Dangar Barin Smith – Gardens in Focus

Will Dangar, founder of landscape design company Dangar Barin Smith, says the key to creating a garden that complements a home’s design is deep soil. It sounds obvious, but, according to Dangar, not all architects leave enough dirt for him to create something special. “The garden’s role is really important in striking a harmonious balance between the natural and built environment,” he says.

As is the relationship between the landscape designer and the architect. “For example, we’ve been working with Luigi Rosselli for 25 years now,” says Dangar. “In the early days, he used to give me what I would call a very heavy brief, and now it’s just like a pair of old leather gloves. He and I are just a good fit, and there’s a lot of architects that we have the same relationship with. It’s really just about trust.” The studio has worked with many of Australia’s leading architects – William Smart, Polly Harbison, Madeleine Blanchfield, Andrew Burges, Adam Haddow, Hannah Tribe, among others – and has created lush gardens that are in sync with the architecture rather than in service to it.

The studio has worked with many of Australia’s leading architects – William Smart, Polly Harbison, Madeleine Blanchfield, Andrew Burges, Adam Haddow, Hannah Tribe, among others – and has created lush gardens that are in sync with the architecture rather than in service to it.

It also helps that Dangar Barin Smith has clients who not only have deep pockets but also a keen appreciation of both the process and result. One such client is the owner of the property in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill that features here. “That client is an absolutely passionate and avid gardener,” says Dangar. “She has an understanding of horticulture and is in the garden all weekend. I love it because she loves it.” The style of the garden is one which Dangar has become more enamoured with recently: “It’s way more natural, rather than a structured and manicured landscape. It was about creating a garden that felt as if it has always been part of the landscape.”

Dangar Barin Smith – Dangar’s main landscape design business, which, in 2018, became a partnership with Naomi Barin and Tom Smith – is part of a group of companies called The Robert Plumb Collective, which Dangar has a shareholding in. It includes landscape construction company Robert Plumb Landscape, building firms Robert Plumb Build and Robert Plumb Fix and joinery business Cranbrook Workshop.

“The garden’s role is really important in striking a harmonious balance between the natural and built environment,” he says.

Dangar has come a long way since his first foray into the industry more than 30 years ago. He grew up on a grazing property in Armidale in northern New South Wales that his family, descendants of the surveyor and pastoralist Henry Dangar, had been on since the early 1880s. Seeking adventure, he signed up for a stint working as a stockman on the Northern Territory’s Brunette Downs cattle station. On a trip back home, he met his future wife, Julia. She told him that if he wanted the relationship to continue, he would need to move to Sydney, as she had no plans to become a country girl. And she assured him that she would find him a job if he did. The job she got him was as a labourer for a landscape company.

That was in 1991. The country was in a deep economic recession and Dangar’s work quickly started drying up, so with little more than a second-hand Mazda ute and a couple of shovels and rakes, he set up his own lawn-mowing business. “I just canvassed my girlfriend’s mother’s friends,” says Dangar. As fate would have it, his girlfriend’s mother’s friends all lived in the reasonably recession-proof eastern suburbs of Sydney.

“In the early days, he used to give me what I would call a very heavy brief, and now it’s just like a pair of old leather gloves. He and I are just a good fit, and there’s a lot of architects that we have the same relationship with. It’s really just about trust.”

Most of Dangar Barin Smith’s work has been in Sydney and its nearby regional areas such as the Southern Highlands. More recently, the company has taken on jobs in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Dangar estimates that about 70 per cent of his personal work is regional today, with almost half of that being in WA, and that he is away from his home base in Bondi between one and three days per week. “I just want to do some different things now,” he says.

One of those things is to take some well-earned long service leave. This month, Dangar is heading off with a friend, a truck and a couple of dirt bikes and going on an escapade through Central Australia. “It’s just the boys on adventure. What could possibly go wrong?”