Cave Works
Lake Cave Visitor Centre, Margaret River
Opened late 1995
The state-of-the-art facility was a first in Australia when it opened in 1996, giving visitors the opportunity to discover the history and secrets of the regions caves before they went on their self-guided tour down into Lake Cave.
Lake Cave is a stunning crystal chamber. It is the most 'actively dripping' and deepest of the show caves cave in southwest Western Australia, and the only cave on the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge with a permanent lake.
My Exhibitions Department at the
WA Museum was encouraged to undertake commercial exhibition development and design contracts. This provided access to the States scholars and museum professionals, adding revenue to my department budget and increasing staffing and resources, funded from contract projects. With my team of museum scholars and technicians - including preparators, writers, editors and designers; we undertook the research, concept and content development, design, documentation, and project delivery for the Cave Works display.
The Cave Works exhibition told the story of Lake Cave - the social and
cultural history of the region, the caves discovery in 1867 and its opening
to the public in 1901. With the expertise of the WA Museums Earth and Planetary Science Department, and Palaeontologists who had excavated
a number of fossils from the regions caves, we presented displays on the megafauna found in the local caves, including illustrations and a scale model
of a Thylacoleo skeleton; and to foster a deeper awareness of the regions natural environment, displays on the current fragile living geology and
ecology of the area.
Since access down into the sinkhole and into the cave was difficult, the Team at the Centre wanted to provide an experience for visitors who would not be able to make the trek. We designed and built a replica cave, with a boardwalk and reflection pool; displaying examples of all the common cave formations and decorations seen in local caves and an explanation of how they formed. Plus a cave crawl for kids to experience what it is like for cave explorers, as well as fascinating insights into other major caves around the world.