The Western Australian State Library is using virtual reality (VR) to share its historical collections with visitors, making the state’s past more accessible.
By putting on a headset inside the library, a viewer can now see a 360-degree view of Perth before colonisation, before wetlands were filled in and roads were built, and then see how it has been built up to become the city it is today.
“It’s really dynamic,” library community engagement officer Adam Trainer said.
“You’re essentially looking at Perth with a bird’s-eye view or perhaps a giant’s view perched above the river, looking out over the Perth CBD.”
The experience is called Perth Modulated and it shows in rich detail how the city has been drained, built up, demolished, and rebuilt over 200 years using maps and historical images stored in the library’s collection.
Adam Trainer says the VR experiences make the library’s collections more accessible.(ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne)
“You literally see the buildings, you see Perth being built and rebuilt right in front of you, in almost like a time lapse, where we collapse 200 years of city planning and building into a two-minute experience,” Dr Trainer said.
“They’re completely immersive. When you put the headset on, you’ve got a screen in front of you, which pretty much fills your peripheral vision.”
A still from Perth Modulated, which shows Perth’s landscape changing over 200 years.(Supplied: State Library of Western Australia)
Perth Modulated is one of three VR experiences currently on offer at the library, part of the engagement team’s efforts to make the historical collection more accessible to the general public.
“In the 21st century we’ve got to find new ways for people to experience our collections,” Mr Trainer said.
“It’s not necessarily always about coming into a dark reading room and flicking through old dusty books.
“We are really grateful that we have this opportunity that allows people to engage with material that exists in our collections, and that provides a new way for people to experience West Australian history.”
The El Caballo Blanco VR experience allows participants to choose their path.(Supplied: State Library of Western Australia)
Another VR program allows people to explore the old Wooroloo theme park El Caballo Blanco (the white horse in Spanish), which operated from 1974 to 1995 and was familiar to many Western Australians.
Founded by Perth businessman Ray Williams, the park featured Andalusian dancing horses as well as a resort, water slides and various rides, and was well-known through its TV ad during the 1980s.
“El Caballo Blanco is an interesting rendering,” Dr Trainer said.
“It’s almost like a doll’s house rendering.
“You basically have a small-scale version of the whole El Caballo Blanco complex laid out in front of you, and you can wander around, you can use your hands, so the headset will actually engage with your hands.”
This City Beach house has been recreated using records and plans from the state library.(Supplied: State Library of Western Australia)
Another experience, an earlier commission for the library, takes viewers into a now-demolished home by famed Perth architect Iwan Iwanoff that once stood in City Beach.
“It was an early commission of Iwanoff’s from the late 50s, just after he had arrived in Perth and was really building his own reputation as an architect,” he said.
“It’s very much in the modernist style that he would move away from as he got more brutalist.
“It’s a very simple, fairly small family home, but already you can see some of the really key elements of Iwanoff’s work coming to the fore.”
The VR experience shows the inside of an early, and since demolished, Iwanoff house.(Supplied: State Library of Western Australia)
So far the response from the public to the library’s VR experiences has been positive.
“I think we’ve managed to put something together that works with our collections to bring them to life in a new way, that’s informative and engaging — people have really, really enjoyed it,” Mr Trainer said.
However, devoted aficionados of El Caballo Blanco have been less impressed.
“It’s a five to 10-minute experience that gives you an overview, and they come away a little underwhelmed,” he said.
“There’s only so much that you can do, there’s only so much information that you can provide.
“But for those who are somewhat uninitiated, who weren’t around it, it’s a chance to dip their toe into a little bit of Perth history. People really seem to respond well to it.”