Local native dryland plants including
Banksia Marginata are used in conjunction
with the stone and steelwork.

Landscape

The approach to landscaping tells a great deal about a place!

Putting plants to work

The plants at WestWyck have been chosen because they all have a job to do. Some plants are part of the complex of transpiration beds; they have to breathe hard to pump out all that excess moisture. Other plants are designed to hold the water in the stormwater reed beds and slow its flow, purifying it as it moves along and making good use of it to produce an attractive landscape up against the building itself without causing any structural damage to that building. Then there are the shade trees and the productive trees and if we are talking food, a telling part of the WestWyck landscape is the shared veggie garden.

Water conservation and plant selection

Generally speaking local indigenous plants have been preferred as the planting palette because they do work just by being there; they attract local insects and birds and provide habitat corridors to the neighbouring parklands.

The local indigenous plant is always a good option in a dry country; it is accustomed to survival without introduction of watering systems. There are water-loving plants at WestWyck but they do not have to have their thirst quenched by precious potable water but are instead fed from stormwater systems or through the transpiration beds. An example of this is the use of the Tristaniopsis Laurina (Kanooka or Water Gum), the beautiful streamside tree that frequents the rivers of East Gippsland, as a transpiration plant around the car park.


The swale drains running beside
the school building provide a soft landscaped
edge to the building itself and protect
the structure from water damage.

Art and the landscape

However, the local indigenous principle has been sacrificed on occasion to allow for productive gardens and transpiration plants. In another instance an ornamental native small Western Australian Eucalypt has been used because of its suitability in close conjunction to an historic building and to complement the stonework introduced by landscape artist Mel Ogden.

The landscape has allowed WestWyck an opportunity to introduce an artist and Mel's rock walls may resemble Stonehenge but they provide some privacy for courtyard gardens and a beautiful colour and texture contrast to the school building itself.

WestWyck's landscape features permeable surfaces. The bitumen and concrete has largely been removed to allow the earth to soak up the rain.

Landscape rules: keeping cars in their place

The WestWyck landscape design has been based around the minimisation of vehicle intrusion; vehicles have been restricted to a confined landscaped carpark allowing for the maximisation of planting and restful places on the rest of the property.  The carpark harbours an underground grey and black water system and it keeps an open vista to Hunter St, a designated heritage area in Moreland's Heritage Conservation Study.  This design means that the street continues to relate to one of its most important traditional buildings.

Camel Garden

The Victoria St frontage features more artwork in the form of Richard Fryer’s camel, a symbol of survival in a water scarce landscape. The grassland meadow between WestWyck’s northern frontage and the Victoria St fence is planted with indigenous wildflowers carefully selected for their variety of blue hues that blend with WestWyck’s grey rendered walls and for their capacity to withstand long periods without water.

PLANTS USED AT WESTWYCK

Updated June 2008

Eastern Transpiration Bed:
(selected to withstand both inundation and some period of prolonged drought)


The original theme from the apartment landscaping
of Eucalyptus Caesia in conjunction with grassland plants
is picked up and used with the
southern gardens of the townhouses.

Western Reed Bed:
(selected to withstand both inundation and some period of prolonged drought)

Eastern Reed Bed:
(selected to withstand both inundation and some period of prolonged drought)

Southwestern Reed Bed:
(selected to withstand both inundation and some period of prolonged drought)

Photo: Western path
The swale drains run along the north fences
of the townhouses and are planted out with
Brachyscome multifida, Dianella revoluta,
Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Bracteantha pallustris and
Brachyscome basaltica mixed in with sedges and rushes.

Southeastern Reed Bed:
(selected to withstand both inundation and some period of prolonged drought)

Carpark Beds (east and west):
(selected for evapotranspiration function)

Stonework Plantings:
(selected for drought tolerance, for colour co-ordination with stonework and building and for lack of root damage to building)

Northern Garden Plantings: (Garden bed fronting Victoria St)

PHoto: Northern garden
The northern garden presents
an indigenous grassland
to Victoria St passers-by

NOTE:

Most plants are indigenous to the local area of Brunswick (local native) and plants have provenance details where possible.

Exceptions include:

WESTWYCK (Mike Hill & Lorna Pit) undertook some of the plantings.
Craig Maguire and Richard Holding undertook much of the landscape planting.

 

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