Twenty years ago, the Australian Garden was an old sand mine and disused army training facility. Today, it is an award-winning garden displaying around 100,000 plants from 1,900 plant varieties collected from across Australia. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this award-winning, 15-hectare (~37 acres) garden tells the story of the Australian continent with a stunning display of native plants and animals.

Over the past twenty years, the Garden has won several accolades, including gold at the prestigious 2011 Chelsea Flower Show and sixth in the 2025 New York Times' list of 25 must-see gardens globally. In 2021, it was named the top Major Tourist Attraction in Australia at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards alongside Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

Design of The Australian Garden began in 1995 after Australian Landscape Architecture firm Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL) won the contract together with Landscape Architect and Australian Planting Designer Paul Thompson.

TCL Landscape Architect Perry Lethlean describes the journey of creating and designing the Red Sand Garden, a central feature of the Australian Garden. "Kevin Taylor and Kate Cullity's journey to Uluru in central Australia to work on the Uluru Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Cultural Centre in 1990 - 1993 inspired the inclusion of the Red Sand Garden - a garden that evokes the sublime qualities of grandeur, awe, and vastness experienced in the desert. It calls to mind Australians' love-hate relationship with this majestic environment as one of wonder etched with fear."

The composition of the garden is also influenced by Perry Lethlean's study exchange trip to Japan in the mid-1980s, where he studied under the garden design master Kinsaku Nakane. During this time, he learnt about the Japanese landscape design sensibilities of abstraction, distillation, and symbolism.

"We were also inspired by Australian artists, in particular Fred Williams, whose staccato, minimal, expressive gestures presented aerial and plan views as one, all with an ever-present ground plane. Williams also spoke of a lack of a focal point in the Australian landscape.

The Red Sand Garden expresses the desert landscape of spinifex and low shrubs, where each plant sits in its own shadow. The strong minimal patterning, abstraction, and repetition of the circular patterns of Salt Bush (Rhagodia spinescens, more recently replaced with Westringia fruticosa 'Smokey'), 3-dimensional 'lunettes' bordering the eastern side, and the expansive red sand ground plane, seek to distil and intensify the sublime experience of the Australian desert. The sculptural installation Ephemeral Lake by Mark Stoner and Edwina Kearney - a ceramic work that evokes the luminescent salt lakes that appear in the continent's dry areas - further intensifies the experience.

A sense of reverence for the grandeur, yet ecological fragility of the desert is expressed by prohibiting visitor entry to the garden. As in a Japanese karesansui sand garden, the viewer maintains a respectful distance and is invited to contemplate the scene without entering and interrupting the garden's powerful elemental and symbolic experience. The grey-green circles also decrease in size, a device used to intensify a sense of distance and space. The line planted with ephemeral daisies creates a slash through the center of the Garden and refers to the north point, the navigational necessity for European explorers as they ventured into the unknown," said Lethlean.

He said that the Australian Garden also tells the story of the Australian continent.

 

"Through a planting palette that showcases plants from all continental regions and climatic zones, the Gardens also serve to illustrate the diversity, awe, beauty, and creative opportunities of indigenous flora to the broader public. Rather than composing a traditional botanic garden based on a scientific classification of plants, or a representative arrangement of various genera, we were challenged to explore the natural and cultural qualities of the Australian landscape and to utilize Australian flora in new ways.

The Garden employs a landscape design approach that communicates geographic, scientific, and cultural narratives via experience and immersion rather than didactic signage. The design expresses these narratives of the Australian landscape through the artistic modes of abstraction, distillation, sculpted forms, repetition, and patterning rather than by recreating landscape types or ecosystems.

As a continent that is often understood according to the cycle of drought and flood, the Garden is structured via the journey of water through the Australian landscape, from the unpredictable, intermittent, and infrequent presence in deserts and dry environments where there are more rivers and creeks of stone than water, to the coastal fringe, where water is more abundant. We felt that the gardens representing the continental edge could be fertile, immersive, urbane, and recognizable, while the landscapes expressing the desert and dry areas could be confronting, distant, and striking," said Lethlean.

Today, the Garden continues to evolve under the guidance of award-winning and long-standing Gardens Landscape Architect, Andrew Laidlaw. Laidlaw has been working at the Gardens for over 25 years and, in July last year, received the President's Award at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Victorian Awards for his outstanding contribution to landscape architecture and the transformative role of gardens in public life.

