Macauley Place, Bayswater

Bright coloured street planters with in integrated seating placed in an alleyway

Client Knox City Council

Project Bayswater Renewal Strategy

Date June 2026

Location Mountain High Shopping Centre, Bayswater

Market Councils

Breathing New Life into a Laneway

As part of Knox City Council‘s Bayswater Renewal Strategy, Draffin Street Furniture was proud to supply a suite of Hamilton Planters with integrated seating and complementary street furniture for the transformation of Macauley Place, Bayswater.

Before…..

Once a largely vehicle-dominated service laneway, Macauley Place, Bayswater has been reimagined as a vibrant pedestrian-focused destination that supports local businesses, encourages community interaction, and creates a more inviting public realm.

The revitalisation introduces colour, greenery, and opportunities for people to pause, gather and enjoy the space.

Hamilton Planters

Draffin’s Hamilton Planters played a key role in defining the new streetscape. Finished in bold, high-impact colours complete with integrated spotted gum timber seating, the planters provide both visual activation and practical amenity. Their integrated seating creates informal gathering spaces while the planted trees soften the urban environment and contribute to the area’s long-term greening objectives.

The planters are placed along the length of the alleyway where corresponding non-slip ground colour has been boldly applied. This approach, while bold in appearance, blends the planters into the hardscape. The use of primary colours lends a playful visual aesthetic in an otherwise plain looking space.

Upgrade, Transform, Revitalise

Colourful Planters placed along an alleyway in front of a shopping centre

The contrast between the site’s previous condition and the completed outcome highlights the impact thoughtfully designed street furniture can have in transforming underutilised urban spaces into places people want to spend time in.

In particular, Hamilton Planters make for an ideal space transformer. One single piece of furniture that adds useful form, identity, and purpose in multiple ways:

Traffic Barrier – Balancing vehicles and pedestrian access in a shared space

Resting Place – Configurable integrated seating and/or tables

Shade – Larger planters accommodate larger trees

Green Space – The ability to integrate plant life into otherwise barren spaces.

With so many shapes and sizes, materials, plus integrated bench and table options, Hamilton is Australia’s most versatile planter.

Kiama Bike Rails

Also found at this site, these good looking yet very heavy-duty bike stands are part of Draffin’s popular Kiama Suite. Made of 100mm x 10mm 316 grade Stainless Steel flat bar for high-performance, they are formed to include Kiama’s contemporary styled furniture profiles.

Hamilton Benches

Matching Green Single Seat Benches and Planters in an alleyway

Hamilton Planters share the spotlight with Hamilton Benches. Like the planters, these can be made in many sizes and shapes from the stool-like versions you see here, right up to 2m x 1m platforms, with the same batten varieties, so they can be purpose built for any space.

This is the smallest form the Hamilton Bench can be made in, with a seat top measuring 400mm x 400mm, you could call them a stool. As a single seater they are ideal used like what you see here and have proven a useful addition to table settings providing extra table access compared to bench seats.

Built-in Features

Due to Hamilton’s easy surface mount system and overall “bolt-in and plant” nature, they are popular for applications like the Macauley Place, Bayswater project. Rapid transformations are made possible with minimal public disturbance. There are extra features included to further enhance the installation process too:

Hide-away mounting system

Foot brackets are simply surface mounted into place before the planter is placed into the brackets. The entire assembly is then bolted together securing the planter to the ground. In some cases, it may not be necessary to bolt the planter down and in this case, the foot bracket is simply bolted to the planter. In either case, Hamilton Planters are portable and can be shifted where they are needed.

WaterUps Wicking Planter Cells

WaterUps water wicking systems are included with every Hamilton Planter. These recycled plastic devices replace time-consuming and labour-intensive alternative methods of setting up a wicking garden bed to manage watering of the plants and trees that will be planted. Plus, every Hamilton Planter has an overflow pipe to prevent overfilling of the planter.

The Macauley Place upgrade demonstrates how landscape elements and street furniture can work together to create a stronger sense of place, delivering a colourful and engaging streetscape that benefits both the local community and surrounding businesses.

See what is possible in the Hamilton range and configure a Hamilton in 3D for your space.

Head to the Hamilton product pages