Australian Garden - Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Paul Thompson

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne has created a major new botanic garden on a 25-hectare site at Cranbourne on the south-eastern outskirts of Melbourne. The garden addresses contemporary environmental and cultural issues to bring a new type of garden experience to visitors. The garden seeks to create an environment in which specific qualities of flora are highlighted in a manner that will inspire visitors to further explore Australian plants. A common theme through the garden design is the exploration and expression of the evolving relationship between the Australian people and our landscape and flora. Water is the mediating element between these natural and human derived gardens. The garden highlights the tension between the natural landscape and our human impulse to steadily change it. This tension is not eliminated; rather it is the driving creative impulse for exploration, expression and interpretation of the landscape and its flora.

Photo: © Peter Hyatt. Published on June 09, 2014.

Location: Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Victoria
Completion Date: Stage 1: 2005, Stage 2: 2012
Construction budget: $11,000,000 (AUD)
Size: 25 Hectare

Credits
Landscape Architects and Horticulture: Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Paul Thompson
Architecture: Rockpool Shelter: Greg Burgess Architects (Stage 1)
Visitor Centre: Kirsten Thompson Architects (Stage 1)
Shelters –BKK (Stage 2)
Engineering: Meinhardt (Stage 1) and Irwin Consult (Stage 2)
Engineering (Lilly Pad Bridge): Peter Felacetti (Stage 2)
Cost Planning: DCWC (Stage 1) and Rider Levett Bucknall (Stage 2)
Soil Consultants: Robert van de Graaff (Stage 1) and Peter May (Stage 2)
Lighting: Barry Webb and Associates
Irrigation: Irrigation Design Consultants
Water: Waterforms International (Stage 1 ) and Doug Basich (Stage 2)
Sculpture: Ephemeral Lake: Mark Stoner and Edwina Kearney (Stage 1)
Escarpment Wall: Greg Clark
Superintendency: LIS