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The normally bustling intersection of Queensberry and Errol streets in North Melbourne was shut down on Saturday, giving way to a different sort of traffic: billycarts.
Dozens of them, some no more than a few planks of wood and cord while others expertly engineered, careened through a hay bale-lined racetrack during the fourth annual Queensberry Cup.
Children race in the fifth annual Queensberry Cup. Credit: Joe Armao
This year the field was filled with the usually eclectic mix of vehicles, including a reptilian low rider and Mattel-pink Barbie car. But most eye-catching of all was the aerodynamic carbohydrate cart dubbed “The Flying Potato”.
Ariel Valent, the event’s organiser and director of North Melbourne’s neighbourhood house The Centre, said the billycart was “a bit of an equaliser”.
“You can just put a few bits of wood together and get wheels off a pram and you’ve got a billycart. Or you can really go all out and make a welded steel or a just very kind of complex design which is essentially like a car,” he said.
“We had the whole spectrum today.”
A crowd gathered around the racetrack for the children’s races. Credit: Joe Armao
For the past three years, the silverware was taken out by members of the Furlong family, with carts designed by architect and patriarch Pete and piloted by his children Orly and Lenni. But the Furlong era of dominance has ended, after the family retired from racing.
Instead, Mac Rowley, a racer from Melbourne University’s Janet Clarke college, was the winner, driving a chariot-inspired cart designed and built by students and, he said, “held together by hopes and dreams”.
Rowley was well-prepared for the event – he regularly races powerful go-karts – but the day wasn’t without its challenges. After his second race the cart fell apart “so we had a bunch of people rushing to and from college to get stuff for the finals”.
Eoin Deneen, a 39-year-old from London, watched the finals with his wife and two young children.
Mac Rowley drove a chariot en route to the silverware. Credit: Joe Armao
Having only moved to Melbourne eight months ago, the family enjoyed the community feel of the event.
“That’s our kind of bag,” he said.
“And it’s particularly nice for us because we’re kind of like ... a family on our own in the city. So it’s nice to feel that you’re part of the place.”
A child pilot swerves her pink cart through the Queensberry Cup track. Credit: Joe Armao
By 5.30pm the formalities had concluded. But it gave rise to a new sort of fun, as children flocked onto the racecourse to gleefully tear up and climb on the hay bale barriers.
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