Kids to help in search for a Commonwealth Games mascot

There have been some unusual suggestions for the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games mascot and now schoolchildren are set to be consulted on the process.

Schoolchildren will be asked to help come up with a mascot to represent Victoria for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The organising committee for the Victoria Games will next week go to market with a tender to run a campaign to find a mascot reflecting an event being staged across regional Victoria.

Expressions of interest will open on Monday, with the mascot to replace the Birmingham Game’s Perry the bull to be announced late next year.

And Victoria 2026 organising committee chief executive Jeroen Weimar confirmed the process would include sending engagement officers into classrooms to ask kids who they want to be a symbol of the Games.

Borobi the koala was the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games mascot. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“Some of the best ideas for a mascot to represent the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games won’t come from a committee – they will come from a classroom,’’ he said.

A search process will also begin for a firm to build a giant countdown clock for the games.

It would likely be installed at Southern Cross Station as a symbolic departure point to the Victorian regional centres where the Games are to be staged – Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Gippsland.

“The mascot, the countdown clock and our public events in the lead-up will be the first tangible things that many Victorians will experience about the biggest event ever held in regional Victoria,’’ he said.

The new mascot will follow the Gold Coast’s Borobi the koala, Karak the red tailed black cockatoo from Melbourne 2006 and Matilda the kangaroo from Brisbane 1982 as Aussie Commonwealth emblems.

Perry the multi-coloured bull was the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games mascot. Picture: Getty

Ballarat Mayor Des Hudson suggested the mascot should be a gold nugget, in tribute to Victoria’s gold rush heritage and the winner’s medals Aussie athletes would chase.

“I’m thinking a gold nugget or a gold pan that is animated into something lifelike that showcases a bit of Ballarat, a bit of Bendigo, we’re both built on a significant history of gold,’’ he said.

“Whether it’s the big ‘Hand of Faith’ or just a lovely shaped nugget that can be transformed into human form, you could do quite a bit like that.’’

A gold nugget is one idea put forward as the mascot. Picture: Brad Fleet

Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali had a more outlandish idea for the mascot, referencing the region’s foodbowl and hosting rights of BMX at the Games.

“We would like to see the mascot as a cow on a BMX bike eating a pear and apple, reflecting the many orchards and farms in our region,’’ he said.

The countdown clock will be unveiled on March 17 next year to mark two years until the opening ceremony, with different locations and designs to be considered.

A total of 20 sports will be played at Victoria’s Games, across 25 venues in an event the state government believes will contribute more than $3 billion to the state economy.