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ENVIRONMENTAL ARTICLE

The unsightly, polluted Bruma Lake on the
Jukskei River in 2013, prior to the start of
the renaturalisation project.

The naturalised river through Bruma Park,
the day after the storm that flooded the N3 in
November 2016. Rain was also intense in the
Bruma area as shown by the flotsam line and
the brown sediment on the banks... but the
stream suffered no damage.

An aesthetically pleasing renaturalised portion of the Jukskei River
flowing through the grassed floodplain of Bruma Park continues
to function well later in November 2016. Landscape architect John The concrete stormwater canal, a fenced off barrier in Paterson Park, prior to
Drummond worked with Brooker on the design. Upkeep to remove the renaturalisation.
weeds and rubble after storms is essential and this is done by
Joburg City Parks.

riverbanks. This renaturalisation project fencing. The ‘stream’ was stone-lined is predominantly the result of building
has reinstated the link in the riparian with grassed floodplains. Both Karien activity.
corridor of the Jukskei. Birds such as Hanekom, who served as the landscape
three Ibis species have returned and architect for Jo’burg City Parks, and Johan Planting of the river channel was done by
Greenbacked Heron have been sighted in Barnard, selected a very diverse planting the civil contractor, Murray and Dixon, but
the reeds. palette with a mix of aquatic, marginal and planting and installation of landscaping
dryland plants: trees, shrubs, herbaceous elements elsewhere in the park was
Four hundred metres of the concrete canal species, grasses, rushes and sedges to done by Jacques Hugo of Endemic
for stormwater drainage was demolished help deal with the sediment from the Developments. LSA
in Paterson Park, along with the barrier upper catchment which fluctuates and

Early 2019, three years after the concrete
was removed and the stream renaturalised,
this photograph was taken in the same area
at the northern end of Paterson Park where
a diverse mix of plants, selected by NLA, was
thriving. This portion links to the Short Street
Park designed by landscape architect Karien
Hanekom.

28 Landscape SA • Issue 91 2019