sub-categories.
The Marketing – Print Award celebrates creative and innovative design for visual communication intended to engage and inform an audience about products, ideas, or services. Consideration is given to the technical, conceptual, and aesthetic elements, audience engagement and message delivery.
Project Details
Project commissioner
Melbourne Water
Project team
Samantha Olsen – Melbourne Water
Jodie Kinnersley – Melbourne Water
Campbell Rooney – Melbourne Water
Angela Siderakis – Melbourne Water
Jacqueline Novoselac – Melbourne Water (former)
Rebecca Smith – John Holland
Jonathan Shearer – Scienceworks
Glen Rowbottom – GrowCreative
Shan Reed – Industry Media
Media Contact
Sandra Aloi, Senior Media Advisor
03 9679 7004
[email protected]