The ILDA team

Gordon Rowland Managing director

Gordon was born and educated in London. He graduated in osteopathy and practised in Sussex, before emigrating to Australia with his family in 1983.

An early interest in the Australian landscape soon became a passion, and he entered the landscape design course at Ryde College of TAFE, graduating in 1991. To communicate visually the landscapes that inspired him, he went on to study art photography at the National Art School, Sydney.

In 1996 Gordon founded Indigenous Landscape Design Associates and in 1999 Indigenous Landscape Design Australia Pty Ltd.

In 1998, his ‘rainforest’ garden in Rozelle in Sydney's inner west, received record numbers of visitors through Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. The garden has also featured in several garden design books, on ABC Radio’s ‘The Spirit of Things’ and the Foxtel Lifestyle Channel.

During the late 1990s Gordon contributed a regular ‘Landscape and Garden’ column to Sydney’s Inner Western Suburbs Courier, and in 1998 Indigenous Landscape Design Associates designed and installed a display for the Australian Museum's ‘Bio-diversity: Life Supporting Life’ exhibition.

The same year, Gordon represented the Australian Plants Society on the Olympic Coordination Authority advisory panel for plant selection for the ‘Look’ of the 2000 Olympic Games, receiving unanimous support for his proposal for an all Australian 'Look'.

In 1999 he founded Landscape Outlook, a quarterly publication that now reaches professional designers and horticulturists across Australia. He was also a judge for the Stormwater Industry Association's Environmental Excellence awards.

During the same year, sponsored by the Australian Museum's Community Biodiversity Network, he designed the award winning ‘Earth Alive’ garden at the Sydney Festival of Gardens.

In 2001, Gordon was a visiting lecturer in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney. He also designed the award winning ‘Sydney Wildflower Garden’, sponsored by the Australian Plants Society at the inaugural ABC Gardening Australia Live show at Sydney's Homebush Bay.

In 2002, Gordon received a Certificate of Excellence for his World Environment Day essay 'Preserving the Environment I Live In.' In the same year, he and his wife Marie bought 10 hectares (25 acres) at Pacific Palms on the New South Wales mid north coast, where they have built a sustainable house, design studio and wetlands, and are now creating a wildflower garden and wildlife sanctuary.  

Gordon's articles and photographs have appeared in many publications including Backyard Design Ideas, Landscape Australia, Native Plants for New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald and Our Gardens.

He is a member of the Australian Flora Foundation, the Australian Plants Society, Birds Australia, the Great Lakes Environment Association, the Horticultural Media Association, and a founder member of the Invasive Species Council. He is also a former Sydney Committee member of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme.

Marie Rowland Company secretary and researcher

Marie was born in the Western district of Victoria, and worked as a pre-school teacher in Warrnambool and Melbourne. In the 1960s she travelled through Europe and taught at several schools in London and West Sussex, before returning with Gordon and their three children to live in Sydney, where she worked as an educational consultant for children with special needs.

Marie holds a Bachelor of Education degree and a Graduate Diploma in Educational Studies. She is a member of the Australian Plants Society and the Great Lakes Environment Association.

Jacqui Keats Database development

Jacqui was born in Sydney, and has worked in environmental education for the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, the New South Wales Department of Agriculture and the New South Wales Department of Energy.