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‘Bringing new life to wetlands’

Autumn 2004

Alliance News, Enviro, Issue 9

Weir Structures made from recycled plastic waste have been installed to reintroduce natural cycles of Murray Valley wetlands.

Garry von Bertouch and Chris MacDonald of Vonmac Pty Ltd have developed plastic piling, Plastipile™, to construct control structures across Reedy Creek at Caloote near Mannum and Winding Creek at Gurra, in South Australia.

The structures will reintroduce the wetting and drying phases no longer occurring naturally in many wetlands since the introduction of locks along the Murray River.

Wetland Care Australia, local action planning groups and numerous wetland management plans have identified the need to control the water regime in some sections of the wetlands to enhance their survival, control the infestation of carp and save water by reducing evaporation. Traditional methods of earth and concrete embankments are not acceptable or practicable in many sensitive areas, hence the need for the development of an environmentally friendly engineering solution that can be installed or removed with minimal disturbance to the surrounding environment.

Plastipile™, which is made in Adelaide by Advanced Plastic Recycling, a subsidiary of Bushman Tanks and Collex is a solid plastic pile which, due to its unique design can be interlocked in more than two directions to form a watertight dam of infinite width and length.

The technology used in the production process allows plastic waste such as plastic bags, to be turned into usable household, industrial and agricultural products.

'Plastipile is a world first in sheet piling that has the potential for making boat friendly marinas, hazardous chemical barriers, seawalls and aquaculture,’ commented Garry von Bertouch.

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‘Plastic waste saves wetlands article’

June 2003

BIAS Building Surveyor SA, Volume 25, No 4

Weir structures which are made from recycled plastic waste, are being used to reproduce the natural cycles of Murray Valley wetlands.

Riverland residents Garry von Bertouch and Chris MacDonald of Vonmac Pty Ltd have developed plastic sheet pilings called Plastipile™ to construct control structures across Reedy Creek near Mannum and Winding Creek near Berri.

Mr MacDonald said these controls would reintroduce the wetting and drying phases which no longer occurred naturally in many wetlands since the introduction of locks along the Murray River.

The action comes after Wetland Care Australia and numerous wetland management plans identified the need to control the water in some sections of the wetlands to enhance their survival, control the spread of carp and save water by reducing evaporation.

'Traditional methods of earth and concrete embankments are not acceptable or practical in many sensitive areas,’ Mr von Bertouch said. ‘Hence the need to develop an environmentally friendly engineering solution that could be installed or removed with minimal disturbance to the surrounding environment.’

Plastipile is a solid plastic pile which can be interlocked in more that two directions to form a water-tight dam wall of any width and length. Plastipile is made in Adelaide for Vonmac by a subsidiary of Bushman Tanks and Collex, Advanced Plastic Recycling.

General manager of APR Chris Lokan said South Australian households dumped 500 tonnes of plastic each week and only 2 percent of the seven billion plastic bags used in Australia each year are recycled.

'The technology used in the production process allows plastic waste to be turned into usable household, industrial and agricultural products,’ he said.

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‘Riverland invention brings new life to wetlands’

25 June, 2003

The River News

Weir structures made from recycled plastic waste have been installed to reinforce the natural cycles of Murray Valley wetlands.

Riverlanders Garry von Bertouch and Chris MacDonald of Vonmac Pty Ltd have developed plastic sheet piling, Plastipile™ to construct structures across Reedy Creek at Caloote near Mannum and Winding Creek at Gurra near Berri.

Chris MacDonald said, ‘These control structures will reintroduce the wetting and drying phases no longer occurring naturally in many wetlands since the introduction of locks along the Murray River.’

Wetland Care Australia, Local Action Planning Groups and numerous wetland management plans have identified the need to control the water regime in some sections, reducing the infestation of carp and save water by reducing evaporation. Garry and Chris have worked closely with Wetland Care Australia to develop a sheet piling system, Plastipile, to solve the difficulties associated with constructing conventional structures in inundated wetlands.

