Overall, the club is very pleased with the quality of the irrigation system and they’re happy with the automation.
Iluka Golf Club Irrigation System Upgrade Think Water Northern Rivers Think Water Northern Rivers (TWNR) recently designed and installed a new fully automated 18 hole replacement irrigation system for Iluka Golf Club. The system utilizes Toro’s Golf Decoder Control (GDC) System to manage and control all automated functions of the equipment. This advanced irrigation offers benefits that include longer wire runs, smaller gauge wire sizes, and more simultaneous valves in operation.
pricing, local content and support and prior history of delivering a quality result on time and on budget.
efficiently, while the handheld radio controls allow you to effectively manage your watering while on the course.
“A key objective for Clarence Valley Council when designing the wastewater scheme was to reuse the effluent for a beneficial outcome in a community facility, minimising the need to release surplus flows to the environment. The effluent is treated to a high standard at the wastewater treatment plant, located 500 m from the Golf Club. From there it is pumped back into a holding tank on the golf course ready for irrigation.” Explained Lee.
The evaluation and design stage through to final commissioning was a process that took TWNR 12 months. The actual installation process was almost four months. There were some challenges in delivering the project – working in with the principal contractor and complying with the Department of Commerce reporting requirements, WH&S procedures and Quality Assurance processes.
The Clarence Valley Council in Northern New South Wales, was committed to providing a new Waste Water Treatment System for the Iluka community, including a solution for reusing the treated effluent.
“When designing the twin row irrigation system, we specified Toro GDC central control, with Toro FLX35B Series sprinklers configured as a block design. This standardises the sprinklers to cover both fairways and greens. The watering system uses 100% of water generated over the summer period, however during prolonged wet weather events any water that cannot be stored at the WWTP is pumped to the river for ebb-tide release.”
Another challenge was that the sand based course had previously been mined for heavy minerals, making it challenging to get effective grounding from the GDC system’s integrated surge protection. This resulted in TWNR having to extend the lightening earth stakes up to 9m below ground level. Lee says that since that was completed it’s been smooth sailing.
The existing golf course irrigation infrastructure was aging, run down and in need of an upgrade, which Lee Rothwell, TWNR Managing Director said is typical of most coastal cash strapped community golf clubs. The Department of Commerce was contracted by Clarence City Council to manage the tender process and project manage the works. TWNR were the successful tenderer, based on the submitted design, energy efficiency,
Chris Ashwood from Toro Australia says that one of the benefits of the GDC system is that you can stage the installation with the existing system running. Once it’s connected you just flick a switch and you have a full-blown system working. The station-based flow management keeps everything running
“Overall, the club is very pleased with the quality of the irrigation system and they’re happy with the automation,” says Lee. Article first appeared in Turfmate.
February 2020 | THINK TANK
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