Top 10 Most Influential and Famous Landscape Designers in Australia
Landscape design is a process of developing practical and pleasing outdoor living space. The design of the landscape in conjunction with the overall site planning and architectural design can create a place where people want to spend time, socialize, or work.
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Investing in professional landscape design lets you take advantage of your home’s surrounding environment. A visually-appealing landscape benefits home and business owners in many ways. It gives the property value a boost, enriches the community, and provide environmental advantages.
In no particular order, here are the most influential and famous landscape designers in Australia.
1. Jim Fogarty
Jim Fogarty is a landscape designer and gardening media personality based in Melbourne. He graduated from Burnley Horticultural College in 1992, with a passion for designing gardens. One of the highlights of Jim’s career has been his experiences at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
He holds over twenty internationally-recognised design awards. He has won ‘Best in Show’, ‘Horticultural Excellence’, and more from prestigious award-giving bodies such as the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, and the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria Comeadow. In 2006, Jim was invited by the Singapore National Parks Board to compete in the inaugural Singapore Garden Festival. Amongst top international designers, he won a gold medal, and the RHS (UK) Award for Horticultural Excellence.
Jim is the current president of the Horticultural Media Association of Victoria. He now designs gardens for private and commercial clients as well as designing show gardens. Part of his international projects include designing gardens to judging at garden shows, and even providing design master classes.
2. Paal Grant
Paal Grant is an award-winning Melbourne-based landscape designer known for his innovative approach to creating extraordinary gardens. According to him, the natural world became his inspiration. A lot of this has to do with growing up in the regional Victorian town of Ballarat.
Paal believes that balance is key and achieves this through the use of different textures, colours and shapes in each of his gardens, demonstrating that strong design principles enhance a functional space.
His 2009, 2010 and 2012 show gardens were awarded Gold at The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. He also won the prestigious Royal Horticultural Comeadow Award for his 2010 submission ‘The Wave Garden’.
From designing and constructing luxury rooftop and balcony gardens, Paal’s scope of achievements is vast. He enjoys regular covers and features in Australia’s top landscaping and lifestyle magazines.
Paal will represent Australia at the 2015 Japan Garden & Flower Show. There, he will be competing against green thumbs from 30 countries at the Gardening World Cup in Japan.
3. Phillip Johnson
Phillip has won many awards, most notably at the 2013 Chelsea Flower Show, when his ‘Trailfinders’ Australian Garden was awarded a ‘Best in Show’ medal. He has helped create a number of successful show gardens around the world.
Phillip has won the Ford Sustainability Award for three out of four years, at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. He also won a ‘Best in Show – International Design’ at the China Flower show in Wujin, China.
Phillip believes that we need to create healing habitats not just for ourselves, but to repair what we’ve done to the environment. And it all starts in your own backyard. He mentioned this in his new book, ‘Connected, The Sustainable Landscapes of Phillip Johnson’.
Phillip attended the recent Australian Landscape Conference 2015 as speaker. He is passionate and committed to greening our cities and addressing water management through innovative andsustainable design. He believes that moving water brings excitement, energy, birds, fish, insects and local flora to provide life and variety.
3. Daniel Tyrrell
Daniel is currently the director and owner of his own company, Daniel Tyrrell Landscapes. He is an award-winning Melbourne landscape designer with a reputation for creating gardens and outdoor rooms that arouse the senses and suit today’s lifestyle.
Daniel has won Silver Medals at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show in 2009, 2011, and 2013, as well as the Honda Sustainability Award.
Daniel takes on a whole approach to each garden design, seeking to create an ambiance between home and outdoor space. He believes that a garden can be many things, including a place to relax, to soothe the soul and stimulate the emotions.
Together with his team, he aims to bring balance back to their clients’ outdoor spaces. It involves showing restraint with hard surfaces, while taking advantage of the ability to grow plants. This can change the way they see their garden for years to come.
Today, he still designs and constructs gardens and landscapes, and tailors each one to its surroundings. Most importantly, he creates it for the people who use and enjoy it.
5. Ian Barker
Ian has over 25 years in the industry and has already won awards at the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show in London. His 2011 Silver-Gilt medal cemented his place as an award-winning garden designer on the international garden design and horticultural stage.
Ian’s most recent achievements include winning a gold medal at the 2015 Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, and the Horticultural & Media Association’s Best Use of Plant Life Award for the show garden, ‘Cross Roads’.
Ian began his landscape design, construction and maintenance business in 1996 after completing two apprenticeships, several horticultural courses, plus extensive work experience abroad.Ian Barker Gardens is one of the most sought-after landscape design and construction companies in Australia.
6. Alison Douglas
Having completed a post graduate certificate in Garden design at Melbourne University, Alison is now satisfying her love of landscape design, sustainability, and plants. She took the first place at ‘The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show’ 2015 in the Boutique Gardens category with her creation ‘Pipe Dream’.
According to Alison, she thrives on challenging sites and smaller spaces and is passionate about the finer details. She also has a degree in Industrial Design, working in various fields such as exhibition design, toy design, and fashion design.
7. Charlie Albone
Known for his role as a presenter on the TV show ‘Selling Houses Australia’, Charlie is a Silver-Gilt medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015. Passionate about the design of his surroundings, Charlie has been designing and building gardens for almost 12 years.
His award-winning design was a display called ‘The Time in Between’. The garden was created as a space where Albone would like to reunite with his late father, who passed away when the designer was 17.
He considers it ‘a celebration of life’, rather than a memorial. The display contains pillars that represent all the important people in his life today.
Now, his TV show is on its 8th series, wherein Albone continues making-over gardens so they look their best for sale. He also writes a monthly blog about gardening.
8. Paul Bangay Paul has been regarded as one of the foremost garden designers in Australia today. His clients include a roster of the most prominent figures in business and culture. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Horticulture) from the University of Melbourne.
Being in the industry for over 25 years, Paul has already won numerous awards, including the Mobil Pegasus Award and the Centenary Medal. He has displayed countless exhibitions in Australia. His distinctive approach has been featured in countless publications.
His personal insights have informed a successful series of lavish and widely anticipated books, beginning with The Defined Garden (1996) and most recent, ‘The Garden at Stonefields’ (2013).
9. Jamie Durie
Jamie is a qualified horticulturalist and multi-award-winning international landscape designer that shares his time in Australia and the United States. He has hosted and produced multiple TV shows, with his core series, ‘The Outdoor Room’. He also hosts Top Design, Australia’s Best Backyards, and Backyard Blitz.
James Durie has been designing landscapes and water features, both in Australia and overseas since 1996. He has already garnered dozens of medals worldwide, and major commendations and prizes from different bodies including the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, Singapore Garden Festival, and more.
His firm, Durie Designs, is a multi-award winning international landscape architecture and design firm with offices in Sydney and Los Angeles.
10. Karen Johnson
Karen has worked in the green industry for over 20 years. She trained at Burnley College, Melbourne University, with additional studies in landscape design. She is also an accredited member of the Australian Institute of Landscape Designers and Managers.
She founded her company ‘Karen Johnson Landscape Design’ in 1991. They focus on sustainability and water efficiency in Tasmanian-appropriate plantings. She is passionate about outdoor living, plants and landscapes for a sustainable future.
