Western Sydney Airport Minecraft Competition winner announced
Students from a western Sydney primary school have created their vision of Sydney’s new airport, featuring an indoor Great Barrier Reef and robotic cleaners. Their innovative design was named the winner of this year’s Western Sydney Airport Minecraft competition.
- Students reveal Minecraft vision of Western Sydney Airport
- Middleton Grange town centre plans spark debate
The planners and engineers of the future have shared their vision of what the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport will look like, with one version featuring an indoor Great Barrier Reef and robotic cleaners.
Students from 10 western Sydney schools pitched their ideas to a panel of judges on Friday as part of the Western Sydney Airport Minecraft competition, now in its second year.
The competition, organised by Liverpool Council and sponsored by Western Sydney Airport, challenged students in Years 5 and 6 to design Sydney’s new airport using the digital building blocks game Minecraft.
Thousands of students from more than 40 schools across the region participated this year, with McCallums Hill Public School in Roselands taking out top prize and nabbing $20,000 for STEM learning resources.
A team of five students used survey data to come up with their vision of the new airport, which included an indoor Great Barrier Reef, automated cars for people with disability and robot cleaners.
Christadelphian Heritage College Sydney from Kemps Creek placed second, winning $10,000, while Ingleburn Public School came third, securing $7500.
Merrylands East Public School received an Encouragement Award and $2500 for STEM learning resources.
The judging panel included Western Sydney Airport chief executive Graham Millett, NSW Department of Education secretary Mark Scott, Western Sydney University’s director Master of Teaching (Primary) Katrina Barker and Atlassian Head of People Operations Andi Breslin.
Mr Millett said competition was strong among the 10 finalist teams.
“Each of the students should be delighted with what they’ve achieved, their designs show creativity and outstanding use of problem-solving skills.”
Year 6 student Alano Ruisi, from Christadelphian Heritage College Sydney, said working alongside his peers taught him the value of team work.
The team’s design featured an underground terminal with green spaces on ground level and a Tesla-inspired battery to store energy.
“We got our inspiration from Elon Musk’s plan. He powered a whole city in Adelaide for a month and we thought that was truly incredible, so we thought that we could use that in our project because if one man could do it, maybe a bunch of Year 5 (and) 6 students could do it too,” Alano said.
The competition was co-designed by the NSW Department of Education to align with the curriculum.
Former council CEO stayed silent on job cut rumours: Inquiry
A former southwest Sydney council boss conceded he failed to de-escalate a rumour about mass job losses which led to a volatile protest where anti-Islamic chants against the mayor were made.
From budget motel to five-star hotel in Sydney’s southwest
Plans are under way for a $99m, five-star hotel where a small, budget motel stands in a southwest Sydney suburb undergoing an accommodation boom. See the plans here.