“People loved the presentations but we needed funding to continue travelling and to reach more communities across Australia. Shell was the first and only company asked to sponsor the program and they’ve continued to partner with us since late 1985.”

Dr. Stuart Kohlhagen (1985 team)

• Exhibits are more portable and purpose built for travelling,
• Travel and study are combined in university program,
• The 16 presenters in the Science Circus aren’t just volunteers, they’re graduate scientists earning an ANU diploma as well,
• More areas are reached, more distance is travelled, and
• We make it a plan to get to remote Australia at least once a year.

• Exhibits were big and bulky,
• We only had eight presenters, all volunteers,
• We could only travel when the volunteers weren’t busy with their university studies, and
• The distance covered was far less than now.

“Today’s exhibits can be set up in 30 minutes and are built to survive their thousands of kilometres on the road. The original ones weighed a ton and were put in the back of a rented removalist truck. We often wondered if they’d survive the trip.”

Dr. Stuart Kohlhagen (1985 team)

• Questacon was founded through the Australian National University (ANU),
• Communication skills and university diploma prepare students for great careers,
• The name ‘Circus’ came about because of the travelling, and
• It is an exhibition that is set up and enjoyed then moves on.

“It was decided that Questacon should not simply be another building in Canberra but that it must develop programs that would reach out to all Australians – both in our cities and in the more remote rural areas.”

Prof. Mike Gore AM, Questacon’s founding Director