An Olympian, a Paralympian and a pop-up STEM fair: Queensland launches National Science Week in the Cairns Botanic Gardens

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Media Release from Queensland’s National Science Week Coordinating Committee

Olympic diver James Connor and Paralympic gold medallist Korey Boddington headline the state launch of National Science Week, at Tank 5 in the Cairns Botanic Gardens, Saturday 15 August, 10am–2pm.

Queensland’s official National Science Week launch, STEM in the Tropics, comes to Cairns this year, bringing together two of the state’s best-known athletes to talk about the science behind sport, alongside a free, family-friendly STEM fair in one of the city’s most scenic settings.

Special guests:

  • James Connor: Cairns-born Olympic diver. Connor represented Australia in the 10m platform at the London 2012 Olympics (aged 17, Australia’s youngest male diver at those Games) and again at Rio 2016.
  • Korey Boddington OAM: Paralympic gold medallist and world record holder in para-cycling. Boddington won gold in the men’s C4-5 1000m time trial at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, breaking the world record in the process. A serious motocross accident at 15 left him with an acquired brain injury and having to relearn how to walk and talk; he took up competitive track cycling in 2023 and was Paralympic champion within a year. He was named 2025 Australian Cyclist of the Year (the Sir Hubert Opperman Trophy) and holds four current world titles.

Both athletes will speak on the STEM of sport: the science, data and engineering behind elite performance, offering a genuinely mainstream hook into what is otherwise a grassroots science festival.

Athletes Panel session 11am-11:20am: Moderator Associate Professor Joshua Guy, P: (07) 4037 4720 E: j.guy@cqu.edu.au

Enquiries: Dominique Lamb, Director of Communities Brisbane 2032, P: +61 4101 80157 E: dlamb@brisbane2032.org

Program:

  • Official opening by Assistant Minister the Hon Bree James MP (Assistant Minister for Tourism, Early Learning, Creative Industries and Far North Queensland, and Member for Barron River)
  • Welcome to Country by Gimuy Walubara Yidinji elder Professor Henrietta Marie AM
  • 11am: athlete panel on the STEM of sport with James Connor and Korey Boddington, hosted by Associate Professor Joshua Guy (CQUniversity, Clinical Exercise Physiology, Cairns)
  • Pop-up STEM fair running throughout, 10am–2pm

What else is on:

  • A pop-up STEM fair with hands-on activities spanning conservation, eco-tourism, local innovation and business, and First Nations bush foods initiatives.
  • A costume competition: kids (and adults) are invited to come dressed as their favourite STEM hero (scientist, astronaut, engineer, tradie, mathematician, health professional and more), with prizes on offer.
  • Free entry, wheelchair accessible.

Event details

Tank 5, Cairns Botanic Gardens, Cairns

Saturday 15 August, 10am–2pm

Free | Family event

Hosted by Inspiring Australia Queensland / The University of Queensland

Full list of exhibitors: https://www.inspiringqld.com.au/upcoming-event/stem-in-the-tropics-cairns-launch-for-national-science-week-in-queensland

With the city set to host preliminary football and basketball at Barlow Park for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a home-region Olympian and Paralympian headlining a free family science event adds a local angle on the road to 2032.

National Quantum Computing Testbed Facility (NQCTF) launch

The official opening of the testbed, a major addition to Australia’s quantum infrastructure, providing the tools to advance quantum computing. Involving approximately 120 senior representatives from industry, government and universities, the event features rolling tours of the facility. The event is being delivered in partnership with Inspiring Australia Queensland as part of National Science Week, and in collaboration with Quantum Australia and the Queensland Government. The NQCT facility is funded by the Queensland Government under the Quantum and Advanced Technology Commercialisation Infrastructure Program.

Where: The University of Queensland, St Lucia (invitation only)

When: Wednesday 19 August 9:00-10:00am

Queensland Minister for Innovation and Science, the Hon Andrew Powell MP is officially opening the NQCTF at the event.

