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This past week I spent a couple of days on a tour of the Snowy Hydro Scheme for work. Quoting from the Snowy Hydro Limited website to give some background:

“The Scheme took 25 years to build and was completed in 1974. More than 100,000 people from over 30 countries came to work in the mountains to make true a vision of diverting water to farms to feed a growing nation and to build power stations to generate renewable electricity for homes and industries.”

Whilst the above quote does contain just an ounce of spin (it doesn’t mention the environmental/cultural impacts the water diversion has caused), it pretty much sums up the scheme. Despite visiting some of the largest renewable energy (Hydro) sites in Australia is definitely interesting, having just returned back to studies, the trip wasn’t exactly well timed. Regardless, I did find Snowy Hydro Limited to be quite a welcoming company, very family themed, and very welcoming to us as visitors.

Essentially, the scheme has diverted flows from the Snowy River, which ran east from the Mountains, and flooded each year with the snow melt. The water is now captured and damed, then diverted west towards the Murray-Darling Basin, where a lot of Australia’s food/agricultural production is based. At the same time, the water releases are used to generate electricity through the Hydro Power stations.

There has been a lot of fuss about the impacts of diverting the Snowy west, mainly due to the fact that it now flows at just a few percent of its original capacity, severely impacting the communities and environment along its length. However, the diverted flows now support a significant proportion of Australia’s economy, both food and energy wise. This a prime example of the Utilitarianism idea of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number‘.

To make up for the lack of recent updates, I can share some of the photos taken over the two day period:

The last photo is of water being released into the original Snowy river, this amount of release was to continue for a couple of days, but I think thats about the maximum amount that is ever released

Just a quick photo update from the 2010 National Multicultural Festival, held in Canberra, Australia.

This really is a great event, each year on the Saturday of the event, a massive food and drink fest is held in the Canberra city centre, drawing probably the biggest crowd of any event held in the city.

Usually a very beer focused event (this is where I discovered pretty much every nation has its own brand of beer), a nice introduction was the handing out of free, branded, bottles of water. Last years event was held in ridiculous heat, with little access to free water, so this was a pleasant improvement.

Most of the stalls are organised by the relevant embassies that are dotted around Canberra. A lot of international community groups contribute as well, particularly to dance and musical performances.

The merry-go-round is a permanent fixture in Canberra, but I don’t think it’s ever quite as busy during the rest of the year, than as it was today…

Irish team the Koni Kats have been crowned 2009 F1 in Schools World Champions at the award ceremony held at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre in London. The Australian team Redline Racing has taken second, with the Australian-Canadian collaboration team AC Racing awarded third.

The Koni Kats (Ireland, First), Redline Racing (Australia, Second) and AC Racing (Australia/Canada, Third)

The two Aussie place-getters, Redline Racing, AC Racing

The evening was quite the spectacle, with F1 team bosses and technical directors making appearances along side current Formula One world drivers champion Lewis Hamilton

Redline Racing with Lewis Hamilton

Lewis signing the Redline Car

Redline Racing with Williams F1 technical director Sam Michael, who prior to being in charge of engineering at Williams lived and was educated in Australia, attending Radford College in Canberra and UNSW.

Myself with Sam Michael, he is a bit of a personal hero as a Canberra educated Engineer working as a leader in Formula One.

Lewis knows how to draw a crowd as he prepares to test one of the cars (he ended up hand picking the AC Racing entry). Redbull Racing technical director Christian Horner also made an appearance, as did representatives of Force India F1 with the ceremony hosted by ITV motorsport commentator James Allen (with BBC commentator Ted Kravitz still making rounds). All of the F1 celebrities were fantastic to meet, all being enthusiastic to talk to each of the teams.

Whilst disappointed not to take the top prize which included a University scholarship, the Australian teams were happy to claim multiple team awards as well as 2 of the top 3 places Each of the three Australian teams took away at least one team award, with Redline Racing awarded the Fastest Car award (and with it the England v. Australia Ashes!), and team Biohazard from Sydney being awarded best display booth.

