Curtin University · Midland Campus
A Waterwise university held to twice-weekly watering installed a 50mm Vortex Generator on its Midland Campus irrigation in late November 2024. For the first time, summer watering duration was not increased, turf visibly improved, and the university has purchased further units.
Conducted by Rick Hortin, Supervisor Turf & Irrigation, Parks and Resource Recovery, Properties Facilities and Development, Curtin University, in a letter dated 24 June 2025.
- LOCATION
- Curtin University Midland Campus, Midland, Western Australia
- PERIOD
- Summer 2024/25 · installed late November 2024 · letter dated 24 June 2025
- EQUIPMENT
- PW200 (2" / 50mm) Vortex Generator, on the campus irrigation supply
Midland Campus, before and after
Read the underlying report
Every figure on this page is traceable to the documents below. Nothing is modelled, estimated, or extrapolated.
CITATIONHortin, R. (2025). Successful implementation of President Water PW200 Vortex Generator at Curtin University Midland Campus. Letter, 24 June 2025. Parks and Resource Recovery, Properties Facilities and Development, Curtin University, Western Australia.
What the trial measured
What the campus reports
THE STANDOUT RESULT- Watering duration was not increased through the 2024/25 summer. The letter states this is traditionally done in the heat of summer, and this year it was not needed.
- Turf health, coverage and plant health improved over the same period, documented in campus photographs from early December 2024 and late March 2025.
- The improvement held with daily temperatures rising over summer, under a twice-per-week watering restriction.
- The letter states the unit exceeded expectations, and the university has purchased further units on the strength of the result.
The installation
- One 50mm (2") Vortex Generator, installed in late November 2024 on the Midland Campus irrigation system.
- Curtin is a Waterwise university, committed to sustainable water use and restricted to watering twice per week.
- The campus sought a more water efficient and cost-effective way to optimise water usage and improve irrigation outcomes within those restrictions.
- The irrigation supply is municipal and connected to surrounding buildings, which is what rules out site-level metering.
Basis of the evidence
- The account comes from a signed letter dated 24 June 2025 from Rick Hortin, Supervisor Turf & Irrigation, Parks and Resource Recovery, Properties Facilities and Development.
- No metered water figures are given. The letter is explicit that they would not be accurate, because the supply also feeds surrounding buildings.
- The evidence is photographic (December 2024 against March 2025) and operational (the first summer without a duration increase).
- This page follows the letter's own framing and adds no figures the letter does not contain.
What happens next
- The university has purchased two additional units to run on supply that can be metered, so hard numbers can be produced (President Water, August 2026).
- If the metered results hold, the campus is looking at treating the entire main ring main, an installation of 16 PW600 units (President Water, August 2026).
“The 50mm Vortex exceeded our expectations, even with daily temperatures rising over summer.”
Every institutional turf manager in Western Australia irrigates inside the same box: two watering days a week, summer heat that punishes any missed cycle, and grounds the public actually walks on. Curtin Midland is what the equipment looks like inside that box, not in a trial plot.
The operational fact is the one worth sitting with. Increasing summer watering duration was routine at this campus. The summer after installation, for the first time, it did not happen. That is not a metered number, but it is a decision made by the person who owns the schedule, with the turf record to show beside it.
The photographs carry the rest: the same lawn, patchy in early December 2024, in full even coverage by late March 2025, at the end of the season that usually does the damage.
What this does not prove: there are no metered figures, and there cannot be on this site, because the supply is municipal and shared with surrounding buildings. One campus, one summer, no control area, and season-to-season weather is not accounted for. That is exactly why the university has bought two further units to run where metering is possible. Read this page as an operator's account, and read the metered turf results at Gwynne Park and Marri Park separately.
Trial at a glance
- SITE
- Curtin University Midland Campus, Midland, Western Australia
- SETTING
- Waterwise university campus, landscape and turf irrigation
- RESTRICTION
- Watering limited to two days per week
- EQUIPMENT
- One PW200 (2" / 50mm) President Water Vortex Generator
- INSTALLED
- Late November 2024
- OBSERVATION WINDOW
- Summer 2024/25, photographs early December 2024 and late March 2025
- WATER SUPPLY
- Municipal, connected to surrounding buildings
- METERING
- None possible on this supply, stated in the letter
- EVIDENCE TYPE
- Signed site letter with photographs. Single site, no control area
- STATEMENT BY
- Rick Hortin, Supervisor Turf & Irrigation, Curtin University, 24 June 2025
- FOLLOW-ON
- Further units purchased; two to be metered, main ring main under evaluation
President Water Company · presidentwater.com · Curtin University · Midland Campus, Summer 2024/25 · installed late November 2024 · letter dated 24 June 2025