ii PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs Grand Garden Designs
A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY GARDEN DESIGN Acknowledgments
Major partners Unless otherwise credited, all photographs are from Geoffrey & Rachel O’Conor the State Library of NSW collection © Brett Boardman, Jason Busch, Murray Fredericks, Sue Stubbs, Mary Tanner Nicholas Watt Thomas & Dee Hyde Page John Hyde Page Survey coordinator & exhibition consultant: Howard Tanner Collection development specialist: Sally Hone Creative producers: Jennifer Blunden & Karen Hall State Library of NSW Creative producer, multimedia: Sabrina Organo Macquarie Street Sydney 2000 Australia Curatorial liaison: Sarah Morley Telephone +61 (0) 2 9273 1414 Exhibition design: Jemima Woo www.sl.nsw.gov.au Graphic design: Rosie Handley & Marianne Hawke Editor: Sarah Fitzherbert Published to accompany the exhibition Planting Dreams: Grand Garden Designs Front cover & inside cover images (both details): Ooralba, A free exhibition at the State Library of NSW Barrengarry, Southern Highlands. Lead designer: Hugh 3 September 2016 – 15 January 2017 Main. Photographer: Murray Fredericks Inside back cover (detail): Pirramimma, Wentworth Falls, Exhibition opening hours: Blue Mountains. Lead designers: Craig Burton, Matthew Weekdays 9 am to 5 pm and John Dillon. Photographer: Jason Busch Thursdays until 8 pm Weekends 10 am to 5 pm Howard Tanner would like to thank the following people for their assistance with the project: Michael Follow us on Bates, Robert Bleakley and Lisa Hochhauser, Graham #dreamgarden @statelibrarynsw and Charlene Bradley, Tristan Dalziel (Thubbul), Monique Davies (Ooralba), Tricia Dixon, Professor Tim Entwisle © State Library of NSW September 2016 (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria), Patrick Gallagher (Allen Printer: Lindsay Yates Group & Unwin), Garry Harding (City of Sydney), Janet Hawley, Paper: Pacesetter gloss and satin Thomas Hyde Page, Andrew King (Romani Pastoral Print run: 12,000 Company), Derek McDonnell, Lord Mayor Clover Moore P&D: 4709-9-2016 (City of Sydney), David Mort, Henric Nicholas, Michael ISBN: 0 7313 7234 4 Power, Bob Rose (Kia Ora Stud), Richard Silink (National Trust of Australia, NSW), Mary Tanner, Dr Gerard Vaughan The State Library of NSW is a statutory (National Gallery of Australia), Allan Vidor, Katherine authority of, and principally funded by Webster (Bates Landscape), Rod Windrim, and the NSW Government. Matthew Woodward.
Events Discover more Come along to talks, workshops, discussions and exciting Learning events associated with both Planting Dreams exhibitions, Educator-led learning programs are available for students. Shaping Australian Gardens and Grand Garden Designs. Please email
In 2015 the State Library of NSW embarked The first part of the project, the survey, in Sydney’s east and Everglades at Leura, on the Contemporary Gardens Survey began very much from the ground up. are now also in the public realm, and these to create an enduring record of the Suggestions from a number of industry provide a benchmark for the development noteworthy gardens of our time, with input stalwarts with a deep knowledge and of gardens by private owners. from their designers and creators – a kind experience of landscape design and Virtually every park and garden of snapshot to represent particular trends construction in New South Wales began celebrated in this exhibition and survey is and interests in gardens and garden making a journey of exploration, which involved a highly personal creation, an artistic, living at this moment in time. a series of interviews with landscape response to a particular place. Such places consultants, and inspections of a selection In her insightful and timely book Garden make most art and architecture appear of remarkable gardens. The landscape Voices: Australian Designers – Their Stories, inert, and connect in a special way with Anne Latreille explores our history of designers who conceived these gardens the visitor. Almost everyone recognises landscape design and, in describing what spoke of their excellent landscape training the harmony and sense of wellbeing unites the ideas and work of those who at Ryde TAFE, or at the Canberra College that comes from progressing through a make up this diverse profession, observes of Advanced Education (now the University beautiful landscape. Like the human race, that each designer ‘creates spaces rather of Canberra) in the 1980s. a landscape is part of a living, breathing than simply decorating them, is willing The second part of the project was to take a chance, and displays artistry to commission leading garden world, with birth, rebirth, maturity and and imagination that can be breathtaking. photographers Jason Busch, Murray death as elements of an eternal