Facilities

Visitors' Centre

The Visitor Centre at Balook was officially opened on 2 August 1990 by the Federal Environment Minister, the Hon. Ros Kelly, and Victorian Conservation and Environment Minister , the Hon. Steve Crabb.

It cost $283,000 and was jointly funded by the State and Federal governments under the National Rainforest Conservation Program.

The Centre is a focus for information, interpretation and education in Tarra-Bulga National Park, with a theatrette and display area including panels explaining the natural and cultural history of the park. With its curved corrugated iron roof and simple rectangular plan, the Centre attracted attention after it opened in 1990. The designer Bruce Katsipidis of the Public Works Department, was congratulated for bringing contemporary design into a forest setting. 'His approach', explained the magazine Architecture in Australia, 'recalls the idea of a minimal shelter found in mountain cattlemen's huts without resorting to the split logs of pioneers or the mud bricks of environmentally conscious builders'. Here was a building with spring in its step'.