The visitor information centre at Walkabout Creek

I enjoyed watching with great interest the two part mini-series on Paul Hogan’s remarkable life featured on Australian Story on the ABC recently.

I grew up with Hoges as the larrikin comedian on week night TV and could never get enough of his slap-stick irreverent humour!

(original motion picture images copyright Rimfire Films - sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_Dundee)

I enjoyed the TV special so much, that I was inspired to re-watch the original Crocodile Dundee movie on my recent flight up to Shanghai ..  yes Qantas still features it in the Australian category in the inflight entertainment, and by all rights I reckon it absolutely belongs there forever  J

Not having watched it for many years, I was blown away by how entertaining and funny it still is!   And I was also blown away by how much the world has changed since it was made!

This was filmed in a world before Smartphones.  A world almost entirely without mobile phones full stop.  A world before Google, or Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, not to mention LinkedIn of course!  .

The scenes in New York are especially poignant, with the World Trade Towers still proudly dominating the skyline.   

And yet, I couldn’t help thinking that many of the scenes in the outback could be re-shot on location today with almost no change required!  

I know that change comes slowly to the bush, but most recently I have been on a bit of a mission to help effect some (positive) change.    On a recent road trip across “outback” Country Victoria, I stopped in at a number of Visitor Information Centres in the small towns and rural centres I passed through.   

It seems that nothing has changed in most of these Visitor Information Centres since the time of the filming of Crocodile Dundee!   In fact, if there was a Visitor Information Centre at the fabled Walkabout Creek, I reckon it would probably also be just the same as when the movie was filmed.

Each location I visited had respectable 4G mobile phone coverage, new, modern amenities and shiny new offices.  

And yet, each centre still relied on paper based maps, brochures, and static information boards about accommodation, things to see and do, walking and riding trails etc, and very few were offered in more than a single language (English).

For all the cost and waste involved in producing such brochures and static information leaflets, I cant help wonder how many passers’ by in today’s world actually pick up and make use of such things!  

How much more useful, economical, and sustainable would it be to provide this information via a users’ smartphone, and / or via an interactive touch screen mounted at or near the visitors centre, that can be accessed 24/7?  

With modern technology such as geofencing, and the ability for councils and locals to curate, maintain and update historic walking trails, pinpoint places of interest as you get near to them, and provide audio and video information relevant to a place of note, I am sure that more and more visitor information centres will embrace these new possibilities.  The cost savings on reduced printing alone pay for the technology.

The ability to include a community health dashboard and community noticeboard as core functions of such kiosks and visitor apps can provide another layer of engagement with local members of the community that could help foster greater awareness of local environmental and community sustainability and liveability initiatives.  Providing information displays of local environmental readings (temperature, CO2  and UV levels, rainfall etc),  average amount of recycling per household, average solar hours, average electricity usage per household etc could help educate and motivate for change.

I don’t believe that such technology will ever fully replace the wealth of knowledge and information that is provided by the locals who man such Visitor Information Centres, and nor should it!  In fact, how cool would it be to record these local’s stories, and actually capture this vast resource and make it available to dial up at the touch of a button, turning local volunteers and personalities into rock stars in their own right!

I’m really excited to be involved in working with forward thinking councils to provide precisely such tools and amenities for visitors who come through their regions.  It’s a fascinating space to be working in, and it allows me to get out and meet many of the passionate locals and see some of the best parts of the country along the way!

It’s just possible that places such as Walkabout Creek and smaller rural local councils will leapfrog many of the councils in the big cities in their ability to quickly innovate and embrace such technology.  

Who know’s Mick Dundee may have avoided his fateful altercation with that croc if he had been using some of the latest technology available at the time… haha