cycle. Each understands plants – the component Fredericks, Sue Stubbs and Nicholas Watt of a garden that makes it dynamic and adds to record a selection of the outstanding the fourth dimension of time.’ 1 gardens. Each of the photographers ‘ A larger garden allows Many of the ‘voices’ Anne recorded reveals a different take on the subject, convinced me that the prosperity of yet they have all brought to the exhibition greater opportunities for Australia in the years since 1980 had enabled wonderful images of some of the state’s landscape designers to create a number of finest new landscapes. The commissioned creative expression and exciting, new, consciously designed parks photographs, along with a selection of inspires other gardens and gardens. By ‘conscious design’, I mean pre-existing images and written accounts a planned garden with a composed layout from the interviews, make up the survey and gardeners ... ’ and the intended scene clearly envisaged. inventory and will form a new archive in This conviction happily coincided with the the State Library’s permanent collection. Library’s plans to develop an exhibition on But why have we favoured larger gardens? Man-made landscapes are spectacularly the history of gardening in Australia, and A larger garden – or indeed a park – allows grand in that they are the result of the survey and photographic exhibition more expansive opportunities for creative an enormous passion, vision and grew out of that. We surveyed the larger expression than a smaller-scale residential determination on the part of both the innovative parks and gardens created in New one, and typically inspires other gardens owners and designers to create something South Wales since 1980 to document the and gardeners. The great botanic gardens, out of the ordinary. work of significant New South Wales-based such as the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney landscape designers, then commissioned and its satellites at Mt Tomah and Mt well-known garden photographers to record Annan, set high standards for landscape a selection of these gardens for the State design and horticulture. Many gardens that Library collection. were once private, like Vaucluse House
1 Anne Latreille, Garden Voices: Australian Designers – Their Stories, Bloomings Books, Melbourne, 2013, p. 1
PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs 1 indigenous planting, lakes, and landforms example of Nicole de Vesian’s La Louvre from red sand evoking inland Australia; and garden in Provence, France, where these McGregor Coxall’s serene lawn, shrub-bank concepts have been translated to suit a and bush path with water elements in the Mediterranean setting. For these designers, Australian Garden (2006–2010) at the de Vesian’s work offered a clear basis for the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, adaption of Japanese ideals to suit the drier which if it had been in New South Wales circumstance of the Australian garden. The may well have been included in this survey. garden Ooralba, at Barrengarry, set high The impressive Barangaroo Headland on a plateau overlooking Kangaroo Valley Reserve, also of great interest, would and fringed by sandstone escarpments, SEA PEACE | Ewingsdale, North Coast. Lead designer: almost certainly have been included Lisa Hochhauser. Photographer: Nicholas Watt frames vistas to borrowed landscapes and had it had several more years to reach culminates in an engaging maze of clipped, a condition worthy of being recorded. mounded hedging (of Elaeagnus pungens), Designed by Johnson Pilton Walker/Peter a perfect example of cloud pruning. In a Walker & Partners with horticulturalist similar vein, a seaside garden at Berrara, INFLUENCES ON AUSTRALIAN Stuart Pittendrigh, Barangaroo Headland south of Jervis Bay, uses traditional Reserve adjoining Sydney’s Walsh Bay uses shrubberies clipped into rounded and GARDEN DESIGNERS massive sandstone plinths and plantings undulating forms to frame views of waves that replicate the flora of Sydney in 1788 crashing along the coastline. Since the 1960s a growing appreciation to simulate the original Sydney Harbour A trans-Atlantic phenomenon emulated of the Australian landscape and its shoreline. Its design clearly evokes the in Australia includes US-based Oehme more remarkable plants has echoed the grand scale of the more structural and van Sweden’s sweeping banks of native sentiments of 19th-century travellers such abstract landscapes being commissioned as botanical artist Marianne North and in the USA. grasses. Dutchman Piet Oudolf’s masterly landscape gardener William Guilfoyle, deployment of seasonal field plants can be New gardens in Australia, and in New who wrote of their admiration for the seen in his own garden at Hummelo in the South Wales specifically, have also been handsome rainforest