- Start with the Grasslands, written
by landscape architect Adrian Marshall
and published by the Victorian National
Parks Association, provides advice for
the design and management of native
grasslands in an urban context.
INTERVIEW
ADRIAN MARSHALL
Sarah Hicks: Your particular field of research
investigates the “translation of ecological knowl-
edge into built form.” How could landscape
practice more effectively integrate local endemic
landscapes? What is the value of doing so?
Adrian Marshall: We need to support remnant vege-
tation where it exists, and create connectivity between
remnants. You really need all levels [of stakeholders]
working together, from the local community up to
planning authorities, to ensure that the way this is
done is cost-effective, can be maintained into the
future and engages people. The “cues to care” concept
is so simple, but very true. Show that the landscape is
loved. Signage, detail ... it’s not necessarily landscape
architects that have to change here, it’s also planners,
urban designers, council staff, developers.
Landscape architects are at the coalface, juggling
competing demands, and we have to educate, lobby,
stick our necks out for good solutions, be willing to
lead. We create our audience. We have to recognize
that the answers are complex.
In urban areas, we need to make our green
spaces perform better: more trees and understorey,
less lawn. We also have to accept elements that are
not solely for human amenity. Taking up a vegetarian
diet would probably do more than most actions to
reduce the transition of native vegetation to agricul-
tural land.
We had Australian-identity bush gardens in the
70s, but we don’t have to reproduce bush-like environ-
ments [to effectively integrate local endemic
landscape]. The structure of planting is as important
as its composition. Understorey in general is under-
valued; the trees and lawn approach is cheap but a
poor provider of habitat. Big infrastructure works
allow action at [a larger] scale and “nature-based”
solutions are the latest incarnation of this. So is good
water management – for instance, distributed infiltra-
tion systems within the streetscape, which encourage
people to capture water and slowly discharge it
[through leaky tanks] into the groundwater.
A landscape doesn’t have to be completely
endemic to support local flora and fauna. A lot of the
problem lies in a lack of city-scale planning. I see little
engagement with ideas of connectivity, for instance,
at the planning scale. Planning is politicized and
developers tend to win over the environment.
I think we need design to show ecology. Allow
things to get wet and dry out and crack. Things need
to leak. Surfaces need to be rougher, all that micro-
habitat ... Stop cleaning everything. Maintenance
budgets need to be built in for the long term,
somehow. The landscape needs to be recognized as an
asset and given a big dollar value; accountants and
managers need to recognize they are part of the
problem. Get nature play into schools. Stop designing
[poor] playgrounds. What we gain from cultivating our
own local landscapes is sense of place, support for
local species, preservation of biodiversity and the
engagement of people, creating the next generation
who will give a damn [about their environment].Native temperate grasslands are one of Australia’s
most biodiverse and marginalized ecosystems.
How do you imagine this landscape’s potential
within the urban context?
The situation of the Natural Temperate Grassland
of the Victorian Volcanic Plain, as it is listed under
the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act [1999], is particularly dire. Less
than 2 percent of its original extent remains and
much of that lies within the urban growth area. It has
very little protection. A few good areas were protected
under the last Liberal government, but that was a
rushed process meant to make life easier for develop-
ers and as a consequence many quality remnants
will be destroyed and offset.
The potential for novel forms of grassland is
great, but the problem with planting indigenous
species is that when weed seeds are present in the soil
and the soil has been “improved” with fertilizer,
weeds outcompete native species. Scraping off the
topsoil removes both weed seeds and nutrients, and
sown native seeds can then do much better – we can
use this “scrape and sow” method to create herb-rich
landscapes that take some initial set-up costs but are
cheap in the long run. These initiatives can help to
preserve endangered species. The technique would beAdrian Marshall is a landscape architect and
PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne,
where he teaches in urban ecology. He worked
on the Victorian National Parks Association’s
Start with the Grasslands project, which
provides guidelines on integrating the state’s
endangered grasslands into urban form. His
current research investigates another sort of
grassland – nature strips, or road verges – and
how they may contribute to urban biodiversity.68 MAY 2017 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA