2005 Melbourne Sustainable Living Festival

Melbourne's best presentation of displays to promote Sustainable Living products and practices was staged at the spectacular Federation Square, the central landmark of the City of Melbourne from 18-20 February 2005. The popular Aurora 101 solar car was invited to this festival along with the new Southern Aurora team from Hamilton in country Victoria.

The gleaming Southern Aurora together with Aurora 101 in Federation Square
The gleaming Southern Aurora together with Aurora 101 in Federation Square

The two car display attracted many spectators and the team members in attendance were posed many questions. How does the driver get in? How hot does it get? How fast does it go? What sort of solar cells are used? The answers always surprised, especially regarding the speed [up to 145 kph] the distance [13050 km around Australia] and the cost [valued at $A1,000,000]

This man is definitely too tall to be a solar car driver
This man is definitely too tall to be a solar car driver
Southern Aurora's Shane Good explains space type solar cells
Southern Aurora's Shane Good explains space type solar cells
A father explains the solar car to his blind son. A great reason to touch the display
A father explains the solar car to his blind son. A great reason to touch the display

The Sustainable Living Festival nominated Friday 18th February as Schools Day. Eva Migdal, one of the volunteer organisers, dropped by to see how the solar car display was received by students. It was a hit. The students knew a lot about solar energy and many had seen the Aurora 101 in action. Thirteen year old Todd Palmer told us of his joining in Aurora's 'Buy a Cell' program from several years ago and his participation in a model solar car team at primary school. They named their car 'Aurora'.

Festival volunteer and organiser of school's day Eve Migdal
Festival volunteer and organiser of school's day Eve Migdal
The year six captains of the Mt. Scopus school cheer for Aurora 101
The year six captains of the Mt. Scopus school cheer for Aurora 101

Many European tourists visited the Festival including many Dutch nationals. They were instantly drawn to the solar car display, showing their knowledge of the success the Dutch solar car team from Delft University in winning two World Solar Challenge events [2001 and 2003]. Both times they beat Aurora 101 into second place. The next challenge starts from Darwin on 25 September 2005. It is expected to be the closest competition ever as 6 of the world's fastest and most efficient solar cars have already lodged entries.

Dutch tourist Miranda Crispyn
Dutch tourist Miranda Crispyn from Leiden expresses a 'Go Nuna' just an hour after the 31 hour journey from the Netherlands. Must be the jet lag
Jocelyn Glauser, former resident of Biel Switzerland
Jocelyn Glauser, former resident of Biel Switzerland knew all about the famous Biel solar car team which won the World Solar Challenge in 1990

Both the Aurora 101 and Southern Aurora solar cars have entered for the 2005 World Solar Challenge. This appearance at the 2005 Sustainable Living Festival marks the last occasion that they are to be seen in this guise. Both cars are to be extensively upgraded for the World Championship with more solar power, better electronics and lighter construction. For Aurora 101 and the Aurora Vehicle Association it has been a spectacular 2 years under the program named 'Beaming'. The solar car has competed in six events, four of which were overseas. The team has assisted five new teams to get started in solar cars, it undertook a 13-school tour of Tasmania, it created a new 24 hour world record for solar cars and took part in many promotions and displays.

These activities are funded by the support of our 37 sponsor organisations which have provided encouragement, money, parts, materials and exposure. We thank them, especially the major supporters, Ford, Minter Ellison, Sumitomo, 101 Collins Street, Aurora Place, Gochermann, Bosch, Hook, 3M, Toll, RMIT, Yomiuri Shimbun and Technique. We are Beaming Out.

A last look at the 2003-04 Aurora 101 solar car. It will be different next time