Centennial Park – Luxury Inner-City Living

Set across the way from ‘the lungs of the city’ – Sydney’s Centennial Parklands, this luxury residential project by Bell Landscapes is a natural beauty.

The Centennial Parklands, located in Randwick Sydney, is the city’s largest urban green space. The parks feature historical gardens containing diverse flora and fauna with significant tree planting, including Norfolk Island pines, Port Jackson figs and Holm oaks. The challenge for this particular residential project is that it is positioned opposite Centennial Park, and how to do this grand park justice working in parraell with its granduer and reputation.

The brief for Bell Landscapes was to create a ‘natural’ looking landscape with a varied planting palette consisting predominantly of Australian native plants. Critically, the project’s scope called for the need to compliment the build’s gorgeous architecture whilst also connecting seamlessly with the surrounding landscape of large established trees situated directly across the road.

Over six weeks, the landscapers set about building texture, interest, colour and dimension into the scene by combining tall vertical elements with organic mounds and undulations to add a natural and relaxed feel to the landscape.

“With these types of organic, natural landscapes, we don’t work to a set plan, it is a very fluid process, and we changed the planting set out several times before we were happy with it.” –Mark Bell

Three feature trees (2 Cupaniopsis Tuckeroo and 1 Lagerstroemia ‘Crepe Myrtle’) provide the garden’s tall centrepieces, which will be characterised by wonderful canopies as they mature, while a wide assortment of native grasses (Lomandra, Poa and Fescue) soften the surrounds.

Zoysia Tennifolia, Native Viola and mulch feature heavily to act as a natural groundcover together with shrubs such as Raphiolepsis, Helichrysum, Grevillea, Corea alba, Craspedia ‘billy buttons’, and Metrosideros.

Fence screening was achieved using Syzygium, Gymea lily provides strong lines while Senecio ‘chalk sticks’ were also used to add some blue/grey tones at ground level. A curved crushed granite path meanders through the plants to add to the scene.

“We, the architect, and the clients were thrilled with the final result – it exceeded everyone’s expectations.” – Bell Landscapes

The city scape garden is an excellent example of successful collaborative design and planning. Bell Landscapes was able to leverage Alpine Nurseries’ expertise and premium quality and vast variety of plants to bring to life an organic landscape worthy of the grand parks that inspired it.

Centennial Park, Randwick NSW | Photography: M. Fredericks |Architect: MI Architects | Landscape: Bell Landscapes