Hand and Heart—Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre Garden
Considered planting of local species makes materials available for traditional crafts, foods and medicines for Indigenous programs at the centre. Photography: Rory Gardiner.
Kids at the Balim Balim Kindergarten learning the importance of water conservation and how it works through natural play.
Clever design has incorporated natural water overflow and catchment into a part of the kids' daily routines.
Mimicking the surrounding volcanic plain, the landscaping at the centre catches every drop that falls and holds it to be used when needed.
Meetings at the centre are often held sitting around the fire pit on the edge of the two dance grounds (one for men, one for women).
Vicki Couzens' artwork at the heart or dhurrung of the centre. This pan of water vibrates to the sound of a strong, beating heart.
The Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre is built on deep respect for Indigenous knowledge and culture, interdisciplinary collaboration and aspiration for the future.
After lots of talking, meetings and consultations, Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre (strong heart in Wathaurung language) is open. An honest and respectful collaboration marks the beginning of a truly special place that will meet the needs of the people in this community.
In 2016, Wyndham City Council recognised the need for a meeting place for their large community of Aboriginal residents – one of the largest in Melbourne’s west. The council partnered with the Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit at Victoria University to hold a forum and invite some local community groups to take part and advise them on the best way to go about it.
The Koling wada-ngal Committee was formed and a site for the Wyndham Aboriginal Community Centre and Integrated Family Centre was chosen – on Wathaurung Country.
The design for the building was a partnership between Gresley Abas Architects and Gregory Burgess Architects, with landscape architecture by REALMstudios. The building won the Allan and Beth Coldicutt Award for Sustainable Architecture at the 2020 Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Awards.
At first glance, the site chosen for the centre looked pretty bleak and featureless. A seemingly lifeless paddock on the edge of a suburban subdivision.
When the Koling wada-ngal Committee invited Wathaurung Elder, Bryon Powell to walk with the architect Greg Burgess on the land, Bryon could read the features of the landscape and offered an insight into a much broader picture of the place they were standing. It was all about water.
Uncle Bryon Powell spotted birds gathering in a nearby paddock “flapping about” in a wet part of the field. He understood the site to be a part of a broader landscape of soaks in the volcanic plain. This plain remains biodynamic in soil, water and plant communities, finely-tuned to physical characteristics in the local geology.
The traditional boundaries of the Wathaurung people’s land span the coastline from the Werribee River to Lorne and continue inland in a north-westerly direction towards Ballarat.
Before colonisation, the Wathaurung led lives mediated by custom and law set out by their ancestors in the Dreaming. The role of humans was to care for their Country – requiring constant movement across the landscape, and gathering in special spaces within that landscape. In these particular places, at particular times, spiritual, social and economic matters were managed through traditional rituals and ceremonies of place.
REALMstudios’ design for the landscape was informed by their many talks with the Wathaurung people, consultation with the Koling wada-ngal Committee and advice and knowledge from water specialist Dr Peter Breen and indigenous plant experts, Michael Slot and Paul Thompson.
“Taking our lead from Uncle Bryon Powell, the landscape solution for Wunggurrwil Dhurrung is not intended to mediate, decorate or otherwise mitigate the impact of humans on the environment. Instead, our aim has been to reintegrate, to re-establish, to regenerate. Specifically, we have worked to restore those qualities and conditions that preceded colonisation and its attendant monoculturalisation, in both the land and the ways in which we regard it. Inspired by the intelligence of indigeneity and supported by our disciplinary capabilities, we needed to move well beyond sustainability. Instead, we engaged in a proactive regeneration of the landscapes, systems and cultural spaces, aiming towards a coexistence with the land upon which we all walk,” shares REALMstudios.
Wathaurung knowledge teaches that water is what this place is all about. Natural water management can be seen all over this landscape; absorbed within the porosity of the solidified lava in this volcanic plain, collected in natural depressions in the rock, accumulating soils and propagating plants and in unseen soaks that recharge the deep water underneath and support diverse ecologies on the surface.
REALMstudios has designed a system for the building that goes beyond more commonplace irrigation systems. All the water that falls on the site returns to the ground through the landscape or is reused in the building. It is deeply considered, harvested and slowly released into depressions and pools around the centre.
Taking a cue from the surrounding plains, each drop is captured and held for when it may be needed – none of it is wasted.
The only place in the building with recycled irrigation is the central courtyard, created with Indigenous artist Vicki Couzens. This winter sunroom or summer shade room is the heart (dhurrung) of the centre and the soundscape and light installation that mimics a strong beating heart is seriously moving.
When John Shinkfield of REALMstudios met with the people of the community at the start of planning, the Wayapa Wuurrk foundation (who will be using the centre), had clear ideas about what kind of plants it wanted to be there.
Karen Jackson is on the Koling wada-ngal Committee and remembers the conversation: “We needed the weaving plants for the women and the guys needed stringy bark trees to make their twine. We also wanted a particular type of banksia. John consulted with local indigenous nurseries to find out the botanical names of the varieties local to the area.”
The enormity of what has been achieved after such a long process and the sense of excitement for things to come is palpable upon visiting the centre. There are plant encyclopaedias being collated, dances and workshops planned. There are big ideas brewing.
“We are so keen to get a great big indigenous edible garden happening here. We have a dream for making a local food bank. Not just a normal food bank – with leftovers – but imagine a food bank where people could come and plant and pick and then go use the big kitchen and cook up and take a meal home that way – imagine that!” says Karen Jackson.
It is early days for the centre – it has only just opened – but it’s in strong hands with strong hearts.
wyndham.vic.gov.au/project/wunggurrwil-dhurrung-centre gresleyabas.com.au
gbarch.com.au
realmstudios.com
