North Gardens Sculpture Park, Ballarat

victoria’s first major sculpture park dedicated to public art created only by first nations artists

The site

The North Garden Indigenous Sculpture Park is located on the edge of Lake Wendouree and an important site for the traditional owners of the land, the Wadawarrung people. Launched in 2019, the North Gardens Indigenous Sculpture Park is a significant project for the City of Ballarat and will feature works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, celebrating the richness and diversity of culture and telling important cultural stories.

This landscape masterplan for the Park details the project concept and approaches to public art; the natural and built significance of the site; and importantly the cultural connections to Country and the Wadawurrung peoples occupation of the land surrounding Ballarat.

“It is a place to celebrate and respect the environment of the Ballarat plains, and the long‐standing relationship the Wadawurrung have with their Country. It is a place of stories, continuing traditions, of healing, ecologies and a venue for gatherings to celebrate the spirit of the Lake Wendouree landscape.” - North Gardens Landscape Masterplan

The Works

MURRUP LARR

Dr Deanne Gilson, a Wadawarrung Traditional Custodian and established artist, installed the first artwork commission titled Murrup Laarr at the Sculpture Park in early 2019. Wadawurrung people have always used stones to mark places of ceremony and important business. The stones are the holders of memory and knowledge, Country and Spirit. They mark the cosmos and seasons. They follow the sun, marking the summer and winter solstice, important dates for planting and harvesting and telling stories of past, present and future. The stones are alive and still present. Murrup Laar has been created using local basalt stones to tell Wadawurrung stories of dreaming, memory and ceremony. 

“Creating Murrup Laarr (Ancestral Stones) at this time has placed Aboriginal people and practices back on Country and created a place to tell our stories. I am very honoured to have had this opportunity. An Aboriginal stone circle existed in Ballarat pre-colonisation; by putting back what was lost throughout colonisation I pay homage to my ancestors, past, present and emerging”  – Deanne Gilson, March 2019 

KOORI TOTEM POLES

Tom Clark created the Koori Totem Poles prior to the establishment of the North Garden Indigenous Sculpture Park. The work is a set of 10 poles decorated and carved with ‘Koorie’ motifs and references and was commissioned originally for Ballarat’s Begonia Festival. These poles were shifted from the Ballarat Botanical Gardens main area in the 2015 to their present site guarding the northern entrance to North Gardens.

COMMISSION 2

The City of Ballarat has invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists (individuals or in teams) to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to create the second sculpture located within the North Gardens - a sculpture park dedicated to public art created only by First Nations artists. This work is proceeding.

Award winning landscape design

The North Gardens Sculpture Park landscape design has been awarded the 2020 AILA (Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture, Victoria) ‘Award of Excellence for Cultural Heritage’ and a ‘Regional Achievement Award’ and the 2020 AILA (National) ‘Award of Excellence for Cultural Heritage’. The project research was undertaken by Professor David Jones (Deakin University), Tharangalk Art, Glenn Romanis and Basalt Designs.