TCL submit a thought-provoking project that is not based in a botanical garden, however, challenges many Gondwana gardens. TCL worked with the Melbourne Museum to create a rich dialogue between visitors, plants and fossils making sure all representations of plants within this garden were the closest living botanical match possible.
The garden provides a rich textural ‘Gondwana’ garden that explores a “lush environment with a touch of chaos.” Visitors are able to journey back in time to immerse themselves in the textures, sounds, smells, and wildlife of Gondwana.
Through evocative planting, interpretation, sculptural elements, and carefully designed rock work, a fluid landscape guides visitors on an ancient journey, revealing the rise of early plants and animals, the shifting climates that shaped evolution, and the tectonic forces that fractured Gondwana to form today’s continents.
Gondwana Gardens are not a new concept—often featured in botanic gardens—many suffer from inaccurate plant selections and misleading information. For-the Melbourne Museum team, it was essential that this garden present the most accurate representation possible, using living plant material to reflect Gondwana’s ecological history.
To support this, the Museum provided digital scans of fossils, insects, and bones, allowing the design team to experiment with scale, landscape integration, and visitor experience, ultimately shaping the interpretive elements. This garden while not in a traditional botanic garden setting is a garden that elevates botanical knowledge and planting design, provides a robust educational piece that is geologically and botanically accurate, while elevating the visitor experience all issues that botanical gardens face.