Garry von Bertouch said, ‘Traditional methods of earth and concrete embankments are not acceptable or practical in many sensitive areas. Hence the need to develop an environmentally friendly engineering solution that could be installed or removed with minimal disturbance to the surrounding environment.’

Plastipile is a solid plastic pile which, due to its unique design, can be interlocked in more than two directions to form a water tight dam wall of infinite width and length. Plastipile is made in Adelaide by Advanced Plastic Recycling, a subsidiary of Bushman Tanks and Collex, for Vonmac.

Chris Lokan, General Manager or APR, said, ‘South Australian households are dumping 500 tonnes of plastic per week and only 2% of the seven billion bags used in Australia per year are recycled. The technology used in the production process allows plastic waste to be turned into usable household, industrial and agricultural products,’ he said.

Vonmac has been successful in attracting a substancial grant with the help of The Riverland Development Council and AusIndustry through the Commercialising Emerging COMET program. This assists the commercialisation of innovative products, processes and services. It provides commercialisation advice and assistance through a network of specialist private sector business advisers.

Garry von Bertouch said, ‘Plastipile, a world first in sheet piling, has huge potential with other uses being boat friendly marinas, hazardous chemical barriers, seawalls and aquaculture.’

'This is truly a win win for the environment,’ Garry said.

Chris MacDonald, a civil engineering operating his business MacCivil from Waikerie, and Garry von Bertouch, proprietor of Swan Houseboats at Berri, together with Wetland Care Australia launched Plastipile onto the market at the unveiling of the (hyperlink to case studies page) project on Thursday, June 12 in Mannum.

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‘Duo’s “world first” invention’, by Lisa Symonds

13 June, 2003

The Murray Pioneer

Plastic bags are being used to help save the Gurra Gurra Wetland Complex near Berri.

The bags, along with other plastic waste, have been used by two Riverland inventors to produce interlocking sheet piling to construct weir structures in wetlands.

The product can be used to control the amount of water and size of fish entering the wetlands.

Berri man, Garry von Bertouch and civil engineer Chris MacDonald, of Waikerie, designed the new method to be used in difficult flood plain locations.

Trial weirs have already been installed on Winding Creek near its junction with Gurra Gurra Creek and on Reedy Creek near Mannum.

The Plastipile™ product is being manufactured under the pair’s company names, Vonmac Pty Ltd, by Advanced Plastic Recycling.

The 36-metre weir across Winding Creek will help control the amount of water entering the creek from the downstream end and will allow irregular drying cycles to be introduced to improve the health of the wetland. Fish screens will stop adult carp from entering the wetland due to regulated flows in a bid to help reduce the number of adult carp in the creek.

The Reedy Creek structure used 70 metres of the plastic piling, at up to 3 metres deep in places. It will control back-wash from the River Murray to allow the Reedy Creek Lagoon to dry out at set intervals.

The structure has 20 openings which can be closed to regulate the amount of water coming in from the river. Mr von Bertouch said that would equate to more than 26 million plastic shopping bags in the one structure alone.

Mr von Bertouch said he and Mr MacDonald come up with the idea for the product after working together constructing the boardwalk at Banrock Station. He said he had been working on the project constantly for the past 18 months. Mr von Bertouch said he had been told by patents officers there is nothing like the product anywhere else in the world. ‘Being involved in the houseboat industry I can see the potential for other forms of developments.’

Although the product is currently only being trialed in wetlands, Mr von Bertouch said it could be used in other river or marine projects.

It can be interlocked to make one big block and have the block filled with concrete. There is a tremendous versatility’.

Wetland Care Australia wetland director Anne Jensen said, ‘The invention has the potential to provide effective water control with minimal environmental damage’.

The product was officially launched yesterday at the Mannum Hotel and will be on display at the Australian Wetland Forum being held at Banrock Station today.

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