Roebuck Bay Lookout
The Roebuck Bay Lookout creates a series of spaces, surfaces and vantage points for respite, prospect and storytelling.
The lookout offers sweeping views over Yawuru Nagulagun Roebuck Bay Marine Park - a Ramsar Wetland and National Heritage site brimming with ecological and cultural values.
The Roebuck Bay Lookout now forms a central point of interest along the award-winning Jetty to Jetty Trail. Both visitors and locals use this space to enjoy spectacular views over Roebuck Bay while learning about the living cultural heritage of Broome and the surrounding area.
As lead consultants, UDLA worked together with a broad-ranging team to ensure that this lookout responds to place and context, with appropriate guidance from Nyamba Buru Yawuru. We worked with fellow landscape architects TCL, artist and furniture designer Scape-ism, and Broome-based landscape architect and community art facilitator, MudMap Studio.
The context-sensitive material and plant palette includes Kimberley sandstone, weathering steel panels, timber seating benches and handrails and endemic species.
MudMap Studio facilitated a community art process for the lookout, working with Yawuru artists Ricky Roe and Martha Lee. The artists collaborated with the students of Broome Girls Academy of Broome Senior High School to create two artworks that have been integrated into the upper and lower areas of the lookout. The work in the lower area of the lookout is Jarlangardi (Goanna), by Ricky Roe with the students of Broome Senior High School.
The second work, Walga Walga (Blue-Nosed Salmon), is set into the shade structure on the lookout’s upper level, a piece by Martha Lee with the students of Broome Girls’ Academy.
Located at the intersection of Dampier Terrace and Frederick Street, the Roebuck Bay Lookout is one of 10 sub-projects of the broader Chinatown Revitalisation project, which UDLA designed in partnership with TCL.
Co-funded by the Shire of Broome and the Australian Government through a grant administered by Tourism WA, the Lookout activates an underutilised corner of Chinatown and provides a shaded resting point with sweeping views over Roebuck Bay and Dampier Creek.
Details:
Client: Landcorp (now DevelopmentWA)
Aboriginal Country: Yawuru Country
Location: Broome, WA
Dates: 2018
Collaborators: TCL, Scape-ism, Nyamba Buru Yawuru, MudMap Studio with Martha Lee, Ricky Roe, students of Broome Girls Academy and Broome Senior High School