Behind the Garden Gate

Taking place on Thursday 22 October from 10am to 4pm, NGVWA Garden Day returns as one of Melbourne’s longstanding garden events, inviting visitors into private spaces rarely seen beyond their gates. This year, the journey unfolds across Toorak and Armadale, two neighbourhoods with rich horticultural histories and enduring Victorian and Edwardian character. 

Among the six gardens is the landscape surrounding Trawalla, a grand Toorak mansion built in 1867 by David Mitchell, father of Dame Nellie Melba. The garden has evolved through two stages of work by celebrated landscape designer Paul Bangay, creating a considered dialogue between its 19th-century architecture and contemporary landscape design. Beyond the restrained front garden, a pathway leads past a 22-metre indoor pool towards the rear, where sculptural works by George Baldessin sit within the grounds.

Another garden carries the unmistakable legacy of influential Australian landscape architect Edna Walling. Originally designed in the late 1940s, its stone walls, pergolas and pathways form an enduring framework, later layered with Bangay’s vision and tended for close to four decades by the owners along with their gardener Donna Somerville. At its heart stands a river red gum believed to be more than 350 years old, surrounded by garden beds of silver birch, lavender, sage and perennial borders, with stone cherubs and urns passed down through generations adding to its sense of history. 

The day also ventures into Armadale, where visitors will discover a contemporary garden by landscape designer Myles Baldwin and another layered landscape centred around a magnificent Magnolia grandiflora. Elsewhere, sculpture-filled grounds, formal lawns and lush planting reveal six distinctly different interpretations of the private garden. 

Throughout the day, garden guides and experts from Botanica World Discoveries will be on hand, complemented by a floral demonstration and the Garden Day stall, offering seasonal blooms, potted plants, artisanal produce, floral linens and garden-inspired books. 

With advance tickets priced at $80, Garden Day offers more than a rare opportunity to wander behind some of Melbourne’s most intriguing garden gates. The event continues the fundraising work of the NGVWA, which has supported the NGV Collection since its founding in 1961, helping fund art acquisitions, curator travel scholarships and VCA student awards.

On 22 October, those usually private properties become part of Melbourne’s cultural life for just six hours, bringing together garden design, art, architecture and history in a setting that is seldom open to the public.

PURCHASE TICKETS: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/support-us/ngvwa/events/ngvwa-garden-day/