Hi Everyone,
I would like you all to know that the FIRST FRC team in Australia will be starting this up coming season. Special thanks to Team Phoenix (team 2342) for the loan of their overdrive robot. The Aussie team is being started at Macquarie University in the Sydney area. We already have generated quite a bit of interest! To find out more please look at our preliminary web page on the Macquarie University site. We look forward to seeing you at competitions this upcoming season!!!
Soooo… you finally let the cat out of the bag!
Just to let all of you know, if anyone should start a team in Australia, it should be Sarah (along with her family of course.;))
YAYY!!!
Our team talked about it a lot the beginning of last season. Everyone said they wanted to go last year, but decided not to go due to educational and budget reasons. Honestly, we probably wont manage to go to the Australia Regional anytime soon, but if we were closer to Australia then the east side of the US, we would probably go once or twice.
Congrats on getting a regional in Australia!
Just to be clear, we are NOT starting an Aussie regional. Just one FRC team. Our plan is to compete at an existing regional in the USA.
Actually no, there is no Australian regional:( , only one team(currently unknown name and number) However, the hope is that they will be able to start several more teams in the Sydney area, but only one team for now. They believe that once they can get a good number of FIRST teams that they can get FIRST to start a regional. YEAH!!!:] And they have already started a good 5 FLL teams in there area.
Oh, my bad… Never-the-less, congratulations on bringing FIRST to Aussie… 
That’s great !!!
Actually there may be not one but TWO teams starting in Australia. We have been working with a group for a few months in Melbourne. Their event would not be in Australia since there is no regional but in the states.
And if it all works out there may be another announcement.
.
We already have about 100 kids interested, we are going to hold our first informational meeting soon. Some of these kids are willing to take an hour and a half train ride just to build the robot! We are going to have 2342’s robot at the upcoming Open Day at Macquarie University where we hope to get more kids interested. We are also going to hold our state’s FLL championship tournament this November. We can’t wait to get started!
That’s quite impressive for Team Phoenix and this new rookie team. I wish you good luck.
Welcome to FIRST!
two thumbs up and a big grin
That is dedication, and they haven’t even experienced a build season to get them hooked :eek:
With kids who are that willing and dedicated, you could get a FRC regional in Australia in no time!
Good for them!
I’m green with envy. You get to go surfing on First and Second Christmas!
-Nick
It was nice working with you last spring and I’m glad to see your robot made it through the shipping gauntlet. If you need any other help, please feel free to contact me by PM, email, or through our team website.
Best Wishes for a great 2010 season!
Welcome aboard to any one from Down Under! If you need help this is a good place to ask for it. Many of us check daily and sometime more often so if you are in need of a an answer just ask. Please remember, we are 12 hours difference in some cases so we may be sleeping when you ask your question.
Haha, that’s a good one, Al. 
Yeah, but when we wake up, we’ll be more than happy to answer. It may not be the answer you wanted to hear, but we will do our best to make sure it is the correct one. This is assuming 3105 (Manila, Philippines) doesn’t answer first…
And I’m sure that the L.A., San Diego, or Hawaii regionals would be very happy to have you show up!
I usually stay up until 2:00 AM so that we can catch up on whats new.
I hope that they can make it all the way up here to GSR.:]
Haha, if they made it to GSR it’d be amazingly epic.
Congrats!
Could you give us the contact information for the group you are working with in Melbourne? It would be great if the two teams could work together on some issues that we are going to face as the first Aussie teams. If you would prefer, you can e-mail us at frc@ics.mq.edu.au. Thanks!