The complete Australian related results are has follows:

• 2nd Outright – Redline Racing (Canberra)
• 3rd Outright – AC Racing (Noosa/Canada Collaboration)
• 4th Outright – Bio-Hazard (Sydney)
• Fastest Car – Redline Racing
• Best Collaboration Team – AC Racing
• Best Design Portfolio – AC Racing
• Best Pit Display – Bio-Hazard
• Australia v. England Ashes for fastest car – Redline Racing

Complete results to follow.

Congratulations to the winners and all the teams that competed in this years F1 in Schools, from International to regional competitions.

Attempted journalism style post imminent… I will update this blog within the next few hours with the final results.

F1 in Schools – 2009 World Championships

The 2009 F1 in Schools World Championships held at the Royal Horticultural Hall and Conference Centre is drawing to a close!

The Redline Racing Team, from Canberra, Australia performed extremely well throughout the competition, taking out the outright quickest car and making it through to the quarter finals of the knock out reaction round, where the cars are triggered by a member of the team, in an Formula One style light guided start.

The team was also assessed on verbal presentation of their design along with marketing materials, industry collaboration, sponsorship and research. The team was also required to produce a team booth and design portfolio as well as an engineering assessment of the car design itself. The team was confident of their performance, despite a few mishaps, such someone who had become lost walking into and interrupting their verbal presentation and a couple of disordered cue-cards.

The Redline Racing Team (left to right): Annie Harper, James Mazengarb, Alistair Smith, Chris Law and Daniel Boucher with BBC Formula One commentator Ted Kravitz.

The Redline Racing Team claiming the F1 in Schools “Ashes” after leading all Australian and English schools through the speed trials. Head of F1 in Schools Australia and the Re-engineering Australia founder Michael Myers on the far left.

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A selection of some of the team display booths

More to come…

As today was the last day in London before leaving for Cardiff (returning to London again in about a week), I decided to make a quick trip out to the apparent tourist Mecca of Westminster, home to the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. As there are quite a few images to show, I’ve split the post up into 2 parts. This is part 2.

After leaving Westminster Abbey, I sort of made a loop around the Westminster area, which is very nice! (I saw my first Aston Martin DB9 parked in one of the streets). Definitely looking forward to staying near Pimlico, just a little south when I return to London.

I eventually made my why around to 10 Downing Street, which was a little disappointing as it is closed off to the public, with the building hidden away, I figure you’d probably see more of The Lodge in Canberra whilst driving past than you could see of the British PM’s residence.

About as good a view as is possible.

Continuing my walk around Westminster, I finally made my way down to Buckingham Palace, which was a little uneventful, as the changing of the guard ceremony had been cancelled for the day. Oh well, a good excuse to go back for another visit.

The grounds and gardens that surround the palace (especially St James’s Park) make for nice areas to walk whilst enjoying a view of the palace itself.

One thing I was amused to find was the Australian gate to the Palace forecourt (which I almost missed after actually entering the area through this gate, it was only after seeing the African and Canadian gates that I realised there would probably be an Aussie gate too). I thought it was funny that Australia was represented by a bloke with his arm around a kangaroo (there was a second with his arm around a sheep), as though that’s a normal thing for Aussies to do.

On the way back to Old Street, I decided to make a stop out to Earl’s Court where I knew there was only of the last remaining police boxes, aka a TARDIS! I attempted to have someone to take a pic of me with it, but I think she thought I wanted a pic of the pub behind it. Despite cropping the image, it didn’t turn out all that well, so I’ll have to make another visit once and make my brother take a better pic! It was also at this point that I realised I’ve left my Sonic Screwdriver at home…

I’ll leave my last picture from London for the time being as a shot of one of the Space Invader guys that appear around Old Street where I’m staying. It gives a pretty good indication of the kind of neighbour hood Old Street is. Kind of rough and basic, but being close to Shoreditch, the people are friendly, yet quirky, with lots of fashion/arts shops around the area. Its been a fun place to stay, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Cardiff and Wales tomorrow!