Endemic plants and environmental art: a new gallery aims to rebuild tourism in Victoria’s Grampians
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Version 0 of 1. Hopes the 16-hectare garden and gallery site near Halls Gap will be ‘a green shoot of recovery’ in the bushfire-affected region Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter A new art gallery dedicated to environmental art has been heralded as a “green shoot of recovery” for tourism in the Grampians, after the region was hit with bushfires two summers in a row. The Wama Foundation, built 10 minutes outside western Victoria’s Halls Gap, three hours’ drive from Melbourne, opened in July. Stage one of the 16-hectare project is the National Centre for Environmental Art and surrounding endemic botanic gardens and native grasslands. Stage two will include accessible boardwalks, nature play areas and a sculpture trail. Grampians Wimmera Mallee Tourism CEO, Marc Sleeman, says the region has been in a “period of rebuild” after two challenging summers. Bushfires tore through the Gariwerd/Grampians region in 2024 and 2025. More than 135,000 hectares of national park and farmland were burned. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Sleeman says Wama is an important part of the region’s long-term recovery strategy. “It gives people a new and fresh reason to visit and it’s this new green shoot of recovery as a new business that’s opening up,” he said. “It gives our community and businesses a sense of positivity and hope after a challenging couple of years, and from an attraction perspective for the broader region, it’s really one of those gamechangers for the Grampians.” Wama Foundation interim CEO, Ange Turrell, says the arts centre will both attract new visitors to the region and help conserve its unique biodiversity. With 80% of the Grampians/Gariwerd national park affected by the bushfires, she says the botanic garden and nearby native grasslands serve as living examples of how to preserve and restore the region’s fragile flora. The gardens are home to about 500 native plants, including 30 endemic species. Many are rare, endangered, or critically endangered such as the Gariwerd Grevillea, Grevillea gariwerdensis, and the rare Grevillea microstegia, which was collected from Mount Cassell before the February 2024 bushfires. “It’s more than a garden,” Turrell said. “It’s a sanctuary that safeguards biodiversity and gives the public access to plants they might never otherwise encounter.” The garden surrounds the new National Centre for Environmental Art – the first gallery in Australia exclusively dedicated to showcasing and reflecting on the natural world. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, End & Being, explores the climate crisis. Curator José Da Silva says the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the shared realities of global heating, from the melting of glacial ice in Europe to the bushfires on the gallery’s doorstep. “By connecting these narratives, the exhibition encourages us to consider the interconnectedness of ecological systems, the far-reaching consequences of a warming planet, and the urgent need for both local and global responses to environmental crises,” Da Silva said. Sleeman says the new precinct will help position the Grampians as a brand where art and nature meet. “It’s going to be a cultural and environmental landmark,” he said. Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter |