Australia’s best landscape architecture projects for 2025 have been unveiled.

At its Festival of Landscape Architecture held in Hobart last week, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) announced the national award winners of its 2025 Landscape Architecture Awards program.

All up, 36 projects were awarded across 17 categories.

Nine Award of Excellence awards were given. This is the highest project honor and is given to the work which is judged to deliver the most significant advancement of landscape architecture in each category (the jury is not required to give such an award for every category).

Taking out Award of Excellence for both Climate-Positive Design and Land Management was the Wagonga Inlet Living Foreshore project by REALMstudios (pictured top and below).

An initiative of the Eurobodalla Shire Council, the project in Narooma on the south coast of New South Wales aimed to restore and transform the foreshore into an ecologically resilient ‘living shoreline’.

The project also set out to safeguard and enhance the estuary for long-term environmental and community benefit.

Specific strategies included:

  • Introduction of more than 23,0000 native plants across 3,000 square meters of saltmarsh and terrestrial habitats.
  • Restoration of both intertidal and subtidal oyster reefs to further enhance sequestration and the cycling of nutrients. This included the creation of Australia’s first adjacent reef system.
  • Various adoption measures. Instead of reconstructing a seawall, the project sees a layered system of vegetated banks, marshes and oyster reefs buffer wage energy, reduce erosion and accommodate sea level rise. These living systems improve hydrological performance and provide habitat corridors for any species which may be threatened by climatic ‘stressors’.

(image credit Eurobodalla Shire Council)

 

Other Award of Excellence winners

A full list of all awardee projects cand be seen here.

Other Award of Excellence winners are as outlined below.

The Oval at Subi East (UDLA + Oculus) won the award of excellence in the Cultural Heritage category for a transformation of the former West Coast Eagles AFL home ground of Subiaco Oval into a landscape-led urban precinct.

A key feature is The Bidi – an immersive art trail led by the Subi East Elder Group and Karrda. This integrates Noongar knowledge and culture and stitches the site into its neighbourhood.

The project also includes a number of community-oriented public spaces. These include a reimagined oval and a large-scale pavilion which are set among refurbished heritage gates, repurposed stadium elements and an open-air museum which celebrates the oval’s historic role in WA football.

(image: Miles Noel)

Taking out the Award of Excellence in the Community Contribution category is the Living Lab Northern Rivers project from the University of Technology Sydney and Living Lab Northern Rivers.

Established in Lismore following the 2022 floods, the laboratory provides a physical space in which various stakeholders including government, industry, academia and the local community can meet.

It is a place to coordinate a range of collaborative research-based landscape architecture and urban co-design projects.

The idea is to create sustainable and resilient opportunities for the community and the landscape of the Northern Rivers.

(image: Ellise Derwin)

Taking out the award in the Health and Education Landscape category is Moondani Balluk by REALMstudios.

Moondani Balluk is the Indigenous Academic Unit of Victoria University’s Footscray Campus.

The Campus, precariously located on the escarpment between Maribyrnong River floodplain and the (once) grasslands of the basaltic planes, is the escarpment, unrecognisable, modified, through its 1970’s architecture and brutalism.

What started as a simple ‘landscape’ attached to a ground level refurbishment in the centre of the campus has become the heartbeat of the University. The Moondani Balluk courtyard has become a deep mark on the campus map, reconnecting place with Country, culturally safe.

(image credit: Aaron Walker)

Taking out the award in the Infrastructure category is the Barangaroo Station Park by Arcadia.

The park sits at the entrance to Barangaroo Station, which opened last year and through which more than 16,000 people pass each day whilst commuting to Barangaroo’s commercial and dining precinct, the headland Park or through to the Walsh Bay Arts and Cultural Precinct and the Rocks.

Set against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour, the park’s landscape design has created a station plaza and park that instills the site’s heritage and Indigenous culture through artwork and interpretation.

(image: Brett Boardman)

Taking out the award for Parks and Open Space is Maidens Reserve in Kalgulup Regional Park in Bunbury, Southwest Western Australia by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation & Attractions.

The project idea was to create accessible visitor facilities amongst vegetated dunes which are punctuated by two striking formations which are known as The Maidens.

It resulted in the creation of a network of accessible paths and crafted robust stains.

This culminates in two lookouts that are woven between peppermints. The lookouts offer 360 views across Bunbury and beyond.

(image: DBCA)

Taking out the award for Research, Policy and Communications is ‘Food’ by Dr Joshua Zeunert of the University of New South Wales.

This is not so much a place but rather a website that provides an immersive online exhibition which links the foods that we eat with the landscapes that produce them.

(image: Joshua Zeunert)

Finally, the award for Small Projects was given to Yaluk Langa along the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River by Openwork.

The project called for an outdoor space along the edge of the river (which is known by the traditional owners, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people as the Birrarung) in which people could gather, listen and learn.

The design is a simple floor of pink mudstone and a loose arc forming seats which are heavy enough to withstand the river’s flood an inundation.

The location was selected by local elder Uncle Dave Wandin in a clearing among the trees.

It was selected to be a place ‘where Bunjil can watch from above’.

(image: Peter Bennetts)

 

Winners congratulated

AILA National Jury Chair Kate Luckraft congratulated all award winners.

Luckraft said that the winning projects did an excellent job of forging collaboration between landscape professionals, communities and academics.

Many also included beneficial environmental features as well as honoring traditions of First Nations Australians.

“Across the board, projects enriched by First Nations collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking exemplify how landscape architects are shaping resilient, climate-conscious places that reflect a deeper understanding of Country and community.” Luckraft said.

 

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