Toorale National Park, southwest of the township of Bourke in north-western NSW, comprises 91,000 hectares of land with frontages to the Darling and Warrego Rivers. SUPERSENSE engaged with stakeholders, including the traditional landowners, the Kurnu-Baakandji, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Aboriginal Joint Management Committee, to develop an Interpretation and Revitalisation Strategy. Following that, we created an extensive suite of sculptural and digital interpretation, located across the park, implemented over three years to create an experience that inspires and engages visitors. Content and design involved close collaboration with the Kurnu-Baakandji People.
SUPERSENSE’s role involved consulting, collecting, selecting, and developing interpretive content, designing and producing it, and managing the fabrication and installation of all components. The era of the paddlesteamers, which used the Darling as a route to transport goods, is evoked by a public artwork sculpture featuring the image of a paddlesteamer on laser-cut corten steel, which appears to float on the rippling water of the Darling. A series of bespoke cast bronze plaques installed on the summit of Mt Talowla interpret this landmark’s history as a vantage point for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to look out across the land. The piece features artwork by Badga Bates, a Kurnu-Baakandji Elder. The interpretation is installed at ground level to communicate the importance of the shared earth and the landscape – we must bend to it, not it to us.
Interpretation along the Darling River focuses on the river and its central importance for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people historically and today, offering different perspectives and uses of the river. We brought to life the grounds of the homestead as well as the building itself through innovative interpretation. The homestead precinct is the interpretive point of arrival for visitors to the park and features the once-lavish homestead building, now in decline. Visitors are not permitted entry to the homestead due to its dilapidated condition. The challenge was to create a compelling sense of arrival for the park and fulfil interpretation of the structure while preventing access to protect the fragile building and the safety of visitors. We decided to transform the idea of the barrier itself into an interpretive experience. Inscribed quotes by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about their experiences of the homestead and its surrounds render their voices in the landscape.
Large-scale corten and vitreous enamel sculptural panels are positioned in an arc to preserve views to the Homestead. The panels’ content and positioning tell the stories of the ‘front of house’, which was inhabited by station owners and their families as well as the venue for formal receptions, and the ‘back of house’, which is where working gardens were located and the area most familiar to the station workers. Elements of the once-lush gardens that surrounded the homestead have been interpreted through public art interventions.
SUPERSENSE created a comprehensive staged implementation plan as part of the interpretation strategy for all project components. Each piece is crafted by skilled artisans with precise attention to detail. The project was extremely successful creatively, operationally, and from a budget perspective.