Traditional Land Owners: Koa People

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the original Waltzing Matilda Centre, the new design is an exuberant celebration of Banjo’s famous ballad. Paterson was known to be inspired by the harsh magnificence of the outback. In the same way, the architecture adopts the landscape as its inspiration and abstracts it, not in words, but in material form by interpreting Winton’s geological features, its ochre-tinged plains, and the region’s dry billabongs. Using metaphors of an ancient landscape, its striking forms and crafted, tactile materiality draws visitors into a cool, gorge-like interior: an immersive sequence of towering, fluid spaces. Visitation to Winton is increasing and the continued success of the centre is economically and culturally vital to the broader region, being a major drawcard for outback tourists who are increasingly becoming its life-blood.