"It is an absolute honor and privilege to expand on the fantastic work of TCL architects and to work with Gardens horticulturists to evolve the Garden and meet the needs of a growing number of visitors," said Laidlaw.

In 2023, he designed a new Dry River Bed in collaboration with TCL and Paul Thompson, a colorful display of Australian natives inspired by the water courses shaping much of inland Australia, and in 2026, the new How to Garden, which inspires and educates visitors on how to create biodiverse and thriving gardens using Australian native plants.

"In these designs, we have incorporated current best-practice landscape design techniques, feedback from visitors, staff, and learning institutions, and knowledge about First Nations plant uses to create aesthetically pleasing, modern, and inspirational designs that honor TCL's overall vision. I look forward to seeing the Australian Garden continue to evolve, adapt to a changing climate and growing population," he said.

Laidlaw has also designed and developed many projects at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne over the past 25 years, including the Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden, Guilfoyle's Volcano, Arid and Sensory Gardens, and the Fern Gully rejuvenation.

In today's garden, visitors can find eucalyptus, wattle, grevillea, grass trees, kangaroo paw, bottle trees, and even the prehistoric Wollemi pine, as well as native fauna including kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, wombats, and the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot.

The Garden is visited by over 300,000 visitors per year and continues to grow in popularity. It is approximately a one-hour drive from Melbourne and is on the tourism routes to Phillip Island and the Mornington Peninsula. It is also free to enter and open all year round, apart from Christmas Day.

The garden sits within the broader, 363-hectare (~897 acres) Cranbourne Gardens site, which comprises Australian bushland, with hiking and cycling tracks, BBQ facilities, and playgrounds.

Scientists and horticulturists at the Gardens conserve critically endangered Australian plants and animals. These include Raising Rarity, which collaborates with other botanic gardens, councils, and local communities to further conservation impact. Its Orchid Conservation Program is now the largest orchid conservation program of its kind in the world. There are also conservation programs for native animals such as the Southern Brown Bandicoot and Pookila.

The 20th Anniversary celebrations are being delivered together with Major Partner Red Energy and Presenting Partner the City of Casey.

For further details about the Garden, go to: https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/cranbourne-gardens/

For details about the events, go to: https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/cranbourne-gardens/whats-on-cranbourne/australian-garden-20th-birthday-weekend/

About Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne
Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne offers a natural bushland experience alongside the Australian Garden, an award-winning, contemporary botanic garden celebrating the beauty and diversity of Australian landscapes and flora and featuring over 100,000 plants from 1,900 plant varieties. The Gardens are located in Cranbourne, on the tourism routes to Phillip Island and the Mornington Peninsula, making it a great stopover point for a day trip, or enroute to nearby locations such as Cruden Farm and Moonlit Sanctuary. It's also close to other cultural destinations in the region, including Bunjil Place. The bushland has over 450 indigenous plant species and includes over 10km of walking tracks, six kilometers of cycling tracks, a lookout tower, picturesque shelters, barbecues, and playgrounds. It is a precious remnant of the vegetation that once covered the broader region and is actively managed to control the number of non-indigenous plants and exotic weeds. There is a range of visitor programs, as well as self-guided walks available throughout the year. Open 9:00am - 5:00pm daily, except Christmas Day.

About Andrew Laidlaw
Andrew is one of Australia's leading Landscape Architects and designers. He has been the Landscape Architect at Melbourne Gardens for over 25 years and, as part of this role, has designed and developed Fern Gully and the wellbeing gardens, Long Island, the Perennial Border, The Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden, The White Oak project, the Arid and Sensory Gardens, and Guilfoyle's Volcano. He also designed the recently opened Tecoma and City Gates. Since 2023, Andrew has been working at Cranbourne Gardens, where he has designed the new 'Dry River Bed' and the 'How to Garden.' He is currently working on the Kids Backyard Garden in collaboration with TCL. In 2025, Andrew Laidlaw was presented the President's Award for his outstanding contribution to landscape architecture and the transformative role of gardens in public life at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Victorian Awards.

About TCL
TCL is one of Australia's most awarded landscape architecture practices, with over 35 years of experience in creating iconic projects that are beautiful as wellas ecologically and culturally enriched. TCL undertakes a detailed exploration of context, site, and community, focusing on the poetic expression of landscape and contemporary culture. TCL are celebrated for creating vibrant, transformative environments that connect people to place. Services include: Masterplanning, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Town Planning, Concept, 3D Visualisation, Design Development, Documentation, and Construction Services.