Enquiries: Kenneth Sauer, Government Partnerships, The University of Queensland. P: +61 400 117 425 E: k.sauer@uq.edu.au

Cosmos in the Outback: iLAuNCH takes a space launch experience to four remote Queensland towns

Outback Queensland gets its own taste of the space industry this Science Week, with the University of Southern Queensland’s iLAuNCH initiative (the national space and hypersonics research program) touring its Cosmos in the Outback event to four remote communities. Open to everyone, not just schools, it gives outback families a hands-on ‘space command’ rocket-launch experience alongside space and technology activities and the chance to meet people building careers in the space industry.

The tour is being made possible by a $4,000 Inspiring Australia Queensland Seed Grant, part of the funding program that helps bring National Science Week events to communities across the state, including those far from the coast.

  • Winton: Monday 17 August, 4–8pm
  • Boulia: Wednesday 19 August, 1–4pm
  • Longreach: Thursday 20 August, 1–4pm
  • Charleville: Friday 21 August, 1–4pm

A great regional-access story: a genuine space-industry experience, built around Australia’s growing hypersonics and space launch capability, delivered direct to some of the state’s most remote communities. It’s also a nice piece of continuity: these are the same towns Inspiring Australia Queensland’s own travelling National Science Week launch visited last year, and it’s terrific to see the outback embracing space science as a returning drawcard in its own right this time round.

Media enquiries: Associate Professor Matt Richardson, Space Program Director/ Acting CTO (iLAuNCH), School of Science, Engineering and Digital Technologies/ iLAuNCH Trailblazer. P: +61 7 4631 2513 E: Matthew.Richardson@unisq.edu.au

Further highlights across Queensland

Meet Costa: 2026 Awards Day and Ag Science Expo, Warwick

Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis is the special guest at this year’s Department of Primary Industries Hermitage Schools Science Competition Awards Day, themed Fungal Forensics. Alongside the formal awards presentation, the day includes a ‘Science Show Alley’ with the Street Science Show and a mobile petting zoo.

When: Thursday 27 August, 9am–2.30pm

Where: DPI Hermitage Research Facility, Warwick

Media enquiries: Kerrie Rubie, DPI Hermitage Research Facility,E kerrie.rubie@dpi.qld.gov.au, P (07) 4542 6700

Coastal Connections: a marine science night, Norwell, Gold Coast

Gold Coast shark researcher Dr Johan Gustafson (Bullshark Bandits) joins two other marine scientists for an evening of pizza and marine science storytelling, hosted by Shark Ecology Australia in partnership with Jacobs Well Environmental Education Centre. The talks cover sharks, environmental health and marine conservation, with an interactive Q&A to follow. Free, family-friendly, registration required due to catering.

When: Friday 21 August, 5–7pm

Where: Jacobs Well Environmental Education Centre, Norwell

Media enquiries: Dr Johan Gustafson, Shark Ecology Australia, E sharkecologyaustralia@gmail.com M +61 433118280

Monsters and Molecules: Journey to the Centre of the Brain, Fortitude Valley

A Dungeons & Dragons-inspired live comedy show meets cutting-edge quantum biotechnology research, presented with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC). Comedian Jaimeson Gilders, educator Joel Gilmore and Professor Lezanne Ooi improvise their way through a fantasy world built around the science of mapping the brain, hosted by science communicator Shu Ezackial with live music from Sean Sully. Funded by an Inspiring Australia Queensland grant. An unusual, visual, adults-friendly angle on serious neuroscience research.

When: Wednesday 19 August, 6.30–9.30pm

Where: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Media enquiries: Shu Ezackial, E shu@shulab.xyz M +61 434 284 222

Lunchtime Lecture: Born of fire, South Brisbane

Dr Andrew Rozefelds, Queensland Museum’s Principal Scientist Geosciences and Curator of Palaeobotany, explores how 60 million years of volcanic activity shaped the plant life of modern Australia, including how rapidly buried plants can be preserved in extraordinary detail through silicification. Dr Rozefelds is a regular contributor to The Conversation and an experienced, media-friendly science communicator, making him a strong interview option beyond the lecture itself. Recommended for ages 15+ (the talk touches on historical volcanic fatalities).

When: Thursday 27 August, 12.30–1pm

Where: Theatre, Level 1½, Queensland Museum Kurilpa, South Brisbane

Media enquiries: Dr Andrew Rozefelds, Queensland Museum Kurilpa, E andrew.rozefelds@qm.qld.gov.au M +61 478 320 918

Journey into Antimicrobial Resistance, Saint Lucia

A hands-on family event unpacking one of the biggest health challenges facing the world today: antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’. Visitors become scientists for the day, exploring how researchers detect harmful bacteria and develop new ways to fight infection, hosted by the Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance.

