Fresh By Design completed the world’s largest purpose-built platypus conservation centre – Platypus HQ – at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo. The facility includes interconnected aquatic and earthen habitat systems designed for research, rescue and rehabilitation, a pre-release facility designed to reacclimatise platypus prior to their release, and an educational platypus exhibit housing 23-year-old Mackenzie. The centre is now open to the public for community education and engagement. The project comprised 5 refuge systems (80 x 7,000 L tanks in total), 2 research systems and 1 exhibit system. Fresh By Design designed and installed all platypus systems and life support systems in the facility.
All systems are recirculating with Life Support Systems (LSS) including drum filters, moving bed bio-filters (MBBR), freshwater protein skimmers, AFM media filters, UV sterilisers, compact filtration skids, recirculation pumps with VFDs, air blowers, a temperature control system, ozone generators, and a water quality monitoring and control system. The systems were designed to provide optimal water quality for the platypus and ease of use for all operations staff.
The centre is the world’s largest purpose-built platypus conservation centre and is now open to the public for community education and engagement.
