New Urban Garden Laak Boorndap to Transform Melbourne Arts Precinct

The Victorian Government has released new designs and announced that the 18,000sqm urban garden in the centre of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation will be named Laak Boorndap (pronounced Lark – Born – Darp).

The name, Laak Boorndap, was bestowed to the garden by Traditional Owner, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung  Language Elder, Aunty Gail Smith to honour the beautiful place that the garden will create for all. The naming  of the garden is a key step in grounding visitors on Wurundjeri Country and growing representation of First  Peoples cultures across the Arts Precinct.

Aunty Gail Smith says, “it’s not just a placename, it brings Sky Country, the heavens, and everyone back  together on sacred ground.”  

The garden is designed by the Melbourne studio of international design practice Hassell and New York’s SO-IL,  with internationally renowned horticulturalists Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough, who are working closely  with plant expert Jac Semmler from Melbourne company, Super Bloom. Planted entirely on an elevated deck,  this remarkable new public garden is at the forefront of contemporary garden design – being unique in the world  in its planting density, scale and climate resiliency. 

Taking advantage of the relatively mild winters in Melbourne, the garden has been designed to flourish year round, ensuring it is beautiful and ever-changing, and continually fostering biodiversity. The garden showcases  a highly dynamic and multi-layered planting design using a mix of native and introduced species including  carefully selected trees, perennials, grasses and flora. A bold and unique approach to naturalistic planting,  visitors will be able to enjoy six different areas of thematic planting within the garden that intersect and celebrate  the natural composition of Australian landscape. 

Reflecting First Peoples’ long tradition of gathering by and caring for the Birrarung (Yarra River), the new garden  will be home to a waterway that people can sit near and take in the sounds of trickling water. The waterway will  run along the edge of the garden near The Fox: NGV Contemporary. 

With a stunning green space that supports community wellbeing and connection, the elevated urban garden will  wrap around and connect the new The Fox: NGV Contemporary, NGV International, Arts Centre Melbourne’s  Hamer Hall and Theatres Building (under the Spire), along with adjacent The Primrose Potter Australian Ballet  Centre. Cafes and restaurants will be located at Arts Centre Melbourne and NGV, making the precinct an  unmissable destination. 

Complementing the rich tapestry of planting across the year, Laak Boorndap will present contemporary art and  activation including new artwork commissions by First Peoples. The garden will also be home to significant contemporary sculpture from the collections of the NGV and Arts Centre Melbourne, open to the public both day  and night.  

Laak Boorndap delivers another crucial intervention into this rapidly growing part of the city, creating a new  pedestrian pathway that will change how the Melbourne Arts Precinct – and Southbank as a whole – is accessed  by visitors, residents, students and workers.  

Built over Sturt St between City Road and Southbank Boulevard (which has been transformed from a bitumen  roadway into the busy loading docks and back of house areas for NGV International, Arts Centre Melbourne, and  the new The Fox: NGV Contemporary) the garden provides a quick, accessible and safe connection from the city  directly from Princes Bridge through to Southbank Boulevard and the Arts Precinct.  

Laak Boorndap and the new amenities that come with it will be a driver to transform the area – for visitors,  residents and businesses alongside the many arts organisations that populate the broader Melbourne Arts  Precinct. 

For further information, visit artsprecinct.melbourne