When: Friday 21 August, 10am–3.30pm

Where: Queensland Bioscience Precinct, Saint Lucia

Media enquiries: Lyman Ngiam, Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance, E l.ngiam@uq.edu.au

Stories from the Desert: outback youth filmmaking, Barcaldine and Charleville

Red-carpet community screenings of short films made by young people from remote central-west Queensland schools, produced through Noosa Film Academy’s Stories from the Desert: Outback STEM Eco-Tourism workshops, supported by the Queensland Government’s Engaging Science Grants. Students explored fossils, stars, wildlife and local history through hands-on filmmaking. Both screenings also feature OCEAN’S 50, a careers-advice movie montage by filmmaker Greg Huglin showing how curiosity, science and travel can become a screen career, a nice human-interest thread connecting the outback science stories to the film industry.

  • Barcaldine: Saturday 15 August, 3–4pm, Radio Theatre, Barcaldine Radio Cinema
  • Charleville: Wednesday 19 August, 6–7pm, Charleville State High School

Media enquiries: Andrea Huglin, Noosa Film Academy,E andrea@noosafilmacademy.com, M +61 429 776 680

Old Knowledge, New Stories: Science on Country in Cunnamulla

A community-based storytelling workshop in Cunnamulla, delivered in partnership with Cunnamulla Aboriginal Corporation for Health (CACH), bringing Seniors together to explore science on Country through simple screen production and digital storytelling techniques. Also produced by Noosa Film Academy, so it sits alongside the Barcaldine and Charleville Stories from the Desert screenings as part of the same broader outback storytelling program. Note: this event is by invitation only, including the Red Carpet Community Screening, so it’s better suited to a written story than an event to promote for public attendance. Andrea Huglin (Noosa Film Academy) is the contact to check on media access.

When: Thursday 20 August, 9am–5pm (workshop), and Friday 21 August, 5–8pm (screening)

Where: Cunnamulla

Media enquiries: Andrea Huglin, Noosa Film Academy, andrea@noosafilmacademy.com, 0429 776 680

National Science Week Showcase, Thursday Island

Queensland’s furthest-north Science Week event: students at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart present their prototypes, scientific investigations and design solutions to peers, teachers and families, ahead of the STEM MAD event.

When: Friday 21 August, 2–3pm

Where: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Thursday Island

Media enquiries: David Graham, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, E principal.ti@cns.catholic.edu.au

Also happening around Queensland during National Science Week (15–23 August)

  • Cairns: a tropical-strength Science Writing Workshop for researchers wanting to sharpen how they communicate their work to media and government (Pacific Hotel Cairns, 20 August).
  • Smithfield: James Cook University venom and toxicology experts Jamie Seymour, Lori Lach and Alex Loukas front a trivia night, Science in the Pub: ‘Things that bite and sting’, on the tropics’ most dangerous critters (27 August).
  • Winton: Starshine Unfolds, an evening under the Jump-Up Dark Sky Sanctuary blending outback astronomy, dinosaurs and Banjo Paterson (18 August); plus a dinosaur-themed Science Week breakfast launch at the Waltzing Matilda Centre (16 August).
  • Brisbane: Soapbox Science brings women and non-binary scientists onto the street to field public questions (Brisbane City, 15 August); Queensland Museum hosts an adults-only SparkLab evening on amphibians (21 August) and an explosive live chemistry show for kids, Bubble, boil, BANG (19–22 August).
  • Sunshine Coast: Future Flight Science Fair in Warana, a free family fair featuring a full-scale, student-built eVTOL aircraft, flight simulators and VR (15 August).
  • Gold Coast: the Pacific Airshow at Surfers Paradise runs a new National Science Week program exploring the science of flight alongside the aerobatics (14–16 August).
  • Statewide: a National Science Week Roadshow tours five North Burnett towns (Biggenden, Eidsvold, Gayndah, Monto and Mundubbera) with hands-on STEM workshops for regional families (15–19 August).

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