Mayday Hills was formerly a mental asylum in a rural town in south-eastern Australia. It was disestablished in 1994 so there are still people with a living memory of it being a functioning hospital. A research project seeks to record those memories as well as search archives and find images and objects from the social history.
The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate one of the outcomes of the research: virtual tours in the online space that are embedded with information gleaned from the research project.
The innovative technology used is state of the art aerial and 360 degree photography/photogrammetry with surround-sound audio capture devices, DSLR cameras and image compositing packages. These are collated and encoded to give the viewer an experience of being in the environment. The content for the site is derived from the social history research continually in progress.
Currently the website is in it early stages, but provides an exciting format with deep and rewarding explorations for the visitor.
The Mayday Hills virtual website [https://maydayhills.org.au/] is the bridge between the physical space and the virtual. Visitors on-site can link to the website via QR codes provided on buildings and information signs. Virtual visitors can get a glimpse into a fascinating part of Australian history, which may encourage them to visit the locale in person.