History & Philosphy

Primarily a story-telling centre, The Back O'Bourke Exhibition Centre seeks to bring together white settler and traditional Aboriginal occupier perspectives on the settlement of Bourke. How and when these cultures interacted has had a profound impact on the development of the town and the Centre seeks to shed light on how these two disparate but intrinsically connected cultures impacted the development of the town. The centre is not designed to offer a singular definitive authority on the history of the region, but rather to offer a series of perspectives and stories that aim to be engaging and thought-provoking.

The unusual building design was developed by Andrew Schulz Associates Architects. A series of curved walls and flowing lines reflect the lines of the Murray Darling river system, which was pivotal to the development of Bourke. The interactive and static visual displays were produced in close collaboration with the design team at Spinifex Interactive whose previous work includes large-scale events production such as the DOHA Asian Games and the 2007 FINA Swimming World Championships.

A number of key motifs and visual themes underpin the visual display and audiovisual design behind the museum. Developed with the people, history and geographical landscape of Bourke in mind, the Centre offers the visitor a unique and thought-provoking experience. From the dramatic cycle of flood and drought, to the importance of the river as a life source for the town, water appears throughout as a key theme. Lured by the promise of a mythical 'inland sea', early white settlers learnt about the extremities of the landscape first hand as they battled with cycles of flood and drought. Tragically many settlers died looking for the 'inland sea', whilst the traditional Aboriginal people used their ancient knowledge to thrive in this harsh landscape. Having lived in the region thousands of years before, the Aboriginal people knew that there was actually water in Bourke, in the form of an Artesian Basin, or underground sea. From the wall design to the themes in the videos and interactive displays, water appears as a key theme throughout the Centre.

Storytelling, or 'mark making' also appears as an important design motif throughout. It is how the stories of Bourke are told and what it says about the people who tell them that makes this centre unique. Aboriginal Songlines appear throughout the design of the museum in the form of a series of curved lines in the walls and handrails as well as being interspersed throughout the video content. Songlines are an intricate series of song cycles that identify landmarks and subtle tracking mechanisms for navigation used by the Aboriginal people. These songs often evoke how the features of the land were created and named during the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Bourke was a place that many of Australia's famous writers were drawn to as its extremities of climate offered them a vantage point from which to explore the Australian psyche. As Henry Lawson said, "If you know Bourke you know Australia" by which he meant that the harshness of the landscape had had a profound but lasting impact on qualities deemed to be quintessentially Australian e.g. the notion of giving things 'a fair go', a sense of humour and a tenacious spirit.

The design and layout of the museum has been inspired by artists such as Rosalie Gasgoine, whose unique use of found objects and materials and reinterpretation of these can be seen as inspiration behind the wall layout throughout the Centre. Artist and architect, Alex Selenitsch was also an inspiration in the display system on the walls. Using a liquid paper like effect to omit and obscure words, Selenitsch's work urges the viewer to reflect on words and meanings that are lost throughout time. As the Back O'Bourke Exhibition Centre deals with words, stories of the past the design team felt that this was fitting framework from which to explore this idea in the visual display panels that appear throughout the museum. The rich colours of the Outback captured by the paintings of Russell Drysdale were also a key inspiration in the choice of colour palette throughout the museum and audiovisual presentations.