I went to the Beaudesert Public library to return a foodie book that Mike had borrowed. Who was standing in the foyer in all her glory, sporting a Queenslander maroon scarf around her magnificent neck?
Meet Bullinda Bullguard, the robotic, cotton wool bull! Bullinda was the winner of the Technology Award, in the 2017 Archibull Prize competition.
Why do I know this? After all, I’m just a piano teacher, not an aficionado of all things bovine.
Because Bullinda is the brainchild of Laura Perkins of the Agriculture Department, at Beaudesert State High School (BSHS), and I teach piano to her son Patrick 😀
“Only 30 schools Australia-wide get to enter the Archibull Prize competition, and you have to be chosen from a selection process,” Laura said.
“Most of the contestants are private schools, so it was very exciting for Beaudesert State High School to be picked,” she said. “At the end we had made the top 12 and got to fly down to Sydney.”
BSHS and Bullinda won the Technology Award, and Bullinda will be going on tour soon.
“No one had ever done this before,” said Laura.
Here is Laura’s blog about Bullinda Bullguard. In the blog, she said:
“This is the very first year that Beaudesert State High School has competed in the Archibull Competition and we are very excited to be part of this wonderful experience. We are very proud of our school and the Scenic Rim Community.
“We look forward to sharing this wonderful journey with you and we hope that you have as much fun following the development of Bullinda Bullguard – The Cottonwool Bull – as we will.
“Our team consists of over 60 students, 36 staff and 9 Departments (and this seems to be growing!) The students in our team range from Years 7 to 12.”
[Images from the blog The Cottonwool Bull]
This article in the Beaudesert Times describes all the things Bullinda can do, and has an interview with Laura.
BSHS was the first contestant to enter a robotic bull into the competition and looking forward, Laura thinks other schools will try to do something similar.
“We are currently working on this year’s entry. Her name is Woolinda (the kids chose the name) and she will also be robotic.”
Here is the blog link to follow Woolinda’s journey The Wooly Bully.
This year, the project has become a joint venture within the Scenic Rim community, including Beaudesert Primary School, Hillview Primary School and Beaudesert State High School. Their Facebook page is Archibull 2018 – Wooly Bully.
There will be more posts about this project, for sure!
[Incidentally, Laura is amazing! She can muster livestock! She can crack a whip! I’ve never had a friend who could do that! I saw her whip hanging on a wall in her home. Laura explained the science behind the crack of a whip, something about the end of the whip moving faster than the speed of sound. She said one day we’ll go outside and I should try and crack her whip! Seriously? I imagined that flicking motion – all I could think of was flipping a bed sheet over a mattress. Hopeless.]
Here is Laura and her horse Roy, and me.
That photo is from a post about teaching piano in the Scenic Rim.
Bullinda! As they say in The Cottonwool Bull “Like cotton, she’s so fine!”
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