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strahan visitors centre 1993
strahan, tasmania
It has been termed "an ark with a
novel inside", the visitor centre is half
rough hewn local timber half glass
and steel, housing a rainforest in
which sits one of the more bizarre
and engaging exhibitions ever to be
seen in Australia. Amidst straggling
Huon pines and manferns can be
found an aboriginal cave replete
with partly excavated kitchen sink, a
suburban lounge-room full of 1970ʼs
Greenie artefacts and a flooded out
timber and iron railway bridge.
The Centre's telling of stories of
south west Tasmania has met with
enthusiastic response from visitors
and drawn praise from critics, local
and international, including US
architect Emilio Ambaz. "It breaks
every rule in interpretation" one
expert has said.
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Indeed it does, and
it works the better for it. It challenges
and provokes, to make visitors rethink
what they normally take for granted.
It, too became the best public
building constructed in this state in
a triennium; especially significant
considering its challenging nature.
The centre featured in the prestigious
British journal Architecture Review, in
an edition devoted to new museums
and interpretative centres around the
world.
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