White Spark Pictures, one of the world’s leading producers of Virtual Reality documentary films has announced that its newest title, The Great Kimberley Wilderness (1 x 35), will receive its world premiere at the Western Australian Museum in Perth, Australia, on 23rd November this year.

Narrated by Hollywood star and Australian native Luke Hemsworth (Gunner, Westworld, Land of Bad), The Great Kimberley Wilderness is a stunning immersive experience that will transport people to one of the most spectacular, pristine and ancient landscapes in the world. Filmed in 360-degree 3D VR, audiences will fly over the edge of the thundering King George Falls, get up close with saltwater crocodiles, explore the vibrantly striped domes and majestic gorges of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park and travel back over 350 million years to the great Devonian Reef.

The Great Kimberley Wilderness is the first completed VR documentary film from a ground-breaking content funding partnership announced last year. Three leading museums – the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, the Western Australian Museum in Perth and the Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand – each of which had welcomed a significant uplift in visitor numbers around showings of one of White Spark Pictures’ earlier films, The Antarctica Experience and Beyond the Milky Way, came together to create an AUD$1 million fund to invest in three new VR films over three years.

The next two films, currently in development, are Journey of the Giants, a deep 360° dive into the incredible world of whales, where audiences will feel that they are swimming with humpbacks and The Kermadec Islands, a chance to experience a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in a remote and pristine marine wonderland deep in the South Pacific Ocean.

Screenwest and Lotterywest also provided significant funding to assist in the making of The Great Kimberley Wilderness.

Briege Whitehead, founder and creative director at White Spark Pictures comments: “As with our two earlier VR films, The Great Kimberley Wilderness transports audiences to places that they would otherwise struggle to visit and provides a uniquely immersive and memorable experience in a breath-taking landscape.

“We are excited to deliver the first film from this game-changing, world-first content partnership and are delighted that our work together is increasingly generating interest from other venues and attractions keen to find cost-effective and scalable new experiences for their visitors. In addition, with the recent budget cuts and commissioning slowdown for factual, we are experiencing an upturn in approaches from mainstream documentary producers looking to understand the growing opportunities for VR and how they can adapt their skills. As a result, we are now in the process of exploring several interesting new potential partnerships with TV and film producers.”

Rikki Lea Bestall, Screenwest CEO adds: “Congratulations to Briege and the White Spark Pictures team for achieving new ground in the world of VR, this time showcasing our beautiful Kimberley. Screenwest is proud to support the creativity, ingenuity, and tenacity of Western Australian filmmakers and crew who produce such captivating content within our home state.”

The Great Kimberley Wilderness season runs from 23 November 2024 – 28 April 2025 at WA Museum before seasons at the National Museum of Australia from December and Tamaki Paenga Auckland War Memorial Museum in April 2025. It will also roll out to venues overseas in 2025.

In each venue, visitors will be able to share the experience with friends and family via Surround Sync, the innovative patented technology developed by White Spark Pictures that seamlessly synchronises any audiovisual system with hundreds of headsets remotely in a simple, scalable and cost-effective manner. Surround Sync’s development was supported by Screen Australia’s Enterprise Business & Ideas fund.

The making of The Great Kimberley Wilderness was made possible by principal production funding from Screenwest and Lotterywest. Financed with support from the Western Australian Museum, National Museum of Australia, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, WAITOC, Kimberley Experiences, Water Corporation, Redsands Campers and Camera Electronic.