Cut & Fill to transform sand quarry

A $5.5 million civil engineering and landscape contract for the Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, Victoria, has been won by Melbourne firm, Cut & Fill.

The prestigious contract will include many of the highlights of the Australian Garden, due to open in late 2005.

The Australian Garden, to be the only one of its kind in the world, will highlight the contribution of Australia's flora to the national sense of place and the nature of Australia. It has been designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean, together with renowned Australian plant designer Paul Thompson, and is being built on 11ha of the 360ha Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, about 2.5km south of Cranbourne, 45km south east of Melbourne. The area is an old sand quarry.

It is the first time Cut & Fill, Richmond, has been awarded such a project. Normally associated with road building and civil engineering, the company impressed the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne with its attention to detail and flexibility.

The contract includes the construction of the Escarpment Wall Sculpture, a unique sculpture designed by Greg Clark, which marks the separation between the Rockpool Waterway and a sand garden. The Escarpment Wall will screen the vastness of the Sand Garden, symbolically holding back the desert from overflowing and enveloping the visitor. The sculptural artwork is a warm and richly coloured red rusted steel structure made up of separate interlocking components.

Cut & Fill will also be responsible for constructing the Rockpool Shelter, at which visitors will be able to linger before travelling around the Rockpool Waterway to discover the role of water in shaping landscapes. The contract includes construction of roads and paths as well as the planting of advanced trees.

Paul Moloney, from Cut & Fill, said winning the contract was an enormous honour for the company.

“The Australian Garden is not only unique, it is innovative in its thinking and visionary in its design. We are delighted to be able to bring that vision to reality,” he said.

Work on the multi-million dollar contract will begin in mid-November, following the “official” turning of the sod by the Hon. John Thwaites, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment.