A magical hidden spot where this home is located is enveloped by a pristine backdrop of Otway forest. While the location is superb, the site characteristics and topography has offered challenges in the integration of areas.  A gravel drive dissects the midpoint between the lower set home and the higher tennis court. Access between the two areas was unformed and so they floated in isolation from each other.

What began as a project to locate a small outbuilding near the tennis court precinct has developed into a garden scheme where a new path, a terrace and a colonnade now form strong focal and transition points between the house and its upper garden limits.

At the lower level, a sinuous gravel path leads from the house up to the driveway landing opposite the steps to the new terrace. On the way it passes a new garden bed designed to envelop a permanently positioned bronze reindeer. Where once it stood in isolation, it now is firmly established in a small maturing forest.

Crossing the drive, the garden becomes a series of formal spaces designed to anchor the tennis court and provide flattened areas of retreat in the landscape. Whereas the gardens circling the house are all curves of mixed and pretty plantings, the upper sections provide a delightful contrast in straight lines of repeated species as romantic in selection as those of the lower gardens.