Connecting Australians with geoscience through a new exhibit, Rocks that Shape Australia

<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract: </strong>Geoscience Australia’s headquarters in Canberra welcome over 11,000 visitors each year to learn about the relevance of geoscience in their everyday lives and view the National Mineral and Fossil Collection. After substantial public consultation, a new exhibit, <em>Rocks that Shape Australia</em>, was installed in 2023 to help to contextualise the <em>Exploring for the Future </em>(EFTF)<em> </em>program and Geoscience Australia’s work. The exhibit showcases the importance of understanding and mapping Australia’s geological features, highlighting their value and prompting visitors to consider which rocks might ‘shape’ Australia into the future. <em>Rocks that Shape Australia </em>sets a benchmark for the use of contemporary interpretive practices in Geoscience Australia’s public spaces. It will enable the thousands of future visitors to Geoscience Australia to explore geoscience and its importance in society as well as setting new best-practice standards for visitor-focused development of new public exhibits in Geoscience Australia’s public spaces.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Ryder, A., Soroka, L., Petkovski, S., Kennett, R. &amp; Hill, S., 2024. Connecting Australians with geology through a new exhibition, Rocks that Shape Australia. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.26186/149409 </div>