Landscape Garden in Cranbourne

Forming part of the Royal Botanic Gardens south of Melbourne, the 25-hectare Australian Garden was opened in 2006. Its theme is the relationship Australians have to nature and the need to design and reshape it. The western section represents an intact natural landscape, while to the east are gardens devoted to aspects of man-made topography. At the heart of the development is a garden of red sand, which stands for the Australian desert. Although not accessible, it forms an abiding image for visitors. To the east, the garden falls away to a watercourse with artificial rocks – a scene staged by the artist Greg Clark with an almost 100-metre-long geometric sculpture of an escarpment wall in preoxidized steel.