• Winning garden designed by JW Concepts, built by Eureka Landscapes and Katesh Landscape Services
• Scape Shapes’ Michael Schultz is congratulated by Andrew Bottomley and ACLH Chairman Don Scotts
• Firetwirlers mesmerise the crowd

The Landscape Queensland 2008 Landscape Construction Excellence Awards got off to an explosive start with fire twirlers mesmerising the crowd to kick-start the night of celebration, recognising the year’s most outstanding landscape construction projects across 17 categories.

Three impressive gardens adorned the ballroom, giving attendees a first-hand visual of Gala Dinner sponsor ACLH’s SMART Gardening Start Gardening principles. JW Concepts took out the Best Ballroom Garden prize with their garden built by Eureka Landscapes and Katesh Landscape Services.

Ross McKinnon AM was inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of his long-standing contribution to the industry while Scape Shapes Landscaping won the Queensland Landscape Construction of the Year award.

A proud Michael Schultz, Director of Scape Shapes Landscaping accepted the industry’s most celebrated award for his unique and masterfully constructed Ephraim Island project. This was a large residential unit development, comprising of seven large unit complexes on the waterfront at Ephraim Island for which Scape Shapes built the lush surrounding gardens.

“This was a very unique project. Being on an island, it was not only a very large project in scale but the level of exposure to the elements and sea was a major consideration. The designers needed to determine how the landscape would cope with this level of exposure and what the long term sustainability would be. For the first time we used crushed shell mulch to help combat this; which is very cutting edge in landscaping.”

Michael indicates that the landscape industry is transforming and feels awards like this not only assist in raising the industry’s growing profile but have evolved from the community’s growing consciousness of the environment and the impact gardens and plants have in our lives.

“Through watching popular landscaping programs on television the general public are more aware of the importance of landscaping now. Aesthetically landscapes make you feel good. Property developers understand the importance of this now too. Ten years ago landscaping was more of an after thought but today it is a priority. We are there at the initial meetings with clients now because they realise the importance of environmental aesthetics to any project. The environmental factors and long term sustainability are key attributes in landscape construction.”

The panel of esteemed judges who awarded Scape Shapes the prestigious title said, “This project displays excellence in workmanship throughout, right down to the smallest detail. It contains many different elements all in highly visible locations. It is an outstanding credit to Scape Shapes, who have maintained this high level of excellence across the array of elements on display. As the overall winner, this project will be an outstanding advertisement for the landscape construction industry as a whole.”

A great night was enjoyed by all with event organiser Louise Bellchambers especially thanking the sponsors who contributed to making the event a rousing success; especially Gala Dinner Sponsor ACLH, Platinum Sponsors Twin View Turf, Universal Magazines, AWX and Tingalpa Landscape Supplies and Gold Sponsors Groundworks, Horticultural Training, Logan’s Nursery and Interface Landscapes