<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>

<div>GeoInsight’s vision is to be an accessible experience that curates information and data from across the Geoscience Australia ecosystem, helping users make decisions and refine their research approach, quickly and confidently.</div><div><br></div><div>The purpose of the GeoInsight website is to communicate geological information to non-geoscience professionals. The website presents regional geological insights about minerals, energy and groundwater, as well as contextual geographic, societal and infrastructure information. The website delivers this information in a simple and fast, plain-language interactive experience which provides basic information and additional pathways for further research.</div><div><br></div><div>The GeoInsight began as a 18-month pilot project in the latter part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future Program (2016–2024) with a working title of GeoWRAPA. Technical details about the build and content are available as a series of Geoscience Australia Records (refer to associated documents list). Future development is envisaged to take two forms: 1) small but regular improvements to maintain the product (business as usual) and major development milestone goals driven by project-based funding and resources.</div>

<div>The Trusted Environmental and Geological Information (TEGI) Program (2021-2023) was a multi-disciplinary program that brought together the geology, energy resources, groundwater, carbon and hydrogen storage, mineral occurrences, surface water and ecology for four Australian basin regions. This talk covers how the team leveraged their varied scientific expertise to deliver integrated scientific outcomes for the North Bowen, Galilee, Cooper and Adavale basin regions. This talk highlights the approach and importance of meaningful engagement with those that live in, work in, rely on and care for the regions. The story of the TEGI program outlines how a committed team, collaborating across Australia’s leading scientific organisations, delivered genuine impact during a time of political change.</div><div><br></div>