Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 187 August 2025 i Landscape Architecture Australia

01 Flight Table Tennis Table As its name suggests, the Flight Table Tennis Table is a lithe, aeronautical-inspired form fabricated from a robust, durable aluminium that handles heavy use in public spaces. —streetandgarden.com 02 Longreach Cantilever Shelter The Longreach Cantilever Shelter combines ACQ-treated hardwood with a timber-framed Colorbond roof. Its wide span offers generous shading for public recreational spaces. —landmarkpro.com.au 03 Deco GRC planters Quatro Design’s Deco GRC range features curvilinear Art Deco-inspired forms in 1,700 millimetre, 2,200 millimetre, and 3,200 millimetre lengths. With modular planter and bench combinations, it supports timber or upholstered seating and suits urban greening and public realm furnishing applications. —quatrodesign.com.au 04 Australian-made street furniture GX Outdoors offers semi-customisable Australian-made street furniture with the option of laser-cut detailing and adaptable product dimensions. —gxoutdoors.com 05 Rough and…

Landscapes with poor drainage can be hard to specify for, especially in depressed parts of the landscape that hold water longer. Once boggy conditions become prolonged, root rot diseases can take hold, causing many plants that are supposed to handle periodic flooding to appear poorly or fail altogether. Such unsightly mistakes can be easily avoided by positioning the right plants in the right place. Ozbreed has been working hard to release a number of the toughest and most beautiful plants for Australian conditions. We are particularly excited about two new lomandras that tolerate flooding, drought and hard cutbacks: Lomandra fluviatilis ‘LM380’ PBR Trade Name Shara Blue™, and Lomandra longifolia ‘LM360’ PBR Trade Name Lady Tanika®. During our “wet feet” trials, other specimens quickly became stunted or died, whereas these two…

Cairns’s population is expected to approach 250,000 by 2050. Compounding this growth is the escalating impact of climate change, with projected temperature increases of 0.5 to 1.4 degrees Celsius by 2030, prolonged heatwaves and more extreme weather events. These trends threaten the far north Queensland city’s livability, tourism appeal and economic resilience, and impact how we should be planning for the city’s future. For local governments, however, it is often difficult to set policy goals with incomplete information or an incomplete understanding of which techniques suit different areas. Given this, mapping and measuring existing heat patterns are critical first steps when it comes to the process of designing effective heat mitigation strategies. Measuring existing heat patterns Standard meteorological data from Bureau of Meteorology stations provides broad regional temperature readings, but…

At the end of 2022, Richard Weller returned to Australia after completing his decade long term as the Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and chair of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Many in the design community were looking forward to Richard’s injection of energy, optimism and intelligence into practice and academia. Sadly, his contributions were cut short. Despite his death at just 61, Richard produced an impressive catalogue of projects, exhibitions, competition wins, essays, books, guest lectures and teaching awards over the course of his career. Recognised globally as a designer, thinker and provocateur, Richard was also a much-loved teacher and mentor to many. His skill and charisma as a communicator and leader in landscape architecture are, I believe, unparalleled in Australia. Richard’s expansive intellect,…

The far north of Australia has long been shaped by mining, but as mining winds down, these towns must look to reimagine their economic futures. Many of these places are prime candidates for tourism-driven economic renewal, with rich landscape quality, Indigenous culture, and plentiful opportunities for adventure tourism. Unpacking conventional approaches to tourism-driven economic renewal projects Conventional approaches to feasibility and masterplanning for tourism-driven economic renewal projects are generally economics led or, alternatively, design led. Economics-led approaches often bake-in “business as usual” spatial models and fail to realise (or allow for) the economic and other benefits of design innovation. Designled approaches, on the other hand, often fail to adequately account for long-term ongoing financial viability of projects beyond the construction phase, and can lead to poor economic, and consequently, poor…

Loren Holmes – For those unfamiliar with the Kimberley region of Western Australia, what drew you in and continues to inspire you about the region? Vanessa Margetts – The landscape is so vast and varied and there are these huge areas where the cultural and natural ecosystems are still alive and healthy. Many people are still living and growing up and practicing culture on areas of Country that haven’t been disrupted by built infrastructure, by mining and by other post-colonial interventions, which feels quite different to most of the east and west coasts south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Work moves at the pace of Country and distances are massive. From Perth to Broome, it’s a three-hour flight. Then from Broome into the Kimberley, there are long drives or small…

Australia is at the forefront of feeling the impacts of global climate change, and the cool, mountain-top rainforests of the Wet Tropics region is one of its most threatened ecosystems. Increasing average temperatures, record-breaking heat waves, extreme rainfall events, cyclones, and growing fire danger are threatening the natural environment and the livelihoods of many industries and people who rely on the natural assets of this UNESCO-World-Heritage-listed region. Many species of plants and animals in the region are found nowhere else in the world, including over 700 species of plants and more than 90 vertebrates.1 Some of these groups represent ancient lineages that led to the evolution of flowering plants, song birds and Australia’s unique marsupials. There are almost 200 species of vertebrates in the rainforest-clad mountains of this region that…

Stretching across the northernmost 20 percent of the continent, from Western Australia’s rugged Kimberley to Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, Australia’s tropical savannas are one of the earth’s largest and most intact tropical ecosystems. The savannas are defined by three inter-related features: an intense wet–dry seasonal rainfall cycle driven by the northern Australian monsoon, a variable and diverse mix of trees and grasses, and frequent fires, typically relatively low in intensity by comparison with southern Australian bushfires. Despite the environmental extremes, these landscapes harbour extraordinary biodiversity and support a rich array of wildlife found nowhere else, including the Gouldian finch and frilled-neck lizard, and lesser-known but globally significant insect communities (including several thousand species of ants). Despite their apparent health though, the savannas are facing a suite of escalating threats –…

Katy Moir – What do you think are the common challenges facing Garramilla/Darwin and places north of Capricorn? Tony Cox – One of the biggest ongoing challenges is our isolation, coupled with the rawness and fragility of the landscape. Are we good stewards of the land? The north is perceived as vast and ripe for development. In recent decades, shifting policies have intensified a “development at all costs” attitude – a “wild west” approach that ignores environmental and social concerns. KM – How do you balance embracing national expectations, while advocating for local experts? TC – In the north, we’re dealing with unique landscapes and climates. The north is a harsh environment but also fragile and its values can be easily lost. We need to harness local knowledge, including First…

The city of Karratha (population 25,000) on Western Australia’s northern coast is often seen through the lens of mining: a rugged coastal landscape and industrial hub driving national prosperity. Yet, beneath this extractive economy lies immense potential for diversification and urban growth. Barriers to growing Karratha Karratha faces substantial barriers to growth. Chief among these is a governance structure that centralises power at state and federal levels, which restricts regional cities from evolving into sustainable, multi-sector economies. Fiscally, local governments lack the autonomy needed to reinvest in their own development. For every $1 of gross domestic product (GDP) generated in Karratha, the local government retains less than $0.001. This financial dependency stifles long-term planning and infrastructure investment. Politically, local governments are not legislatively protected; they exist at the discretion of…