As part of the Dirk Hartog Landing 400 year anniversary celebrations, the Denham foreshore was revitalised – including public art, interpretive nodes, new shade shelters, playground, car park and jetty.

Wayfound were lucky to be part of this design and construction contract for the Shire of Shark Bay, together with a great team of creatives including lead contractor Earthcare.

Wayfinding and interpretive signage was required for the “Denham Discovery Trail”, a newly appointed trail along the foreshore and through the town. This trail would need to link interpretive nodes along the foreshore redevelopment, to other historic landmarks around the streets of Denham. The area’s rich history and unique natural environment needed to be ‘brought to life’ with collected information, stories and images, all in a comprehensive and visually engaging way.

Wayfound, together with Earthcare, mapped a route along the foreshore and through the town which linked the key historical and environmental landmarks. A collection of large interpretive signs, together with smaller interpretive signs and main wayfinding signs were then designed, produced and installed along the foreshore area. A large Discovery Centre sign was created to give an overview of the “Denham Discovery Trail”. Fingerboard signs were designed and produced to help with trail direction, and numerous smaller interpretive signs were created to explain historic landmarks along the ‘trail’.

This project had a lot of challenges, especially the harsh environment with strong winds, hyper-saline sea water, blowing sand, sea gulls and extreme UV. Wayfound had to find a signage system that was going to last is such an extreme environment. An anodic aluminium signage solution was chosen. The process anodises the artwork directly to the marine grade aluminium plate. The completed signs were then mounted on pedestals constructed from timber salvaged from the old town jetty, which was demolished a few years ago.

The finished result is a fantastic transformation of the Denham foreshore from what was a disjointed mix of facilities to a wonderful family and community space that integrates the Shark Bay Discovery Centre directly with the foreshore.