Waalmbal Birri Heritage & Culture Centre

CA Architects worked closely with Cook Shire Council and Traditional Owners of the Guugu Yimithirr country to develop a design for the redevelopment of the Waalmbal Birri Heritage & Cultural Centre which operates as an interactive meeting place, offering opportunities for storytelling, indigenous cultural workshops and presentations, education and training.

The currently small exhibition area is to be expanded and complimented by a series of flexible spaces. The building will accommodate a media and exhibition space showing historical images, language, cultural films and recordings; a learning centre and library and a ‘storytelling’ / area where the Traditional Owners and other regional clan groups can share their stories with visitors and the local school children.

This first contact story is of central importance to the beginning of Australia’s modern history and, in the spirit of reconciliation, should be shared with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from Australia and the world.

Based on Captain Cook’s seven-week stay on the Banks of the Endeavour River/Waalmbal Birri, Cooktown can authentically lay claim to Australia’s first recorded act of reconciliation and the first recorded wordlist of an Indigenous language, Guugu Yimidhirr.