A plan to improve amenity along the lower reaches of the Werribee River has been awarded by the state’s peak landscape architecture body.
The Lower Werribee Waterway Amenity Action Plan took out the Land
Management category at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Victoria State Awards last week.
The plan, which is was a project of Melbourne Water in partnership with the Bunurong and Wadawurrung
Aboriginal Corporation’s, Wyndham Council, Parks Victoria and the Werribee River Association, improved amenity and access to the Werribee River while maintaining cultural and environmental values.
“Lower Werribee Waterway Amenity Action Plan is an exemplar strategy for the
restoration, conservation, and management of the significant river landscape of Wirribi Yaluk,” said the competition jury in awarding the prize.
The jury also praised the use of digital technology in communicating the plan and said it offered a blueprint for similar projects in the future.
Overall, 32 winners were announced from 102 entries across 16 categories.
Jury Chair Naomi Barun said this year’s entries demonstrated a more sensitive approach where architects sought to engage with the natural landscape rather than treating it as an object to be shaped.
“Projects in this year’s program were applauded for their painterly approach in the use of plants in the balance of the beauty and the applied science of horticulture,” Ms Barun said.
“This enabled an expression of seasonality, time, and a visible rendering of the ecological systems.”
The Lower Werribee Waterway Amenity Action Plan and other award winners will now progress to the National Landscape Architecture Awards later this year.
