Building billycarts

Building billycarts

Blackall 'Pop' Lou Turlan builds dozens of billycarts for local kids to race

Posted on 23.09.2021

It’s 24 hours until derby day and Lou Turlan is putting the finishing touches on his yard full of billycarts.

Each one takes the 74-year-old hundreds of hours to make — mostly out of old rocking horses, bike parts or anything he can find — for children to race in the annual competition down Blackall’s main street.

For ‘Pop’, as the locals call him, they’re a feat of engineering and artwork.

Key points:

  • The outback local has been constructing billycarts for more than a decade
  • It takes hundreds of hours to make one cart out of recycled materials
  • Billycart races are increasing in popularity across western Queensland

Every year, Lou redesigns his convoy of billycarts for aesthetics and aerodynamics.

“I just try different things that try to cut the wind because I think the ones that have got a front where the wind can’t get underneath go faster,” Lou said.

Source
Danielle O’Neal
ABC News

 

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