National Landscape Design Awards 2019 winners

The exclusive and competitive National Landscape Design Awards were held at Melbourne Museum’s Treetops venue on the 31^st of August.  The venue provided the perfect back drop with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to Carlton Gardens. A significantly large number of entries were submitted this year – the highest on record – submitted by renowned landscape designers competing against the rest of their nation for best of their category.  The awards were conducted by the Australian Institute of Landscape Designers & Managers (AILDM). It was an exclusive event for AILDM members and their guests to celebrate excellence in landscape design in our nation. 

The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Stephen Ryan, owner of the nationally-recognised nursery, Dicksonia Rare Plants and a passionate plant collector, author, lecturer and recipient of the John Pascoe Fawkner Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Horticulture. Stephen effortlessly entertained a very full program of awards, enthusiastically acknowledging the award winners and their design skills.

Four panels of judges assessed the entries. Judges commented that the standard of entries was higher than they had seen before, making all categories very competitive. The highest-scoring entries received Gold Awards, others that achieved above a set score received Silver. The top-scoring Gold entry in each category was awarded ‘Best in Category’.

The highest award given was the Allan Correy Award for Design Excellence. Allan Correy was one of Australia’s landscape architecture pioneers. In private practice, he designed domestic gardens using recycled building materials, ground modelling, local stone, native trees and mass shrubs, and groundcover to create places that soothe the human psyche and celebrate nature. In both his public and private works he used local plant species and materials to create a strong Australian identity. AILDM was very proud to have Allan as its Founding Patron. The Allan Correy Award is given in his memory to the entrant whose work best represents the values he espoused.

The Allan Correy Award for 2019 was presented to Adrian Swain of ecodesign. The entries Adrian submitted ranged from a small suburban courtyard, larger domestic gardens, an ecovillage, indigenous pavilion at a university and the transplantation of a massive fig tree threatened by surrounding development. Through his work, Adrian had shown a strong commitment to AILDM and the profession of landscape design as well as leadership in developing a business practice which reflected the ideals Allan espoused, passing them on to a new generation of designers.

The Best in Category Awards were won by:

Landscape Design – Rooftop

Judy Dolin, South House Gardens

Residential Landscape Design less than 50-square-metres

Steve Warner, OUTHOUSE design

Residential Landscape Design 50 – 150-square-metres

Mitchell Turner, GOODMANORS Pools + Gardens

Residential Landscape Design more than 150-square-metres

Adam McDonald, Impressions Landscape-Design

Landscape Design Rural/Coastal

Fiona Ericsson, Sticks & Stones Landscape Design

Landscape Design – Commercial Open Space

Robert McIlroy, Saunders Havill Group

Commercial Educational/Institutional/Playspace Design

Daniel Kavanagh, The Gardenmakers

Plantscape Design

Jane Stark, Stark Design

Landscape Management – Environmental & Amenity Horticulture

Robert McIlroy, Saunders Havill Group

The full list of award recipients can viewed on the news page of AILDM’s website aildm.com.au