trees and flora found Netherlands, at Scampston Hall in Britain, influenced by significant overseas gardens along the east coast. Following World War in Chicago’s Lurie Garden and along New and gardening movements. Before World II, Australia’s most famous traditional York’s High Line. Both Oehme van Sweden War II, the design of nearly every Australian and Oudolf represent a significant current garden designer, Edna Walling, celebrated park and garden was based on English styles, trend in landscape design, clearly reflected the attractive natural circumstance found with some influence from the USA brought in recent Australian gardens with sweeping along country byways in her book The back by Australian architects who visited banks of flamboyant grasses and low-lying Australian Roadside (1952); sisters Betty America in the 1920s and 30s. US influence foliage plants. This approach is evident in Maloney and Jean Walker brought native was later strengthened via popular movies the new garden at Eagles Bluff gardens into popular recognition through and magazines, notably California’s lifestyle in mountainous terrain near Tenterfield, their publications, especially Designing magazine Sunset in the 1950s and 60s. and in the seaside Norfolk Island pine Australian Bush Gardens (1966); and from It promoted outdoor living, with redwood
1964 onwards, designers Bruce Mackenzie decks, barbecues and swimming pools in groves underplanted with Miscanthus and Harry Howard promoted the use landscaped settings, and Sydney quickly and Poa grass at Haxstead, Central Tilba. of indigenous plant species to regain followed suit. landscapes appropriate to Sydney. By the 1990s there was clear recognition of Australia as a generally dry continent with ‘ In recent decades, the Japanese garden has become an uneven weather patterns, and of the need for gardeners to use drought-hardy plants important source of spatial concepts and textural ideas.’ and to minimise the use of water. In more recent times a number of spectacular, high-profile new Australian In recent decades the Japanese The use of architectural foliage, parks and gardens using a distinctive and garden – with its use of massed clipped strongly textured and coloured plants largely Australian palette have attracted shrubs, known as ‘cloud pruning’; of in clever combinations, as at Lindesay, significant public interest. Among them ‘borrowed landscapes’ incorporating Darling Point, is another identifier of are Fiona Brockhoff ’s hardy coastal garden, features of the landscape beyond the garden; modern landscapes, as is the creation Karkalla, at Sorrento, Victoria; Taylor and of subtle conjunctions of stone and of gardens consciously designed as Cullity Lethlean’s Australian Garden gravel – has become an important source settings for contemporary sculpture, like (1995–2012) at the Royal Botanic Gardens, of spatial concepts and textural ideas. the courtyard gardens at Pirramimma, Cranbourne, Victoria, with its remarkable Several Sydney-based designers gave the Wentworth Falls.
2 PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs And what of the influence of the extreme, all applicable to much of Australia. perhaps contrived, drama of some of the Included are images of bold plantings modernist gardens abroad? American of clumped grasses, Echium, Euphorbia, Martha Schwartz’s landscapes – powerful sage and rosemary, and of grouped olive examples of installation art – are hinted trees enfolding an outdoor lifestyle, with at in Richard Weller and Vladimir Sitta’s terraces, fire pits and lap pools. A thoughtful Garden of Australian Dreams in Canberra, translation of these ideals can be found in while Charles Jencks’s Garden of Cosmic a number of country gardens in New South Speculation in Scotland, with its smooth, Wales, where the use of substantial areas curving sculpted embankments, finds direct of tough plantings creates a sense of expression in Michael Bates’s formative THUBBUL | Murrah, Bermagui, South Coast. a verdant oasis in a generally open Lead designer: Philip Cox. Photographer: Jason Busch garden at Tallawong, Mount Irvine, in the landscape, and in particular with the Blue Mountains. While roof gardens are part placement of a swimming pool, water trough of a long tradition, the greening of high-rise or ornamental pond providing cool contrast new garden is its modernity, given that buildings is a new phenomenon, especially and welcome relief in a hot climate, as at designer Carolyn Robinson had previously the concept of the vertical garden – with Garangula, Harden. perfected the traditional Australian country planting trained over external frames on garden at Glenrock on the northern a tall building – which has found expression INNOVATION IN LANDSCAPE DESIGN outskirts of Tenterfield. Carolyn comes in French designer Patrick