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Architects: McGregor Coxall, Noxon Giffen
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Shannon McGrath
Text description provided by the architects. The Grampians Peaks Trail (GPT) Stage 2 offers a world class hiking experience over 160km of pristine Gariwerd wilderness. The trail traverses the lands of three traditional owners being Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation and Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and includes three regional council jurisdictions. The project includes 10 sites along the GPT plus the group site of Stony Creek but excludes Stage 1 at Bugiga, undertaken previously by others.
The architectural brief called for provision of structures at selected campsites along the trail, being: Communal Hiker Shelter, Amenities pods and Gariwerd Camp Huts. The trail and campsite locations were established by Parks Victoria whilst lead consultant and multidisciplinary design firm (Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Environment) McGregor Coxall were responsible for setting design palettes, site layouts and landscape architecture – working closely with Noxon Giffen (Architects) and OPS Engineers (Structural Engineers) in a highly-collaborative operation spanning 3.5 years.
Fundamental to Parks Victoria brief were three key elements; celebration of Gariwerd (Grampians) with landscape as hero, recognition of the scale and diversity of the terrain with site responsive designs, and adoption of design strategies for construction and maintenance in response to the remote nature of the trail.
