Chosen project

Aerial Ropeway in a World Heritage Environment

1. Problem

In the 1890’s the Katoomba “Coal and Shale Company” created one of the worlds first aerial ropeways for the transport of shale. Its buckets each carry 300kg of load and travel 3.6km passing by 200m tall cliffs on the way. After six months of spasmodic operation and 20,000 tons of shale the structure collapsed. Some parts were salvaged but most lies in the valley where it fell almost 120 years ago. The area is now a World Heritage area recognised for its exceptional diversity and integrity of the forest. How does technology fit into our understanding of World Heritage?

1. Work Required

Students will recreate the landscape and aerial ropeway structures including models of the towers, buckets and architectural features at both ends of the ropeway. Information from the book “The Burning Mists of Time: A technological and social history of Katoomba” will be supplemented by material supplied by Phillip J. Hammon and material gathered directly by the students on site visits. The environment and interactivity will be created in UE4 with models made in 3ds Max. Existing 3ds Max models and their associated textures will be optimised for deployment on a mobile platform.