Congratulations Vicki Winfield
Vicki Winfield was announced as AILA's latest Fellow at the AILA WA End of Year Event on 30 November 2023.
On presenting Vicki with her Fellowship, former colleague Tracy Churchill gave the following citation:
Vicki’s love and appreciation for the great outdoors can be traced back to her childhood days growing up on a farm in England and later life on the land at Mt Manypeaks in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Having migrated to Australia with her family at the age of 12, she found herself living among some of WA’s most biologically diverse and picturesque landscapes. So perhaps it was inevitable this would lead her to pursue a career in landscape architecture where she could combine her interest in nature and natural resource management with her flair for site planning and design.
Following her graduation from the University of Canberra in 1979, Vicki commenced her career working for the City of Perth and later the University of Western Australia. There she was fortunate to work for and be mentored by Jean Brodie-Hall, a founding member of AILA and a pioneer of the profession in the west. This association has endured, and their lifelong friendship has no doubt helped to shape Vicki’s own values and professional practice.
Vicki joined the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM and now the Department of Parks and Wildlife) in 1988. This was during the period when broad scale recreation planning and site design on public lands across Western Australia was rapidly evolving and Vicki soon became a significant contributor in this evolution. Based in Manjimup and working under the guidance of Richard Hammond and later Tracy Churchill in Perth, she excelled in the design and development of a network of quality visitor facilities from picnic and camping areas, coastal lookouts, walking and cycling trails to self-guiding scenic drives and other interpretive facilities and displays. These include well known destinations such as Beedelup Falls, the Cascades, Lake Muir, Lake Yeagerup, Fernhook Falls, the Shannon Townsite and Donnelly Valley as well as numerous other visitor attractions.
Likewise, her leadership in developing a comprehensive Recreation Framework Plan for the Southern Forests ranks among the Department’s most noteworthy and useful broadscale recreation planning initiatives. As well as helping to ensure the best match of visitor experiences with recreation opportunities across the region, the framework plan has proved invaluable in prioritising and guiding resource investment and capital allocation decisions.
Since her retirement from the public service in 2015, Vicki has worked for the Manjimup Shire on various townscape improvement projects and has established her own private practice (Vicki Winfield & Associates). She worked collaboratively with other professionals including on occasion with her eldest son Joe, but is now enjoying retirement at her property in Manjimup.
