Pink emu? Inside Australia’s kitsch pavilion for World Expo 2025

The five-yearly Expo is on from April 13 to August 13, 2025, this time in Osaka, Japan and the Australia Pavilion is by one of the country’s oldest architecture firms, Melbourne-based Buchan, which worked closely with Indigenous cultural consultants Karrda on the project.

Lead architect Nataly Ernst says Buchan’s design is a celebration of Country and its importance to future societies, and reflects Australia’s Expo theme of “chasing the sun”.

The Australia pavilion harnesses “Australia’s unique natural beauty”, says architect Nataly Ernst.Credit:

“It’s an expression of Australia’s warmth, energy and optimism, and our diverse landscape,” says Ernst. “Buchan’s pavilion and exhibition design harnesses Australia’s unique natural beauty as a canvas for sharing our stories and culture.”

The premise of these quinquennial world events may have shifted from showing off inventions and technical achievements to engendering international dialogue – this year about sustainability. But the overarching theme – making sense of the world and its progress – remains. So too, architecture, a big part of world fairs since their inception.

Melbourne-based Buchan worked closely with Indigenous cultural consultants Karrda on the project.Credit:

Take the Eiffel Tower – it’s hard to imagine Paris without it. But if not for Expo, the 330-metre-high symbol of the City of Light might not exist.

Built for the 1889 Paris Exposition, the then tallest tower in the world was famously intended to be a temporary structure, but it proved so popular it stayed.

Likewise, London’s Crystal Palace was purpose-built for the very first iteration of The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, as it was called when spearheaded by Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria.

After relocation to South London from its original position in London’s Hyde Park, it burnt down and the area in which it was destroyed today bears its name.

Designed as an abstract of a eucalyptus gumnut and featuring myriad colours of Country, the 2025 Australia Pavilion has a large pink emu standing guard at the entrance.

Interiors showcase unique flora and fauna to an international audience.Credit:

While unlikely to be a permanent fixture, it’s a memorable nod to Australia’s love of kitsch, which has previously featured prominently in Expo offerings from Down Under. Who could forget the giant colourful lettering spelling “Australia” on the home country’s pavilion by the then king of kitsch, Ken Done, at the 1988 Expo held in Queensland?

That pavilion was by Queensland architect James Maccormick. The Defence Complex at Campbell Park in Canberra, a highly regarded example of brutalist architecture, is among his many achievements.

Maccormick designed Australia’s pavilion for Expo 1970, also in Osaka, with interiors conceived by the great architect and writer Robin Boyd.

It was Maccormick who came up with the idea of holding Expo in Brisbane to coincide with Australia’s Bicentennial in the first place. Not only did he design the ’88 pavilion but also the overall park and, indeed, its location – it was his idea to bring to life a largely derelict former industrial area of Brisbane.

There may be nothing like the Eiffel Tower left over, but the legacy of Expo ’88 looms large: that area is now South Bank, one of Queensland’s most lively cultural precincts.

See expoaustralia.gov.au