Bourke Visitor Centre
Bourke Visitor Centre
A new First Nations exhibition and education centre in remote NSW focused on sharing culture, history, and stories.
Location
Ngemba Country with Baakindji, Muruwari, Kunya, Barranbinya, Paruntji, Naualko and Nyirrpa connections Bourke, NSW
Client
Bourke Shire Council
Completion
Ongoing
Collaborators
Ample Projects Red Dust Designs Barnson Stellen Team Catalyst
The proposed building is partially submerged into the town levee, sitting long and low in the landscape, with periscopes that pierce the planted form to capture views of the Baaka-Darling River and Mount Oxley, two key landmarks important to local First Nations Peoples.
From the verandah, which functions as a protected outdoor teaching space, to the use of local clays, pigments, and aggregates, and the ‘bird wing’ shaped structure of the building itself, we see the centre as a living entity.
Involved from project conception, Aileen Sage worked closely with a breadth of community members from various local groups to understand how this building might best serve the small, remote town.
Colours and textures of the landscape at Gundabooka National Park
with red dirt, scrubby grasses, boulders and rocks.
Curved rammed earth projection wall for outdoor night-time
displays of light, video and sound work.
Visitors enter the first room, greeted by a periscope viewing
nearby Mt Oxley, a key landmark in local culture.