Blanc’s from a family of farmers and gardeners One Central Park residential tower In exploring innovative landscape designs who have a real interest in soil quality. The on Sydney’s Broadway. in New South Wales, many exciting new granite landscapes of Tenterfield produce Given the drought conditions prevailing gardens came into view. Most were designed relatively poor soils, but provide the basic from time to time over much of Australia, to complement the natural setting, with material for Carolyn’s numerous fieldstone there has been an emphasis in recent years new garden elements placed into an walls. Irrigation is possible at Eagles on ‘dry’ gardening and the use of tough established landscape. Bluff but is used sparingly, as drought and plants suited to these conditions. While an inadequate water supply are regular At Thubbul, near Bermagui on the far many indigenous plants fulfil this role and issues, so Carolyn favours tough, drought- South Coast, lofty forests edge both the sea have found favour since the ‘bush garden’ hardy plants. At one point in 2015 the and a wide lagoon. Accommodation on the movement of the 1960s and 70s, inspiration river stopped running and the dam was has also come from new gardens in the property is provided in several pavilions, dry, and hand-watering from large storage Mediterranean and California. Among and beyond them masonry walls define tanks enabled the garden to survive. This these are the somewhat austere gardens garden spaces set with sculptures and responsible approach to gardening in a dry of Spanish landscape designer Fernando flowering shrubs. Further into the forest, climate is characteristic of thoughtfully Caruncho, where rectangular basins of another pavilion – faintly reminiscent of designed newer gardens. architect Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona water are flanked by gravel paths and In complete contrast, the garden at Pavilion – overlooks a lake filled with hedging, and a softer accent is provided Sea Peace, inland from Byron Bay on waterlilies, and paths take you deep into a by rolling drifts of clipped Escallonia the far North Coast, sits on an escarpment forest understorey accented with low palm- macrantha – a style emulated at Ooralba, with distant views of the Pacific Ocean. like burrawangs, a primitive form of cycad. Barrengarry. In Caruncho’s Spanish It turns its back on paddocks and broad- Architect Philip Cox has loved and nurtured projects, the broader landscape of ancient acre residential development to recreate this beautiful landscape for nearly 50 years, olive trees, cypresses and golden wheatfields the wondrous native forest that existed providing a subtle layering of introduced becomes an extension of the garden. In the before the land was cleared for dairy farms. elements. The garden is a fusion of natural Greek isles, landscape designer Thomas Subtropical trees are layered with orchids beauty and understated design, a rare kind Doxiadis has created important transitional and staghorns, and underplanted with landscapes between new villas and their of improved wilderness. Heliconia and Hedychium. Handsome windswept hillside settings, retaining A different relationship with wild, rough palm groves fringe the swimming pool, gnarled juniper trees and merging new, country is found at Eagles Bluff, south of while stands of hoop pine edge a large lake. tough low-scale planting, such as Pistachia Tenterfield, which has severely cold winters A new aerial walkway links the existing lentiscus, with the native vegetation, an idea and hot summers. Here sweeps of lawn and garden to a large shade house that provides also found at Eagles Bluff, Tenterfield. banks of subtly coloured ornamental grasses a suitable environment for precious forest Recent books showing us inspirational and shrubs transition the garden seamlessly plants. Here rainfall is reasonably reliable. examples of outstanding modernist from the new homestead into the wider The regeneration of the subtropical forest country gardens in California – designed valley landscape. There is a fast-flowing was begun some 40 years ago. Landscape by Pamela Burton, Andrea Cochran and stream, and in wet weather the rugged architect Lisa Hochhauser has since given Bernard Trainor – clearly convey various escarpment is punctuated by waterfalls. the property a design framework, preparing possibilities for sophisticated dry gardening, An interesting aspect of this outstanding a comprehensive plan, and detailing paths,
PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs 3 EAGLES BLUFF | Tenterfield, New England. Lead designer: Carolyn Robinson. Photographer: Nicholas Watt
‘ Virtually every park and garden celebrated in this exhibition and survey is a highly personal creation, an artistic, living response to a particular place.’
