Winton is a town and locality in the Shire of Winton in Central West Queensland, Australia. In Winton you’ll find the Waltzing Matilda Centre.
The original centre burnt down in 2015.
It was an important tourist attraction, so COX Architecture were chosen to re-create the centre, honouring its history while casting it in a new mould.
The Waltzing Matilda Centre is a world-class museum, exhibition space, and art gallery.
It houses historical artefacts, memorabilia, and collateral related to the famous Waltzing Matilda bush ballard and the region more generally.
This includes a state-of-the-art interactive and immersive interpretive experience for the visitor.
Casey Vallance, the design architect from COX Architecture, has this to say about the project:
“’Waltzing Matilda’ conjures many images of our country…designed to reflect the significance of the iconic Australian song through an architecture and interpretative experience.
The centre is a robust and expressive facility capturing the distinct nature of the landscape and people that inhabit this great land through its’ experiential design.
The building’s materials, predominately concrete and rusted steel, have been crafted, textured and shaped to capture the distinct landscapes found in the Winton Shire: the ‘jump-up’ rock formations, water movement and of course, the billabongs.”
The new Waltzing Matilda Centre is a unique and direct response to a quintessentially outback landscape and a much-loved Australian song.
Watch Andre Rieu perform Watzing Matilda.
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
He sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
He sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Up rode the troopers, one, two, three,
With the jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
With the jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, you scoundrel with me.
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
You’ll never catch me alive, said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
Oh, you’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.
The Waltzing Matilda Centre is a tribute to the robust and resourceful people that live in this remote and harsh but beautiful landscape which originally inspired the ballad of Waltzing Matilda.
Project Details
Completion date – 2018
Building levels – 1
Awards – National Winner, Public Design, Australian Interior Design Awards 2019
Project Team
Architecture
Cox Architecture
COX is a design-focused contemporary architectural practice with studios located in every major Australian city and a history spanning 60 years. Key to their ethos is supporting the public life of our cities. Cox does this by ensuring each project makes positive contributions to its public realm – giving more than it takes.
Photography
Brendan Gaffney
Brendan graduated architecture with first class honours in 1990, receiving the Karl and Gertrude Langer Memorial Prize for Architectural Drawing and the John Simpson Book Prize for Technology in Design from Queensland University. He joined COX in 1997 after working with Allan Lovel Marquis-Kyle on the awarded Rockhampton Roundhouse and with Daryl Jackson Architects. He was appointed a Director of COX in 2007.
www.coxarchitecture.com.au/people/brendan-gaffney/
Casey Vallance
Rebekah Vallance and Casey Vallance have established CultivAR as a collective platform for architectural design, writing, research, and theological study.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 Cox Architecture. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Brendan Gaffney and Casey Vallance. All Rights Reserved.
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