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An Australian campus
In the early stages of planning for a new university, respected ecologist and one of Australia’s pioneering landscape architects, Dr Marion Blackwell AM was appointed lead landscape architect and made a member of the Murdoch University Planning Board.
This group was responsible for selecting the campus site. Dr Blackwell explained that there was much searching for a potential campus site before an eventual location showed promise.
The group visited sites all across Perth and the one finally settled on, where Murdoch University now exists was part of a pine plantation.
At that stage it was quite a curious site, it had a lot of pine plantations on one side of it.
Dr Marion Blackwell
“It was in the right sort of location, across the river and from the very beginning we got together thinking, that this university had to develop a very different character from the University of WA.
“We wanted an individually of its own and that it had to be very different from the traditional British idiom.”
Following extensive and vibrant group discussion, a joint decision was made that this new university should be ‘of Australia’ in both architectural and landscape design. It was to reflect the entirety of Australia, and not just Western Australia, with native plants and landscaping suited to the Australian climate and being functional for the needs of educating Australians.
“This was a very interesting challenge and right down my alley,” Dr Blackwell said.
Image: East Academic Court drawings
Listen to an oral history interview with Dr Marion Blackwell about planning for the Murdoch University campus.
The architectural design was led by RJ (Gus) Ferguson. Mr Ferguson set about designing and developing the architecture in relation to the landscape. He wanted buildings sitting into the site, reflecting Australian needs and being functional.
“The early days were amusing. Gus designed everlasting buildings, not the fashion of the moment, but when the buildings went up the plants were very small, the whole area looked very stark. There was a bit of an uprising at the local council. It looked like a chook yard!,” Dr Blackwell said.
“We had to go down and talk to the council and Gus said ‘Just wait until Marion’s trees grow up and you’ll love the place!”
Image: Campus looking south April 1979
Dr Blackwell’s trees did indeed grow and the Murdoch campus became known across Australia for its tall shady native trees.
“The whole campus gets enlivened, and the birds come in with native trees. We used a lot of beautiful gum trees, from WA, some from different states, different themes for different areas. It’s nice to have a vital living environment.”
Mr Ferguson had a clear vision of what he wanted in a campus, and along with buildings that would stand the test of time, he used huge Marri wood beams in the design of the colonnades around Bush court, with big flamboyant gum veins running along them. Until this time Marri had rarely been used in this way and Mr Ferguson's designs changed the appreciation of Marri trees going forward.
Image: The Broadwalk at Murdoch University 1988
Image: The Broadwalk at Murdoch University 1988 (North)
Murdoch’s architecture came to symbolise a willingness to attempt the innovative rather than submitting to safe precedent.
Alongside the Australian native theme across campus, Dr Blackwell designed each of the courtyards with a different theme.
They featured waterfalls, stones, pools and exotic deciduous species, and were designed as relaxing locations for staff and students to enjoy a break, socialise or have lunch.
An iconic location on Murdoch’s South Street campus, the Chinese Garden was designed some time later by Dr Blackwell, and completed in collaboration with advisors who came over from China to provide advice on plants, pavers and design. This complex commission involved a certain amount of negotiation and conversation, to ensure tradition was followed, but that plantings would be appropriate for WA’s dry conditions.
“You have to work out an Australian way,” Dr Blackwell said.
Dr Blackwell and Mr Ferguson considered the natural environment, sustainability and ecological principles in their planning and execution of the landscaping and design from the very beginning, resulting in a truly Australian campus fit for the long-term education of local, national and international students.
In 1981 Dr Marion Blackwell was made an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. The Murdoch University campus was awarded the Western Australian Civic Design Award for 1987.
In 2011 Marion was named a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division for services to conservation and the environment, particularly through the Australian Native Plants Society and the profession of landscape architecture.