One of Australia’s first Indigenous theme parks, Tjapukai Cultural Park is an Aboriginal cultural centre located in Carvonica, just outside Cairns in far north Queensland. Its purpose is to educate and inform visitors to the city, especially those from overseas, about Aboriginal culture.
Hiromi: “This is a replacement design for the original, now aged, purpose-designed building, and it contains two theatres, an interactive education space, retail and food and beverage, with grounds and waterways out back with outdoor theatre, boomerang and spear-throwing features and education about the local bush tucker.
“Most of Tjapukai’s staff are Indigenous, and we designed one of the theatres to be egg-shaped to reflect the nature of the local birds and weaving baskets which are such a strong influence on Tjapukai forest people’s life.”
The Tjapukai design is the result of collaboration with Isabelle Toland and Selina Qiu for its architecture and Steve La Hood of Story Inc for its interpretive design features. Andrew Prowse of LA3 was responsible for its landscape design.