ON Wednesday, The Grampians Peaks Trail won awards in two categories of the 2022 Landscape Architecture Awards in Victoria, an annual program designed to celebrate the best in landscape architecture.

The Trail walked away with two awards from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) - one for tourism (Award of Excellence) and a regional award.

Grampians Tourism chief executive, Marc Sleeman, said winning the tourism category was the “highest honour … for our series of hiker shelter huts lining 160 kilometres of track in the Grampians National Park”.

Mr Sleeman said he was ecstatic when he found out about the recognition late last week from one of the heads of Parks Victoria and that it was adding to the appeal of the area for tourism.

“It was a really exciting announcement for our whole region,” he said.

“It certainly helps to position our destination as one of those icon nature-based destinations.”

With the trail, Mr Sleeman said the area was gathering momentum very quickly “not only in Victoria but Australia and the world” and the award underlined even further that the opportunity for local businesses, especially in Dunkeld, was great.

“We were in Sydney at the Australia Tourism Exchange a few weeks back and the interest from our international trade partners was significant,” he said.

“We’ve got plans in place to help educate and inform our business owners, (in) accommodation, cafes, restaurants, (and) other operators about how they can be part of the experience and how they can leverage the economic benefit.”

In Victoria, a total of 60 projects were entered for the awards, with 34 awards allocated in areas that successfully demonstrate the positive impact that well-designed outdoor spaces have on public life, such as Health and Education, Play Spaces, and Gardens.

The Victorian Chapter of the AILA was delighted to announce the official project winners of each category, and AILA Victoria Landscape Architecture Awards jury chair, Lisa Howard, said the high quality of the winners reflected the growing reputation of the industry as world-class.

 “The awards provide a vehicle to publicly promote and demonstrate to industry, business, government and the wider community the positive impact the profession has on Australian lives through the planning and design of the built and natural environments,” she said.

“Across the projects, we did see a couple of key themes start to emerge. We saw a vast number of entries in the Cultural Heritage category, which is a reflection on the sorts of values that we are starting to see embedded in landscape architecture.

“We are seeing cultural values alongside social values, environmental values, and sustainability values.

“Across the entries, we saw a vast range of project types, from small, beautiful projects with biodiversity as key drivers, to massive landscape planning projects, as well as infrastructure projects. This is a real testament to all of us in the profession that we can work across a diverse range of scales.”

Mr Sleeman also echoed some of the same themes with the Peaks Trail having unique challenges it needed to overcome.

“The important part of this award has been the acknowledgement of the great work Parks Victoria has done without our First Nations people in the region and this project could not have happened without that collaboration in that Gariwerd landscape,” he said.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of project contribution control groups, steering committees and the work that Parks (Victoria) have done to ensure that this project was finally completed is absolutely outstanding.

“The one thing that really stood out to me was that the conservation of nature was the primary driver, how these buildings were constructed on a very sensitive part of Victoria.

“This is the first time in 20 years that Parks Victoria has built a fixed roof accommodation in a National Park in Victoria.”

Mr Sleeman also paid tribute to the construction work that had gone into the project.

“We see these things often as a community - as a local resident, we see these things being constructed, but we don’t often think about how many people have walked the trail and in rain, hail, snow, sleet, being out there, building pods and accommodation,” he said.

Being winter, Mr Sleeman was asked by The Spectator if he thought this time of year was an obstacle to visiting, but he said lots of hikers preferred this season.

“I spoke to some this morning who were about to head up into the Grampians Peaks Trail and I asked that same question to them – ‘what inspired you to come during some of the colder months?’” he said.

“Their comment to me was, ‘mate it’s the best time … all the waterfalls are flowing, there’s not as many people around - we dress to the conditions, and this is the best time to see the National Park.’

“So everybody’s got a different slant on it.”

Having a year-round tourism asset that was gaining such a high degree of enthusiasm was obviously a great thrill for Mr Sleeman who said the award brought with it “a sense we have done something really well”.

He said the number of bookings being received “has surpassed our expectations” and with a recent business workshop in Halls Gap and a training program in Dunkeld scheduled for July 19, he definitely thought the region’s potential was being raised.

It was also enjoyable showing people the views in places such as Signal Peak and he said the usual comment is just one word – “wow”.

“It’s one word that comes out of most people’s mouths,” Mr Sleeman said.

“How amazing – you’re sitting on the deck of this accommodation … you’ve got million-dollar views in such a pristine landscape.”