Another Great Year for Questacon

11 July 2006

Questacon has had a great year in 2005/06 with an amazing 32.6% increase in the number of people attending one of Questacon’s various Outreach programmes. Questacon staff delivered presentations in 1900 schools across Australia, particularly in rural, regional and remote areas.

Graham Smith, Questacon’s Outreach Manager said, “It’s been a great team effort throughout the year. The fantastic outcome is due to hard work by staff and additional financial support from the Australian Government, sponsors and partners. This has enabled us to reach many more Australians in their own communities.”

“We have also increased the diversity of programmes offered. There is no science centre in the world with the national reach of Questacon.”

Questacon’s website numbers are also up by 39.2% representing 1,986,093 users who spent time interacting with the website during the year.

Questacon in Canberra was visited by 407,581 people during the year representing a 2.2% increase on the previous year. Some 1900 schools visited Questacon and nearly 18,000 school students took part in the Q by Night programme. Questacon memberships have risen by 16.2% during the year.

Questacon Director Graham Durant is delighted with the overall organisational performance but acknowledged that year on year increases in visitor number to Questacon in Canberra was resulting in higher levels of wear and tear.

“Our building and exhibits are being loved to death which is why it was so important to have picked up $15.3 million of funding for capital renewals in the recent Federal Budget. This will allow us to maintain the buildings and exhibits at an acceptable level into the future.“

Also it is very exciting to have secured $1 million to study the various options for extending Questacon. We have some very exciting ideas at an early stage of development and we are working closely with the National Capital Authority to develop an inspiring facility in and around Questacon.”