Guilfoyle's Volcano

A long dormant reservoir, constructed in 1876 to store water for the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne now forms the focal point of an inspiring new landscape design. The design of the crater-like reservoir was originally undertaken by William Guilfoyle, as a method of irrigating the gardens through a gravity fed system along with the vision of providing a landmark landscape folly for the gardens.

After being hidden from the public for over sixty years, the reservoir has now been resurrected by Landscape Architect, Andrew Laidlaw, as the dramatic centre piece of volcano-themed garden. Rocks and red lava erupt from the crater, created by a mixture of broken terracotta tiles and fluid concrete shapes. The steep sides of the volcano are planted with a unique botanic collection of succulents and cacti species. Within the crater itself are several floating circular islands, which naturally move about the water-filled crater in the breeze. These islands are planted with native and indigenous species to form water filtration systems - an innovative and intriguing idea, which is dissapointingly more successful on functional rather than aesthetic levels.

Guilfoyle's Volcano is dramatic, powerful and symbolically playful - a unique contemporary landscape design with echoes of the original historical concepts envisaged for the landscape at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Photo taken onsite.