For many Australians who served in the First World War, the coastline around Albany in Western Australia would be their last sight of home.
The National ANZAC Centre was established to commemorate the service of over 40,000 Australians and New Zealanders who departed from Albany in the First and Second Convoys of the A.I.F and N.Z.E.F. in 1914.
Mental Media worked with the Western Australian Museum, exhibition designers Thylacine, and New Zealand’s Gibson Group to produce an integrated series of multimedia productions for the Centre focused on individual stories. Visitors can follow the progress of one of 32 characters via special cards which can be placed on readers and screens throughout the centre to reveal details of that character.
In addition, a database of all those who departed on the convoys can be accessed via the large interactive Convoy Table, and their names are repeated in the Reflections Poll which combines digital technology with flowing water to form a unique tribute.
The key phases and events of the First World War are told through the stories of the Anzacs themselves. Through unique content produced by Mental Media for Audiopen audio guides the visitor can listen to the 32 Anzac-related characters, and follow their personal experience of the Great War: from recruitment, through training and embarkation, ship-board life on the convoys, and on to the conflicts on Gallipoli, in the Middle East and on the Western Front, and post-war – for those who returned.
More than 120,000 visitors enjoyed the exhibition in it’s first 18 months, it’s rated #1 on Trip Advisor’s things to do in Albany and named as one of the world’s top new travel experiences of the year in 2015 by influential international travel guide Lonely Planet.