National Museum of Australia (NMA) acting head of commercial Jacqui Smith holding a VR headset. Photo: James Coleman.
The Kimberly region in north Western Australia is a very, very long way from Canberra. Google Maps reckons the fastest route is 4646 km long. About 52 hours by car.
But from Boxing Day, it’s going to be a lot closer.
The National Museum of Australia (NMA) is opening a new virtual reality (VR) experience on 26 December. Visitors will be able to sit in the museum’s theatre, don a headset, and be transported straight to the rugged rock faces and harsh scrub of the Kimberly.
For those unfamiliar with VR, The Great Kimberly Wilderness was largely filmed using 3D cameras that look like soccer balls, with lenses pointing in all directions.
A lot of editing later, and this means you’re able to look all around you – down at your feet, up into the sky – simply by moving your head. Just as if you were actually there.
We tried it and can confirm it is epic. It feels so real – so lifelike – that when a fly buzzes past the camera you have to stop your arm from coming up to bat it away.
It’s also narrated by Luke Hemsworth (yes, Chris Hemsworth’s brother), who you might recognise from his starring role in HBO’s Westworld and his appearance in Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder.
Along the way, scientists inform you about various rock formations and fossils, and local Indigenous representatives add what different sites mean to them.
The whole experience lasts 35 minutes and leaves you slightly blown away. You feel like you’ve been there.
The Great Kimberley Wilderness is the first of three VR experiences resulting from a $1 million trans-Tasman funding partnership between the NMA, the Western Australian Museum and Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand.
King George Falls in the Kimberly – definitely not the same in 2D. Photo: The Great Kimberly Wilderness, White Spark Pictures.
It was produced over four years by White Spark Pictures.
“It was about two years full time of filming across different moments of seasons and phenomenon,” White Spark Pictures’ Briege Whitehead says.
“There’s only certain times of the year when the king tides happen and the wet season with the waterfalls and different access points, and then the post-production side is also very lengthy because we’re pushing the boundaries a lot and inventing a lot of technology.”
Along the way, they engaged with 11 different Indigenous groups across the Kimberly to pull together the various chapters in the film, as “the people who know the country the best”.
“Some of the things that personally moved me the most were when we were at some of the rock art sites, and the rock is so slippery because people have been walking there for thousands of years,” Ms Whitehead said.
“We’re literally bringing modern technology into these amazing locations we’re so privileged to access, as a way of showing people and having them connected to those stories … without having them physically going there.”
The Great Kimberley Wilderness debuted at the Perth Festival in November, and Ms Whitehead said, “People are crying at the end of it, just totally moved”.
“It’s really giving people that connection that only this medium really allows.”
As for the Hemsworth?
“Luke was perfect for the role,” White Spark Pictures Head of Commercial and Operations Benn Ellard added.
“From a marketing perspective, it’s a fantastic name, and it’s going to attract people at face value, but then once you’re in the experience and you’re watching the film, it needed to be someone that actually genuinely loves and is connected to the Kimberly and Luke is that person.”
Mr Ellard said the Hemsworth family regularly visits the Kimberly and “absolutely love it.”
How the National Museum of Australia’s Vision Theatre before you don the VR headset. Photo: James Coleman.
The film will be shown every hour every day from 26 December in the NMA’s 150-seat ‘Visions Theatre’ off the Gandel Atrium. About 100 headsets are available and that discrepancy is deliberate.
“We like to have little space around you when you’re watching it because when you bend and move in the seat, you use your arms,” NMA acting head of commercial Jacqui Smith said.
She hoped visitors will be able to spend the whole day at the museum over the holidays, seeing the Pompeii exhibition before “flying over the amazing reefs and through the gorges” of the Kimberly.
“It’s not only educational, but it is also entertainment, and I think that’s what we would like to do in the future.”
The Great Kimberley Wilderness is the first of three immersive documentaries secured in the $1 million partnership. It will be followed by Journey of the Giants, a 360-degree dive into the world of whales, and The Kermadec Islands, a look at a pristine marine wonderland in the South Pacific.
Visit the National Museum of Australia for more information.
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