Blackwattle Bay Town Planning Competition 

Now that you have completed your fieldwork or webinar, use the blank outline map of the Blackwattle Bay precinct (area), and using your town planning skills,  create a plan that will improve the area for people to live and work in, or to visit. Your plan should include: 

• The new Fish Market at its new Blackwattle Bay site on Bridge Rd

• New housing (apartments or town houses)

• Parklands 

• Recreational spaces including sporting facilities like tennis courts etc

• Transport links (eg a walkway / cycleway along the harbour. 

• Work spaces

• Sustainability features 

• Other features

Remember, A healthy natural environment makes a place liveable and sustainable. In your plan, describe ways your plan could improve the natural environment around the shore of Blackwattle Bay.

Extra marks will be awarded for plans that show how new features in your planning area connect to existing features and surrounding suburbs. 

Use the blank design template at left to create your design for the new Blackwattle Bay Precinct. 

Your plan should be a birds-eye view using colored pencils to show the different types of land uses. and features in your plan.

You should also include a maximum 200 word Town Plan Report describing the main features of your plan. 

Planning Tips

• You may wish to enlarge the blank Town Plan Template from A4 to A3 to help you in your design task. 

• Use pencils in case you want to make corrections.

• Ensure your features are approximately the correct scale (see scale section below)

• Use coloured pencils to show different land uses (see Land Use section below)

• Include sustainability features in you plan and describe these in you Report.You may wish to enlarge the blank Town Plan Template from A4 to A3 to help you in your design task. 

• Make a key or legend showing the main features of your plan. 

• Your plan should improve the natural environment and make Blackwattle Bay a more liveable place. 

• Think about how people will access your precinct – Hint you could put a new ferry wharf anywhere on the bay.

• Include recreation spaces, preferably on the waters edge so everyone has access to the harbour. 

• Bike lanes and walking paths also help the movement of people. 

• Be creative – what things would you like in your community? 

How to enter: Upload your Blackwattle Bay Plan, and your Town Plan Report on the gallery page. See Gallery tab for instructions. Make sure you include your name and school.

Competition closes: Tuesday 1st December

1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will announced: Monday 11th December.

Highly commended entries will be showcased in a gallery on the Observatory Hill EEC Humans Shape Places Website.

Scale is very important when drawing a plan.  Scale refers the distance on a map (or plan), compared to the actual distance on the ground. All the features on a plan should be drawn in the correct scale, otherwise your features will look too big or too small on your plan. 

A4 Plan

Your A4 Plan has a scale of approximately 1 : 4500 which means 1cm on your map is actually 45m in real life. 

To help you draw your plan to scale, the size of some typical plan features are shown below

• An average apartment block (30m x 20m) = approx 7mm x 4.5mm 

• An office building (30m x 20m) = approx 7mm x 4.5mm 

• A road is approx (7m) or 1.5mm wide

• A tennis court (24m x 8.8m) = approx 1.9mm x 5.3mm 

• A row of townhouses (80m x 40m) = approx 18mm x 9mm 

• A football field = (105m x 68m) = approx 23mm x 15mm 

• A community hall = (30m x 10m) = approx 6.5mm x 2mm

A3 Plan

Your enlarged A3 Plan has a scale of approximately 1 : 3000 which means 1cm on your map is actually approximately 30m in real life. 

To help you draw your plan to scale, the size of some typical plan features are shown below

• An average apartment block (30m x 20m) = approx 10mm x 6.7mm 

• An office building (30m x 20m) = approx 10mm x 6.7mm 

• A road is approx (7m) or 2.3mm wide

• A tennis court (24m x 8.8m) = approx 8.0mm x 3.0mm 

• A row of townhouses (80m x 40m) = approx 18mm x 9mm 

• A football field = (105m x 68m) = approx 35mm x 22.5mm 

• A community hall = (30m x 10m) = approx 6.5mm x 2mm

The Scale Converter Calculator lets you work out the approximate sizes of features  from metres to millimetres.

Town Planners have an important role in helping to create good places for people to live, sometimes called liveable cities. 

Some good planning strategies that help to create a liveable places include: 

• A clean environment - Providing sustainability or environmental features like solar panels and recycling bins to keep our environment clean 

• Housing - providing a variety of places for people to live in  including cheaper places for low income families and places for old people

• Employment - providing work near to where people live so they don't have to travel too far to get to work

• Recreation - Providing plenty of recreation areas to exercise and relax 

• Public Transport - providing good public transport to reduce traffic congestion and pollution on roads

• Walking and cycle paths - Providing bike and walking paths to allow people to move about without using cars 

• Good Public Infrastructure - Providing lots of public infrastructure like rubbish bins, seats, free wifi, paths, lighting, security cameras top make life easy, safe and convenient  for people  

• Community place  - Providing  community gardens and community halls where people can meet and catch up with friends 

• Youth activities - providing things for young people like playgrounds or skate parks 

• Harbour Access - Providing access to the harbour so everyone gets to enjoy being near the water 

• Natural Environments - Providing lot of natural environments for plants and animals to live in 

• Protecting heritage - keeping important old buildings so we can see how people lived in the past