QUEENS PARK NATURE CENTRE - LANDSCAPE

With a desire to create a key attraction for the local community, the Ipswich City Council employed Guymer Bailey to design the Stage 2 development of the Queens Park Nature Centre. The design includes a path network that directs visitors through a variety of animal enclosures, cascading watercourse and ponds, native gardens, and the amphitheatre.

Guymer Bailey involved specialist fauna experts when designing the Centre’s enclosures to create comfortable habitats for animals, discrete viewing for the public, and easier caretaking for Centre staff. In landscaping the grounds, we were able to retain many of the existing trees around the boardwalk sections by reducing the extent of earthworks required to achieve suitable pathway gradients.

Sections of elevated hardwood boardwalks and bridges have been used to eliminate the need for stairs and steeply graded pathways, and have been built to satisfy Disability Discrimination Act codes so that the Centre is accessible to all visitors. Now that Stage 2 is complete, visitors can see kangaroos, wallabies, emus, dingoes, wombats, quolls and reptiles including native snakes and frill-necked lizards.