Skip to main content

Story: Landscape architecture

Alfred Buxton garden at Wharanui, around 1909

Alfred Buxton was New Zealand's leading garden designer in the first few decades of the 20th century. His firm undertook large-scale projects for wealthy farmers and urban professionals, and also did work for local councils. He designed the grounds of 'Wharanui', the rural Marlborough property of Charles Murray, in 1909. The curved entrance drive, pond and built structures are characteristic of Buxton's approach to garden design.  

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, R. P. Moore Collection

Reference: Pan-1644-F

by Robert Percy Moore

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Kerryn Pollock, Landscape architecture – Garden design and landscaping, 19th and early 20th centuries, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/42898/alfred-buxton-garden-at-wharanui-around-1909 (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Kerryn Pollock, published 1 October 2013, updated 26 March 2015.