FOREWORD BY AMY STEWART

I enrolled in the Master of Landscape Architecture program as a conversion student in early 2020, during the height of the Black Summer fires in the Eastern States. Fresh from finishing my undergraduate studies in Conservation Biology, I was attracted to the program by a desire to make an actionable change in the face of environmental catastrophe. As I reflect now on the last three years, it is impossible to separate my experiences from the broader context of rapid global change occurring in real time- from fires to floods, and the ongoing pandemic that continues to impact our communities and landscapes. The students at the School of Design today are graduating into a distinctly different world, one where the consequences of climate change, once thought of as an abstract future, are unfolding in front of our very eyes.

And yet I can’t help but feel so spoilt. To have spent the last six years of my life studying full time, immersed in the complexities of landscape. To have gained a deeper understanding of place on the banks of the Derbarl Yerrigan, in the heart of one of the most unique, rich, and vulnerable ecological systems on the planet. To have had the opportunity to learn from the wonderful teaching staff who continue to share their wealth of knowledge and experience in the profession, and who continue to foster a passion for design and landscape in their students every semester despite the ever-amounting challenges. It has been a privilege to learn alongside the plethora of creatively minded and passionate students throughout my postgraduate studies, some of whose work is documented in this catalogue. I am very excited to start my career with them and to see how they use their talents, developed, and refined here, to contribute to and shape the profession of Landscape Architectureboth in WA and across the world.

Image: Image adapted from Living Suburbs Empowering Communities Project completed in Semester 1, 2022.