Immersive dynamic visualisations of ancient landscapes

The aquaculture system across the UNESCO World Heritage Budj Bim landscape forms an elaborate system of water channels, weirs and dams used to manage water flows to trap, store and harvest kooyang eels. This intricate landscape has modified geomorphology that is hard to comprehend and interpret without dynamic visualisations of water flow.

Scientific software for water flow modelling is cumbersome and cannot handle the extent of the landscape, nor support the rich narrative and engagement capabilities offered by the interactivity of modern game engines.

The project aims to support the visual interpretation of how the site functioned, using immersive, dynamic visualisations, such as virtual reality and game engines, and support culturally appropriate storytelling and narratives. This will enable further off -site study, exploration, and education about these unique engineering structures.

We engaged with rich narrative methodologies from game design and link these to the scientific outcomes already achieved in our ARC project, to support the narrative needs of the Gunditjmara community.

The project contributed to the FEIT flagship ARC SRI supported project, Indigenous Engineering: interpreting engineering foundations of Budj Bim, where we elucidate the engineering processes that enabled the Gunditjmara to site, plan, construct and operate the elaborate eel aquaculture systems and associated settlements. This will enhance our understanding and conceptualising of Gunditjmara history, technological ingenuity, and endeavour (portrayed recently on SBS First Inventors).

This is research conducted on behalf of and with the Gunditjmara community.