Program Events for 2005/06

BLOOMING SUSTAINABLE
AURORA DISPLAYS AT
MELBOURNE'S INTERNATIONAL
FLOWER AND GARDEN SHOW

6-10 April 2005

We thought that the Sustainable Living Festival in February would be the last display possible for the Aurora 101 solar car before undergoing a major upgrade for the events planned in 2005-06. But those smooth event professionals at IMG convinced us that the solar car would be the most powerful attraction within the 'Sustainable' section of the show so we squeezed out one more appearance.

The venue for the show was the famous old Exhibition Building of Melbourne. This building was the site of the first meeting of the Parliament of Australia and recently gained World Heritage listing. With the Aurora solar car it was a case of old meets the future. The Carlton Gardens is also the site of the new Melbourne Museum which was featuring a display of Chinese dinosaurs.

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was in its 11th year and boasts to be the largest such show in the southern hemisphere. It attracted 124000 visitors. The displays featured landscaping, rare plants, artistic floral displays and the latest in garden tools. With Australia's incredible level of home ownership and mild climate, gardens are a pastime pursued by many of its residents. Garden make-overs dominate many TV programs. The displays really were spectacular.

The sustainability display featured some interesting exhibits and is sure to be expanded in the 2006 show. Rod Sanders and Mark Jacobsen, proprietors of Repeat Products had a great display of outdoor furniture and signage created from recycled plastics. Well known and passionate Melbourne architect showed his novel idea for recycling shipping containers in his Future Shack display. The bus company Ventura demonstrated their ethanol powered bus which halves the output of CO2 emissions. Finally Aussie Sunlight lit the area with sophisticated solar powered standard lamps.

The Aurora 101 solar car attracted much attention and is well known in Melbourne. It was interesting to hear young mothers explain how a solar car works to their pre school children. On the other hand many young school students tugged their grandparents along to see the solar car so that they could tell what they knew of solar cars.

We look forward to next year and being back at this magnificent Melbourne event. By the way we did experience all sorts of weather. This is famous in Melbourne.