UniSA: Documenting Flinders Ranges for World Heritage Status
The grandeur and diversity of the Flinders Ranges is being illustrated in a virtual tour that will define the 600-million-year-old Flinders Ranges as a world-class geology and palaeontology site worthy of World Heritage Status.
Using an immersive virtual tour, UniSA geologist Professor Tom Raimondo, Director of UniSA STEM’s Project LIVE, said that the University’s expertise in virtual and augmented reality technologies enables his team to take viewers using headphones on a journey through geological time documenting the ancient landscape and reconstructing its unique past environments.
“We want to reveal the history and significance of the Flinders Ranges in an engaging, entertaining and educational way,” he said at the University’s Open Day at the Mawson Lakes campus last month.
Prof Raimondo says the 360-degree virtual tour will take viewers through deep geological time, illustrating why this ancient landscape has captured the world’s attention, not only for scientific reasons, but also for its rich cultural and mining heritage.
“The story of life began in the Flinders Ranges in its rocks, which are full of fossils. It’s like the pages of history are there for us to read,” he declares.
The scale and grandeur of this ancient landscape will be revealed by 3D fly-throughs and drone imagery that will allow users to get a bird’s-eye view of Wilpena Pound and surrounds, discovering how it was formed by massive geological forces of seismic upheaval, asteroids and glaciers.
The virtual reality project is in its initial phase with the first outputs expected in October 2022 and a fully complete tour by 2024, meeting the deadline that UNESCO has given the SA Government to support its claim for the Flinders Ranges to be listed on the World Heritage Roster, alongside other sites such as Yosemite National Park and the Galapagos Islands. Linda Vining FACE
To see more on this project go to
www.projectlive.org.au/360-flinders-ranges
