Parks for nature and people
We bring communities into the design process, creating space for diverse voices to shape places that reflect local needs, shared values and a strong sense of belonging.
Parks and open space
Profile project:
Kalorama Park
Country: wurundjeri woi wurrung
Location: Kalorama Park, Mount Dandenong
Client: Yarra ranges Shire Council
Scale: Small project.
Collaboration: Yarra Ranges Shire Council, TARRMAC Studio Jon Tarry with James Morton, Intrax Engineering, MGAC Consulting.
Builder: RJ Kent
Photographer: William Hamilton-Coates
People have cared for this place for over 60,000 years. That care continues, and it guided how this project was undertaken. Kalorama Park encompasses two projects delivered as one unified landscape: the environmental artwork 'Regeneration – the Listening Place', developed with sculptor Jon Tarry, and a section of the 38 km Ngurrak Barring walking trail. Both were shaped through sustained collaboration with Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, artists, Yarra Ranges Council, Parks Victoria and the Friends of Kalorama.
Drawing on Edna Walling’s approach to regionally specific planting, the landscape uses species from the EVC 30 Mountain Ash Forest. Taller species are positioned to the west, sheltering smaller plants from the afternoon sun. Planting follows the paths in gardenesque moments that interrupt the lawn. Bidgee Widgee creeps low along the ground, trailing over the edges, its small cream burr-flowers scattered through the understory. The palette shifts through the year - new colour, foliage browning off, then regrowth. Repairing sections of lawn with native planting gives the sculpture a garden setting, reconnecting both park and visitor to the local ecology.
The Ngurrak Barring trail runs 38 kilometres through the forests, ridges, and ravines of Mount Dandenong. More than a bushwalk here, Kalorama is a cultural and horticultural park, where planting, sculpture and interpretation work together.
The gardens and trail are an ongoing act of gentle presence, allowing the place and country to speak to us, ensuring Kalorama Park continues to flourish as a valued recreational, cultural and environmental asset for as long as that care continues.
