General News
19 November, 2024
Teams from across the country to take part in this week’s Energy Breakthrough event
The sound of cheering crowds and whistling trikes will once again transform Lake Victoria into an enthralling race track this week as Maryborough prepares in excitement for the 32nd Energy Breakthrough (EB).
The feeling of anticipation has already swept through the local community in the lead-up to the event, which will officially commence tomorrow, November 20 and is set to entertain spectators until Sunday, November 24.
Over 15,000 people will converge to the circuit to watch 250 teams across nearly 100 schools participate in EB, with five schools travelling interstate from South Australia and New South Wales.
Central Goldfields Shire Council general manager community wellbeing Emma Little said the event continues to be a beacon of light for the town.
“EB is the largest annual event in the shire and the largest event of its kind in Australia,” she said.
“It provides a significant contribution to the local economy, with an estimated $3.66 million in economic impact.
“The event is fuelled by the dedication of its stakeholders and the unwavering support of the community and has remained a highlight of the annual events calendar since 1991.”
One of the biggest changes to this year’s event will happen off the track, as EB’s robotics program has partnered with the Sphero Global Challenge, a competition challeng-ing student’s computational think-ing, engineering, and programming skills.
Other alterations to festivities include the condensing of the Pushcart program to one day on Thursday and the cancellation of the Junkyard Challenge.
As part of EB’s mission to encourage the next generation to protect the environment, organisers have continued their partnership with Central Highlands Water to make EB a no single-use plastics event.
Central Highlands Water managing director Jeff Haydon said he is proud to build upon the collaboration to make EB more sustainable.
“Central Highlands Water has proudly supported the Maryborough EB for over 26 years in partnership with Central Goldfields Shire Council,” he said.
“Together, we continue to en-courage the community to choose tap, through promoting the ‘bring your own bottle’ message by choosing tap water over single-use plastic bottled water, for health, sustainability and cost benefits.”
On-track action will officially commence tomorrow with a practice session and will kick off a series of events for HPV, EEV, TRYathlon and Pushcart categories.
All eyes will be on the 24-hour trial race this Saturday starting at noon for HPV Secondary and EEV teams while TRYathlon Secondary teams will contest in a 8-hour trial.
To facilitate the event, numerous roads surrounding Lake Victoria will be closed until Sunday, with the exception of Christian Street (between Burns and Napier Street) which will close tomorrow and Napier Street and Lake Road from Christian Street which reopens on November 29.
Other road closures include:
• Park Road (between Holyrood Street and Gladstone Street)
• Park Road (between Holyrood Street and Nightingale Street)
• Holyrood Street (between Park Road and Burns Street)
• Burns Street (between Christian Street and Lake Road)
• Burns St (between Lake Road and Holyrood Street)
For more information, visit www.eb.org.au or go to the Energy Breakthrough Facebook page.