In March 2022, arete Australia was appointed to deliver the $5 million Gandel Gondwana Garden project at the Melbourne Museum.
The garden expands Melbourne Museum's spaces for children connecting the much-loved Pauline Gandel Children's Gallery with a new 900sqm outdoor play-based learning gallery for six-to-12-year-olds. This new outdoor learning space also connects to the newly opened Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs. First People's stories of Creation will feature throughout Gandel Gondwana Garden and chronicle Australian Indigenous cosmogony and the inextricable link between land, language, and culture.
The project scope of works included:
- Hard and soft landscaping inclusive of excavation and bulk earthworks
- Suspended concrete structures to form cave entrances and suspended walkways
- Placement of large boulders and planting of garden beds
- Decking and walls requiring specialist rock build formations
- Associated infrastructure; paving and ground surfaces
- Shade structures and elevated steel walkways
The garden is an immersive wonderland, letting kids roam through natural history to appreciate the extraordinary creatures that once roamed Victoria and Australia.
