A day in the life of the National Gallery’s landscape manager

7.30am: Arrival and walk-around

If I’m not in daycare drop-off mode, I catch the bus to work and get in some good reading time on the way. Once I get to the National Gallery at 7.30am I have a chat to the few people already working in the gardens before I make a cuppa and check emails.

I began in this newly created role in September 2023. I sit under the Head of Estate Management, who oversees the security, building services and landscape teams – there are around 20 of us. I don’t have any direct reports. Rather, the gardens are looked after by teams of contractors, whom I manage daily.

8am: Start meeting with contractors

In the lead-up to the opening of our major winter exhibition, Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao, I was managing up to seven teams of contractors at once. But most days it’s two or three teams – horticulturalists, plumbers and irrigation specialists, and arborists.

This morning’s tasks include removing the last of the English ivy from around the marsh pond, and checking the wellbeing of the 7000 plants we recently planted in the Australian Garden. We planted around 60 species of native grasses, wildflowers, climbers and low shrubs to add to the Sculpture Garden’s existing plant diversity.

Even though we planted in mid-June, a very cold time in Canberra’s annual cycle, we have had a planting success rate of around 95 per cent, which is an excellent result. One thing you get good at as a horticulturalist in Canberra is learning about the kinds of conditions that each species needs to thrive.

10.00am: Daily catch-up with estate team

Today, I’m liaising with colleagues in the Estate team about the many projects we have underway at the moment. Our team covers areas that range from exhibition lighting, to maintaining appropriate internal conditions for artworks, and advising on large capital works projects. So the conversations are never boring!

I’m currently working across a number of projects that include restoring Fiona Hall’s magnificent Fern Garden, coordinating an annual rejuvenation of our lawn areas, initiating guided walking tours of the Sculpture Garden, and more plumbing and irrigation endeavours than you could count on two hands!

11am: Meeting Phil the arborist

A split has appeared about five metres up the main trunk of a mature rough-bark eucalyptus cinerea. It’s a gorgeous, 20-year-old tree that sits on a key sightline from the National Gallery entrance to Lindy Lee’s immersive public sculpture, Ouroboros. With large numbers of people walking beneath it we have to examine this split closely to make sure it is safe. We will have an arborist climb the tree to take a closer look. I’ll check in with him later.

12:30pm: Lunch in the Sculpture Garden

I usually bring a mixed salad from home and, when time permits, eat it sitting on my favourite bench facing the marsh pond and watching the fog from Fujiko Nakaya’s Foggy wake in a desert: An ecosphere 1982, which comes on daily between 12.30pm and 2pm.

I love Nakaya’s work because the effects of the fog are different every day. Sometimes it’ll be confined to a small space and other times it will disperse through the landscape in a wide thin cloud. It all depends on the conditions of the day.

I’m very lucky to work here. The Sculpture Garden just so happens to be my favourite garden. I love the density of the trees and the beautiful light conditions they create. It gives a wonderful feeling of intimacy to the whole landscape. It really is a special place.

2pm: Meeting with Ouroboros project manager

The delivery of Ouroboros sits with our capital works team, and the entire operation has been overseen by a wonderful project manager called Julia Zhu, who works in partnership with Lindy Lee and Urban Art Projects (UAP), the Brisbane foundry that fabricated the work.

One thing you learn quickly when working at the National Gallery is that the windows of opportunity for projects are governed by the exhibitions that we are holding at the time.

A big challenge for the Ouroboros project was the digging of a 70-metre-long trench right out the front of our Gallery building, which is critical for bringing key services like electricity, water and data from an underground plant room to the work of art.

The project had to be completed and the area restored in time for the opening of Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao in late June, which we managed, but it certainly put a spring in our step along the way!

I’m meeting with Julia, our landscape architect, and our builder for the landscaping that will surround Ouroboros to talk through the timeline for the delivery of landscape works over the next month. The landscape will be a low and highly diverse community of native plants that will uplift but not obscure the work of art itself.

3pm: Desk stuff

I’m incredibly blessed in my job because I can be outside and still considered to be working! Unfortunately I don’t get to stay outside all day and I’m back at my desk for the rest of the afternoon.

One thing I’m working on at the moment, along with other members of my team, is reducing the National Gallery’s water consumption. We have an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP) which has set a goal of reducing water usage by 20 per cent. We’ve already reduced our annual water consumption by two million litres over the past three months but there’s plenty more to do.

This afternoon I’m researching the process for obtaining a licence to draw water from Lake Burley Griffin so that we can reduce our demand on Canberra’s potable water supply. I’m also looking through some of the original hand-drawn maps of our plumbing infrastructure to better understand areas of potential water loss.

4pm: Home time

There’s lots on the horizon to be excited about, from the National Sculpture Garden Design Competition and the launch of Ouroboros to a new cafe that will open out into the Australian Garden. I usually walk out of the National Gallery with my head buzzing from a full day of work but also with an appreciation for the chance to work here and contribute to this amazing place.

Go behind the scenes with a day in the life of artist Lindy Lee's dedicated team.