Living Places St Marys

Living Places logo

Living Places is an exciting new project that will see around 400 beautiful street trees planted on nature strips across the southern section of St Marys. The tree planting project will improve the look of these streets, making them nicer places to live, walk and ride. Importantly trees also provide much needed shade and cooling in summer, creating a cooler place to live.

The trees will be planted in March to April 2019, after the heat of summer. The project is a pilot, and Council hopes to continue this work in other suburbs across the Penrith region.


Why plant trees?
Research shows that mature street trees provide a wide range of benefits for suburban streets. Trees have been shown to improve the value of local homes, while also making it cheaper to keep them cool in summer. The local environment also benefits through the capture of air pollution and stormwater runoff, and local birdlife will appreciate the new habitat. Trees have also been shown to improve mental wellbeing by increasing people’s connection with nature and improving the health of the community by encouraging people to get outside and be more active.

This work is being undertaken as part of Council’s Cooling the City Strategy. Taking action to cool the city is increasingly important given consistent projections of increasing heatwaves and extreme heat days for the Western Sydney region. Tree planting and landscaping has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to cool our suburbs.

Project launch and family fun day - Sat 24 November
10am to 12pm
Margaret Porter Reserve, Cnr Desborough Rd & Bega St

  • Jumping castle
  • Face painting
  • Plant giveaway
  • Free lunch

We'd love you to come along to the free family fun day being held at Margaret Porter Reserve on Saturday 24 November, so you can find out more about this project. There will be activities for the kids, a BBQ lunch and information on the Living Places project.

Existing street with few street trees.Existing street with visual representation of what it may look like with mature street trees.


Living Places logo

Living Places is an exciting new project that will see around 400 beautiful street trees planted on nature strips across the southern section of St Marys. The tree planting project will improve the look of these streets, making them nicer places to live, walk and ride. Importantly trees also provide much needed shade and cooling in summer, creating a cooler place to live.

The trees will be planted in March to April 2019, after the heat of summer. The project is a pilot, and Council hopes to continue this work in other suburbs across the Penrith region.


Why plant trees?
Research shows that mature street trees provide a wide range of benefits for suburban streets. Trees have been shown to improve the value of local homes, while also making it cheaper to keep them cool in summer. The local environment also benefits through the capture of air pollution and stormwater runoff, and local birdlife will appreciate the new habitat. Trees have also been shown to improve mental wellbeing by increasing people’s connection with nature and improving the health of the community by encouraging people to get outside and be more active.

This work is being undertaken as part of Council’s Cooling the City Strategy. Taking action to cool the city is increasingly important given consistent projections of increasing heatwaves and extreme heat days for the Western Sydney region. Tree planting and landscaping has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to cool our suburbs.

Project launch and family fun day - Sat 24 November
10am to 12pm
Margaret Porter Reserve, Cnr Desborough Rd & Bega St

  • Jumping castle
  • Face painting
  • Plant giveaway
  • Free lunch

We'd love you to come along to the free family fun day being held at Margaret Porter Reserve on Saturday 24 November, so you can find out more about this project. There will be activities for the kids, a BBQ lunch and information on the Living Places project.

Existing street with few street trees.Existing street with visual representation of what it may look like with mature street trees.


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