Gary Bateman is an Australia-born New Zealand-trained, NZILA award winning landscape architect who has been based in Melbourne for the past 32 years.

He says the Institute should be very proud of what it has achieved in its first 50 years and says next week’s half century celebration is an important occasion. He also pays tribute to the founding members who created the NZILA in 1972.

Looking back at his own career Gary says he was very fortunate to have been thrust into a diversity of projects at the Christchurch City Council after he completed his Lincoln course.

“Some of these interdisciplinary projects stimulated my growing interest in urbanism and subsequent return to Australia to study for a Master of Urban Design.”

A key project he was involved with in Christchurch was the Victoria Square redevelopment which won the 1989 NZLA George Malcom award.

Gary was the senior landscape architect at the Christchurch City Council and principal designer at all stages of the project.

He says it was a huge honour to win the award, made all the more special by the fact that he had worked with George Malcolm for a short time at the Ministry of Works.

He says his involvement with planning and designing the square wasn’t always straightforward.

‘It was a challenging process right through from 1983-89, but very rewarding.”

He says the square and tower proposal became politicised, at times dividing the city, but he was “very proud to receive the NZILA award.”

Gary also chaired the Canterbury Landscape Group for a period before NZILA was formalised. He says he greatly admired the quality, passion and commitment of the young, evolving profession.

Gary moved to Melbourne in late 1989 where he gained a Master of Urban Design qualification from RMIT University and has since worked as both an Urban Designer and Landscape Architect.

Gary has also been involved with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Victoria group since 1995, including a stint as president in 1997 to 1998. He set up the group’s inaugural state awards programme and was a member of its environmental committee for around a decade. Gary was made an AILA fellow in 2005, and is now a retired member.

In response to AILA’s new ‘Climate Positive Design Action Plan.’ He believes it is critical that AILA and NZILA work closely together to advance the retention and caring for biodiverse landscape systems.