National road trip comes face-to-face with 1,500 Australians

EQUS and CDM held another highly successful National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip in 2024, visiting the Northern Territory and Indigenous schools and communities for the first time.

This year, a team of 13 EQUS and/or CDM members travelled 8,000km from Brisbane to Broome, visiting 18 schools and delivering 6 public events.  An additional seven public events were held in metropolitan areas in WA, NSW, VIC, Tasmania, and online.

The road trippers who joined different legs of the journey were: Ben McAllister, Kristen Harley, Kerstin Beer, Lachlan Rogers, Ben Field, Emma Paterson, Jesse Slim, Rakesh Saini, Teehani Ralph, Tim Newman, Varun Srivastava, Haylea Purnell and Anita Vecchies. In addition, Will Campbell, John Bartholomew, Xanthe Croot, Elisabetta Barberio, Laura Manenti and others participated in the pop-up events.

Lachlan led the prequel “Physics in the Outback” road trip in 2018, so it was great that he was able to participate in the final road trip as well.  He said:

“The road trip was absolutely spectacular! For a part of Australia widely known to be “vast empty space” there were an amazing number of things to see and enjoy.  We had to drive past numerous recommended sites without even stopping!  The diversity of public engagement was really rewarding.  Some schools were large auditoriums full of moderate-to-keen high-school students, and other visits were a handful of children in remote communities.  We were welcomed with interest everywhere we went (including pub quizzes).”

The road trip received considerable media coverage, including five unique print and/or online media stories (syndicated across 90 titles), and 6 radio spots, helping to promote science to a wide audience across rural, regional and metropolitan areas of Australia.

The road trip also raised $359 for Deadly Science through donations from event participants.

Kerstin said this year’s road trip was one of the most exciting weeks of her life.  “It provided me with a unique opportunity to experience fascinating landscapes and cultures that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.  It also offered a valuable chance to enhance my science communication skills, whether engaging with primary-school children or speaking to adults in a pub.”

To find out more about the road trip and the members of each Centre involved, visit https://www.qdmroadtrip.org/.

Road-trip stats:

18+ p4eople involved

17 days of road-tripping activities

11,736 kilometres on the odometer:

18 school visits

13 public events

4 public lectures

6 pub trivia events

3 demo days or stalls

28+ cities & towns

1,500 people engaged

750 school students

250 public lecture attendees

200 pub goers

300 attendees at other public events