Project Description
Daintree Discovery Centre – Virtual Experience
Double-click on the virtual tour example for the Daintree Discovery Centre virtual experience to make it go full screen, or click here.
Note: The above virtual experience is only a small part of the whole virtual tour. To experience the full virtual experience firsthand, you will need to visit the Daintree Discovery Centre in person.
The Brief – VR Zone Integration, 360 Drone & Google Maps
Our relationship with the Daintree Discovery Centre began in 2020, when the management team asked whether Simply 360 could create a virtual path through their elevated boardwalks and 23-metre Canopy Tower, allowing mobility-restricted guests to experience the Daintree rainforest journey without having to climb a single step. We designed a pilot that combined on-site VR headsets with a fully interactive, multilingual, 360-degree virtual tour, and we lodged a detailed tender. Funding pressures paused the project, but the idea never disappeared.
Fast-forward to 2023, Queensland’s Year of Accessible Tourism state grant, which was explicitly aimed at improving access for visitors with disabilities, finally removed the financial roadblock. With green-lit budgets and clear deliverables, our brief was refined to have multiple goals:
- Virtual Access for All: Create a high-quality VR experience that allows every visitor to experience the canopy track in their language.
- Inclusive UI Design: Crafting a user experience where accessibility is built-in, ensuring seamless interaction for all users.
- 360 Aerial Panorama: Capture a sweeping 360-degree drone shot that connects the canopy, boardwalk and forest floor into one continuous birds-eye narrative.
- Seamless Way-Finding: Enhance online discoverability with a polished frontage on Google Street View, accurate map pins, and updated 360-degree street thumbnails for trip-planning apps.
Logistics kicked into gear, but nature had other plans. In late 2023, Cyclone Jasper dumped record rainfall, blocking Cape Tribulation Road with downed trees and washouts. Instead of shelving the shoot, we pivoted to a rolling timetable, aligning our site visits with each newly reopened road section.
By mid-2024, the forest had sprung back to life, and the production phase was finally underway. We shot stabilised ground pans along the Cassowary Circuit, elevated gimbal passes on the Mid-Canopy Walk, and HDR stills from each of the five Canopy Tower decks. After the shoot was completed, we scheduled a series of focused marketing and consultancy sessions with the Centre’s team. We generated QR codes for the VR Zone, enabling visitors to launch the virtual experience directly on their own devices while in the Centre.
What We Loved About This Project
Stepping into a rainforest estimated at 180 million years old is equal parts science lesson and sensory overload. Shafts of white tropical light pierce the canopy. At the same time, the forest floor lingers in near twilight, capturing those extremes and challenging every exposure rule we usually trust. To preserve the rainforest’s natural palette, from the shady floor to the sunlit canopy, we relied on carefully bracketed HDR exposures and meticulous in-camera checks during every 360-degree photography run, keeping post-production tweaks to a minimum.
The 360-degree drone panorama became the visual Centre of the entire experience. Towards the end of the day on the first day of shooting, our team launched a 360-camera drone from the top deck of the Canopy Tower, capturing a stunning spherical panorama that soars above the emerald canopy. The seamless aerial sweep reveals every walkway coil and deck platform in a single rotation, serving as a dramatic curtain-raiser that greets viewers the moment they enter the virtual tour and instantly shows how the entire rainforest experience fits together. Because the 360 drone shot is spherical, visitors wearing a headset can tilt from the horizon to the forest floor in one uninterrupted survey of the landscape, instantly grasping how each boardwalk loop connects.
Shooting soon after the wet-season rains meant the forest was at its peak vibrancy: fresh foliage glistened, low mist drifted through the mid-storey, and each panorama shimmered with newly washed colour—perfect conditions for immersive 360-degree virtual tour storytelling.
Equally satisfying was refining the multilingual user experience (UX). We worked closely with the Centre’s educators to transform existing guide into audio hotspot pop-ups, each audio clip was linked to specific parts of the virtual experience We embedded the Discovery Centre’s multilingual audio clips into interactive hotspots within the virtual tour, allowing guests to tap for expert commentary in their preferred language without leaving the experience.
The assignment advanced our workflow by refining drone-launch protocols and streamlining headset-ready encoding pipelines for future VR Tours. We now apply these skills to nature-based projects, ranging from coastal wetlands to alpine lookouts.
About the Client
The Daintree Discovery Centre is a multi-award-winning interpretive facility set in the heart of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Visitors move from the forest floor to the treetop via an 11-metre Aerial Walkway and a five-deck, 23-metre Canopy Tower that reveals every rainforest stratum.
Beyond the elevated pathways, the Centre offers eight-language audio guides, children’s commentary and a live “Canopy Cam” that streams rainforest activity in real-time. Its advanced Eco-Tourism and Climate-Action certifications underscore a strong commitment to conservation and education.
Situated where two UNESCO World Heritage icons—the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef—meet, the Centre blends accessibility with environmental stewardship. That ethos made it an ideal partner for immersive storytelling through 360-degree photography and cutting-edge virtual tour technology.
For more information about the Daintree Discovery Centre, please visit discoverthedaintree.com.
Interested in Creating a Virtual Experience for Your Attraction?
A 360-degree virtual experience lets guests explore your visitor centre, museum, or eco-tourism site anytime, anywhere. Whether you’re opening a new facility, enhancing accessibility, or showcasing a natural wonder, Simply 360 can turn your space into an immersive digital journey. If your organisation is ready for a high-quality, interactive virtual tour, we’d love to collaborate. Please complete the enquiry form on this page or call us on 02 9674 9090.
