The new geological Earth Sciences Garden at Monash University forms an innovative outdoor learning environment for students, showcasing the geology and geomorphology of Victoria. The garden comprises a stunning arrangement of nearly 500 rock specimens which are laid out to form outcrops in a geological map and is the only garden of this type in Australia.
The garden, which measures 130 metres by 30 metres, was developed by a team of the University’s earth scientists and engineered by WGE’s structural, civil, electrical and hydraulics teams.
Students are able to gain hands-on experience in geological techniques in the rock garden, which forms an engaging way of enabling students to gain practical field measurement and mapping techniques as well as rock and mineral recognition skills.
Specimens include large black ‘bombs’ from an 8,000-year-old volcano near Colac and spectacular 400 million-year-old fossiliferous limestone from Buchan. The centrepiece is a 10-tonne Gneiss rock which required innovative engineering techniques to achieve a safe and accessible display on the campus.
The Earth Sciences Garden is attracting plenty of media attention, featuring on ABC Breakfast News and Channel Seven’s 6pm news bulletin. Media coverage can be accessed here:
WGE takes pride in working on unique and challenging projects like the Monash University rock garden. Our approach is highly personalised, considering every site specific and project specific detail to provide engineering services that achieve robust, buildable and state of the art solutions.
