Escape from Woomera

Australia, 2004

Julian Oliver

Videogame

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If you thought escaping from Castle Wolfenstein was hard, try Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre…

With a first person, 3D adventure game we invite gamers to assume the character of, and ‘live’ through the experiences of a modern day refugee. The effective media lock-out from immigration detention centres has meant that the whole truth about what goes on behind the razor-wire at Woomera, Baxter, Port Hedland, Maribyrnong and Villawood remains largely a mystery to the Australian public. We want to challenge this by offering the world a glimpse - more than that even: an interactive, immersive experience - of life within the most secretive and controversial places on the Australian political and geographical landscape. In this way, Escape From Woomera will be an engine for mobilising experiences and situations otherwise inaccessible to an nation of disempowered onlookers. It will provide both a portal and a toolkit for reworking and engaging with what is otherwise an entirely mediated current affair.

Lead artist/Environment artist: Stephen Honegger

Level designer: Ian Malcolm

Investigative journalist: Kate Wild

Cutscene artist: Morgan Simpson

Creative director: Katharine Neil

Animators: Andrea Blundell, Chris Markwart

Producers: Justin Halliday, Mark Angeli

Executive producer: Julian Oliver

Admin: Rani Kellock

Programming: Matthew Jones, David Jewsbury, Duncan Murray

Additional programming: Katharine Neil

UI art and website: Monique Jones

QA: Alex McNeilly

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Collection

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Credits

Production places
Australia
Production dates
2004

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

xos-64

Wikidata

Q5396941

Collected

73 times

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/64--escape-from-woomera/ |title=Escape from Woomera |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=4 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}