NAA / Camel Trains to Steel Wheels

/2025/

Viewing exhibition from the entrance, showing feature wall with salon hang and title treatment

Client

National Archives of Australia

Timeline

3 Months

Date

May 12, 2024

Exhibitions

Camel Trains to Steel Wheels: Life on the Trans-Australian Railway at the National Archives explores the prominent trans-Australian railway line in a celebration of a colourful chapter of Australia’s history.

The Opportunity

Opening in 1917, the Trans-Australian Railway was Australia's most economically and strategically important line. It ran from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain and connecting the east and west areas of the nation. This exhibition features fascinating archival records, photos and footage that captured the events and challenges from the railway's first 60 years, including its impact on First Nations people.

The Outcome

Working closely with the NLA exhibition project team, Artikel worked to deliver the overall exhibition layout and placement, the design of the graphics and illustrative work that are featured throughout the gallery space.

The graphics employ a limited colour palette of red and orange hues, inferring the backdrop of the train line's inception in the Australian outback.

The graphics needed to complement the black and white photography that makes up the exhibition in both the form of displayed artefacts and wall decals that decorate the space. The primary exhibition graphic reflects these visual decisions, combining red soil and black and white photographic elements, composed in a scene that summarises the context of the exhibition.