Tidal River Visitor Centre, Wilsons Promontory National Park
PERMANENT EXHIBITION
Project Completed: 2026
Client
Parks Victoria
Thylacine’s role
- Project management
- Interpretive design
- Graphic design
- Media design
- Fabrication and installation
The Tidal River Visitor Centre is located at Tidal River, an extremely popular and picturesque campground at the heart of Wilsons Promontory National Park, serving as its main visitor hub.
Wilsons Prom is the southernmost tip of mainland Australia, boasting remote coastal bushland trails, pristine beaches dominated by granite tors, mountain peaks for panoramic views, and access to Victoria’s largest marine national park for snorkelling and diving.
Thylacine was initially brought in by Parks Victoria for early interpretive consultation in 2022, to provide advice and support a proposal to revitalise the visitor centre. In 2025, after architectural upgrades were nearing completion, we were brought back to design, fabricate and install an interpretive exhibition for the reception space and select external signage at the visitor centre.
Drawn directly from eye-catching and diverse colours found throughout the Park, the graphic palette is bright and modern, while connecting closely to the nature it displays. The interpretive content is brought to life through a graphic wall grid, incorporating wrapped boxes at different depths to create an organic undulation, referencing the layers of environmental features to explore and discover.
The centre of the room features an impressive 3-metre, scaled Prom landscape model. This was developed using a 5-axis router, featuring detailed routed and painted rivers, walking tracks and mountain range names. This 3D map model sits on a custom organic-shaped base, printed to display ocean information and key location names.
Touch-screen media kiosks provide an added layer of connection and support for visitors, alongside large media screens integrated within the wall grids to show footage of the amazing features of the landscape on offer.
Working closely with the Parks Victoria team, Thylacine developed highly creative and adapted interpretive solutions within a compressed project timeline, resulting in an innovative display that showcases the natural wonders the Prom has to offer, whilst uncovering important environmental conservation and historical stories.