construction methods, materials and maintenance. In terms of community, Peacock Point was a clear statement of egalitarianism: it provided the residents of Balmain, an old and densely populated suburb, with a local park that was safe, accessible, inviting and comfortable, and one which provided a variety of spaces and range of activities for all ages. The park also gave unrestricted access to the harbour, allowing all members of the public, not just a privileged few, to enjoy the panoramic views of the city from the upper levels and to gain access to the waterfront at the lower levels. In terms of delight, Mackenzie created a "remarkable spatial quality due to the Harbour location, the sandstone cliffs and outcropping, and the complex sequence of spaces created by the use of built structures and planting". Bruce Mackenzie and the Sydney Bush School Bruce Mackenzie was born in 1932 and raised in a suburb where the bush was still a part of its framework. His first experience of being closely involved in the detail of "the bush" and the design of buildings was in the design of his own house with his wife Beverley on the rough bushland block at Dartford Road, Thornleigh. In 1960 he opened a landscape contracting business and began working with, leading modernist architects such as Harry Seidler, Sidney Ancher, Mortlock Murray & Woolley, Don Gazzard, Michael Dysart and Peter Johnson. At this time he also developed a close relationship with Alistair Knox and Gordon Ford in Eltham, Melbourne, and through them he experienced the "bush garden" movement, originating in the work of Edna Walling and Ellis Stones. Mackenzie and Knox both shared a passion for the search for an "Australian Identity". In 1964 Mackenzie was the landscape architect for four Pettit and Sevitt houses in Richmond Avenue, St Ives. Here he minimised the building footprint so that the natural landscape features of the sites were kept intact and created a mature garden on open-day. In the same year he designed a lookout area at Commodore Heights, West Head with architect Russell Smith for Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park Trust, expressing a subtle adaptation of modernist principles to a living site, and was believed to be a prototype for Peacock Point, Balmain. Between 1966 and 1971 Mackenzie worked on the campus of the Teachers College at Lindfield (later UTS Kuring-Gai); here he showed how cooperation between the architect and landscape