4 PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs terraces, ponds and key plantings. The design is partly formal but always The garden has been layered with suitable with an inventive twist. Hedging to the but unusual plants obtained from specialist entry drive is angled to provide certain nurseries or from the wild by Harry Moult viewpoints that reveal hidden gardens, and Clayton Holmes, who are in essence and an avenue of lemon-scented gums modern-day plant-hunters. While Sea takes the eye to a symbolic horse trough Peace is not in any obvious way linked to then out into the drier pastoral landscape. the grand tropical gardens of Bali, Mist and water emerge from a conical stone Singapore or Sri Lanka – notably Geoffrey structure, feeding a rill that flows to the Bawa’s Lunuganga – it may more clearly swimming pool. Garangula’s garden, polo HORSE ISLAND | Bodalla, South Coast. Lead designer: share with them certain lush characteristics fields and pastoral acres are beautifully neat Christina Kennedy. Photographer: Jason Busch as it moves towards maturity. and kept to an unusually high standard, For some, the classical garden ideal perhaps reflecting the owner’s Swiss remains, but may be interpreted in new ideals. At Wirra Willa, architect Matthew ways. At Horse Island, on Tuross Lakes Woodward has provided new focal points near Bodalla, the former paddocks and for the garden designed by Michael Cooke; woodland have been transformed to a stylish glassed-in pavilion, framed by become sweeping lawns among tall- planting, overhangs the central lake, while trunked eucalypts that frame views a modernist garage buried in the hillside is across the lake to distant mountains. The topped by a cleverly resolved roof garden. Here the basalt soil, spring-fed lake and garden is somewhat formal but provides a coastal rainfall originally made the land distinctively Australian experience in that ideal for a commercial citrus orchard, and it uses only indigenous plants. At Nestor now a lush garden has been created around Farm, near Berry, the idea behind many the lake, incorporating fine stands of great English gardens – smooth lawns eucalypts, angophoras and turpentine trees. WIRRA WILLA | Somersby, Central Coast. Lead designer: descending between clumped trees to a Michael Cooke. Photographer: Murray Fredericks lake – has been reinterpreted to grand Landscape opportunities in a big city effect using distinctive east coast rainforest are different, and in Sydney the survey trees such as Buckinghamia and Flindersia. discovered several innovative new gardens The Abbey, a fantastic Gothic Revival Both of these South Coast gardens are as settings for historic houses. The garden stone house in Annandale, sits atop a realisations of their owners’ long-held of The Hermitage at Vaucluse is centred sandstone walled terrace with views to the city. Garden designer Will Dangar has ideal of a familiar landscape recreated in on a large Gothic Revival house overlooking enriched a grotto, a fountain court and old a distinctive and specifically Australian way. a generous lawn and a framed view of Sydney Harbour and the city of Sydney. iron trellises with highly textured planting, Tobermory at Moss Vale recalls the Clever planting, recently introduced by and made a side courtyard private by wonderful articulation of the sorts of landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and planting a bank of glossy-leafed Magnolia architectural plans found at Roman sites such as Hadrian’s Villa outside Rome. Laid out by landscape designer Peter Fudge, massive, finely trimmed hedges line the ‘ For some, the classical garden ideal remains, entry drive before curving into a clipped circular enclosure in front of the house. but may be interpreted in new ways.’ Elsewhere hedging forms large garden rooms, or frames an outlook into open countryside. nurtured by horticulturalist Andrew grandiflora Exmouth, and Brachychiton The adventurous altering of landforms Price, secures wonderful privacy for the and Cupaniopsis trees. for visual effect, and an understanding of garden, and a large kitchen garden has In Sydney large private gardens are rare, the role of water in tempering a hot climate, been established in a small, secluded valley. so inventive outcomes in public gardens are found in a number of rural gardens, Another historic ‘marine villa’, the National are vital. The Paddington Reservoir including those at Garangula, Harden, Trust property Lindesay at Darling Point, Gardens is an extraordinary reuse, for and Wirra Willa, Somersby. Garangula has had its garden vista cleverly reworked public recreation, of the ruins of a 19th was a most amazing commission to reveal its original subtropical character. century reservoir, with elevated walkways for Vladimir (Tom) Sitta as a young A rich tapestry of architectural foliage and and pergolas, and sunken gardens set with professional: he was provided with flowering shrubs, resolved by landscape tree ferns, Xanthorrhoea and eucalypts. excellent resources and required to give it designer Christopher Nicholas, reveals Colourful striped deckchairs encourage his total attention over a two-year period. a fine understanding of plant groupings. the public to linger and relax. The hand
PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs 5 added grassed steps that descend to an LOOKING TO THE FUTURE old stone jetty on the waterfront and form an amphitheatre. On the upper slopes he And what of the future of these gardens? created a Naval Memorial with circular Gardens, of course, are ever changing bronze plaques set among the paving and we cannot know whether they will be and enfolded by curving sandstone walls. maintained in a considered way in the long The changes to the landscape are highly term. Public parks and botanic gardens considered and give a certain gravitas to are more secure in this respect, but large this significant historic site. private gardens would be fortunate indeed As part of the survey of contemporary to enjoy a sequence of responsible and PRINCE ALFRED PARK | Surry Hills, Sydney. informed owners into the future. A number Lead designer: Sue Barnsley. Photographer: Sue Stubbs gardens, and in honour of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Garden of these private gardens seem currently Sydney, we also explored more recent to be at a peak of perfection and several botanic gardens. The Blue Mountains owners are producing books to record this Botanic Garden at Mount Tomah was special circumstance. Other owners are ‘ In Sydney large private gardens established in 1972, too early to be part of contemplating conservation covenants the survey, but it has a wondrous panoramic or the establishment of well-funded trusts are rare, so inventive outcomes outlook from its projecting rock walls to oversee their properties, so that these and cascades, possibly inspired by the special places can survive in their entirety, in public gardens are vital. ’ work of Mexican modernist architect Luis ideally properly maintained and allied Barragán. We also inspected the Australian to programs enabling research Botanic Garden Mount Annan, begun in and public access. 1984 south-west of Sydney near Camden, The making of a larger garden is an of artist and landscape architect Anton but concluded that further time and more age-old pursuit to create one’s own earthly James is evident here. Prince Alfred funding are required for it to reach fruition. paradise, a beautiful retreat from the Park, next to Central Station in Surry Opened in 2003, Mount Penang everyday world. An expansive garden Hills, has been reworked by Sue Barnsley Gardens at Kariong near Gosford is an enables the exploration of new and bold as a haven for urban dwellers and urban intriguing fusion of botanic endeavour ideas, and the Library sees the recording of exercise. Its redesign shows the importance and artistic design. An extraordinary these remarkable contemporary creations of having a park like this for swimmers, commission, funded in part by the as an important reflection of our age. In our tennis and basketball players, yoga and Commonwealth but entrusted to the cities, thoughtfully designed urban parks Pilates enthusiasts, and runners and state, it represents a high point in recently fulfil this role in a more public way. All fitness fanatics, while still accommodating established major public gardens. Here, require a singular design vision, a number walkers, picnickers and family outings. a team that included Anton James and of years for the plants to reach maturity Ancient trees have been retained, the public Craig Burton created a truly distinctive and for the intended composition of the swimming pool enfolded by grassy hillocks, landscape. Entry is across a blue-clad landscape to be realised. Time itself will and the giant figs along Cleveland Street bridge over lotus-filled ponds with cascades. play a part, and any grand concept will be underplanted with rough native grasses Large precast cement panels form ramparts tempered by the performance of the plants, to offer a subtle transition from busy road and indents set with botanical plantations. and of the landscape’s custodians. to quieter parkland. In another example, Vine-clad steel sculptures, fountains and The many new parks and gardens Daniel Baffsky’s outstanding roof garden distinctively shaped bottle trees provide created recently in New South Wales are above the apartments at MCentral in further visual accents. This remarkable a worthy response to our ongoing need for Pyrmont brings a meadow and a surprising public garden deserves to be better known special landscapes that provide a serene sense of space into the heart of the city. and better maintained, and to be provided and harmonious contrast to city settings Sydney Harbour’s charm derives largely with better access. and the pressures of urban life. from its diverse topography and the A number of fine traditional gardens various wooded peninsulas that project were also inspected for the survey. HOWARD TANNER into obvious lines of view. One of the most While these were outside the brief for Howard Tanner is a Sydney-based prominent is Bradleys Head, which has an contemporary gardens, they are wonderful architect and writer with a longstanding active lighthouse still used for navigation, in their own right and are included in the involvement in landscape design and old sandstone gun fortifications topped garden survey’s inventory. and history. with the foremast of HMAS Sydney. The design of new landscape elements was entrusted to Craig Burton. Responding to the curving rhythms of the site, he
6 PLANTING DREAMS | Grand Garden Designs Ooralba ‘ The joy of designing this garden was in letting BARRENGARRY, SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS Lead designer: Hugh Main the surrounding landscape inform what we did Photographer: Murray Fredericks within the boundaries of the garden ... This garden, north of Kangaroo Valley, is set on a plateau with a sandstone escarpment as a distant backdrop. The challenge was to create a garden that felt Thoughtfully composed garden spaces, each leading on to the next, conclude in a dramatic maze formed as though it extended to the horizon.’ of cloud-pruned shrubs. Key influences on this designer are the rocky terrain and clipped shrubs of Provence LANDSCAPE DESIGNER HUGH MAIN, 2016 in the south of France, and the secluded, understated and reflective character of traditional Japanese gardens. Main also favours a restricted colour palette that emphasises grey-greens with accents of silver.
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