- Last updated:
- 19 Oct 2017
Introduction

On behalf of the Sunshine Coast Council welcome to the Maroochy Bushland Botanic Garden. The Garden provides an opportunity for both residents and visitors to the region to relax and enjoy both the formal display gardens and bushland environment. The Botanic Garden site covers just over 80 hectares with approximately 12 hectares being developed as display gardens and over 4km of walking trails accessing the surrounding bushland.
This tour has been developed as a partnership between Council and The Friends of the Garden.
Your tour is guided by Margaret, one of the volunteer guides and provides an informative overview of the Bushland Sculpture Garden from its inception from the 2005 Sculpture Symposium through to the development and the display of the individual pieces. The garden showcases both international and Australian based sculptors. Enjoy your walk.
Welcome

In 2005, the Friends of the Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Gardens hosted the Stone International Symposium. The inspiration and theme of the symposium was to 'provide an experience of harmony between man and the living earth'.
Please stroll through the garden at your own pace and view all or a few of the 25 works that catch your interest. The works include three artisan-crafted bench seats where you can sit and take a moment to enjoy the special calm and peace of the garden.
For those who wish to view all pieces in sequence from the entrance, please take the first left hand fork in the trail and proceed in a clockwise circuit, which will eventually lead you back to the entrance point where you now stand.
Council encourages you to respectfully interact with the sculptures - to feel the contours, different textures and lines of the works with your hands.
I now invite you to enter this beautiful garden, where I wish you the experience of feeling 'the harmony between man and the living earth'.
Please select any item from the Sculpture Catalogue to access text or audio commentary, or both.
Symposium History

In 2005, the Friends of the Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Gardens hosted the Stone International Symposium.
Over a period of some two-and-a-half weeks, eight sculptors created 13 works of art, which are now displayed within the inspiring Bushland Sculpture Garden along with 12 other works that were created, acquired and added to this wonderful collection soon after the symposium.
All 13 works were produced at the symposium by two Australian and six international sculptors from Japan, South Korea, Slovakia, USA, France and Spain.
The symposium was organised and paid for by the Friends of the Botanic Gardens using money generously donated by members of the group, the local community, and by funding provided by the former Maroochy Shire Council.
During the two-and-a-half weeks in which the works were completed, members of the public were free to watch the sculptors at work - to appreciate and understand the process of creating sculptured works of art from blank blocks of stone.
Other symposium facts

Generators were required to provide electricity to power the tools used by the artists, as at this time the gardens were not connected to the electricity grid.
The number of people visiting the botanic gardens to view the sculptors at work was soon so large, a new car park was needed. This was quickly created by a generous local earthmoving contractor as his way of donating to the gardens.
The Sculpture Garden had been specially landscaped and created from bushland to provide a permanent home for the works of art. When the works were finished, each artist suggested to the Friends of the Botanic Gardens the type of setting in the Sculpture Garden they would like their works to be placed.
Moving the finished works to the Sculpture Garden was a major undertaking requiring heavy lifting equipment. A crane truck was used to install most works and a heavier crane had to be brought in for the larger pieces. Installation of all the works took several days.
Materials and methods used by the artists

The black and white marble stones were selected in Chillagoe in North Queensland and then transported to the gardens. The sandstone was obtained from the Helidon area located in the South-East Queensland Lockyer Valley. Some local granite boulders were supplied for the symposium but were not used.
To keep the black Chillagoe marble sculptures looking shiny, they must be treated twice a year. This entails light sanding with a very fine sandpaper to remove scratches and marks, then using a few drops of special oil to give a lovely, black, polished look to the works.
The white marble and sandstone works require only an occasional clean with light water pressure. Sandstone is a fairly soft stone and too much water pressure work can cause erosion of the surface of the stone.
All sculptures have been carved from one block of stone, not glued onto the natural rock as some people think. The sculpture is carved initially using diamond saws, then air chisels and grinders, and from the rock, a snake, goanna or other work of art will emerge. For example, Australian artist Silvio Apponyi, whose many works you will see displayed in the garden, always starts his snakes from the tail and works up towards the head.