DUMPED: Geelong Design Week 2026

Wadawurrung Country

Australia’s natural environment is unlike anywhere else on Earth. Yet, since 1788, the continent has suffered the largest documented biodiversity decline of any continent. Habitat loss, driven largely by urbanisation, is a leading cause of this decline. Despite this, 46% of Australia’s threatened animal species occur in cities, making urban environments critical for conservation.

As cities densify, opportunities to restore habitat are increasingly confined to the urban margins, alongside the city’s waste and refuse.

Created as part of Geelong Design Week 2026, DUMPED: Rediscovering Habitat in Geelong’s Urban Leftovers explores this uneasy reality, transforming discarded objects salvaged from around Geelong into living habitat, planted with locally native species representing the region’s volcanic grasslands, woodlands, coastal marshes and riverine wetlands.

Painted red, the objects are stripped of their everyday human functions and reimagined as ecological structures. They were photographed at locations across Geelong, within the types of leftover spaces where urban ecologies are increasingly forced to survive.

The photographs were exhibited alongside the planted objects themselves, creating a living installation that asks us to reconsider what urban habitat can look like, the types of spaces it is forced to occupy, and the kinds of landscapes that might emerge once our rubbish trucks stop running…

A supporting film documented fragments of remnant grasslands and woodlands around Geelong, highlighting the beauty and ecological value that can persist within the city.

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A huge thank you to ecoDynamics and The GREEN Lab @ Iramoo for supplying the plants, and to The Third Space at Creative Geelong for hosting the installation. Thank you also to Geelong Design Week and the City of Greater Geelong for bringing together the 2026 program and giving us the opportunity to take part!