In a result that’s equal parts baffling, brilliant and deeply Australian, Kyneton local Jarno Coone has taken out the 2025 World’s Ugliest Lawn competition, proving once and for all that sometimes, doing absolutely nothing is the ultimate flex.
Mr Coone’s prize-winning patch in his home town in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges hasn’t seen water in over a decade, hasn’t met a mower in years, and has been lovingly described by judges as resembling “kids’ hair after a lice treatment gone horribly wrong.” High praise in ugly-lawn circles.
But before you picture suburban neglect spiralling out of control, Coone insists there’s method in the madness, and a fair bit of environmental thinking behind it.
“This isn’t just laziness,” he effectively argues, while standing beside a yard that would give most real estate agents heart palpitations.
A property manager by trade, Coone looks after more than 1,100 acres of bushland at Candlebark and Alice Miller School, so he’s no stranger to what nature looks like when it’s left to do its thing. And his own lawn? It’s now less “front yard” and more “tiny national park.”
What appears, at first glance, to be a dry and chaotic mess is actually a thriving little ecosystem, complete with native grasses, butterflies and even microbats — all happily living rent-free in a space most Aussies would have attacked with a sprinkler and a Saturday morning mow.
And in a country where water restrictions and rising utility bills are part of everyday life, Coone’s approach is quietly making a lot of sense.
The lawn uses virtually no water, requires minimal maintenance, and skips the weekly fossil-fuelled grooming ritual entirely. In other words, it’s about as low-impact as it gets – even if it does raise a few eyebrows over the fence.
Neighbour concerns have reportedly centred around the possibility of snakes setting up shop, though Coone is quick to shut that down with calm logic: no water, no snakes. A rare case of science beating suburban paranoia.
To keep the peace, he admits to the occasional bit of brush cutting, not enough to win any garden awards, but just enough to reassure the locals that civilisation hasn’t completely collapsed.
The World’s Ugliest Lawn competition itself began as a tongue-in-cheek initiative on Sweden’s island of Gotland, designed to promote water conservation. Since then, it’s become a global celebration of letting lawns go, and letting nature back in.
Interestingly, the southern hemisphere has taken a firm grip on the title in recent years, with previous winners from Tasmania and New Zealand. Turns out, sunburnt countries have a natural advantage when it comes to not watering things.
And while Coone’s yard might not feature in glossy property brochures any time soon, it’s sparking a broader rethink of what a “good” lawn actually looks like in modern Australia.
Because maybe, just maybe, the future of the Aussie backyard isn’t a perfectly trimmed green carpet, but something a little wilder, a little drier and a whole lot more sustainable.
Ugly? Perhaps.
Smart? Absolutely.
Image: Instagram
