Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife is preparing a prospectus to fund the building of an Australian Indigenous Knowledge and Research Centre at Mungo National Park to serve as a visitor centre, meeting place, “keeping place” for skeletal remains of Mungo Man and Woman and artefacts, research centre and repository of archaeological research records from 5 key researchers.
The centre would showcase the values that make Willandra Lakes a World Heritage site and make accessible to the world the artefacts, research and living culture of the area in its most appropriate location. Willandra Lakes was World Heritage Listed for its natural and cultural heritage, particularly the lunette site, evidence of one of the oldest living cultures in the world and geological landforms showing climate changes over the past 50,000 years. Recently the longest fossil trackway in the world was discovered in the park. This site cannot be visited by the general public and the centre would provide interpretation, video and replicas of the trackway, as well as access to historic data and material for research.
Glenn Murcutt AO, Australia’s only Pritzker Prize winning architect and his wife Wendy Lewin have agreed to take on the commission for the building should the opportunity arise.
The Foundation’s present task is to prepare a prospectus in order to raise funding for the building. This proposal is for funding to commission Glenn & Wendy to produce concept plans and 3D models of the building as the keystone of the prospectus. Without such visual material the project is unlikely to proceed.
The building by Glenn and Wendy would be a destination in itself. The collection of working drawings of Glenn’s buildings held by the NSW State Library is the most visited collection in the library.
The three traditional owner groups co-manage the site with NPWS and have been actively involved in the development of the brief for the centre, interpretive material and a cultural tourism business bringing living culture to visitors. Mungo is a tourism stop-over for travellers out of Mildura and attracts researchers from around the world. The current visitor centre provides limited interpretation and there is no access to research, data or artefacts. The site has high international significance for climate change research and continuous cultural connection.
The building of this centre would have highly valued significance to all indigenous Australians as the site of the first people in the land and to recognise their civilisation as one of the oldest in the world, and still surviving.
