Wurundjeri Biik Baan – Gardening Australia

SERIES 36 | Episode 16
Garden Show Special

We’re at the Melbourne Flower and Garden Show, where for only the second time ever a garden has been dedicated to the traditional custodians of this land, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, to tell part of the story of their relationship with Country. 

The garden is called Wurundjeri Biik Baan and it’s a collaboration between the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people and the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria. 

Indigenous educator Thane Garvey says that Biik means land and Baan means water in the Woi-wurrung language. He said a biodiverse garden like the one created was a great representation of the true Australia – more than suburbs and cities – and healthy country like this was true ‘home’ to Indigenous people. Using more of these indigenous plants would also bring back many of the birds and insects that were native to the area, he said. 

Wurundjeri Elders worked with designers Andrew Laidlaw and Susannah Kennett Lister to explain their connection to Country and the stories associated with water features and creatures. 

“The overall theme is water and the richness of water and wetlands in the environment,” Andrew said. The focus was on representing the swamps and lagoons that used to exist around Melbourne, and were a rich source of food, medicine and other materials for many thousands of years. 

Suzannah said the story of the short-finned eel is included in this, as they were a major food source, and a basalt ridge was included in the design, representing the one that existed across the Birrarung-Yarra River before settlement. 

Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Carlton, Vic