Bankstown Airport
On any given morning at Bankstown Airport, a light aircraft is taxiing past a hangar, tenants are arriving for work, someone is queuing for coffee and a film crew may be unloading trailers outside a hangar. It’s one of Sydney’s busiest working precincts, and one of its most visible.
When Green by Nature arrived in 2019, the landscape didn’t match that profile. Previous servicing hadn’t kept up with the full extent of the site, and presentation varied from one zone to the next. The airport leases every hangar and building to tenants, so tired gardens weren’t just an eyesore. They affected tenant satisfaction, public perception and commercial value.
The brief was ambitious: give the airport a clear point of difference, make every zone consistent, raise safety compliance and take proper care of its trees.
The first challenge was scale. The work covered 83 separate sites spread across the precinct, from broadacre open space beside the airfield to café gardens and public parks.
The second was that the site never stops. Pedestrians and vehicles move through it all day, so every task had to be planned around them. Film productions and events could close whole zones without warning, and some areas required battery-powered equipment.
Underfoot, compacted clay near the tarmac and busy areas limited drainage and root growth. And the client was hands-on. Airport management wanted to see standards day to day, and to raise improvement requests the moment it spotted something.
We started by bringing order to the site. Eight dedicated staff were organised into rotating circuits, so every one of the 83 sites gets attention on a predictable cycle: mowing, garden care, turf fertilising and aeration, tree safety works and regular inspections. Each morning that plan is checked against updates from area management and redirected around closures.
We then built the openness the client wanted. Weekly and monthly reports, drive-around audits and a live WhatsApp channel with area management mean issues are raised and fixed in real time, not at the next monthly meeting. Our crews also coordinate with the fortnightly street sweeper, so roads and paths stay clean and safe.
As trust grew, so did the work. With new buildings, roads and pathways going up across the airport, we now deliver new gardens, path and hardscape upgrades, planting refurbishments and irrigation extensions. Most months bring one or two of these projects.
The biggest change has been to water. A Rain Bird irrigation system installed during the contract replaced guesswork with zoned, scheduled watering: pop-up sprinklers on turf, drip lines in garden beds and priority for the main presentation areas. Every new part of the precinct is brought onto the system as it opens. On the ground, aeration and fertilising are targeted at the most compacted soils, where they make the biggest difference.
Key numbers: 83 sites managed since 2019 · 8 dedicated staff · new Rain Bird irrigation system · 1–2 enhancement projects a month.
Today, Bankstown Airport presents as one precinct rather than 83 separate patches. Paths are safe, trees are actively managed and gardens look consistent from the airfield edge to the café strip.
The relationship has changed too. A contract that began with stabilising maintenance has become a partnership in improving the site, with Green by Nature helping to shape the airport’s landscape as it grows.
