Yerrabingin

GOOD NATURED: design art architecture celebrates creative projects by designers, artists and architects working to design a better future. These practitioners are focussed on creating outcomes that are both beautiful and good for the planet.

About Yerrabingin

Yerrabingin is a landscape design collective based on Gadigal Land/Sydney that interweaves Indigenous knowledge and collaborative design thinking with conscious native landscapes and place making. Yerribingin designed Australia’s first native rooftop farm.

Yerrabingin means ‘we walk together.’ Yerrabingin comes from the First Nations language of Mooktung, spoken by the Bidawal and Maneroo people of the south-eastern high country of NSW.

Co-founded in 2018 by Christian Hampson, Yerrabingin is a First Nations owned and operated design house seeking to disrupt conventional approaches to ending Indigenous disadvantage and create intercultural opportunities for future generations to thrive.

Christian is a proud Woiwurrung and Maneroo man and a strong advocate for community custodianship in protecting, sharing and celebrating the diverse culture of NSW. Developing his passion for cultural heritage as a young man and through his long career with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Christian brings a cultural approach to collaboration, as well as a passion for great design and promoting First Nations narratives across the Australian landscape.

By listening and engaging in Indigenous land management practices, thousands of years of knowledge caring for country and climate can be drawn upon. Yerrabingin have become a leading industry force delivering environmentally conscious native landscapes and place making designs. They are an excellent example of traditional and contemporary culture collaborating to manage land sustainably.

Connect with Yerrabingin: @yerrabinginyerrabingin.com.au

Yerrabingin's Projects

Wanggani Dhaya (Listen to Country)
Country is the Codex that unlocks the largest and oldest environmental database in the world, it has millions of authors, rich with wisdom and a story that continues to grow with each new generation. Wanggani Dhaya (Listen to Country) guides the practice and approach to design. Collecting the seed (framing the design), is followed by planting and nourishing the seed (community design jam) and finally tending to the garden (finalise design).

Yerrabingin’s vision is that sensing and caring for Country is something that transcends cultural differences and highlights the many values that are similar across the cultures of our contemporary communities. They support a socially inclusive, resilient, and innovative community based on honouring the wisdom and kinship of all cultures, captured through the lens of custodianship.

South Eveleigh Native Roof Top Farm
Built on the 500sqm rooftop space of an office building, the native rooftop farm uses principles of Indigenous knowledge, collaborative design and permaculture to create and maintain Australia’s first Indigenous rooftop farm for urban food production. Located high above Sydney on the roof of Yerrabingin House, they’ve grown over 2,000 edible, medicinal and culturally significant plants.

Eurobodalla Hospital Development Masterplan
The NSW Government has invested to build a sustainable, modern and purpose-built facility to support the needs of the entire Eurobodalla Shire from Narooma to Batemans Bay.

Yerrabingin have been engaged, with collaborators Conrad Gargett, to connect the masterplan with Country; conduct Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Reports and facilitate the engagement process with the local Aboriginal community.

Social Housing Wellington St
Yerrabingin worked collaboratively with Fieldwork Architects and the project’s consultant group throughout the design process. They provided Connecting with Country input to workshops and review of the design proposals in addition to preparing a desktop Aboriginal Cultural Heritage report and facilitating an engagement process with the local Aboriginal community.

Yerrabingin's Good Natured Action

Yerrabingin has suggested a simple action that all of us can do to make an impact.

Consider buying plants that are native to your area to encourage biodiversity from First Nations business IndigiGrow

The exhibition includes plants specified by Yerrabingin that are suitable for growing in this area, are fragrant, edible, medicinal or useful. They include: Prostanthera incisa – Native Thyme, Lomandra longifolia - Spiny-head Mat-rush and Eucalyptus olida - Strawberry Gum.

Yerrabingin have also reimagined the vacant landscape corner across the street from the Gallery in their Speculative Garden Design for 114 William Street.

Designing with Country