Malcolm Bunzli was born in Brisbane in 1933. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Queensland in 1959. He worked as an architect for the Commonwealth Works Department in Brisbane before moving to England, where he continued his career in architecture and studied for a Post Graduate Diploma in Landscape Design at Durham University. It was the only full-time landscape architecture course in the British Commonwealth of Nations at the time. While in England he married his wife, Dorothy Bunzli, with whom he had a daughter and two sons.

Malcolm returned to Australia in 1965, briefly worked as an architect and landscape designer at Conrad Gargett, then became the first Landscape Architect in the Queensland State Government. He was responsible for setting up and overseeing the Landscape Section in the State Works Department. While in this role he spearheaded efforts to secure official recognition for the professional designation 'Landscape Architect' across all government sectors in the state and advocated for salary scales equivalent to those of architects. Malcolm played a key role in establishing then coordinating and teaching the postgraduate landscape architecture course at the then Queensland Institute of Technology (now the Queensland University of Technology or QUT). Malcolm was a foundation member of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and served as National President from 1973 to 1975. He retired from active landscape architecture practice in 1993.