The Visitors Centre at the National Arboretum Canberra was a project with a very short lead time and a number of physical restrictions on how the space was to be used, including the need to turn the exhibition into a function area at night. An added challenge was that on opening day, very little of the Arboretum would be even close to the finished vision of 100 forests, as the trees would take decades to reach maturity.
Mental Media devised a number of exhibits to assist the visitor in visualising the finished Arboretum. A touch table explained each of the 100 species of trees and showed where they were located. An audio guided tour that visitors could take out into the landscape was developed using audio pens and paper maps. In addition, an app was developed that would provide visitors with GPS location information about trees and landscape features around them, including the artworks scattered throughout the precinct.
