Cairns landscape architect Simon Mahar inspired by FNQ environs

Simon Mahar’s latest project, a play space, has collected awards and is generating interest in how landscaping can bind elements in the built environment.

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THERE couldn’t be a more perfect creative inspiration than Far North Queensland.

Hectares of cane framed by towering mountains thick with foliage supporting some of the most uniquely beautiful creatures on earth. And how green.

Then there are the beaches, weaving in and out along an aquamarine coastline, scattered with lazy palms.

Rolling in the sand, sliding in the mud, traipsing through the fringing bush, Holloways Beach had such an effect on Simon Mahar, he made incorporating nature into human environments his life’s work.

The 42-year-old’s latest project, completed under the guise of his fledgling company Landplan Landscape Architecture, has won three awards to date and garnered the quietly spoken, thoughtful businessman speaking engagements at the Parks and Leisure Conference in Redcliffe and at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Annual Chapter meeting later this month.

On the outskirts of the Cairns Botanical Gardens, the Centenary Lakes Nature Play adventure playground has opened up a new frontier of children’s recreation spaces in Queensland.

“For most adults, childhood memories of roaming the neighbourhood, climbing trees, building cubbies and swimming at the local creek, are recalled with the freedom of a time when society was not as risk-averse as it is today,” Mr Mahar said.

“This is built on the notion that natural play spaces offer the best opportunities for today’s children to experience the kind of free play outdoors that is seldom on offer.

“Centenary Lakes Nature Play is one of the first projects in Queensland to use bespoke play equipment and have it certified against the new Australian standards.”

A father-of-three, Mr Mahar has created his own version of nature play in the backyard, throwing old tyres and logs among trees.

He is glad too, that the kids get to roam free on his parent’s Malanda property on the banks of the Johnstone River, bought after bringing the family to the north from Ballarat when Mr Mahar was five.

The Cairns foreshore between Hemingway’s Brewery and the Hilton hotel and the Thursday Island foreshore have also been career highlights for Mr Mahar.

“I think Centenary Park Nature Play has been my biggest achievement but there is the Cairns foreshore project too,” he said.

“They are both completely different projects but they both have that play element to them. I also think they both connect with their context.

“The Cairns foreshore connects with the environment — you have the text and those peepholes that really talk to the things that are happening around them.

“There is a lot of artistry that comes into this job. A lot of people think landscape architects are just about plants but I see us as the glue that binds together a lot of disciplines in the built environment industry. It’s really a collaboration.”

The creativity has no doubt been nurtured by a comfort that comes from being close to home and keenly involved in the community.

An “amateur” triathlete — Mr Mahar is training for the Kuranda to Port Douglas ultra-marathon this year — he also coaches kids cricket.

Mr Mahar went to school at Mother of Good Counsel and St Augustine’s College and did work experience with landscaping business Site Plan on Scott St, metres from his current office.

And, with such a history in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, he would dearly like to see our modern economy put greater value on flora.

“There has been a lot of good work and Cairns Regional Council has done a lot of work masterplanning the city but I don’t think things will change until there is a capital put on trees,” he said.

“It’s so easy at the moment for an engineering service to look from A to B and if there’s a tree in the way, and has no capital cost, you just take it out.

“If we put more value on trees, they’d be a bit more protected.

“The bat trees in the city — I love them. Because I grew up in Cairns I have fond memories of the bats covering the skies of an evening. And it’s a tourist attraction. They cause a lot of mess but you just don’t park under the trees.”

Originally published as Cairns landscape architect Simon Mahar inspired by FNQ environs