How to use this site

This web site is designed to provide staff of tourist attractions with the knowledge and skills to develop, evaluate and improve their interpretive facilities. While each section is designed to stand alone, we recommend that you work through them in the order they are presented. The text is supported by exercises that reinforce the concepts discussed - we suggest you take time to complete these as they will clarify the content and help you develop skills in sign design and evaluation.

Principles of 'best practice' design are accompanied by:

photographs. Some of these photographs are accompanied by exercises designed to reinforce concepts discussed throughout this web site; diagrams, graphics; virtual tours of key tourist attractions around Australia; exercises to stimulate discussion and improve interpretive and design skills and a checklist that can be printed out and used to evaluate your signs and exhibits.

Navigation through the site

The burgundy side menu is your key area for navigation. Each section is highlighted to indicate your current position. The black and white strip at the top of the page also indicates the section you are currently reading.

 

Other navigation tools are:

links to the top of the page you are reading
links to the previous page you were reading

Printing

This site is best printed in landscape orientation.

Viewing Virtual tours

To view the virtual tours, you will need Quicktime installed on your machine. This is a free download. Installation settings - These movies are best viewed at the screen resolution of 800x600 pixels or above.

Acknowledgements

This web site was funded by a Regional Tourism Program grant, Queensland University of Technology, the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Brisbane Forest Park.

Thanks are extended to the following visitor attractions for allowing us to photograph their signs and brochures. Please note that in some cases it was necessary to modify signs in order to make the text readable on the screen.

Aquascene, Darwin Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney Australian War Memorial, Canberra Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania Crocodylus Park, Darwin Fogg Dam, NT

Kakadu National Park, NT Lake St Clair Visitor Centre, Tasmania Mt Field National Park, Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin National Museum of Australia, Canberra Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania

Strahan Visitor Centre, Tasmania Territory Wildlife Park, Darwin Top End Barra Fishing, Darwin Window on the Wetlands, NT

We would also like to thank staff of the following centres for providing comments on draft versions of the web site:

Australian Workers Heritage Centre, Barcaldine, Queensland Burke Memorial Museum, Beechworth, Victoria Billabong Sanctuary, Townsville, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Water & Environment, Tasmania Ecotourism Association of Australia Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Victoria Great Adventures, Port Douglas, Queensland

Hinchinbrook Shire Council, Queensland Interpretation Australia Association Joint Training & Professional Development Program, Brisbane Kakadu National Park, NT National Park and Wildlife SA Outback Caravan Park, Tennant Creek, NT Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania Qantas Founders Museum Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service

Riversleigh Fossils Museum, Mount Isa, Queensland Rottnest Island Authority, WA Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach, Queensland Waltzing Matilda Centre, Winton, Queensland Wet Tropics Management Authority, Cairns, Queensland Youth Hostels Association of Queensland