Online opals, mobile meteorites, and virtual visits: using Google Arts&Culture to share Geoscience Australia’s collections with the world

Geoscience Australia (GA) houses a world-class array of mineral, meteorite, and fossil specimens within the National Mineral and Fossil Collection. Numerous fascinating specimens are on display in the foyer at GA, alongside historical maps and geoscientific equipment. The collection also contains specimens that are fragile or highly valuable, and therefore not suitable for public display. Many of the specimens have great scientific, historic, and aesthetic value, but the physical collection is not easily accessible to the majority of the Australian population. Since 2016, collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute has enabled GA to showcase some of our rare and valuable specimens, on the Google Arts and Culture (A & C) platform. Examples of our current digital exhibitions include ‘Gems from the Safe’ – featuring some of our most rare and valuable specimens, that were previously not visible to the public – and ‘Australian Opals’, which showcases GA’s spectacular collection of Australia’s national gemstone. We have also recently augmented the Google A & C exhibitions with Google’s ‘walk-through’ feature, which uses the Streetview technology to allow users to view the foyer display from anywhere in the world.
These digital displays are an important step forward in reaching a much wider audience, and take advantage of new technology to help keep GA’s rich geoscience heritage in the spotlight. Presented at the 2018 Australian Geoscience Council Convention (AGCC)