Tracy
Churchill is the coordinator of the Recreation and Landscape
Planning and Design Section of the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). “On behalf of the
community, DEC manages more than 20 million hectares of national
parks, nature reserves, marine reserves, State forests and timber
reserves.
My
section is responsible for planning for recreation, managing
impacts on our visual landscape and designing visitor experiences
and facilities. We
prepare master plans for large areas that deal with access and
recreational activity, placing the facilities in areas suitable
for redevelopment, site development plans for sites that may
include drawing up detailed designs. We also design small structures
for DEC managed lands and are in effect the design service to
the Department."
As well as
the usual English and maths, Tracy took geography and textile
design at school in Goulburn, NSW. She and a teacher studied
a careers advice pamphlet put out by the Department of Education
and they felt she fitted into the requirements for landscape
architecture. “It sounded good, although I really had
no idea what it was.”
Tracy is
working in a reasonably specialised area. “We bring
people into the landscape and respond to how they move in
the conservation reserves. We analyse where people can go
and how they get there without damaging the environment. We
build facilities to enable people to have a great visitor
experience in the natural landscapes of Western Australia.”
Tracy
is now the leader of the section, which currently has nine
people. This means she has moved into more of a management
role, giving leadership to the team and mentoring her staff. “I
am able to do some designing, however.”
The work
of the section ranges from broad scale planning right down
to detailed site plans of picnic areas, campgrounds, car
parks, walktracks and other facilities in natural resource
areas. They undertake many site visits and discuss issues
with regional and local people. “We visit the sites,
talk to our colleagues, consult with community groups and
their representatives. We formulate ideas that might offer
solutions, take these back and discuss them, and come out
with final solutions.”
Tracy was
part of the design team for the Valley of the Giants and
this was the most memorable project she has worked on. “This
project was very prominent for the Department and for me.”
"The site
is located in a tingle forest on the south west coast of
the State. The trees are very large - you could once drive
a car through the large buttress roots of one tree - and
the site was called the Valley of the Giants for a long time,
but they grow in a very restricted area. The site was degrading
and the trees were being impacted due to the large number
of visitors.
The project
involved choosing a site for the tree top walk and working
up the concept in terms of business and master planning. Two
main visitor experiences were designed, the Ancient Empire
(designed in-house) and the Tree Top Walk and Tingle Shelter. Tracy
explained her role as a landscape architect: “I was
in the department’s design team and was the main contact
with the TTW designers from the outset. Through a design competition,
an architect, engineer and artist were selected to design the
walk and visitor buildings. This is now one of the premier
tourist resorts in Western Australia.”
This
project won numerous awards including the Design category
of the AILA National Awards and the Premier’s Award
in the Western Australian Civic Design Awards in 1996.
Tracy
graduated in 1985 from the (now) University of Canberra. She
mostly enjoyed the course, which was practical and oriented
towards getting new graduates jobs. She found it was responsive
to natural landscapes, which has been very valuable to
her in her current position.
Tracy has
completed many other smaller projects that have been just
as environmentally important. The majority of the Section’s
work involves responding to visitor impacts in conservation
areas. Roads, tracks, parking, toilets, lookouts and walktracks
are the basis of most site designs. Whether the site is
in the Kimberley or Kalgoorlie, protecting nature conservation
values is the primary goal whilst providing visitors with
the experience of natural landscape.
Tracy has
developed a wide range of skills during her employment with
the WA Government including designing in natural areas, working
with other professionals, responding to briefs, managing
projects, and being the leader in a process. Her job in
a state conservation agency provides a perfect arena to protect
the environment and ensure that balanced management strategies
allow visitors to enjoy the landforms and ecosystems of the
State without placing undue pressure on them.
