Our challenge was to enhance the landscape experience, developing a strategy to share the rich stories this place holds. To the untrained eye, Mulligans Flat is a collection of grass and trees (with the odd kangaroo), but life flourishes in many ways - if you know where and when to look.
On the edge of Canberra, Mulligans Flat is a quintessential Australian landscape. The sanctuary is home to an amazing group of wildlife and plants and much loved by the local community as a recreation space for walkers and cyclists.
Through a series of collaborative workshops we developed a interpretation concept framework. The strategy describes key principles, themes, storylines and how the information will be presented to visitors through interpretive media.
Some key principles driving the framework were orientation in the sanctuary, using pathways, gateway and loops. We also identify and create key destinations for visitors, respond to the changing environment through modulation and seasonality, building new descriptive vocabularies and developed a sense of playfulness.
Mulligans Flat has a wealth of stories. The strategy focuses on tying together the story threads relating to biodiversity, restoration work, academic research, heritage and indigenous connections to place.
Woodlands Learning Centre
Alongside the interpretive strategy for the sanctuary experience, we developed a conceptual framework for the Mulligans Flat National Woodlands Learning Centre. Workshopping with staff and key stakeholders, we worked through a range of options and potential experience elements. This framework is the starting point, defining spaces and requirements, the experience and user types.
The power of the sanctuary and learning centre reveals itself through the strategies and concepts. Potential to generate excitement and support for Mulligans Flat, and their work to restore the landscape, is enormous. We are so pleased to be involved and look forward to the future developments.
