PROPERTY developer Integra is celebrating a decade-long milestone.<\/p>\n
With the suburb of Lucas established in 2011, the company has planted almost 10,000 trees with an average of 1000 placed in the ground per year.<\/p>\n
Integra landscape manager Matthew Reynolds has overseen the tree planning effort since the beginning and said he still remembers how the estate looked when he started.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a paddock with some sheep in it, and a huge amount of gorse you could just about see Dyson Drive from, so it\u2019s definitely changed a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a huge effort, not just by Integra but everyone involved, so our landscape architects through to our guys that plant the trees and maintain them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Lucas stands out from a lot of estates with how much planting we do, the environmental trails we put in and the environment that creates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over 1300 trees will be added during the current planting season, which Mr Reynolds said is carried out by his six-person crew many of whom have been planting in Lucas since day one.<\/p>\n
With three more parks, two wetlands and the Grange estate to be developed, it is estimated Lucas will have over 11,000 trees by its completion alongside over 160,000 plants and shrubs.<\/p>\n
Integra\u2019s director of land development Nick Grylewicz spent seven years developing Lucas\u2019 masterplan and said it\u2019s great to see the area growing strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. We\u2019ve never worked on a project that\u2019s endured this long, and now we\u2019re really seeing it come together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trees we\u2019ve planted are a characteristic of all our developments here. It does take time for them to establish, so we\u2019re now starting to see that maturity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOften the eye goes onto the house, but here now it\u2019s going onto the tree, and ours are designed to exceed the 40 per cent canopy cover for Ballarat so it\u2019s quite an intensive program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PROPERTY developer Integra is celebrating a decade-long milestone. With the suburb of Lucas established in 2011, the company has planted almost 10,000 trees with an average of 1000 placed in the ground per year. Integra landscape manager Matthew Reynolds has overseen the tree planning effort since the beginning and said he still remembers how the […]<\/p>\n