Health, Safety, Environment and Community Report 2004

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BlueScope Steel Star Theatre

The Wollongong Science Centre and Planetarium has become one of the Illawarra's leading tourist attractions, with the BlueScope Steel Star Theatre proving popular with the centre's 64,000 annual visitors.

The BlueScope Steel Star Theatre houses the only major planetarium in New South Wales and plays a vital role in providing astronomy education to schools across the state. Amongst school groups, 93 per cent select a planetarium presentation as part of their visit.

BlueScope Steel's annual support of A$25,000 provides equipment and maintenance, skilled staff and evolving technologies for the planetarium and its laser shows. The planetarium offers a variety of shows designed to appeal to tourists, schools and social and cultural groups.

Hands-on exhibits allow visitors to the Science Centre to see scientific concepts in action. Two spectacular new exhibits introduced in 2004 were designed and built by BlueScope Steel Engineering Cadets.

The Sound Tree responds to the frequencies of sounds by lighting up a multi-coloured tree of pulsating light. Different volumes and frequencies create different effects on the tree and visitors can clap, whistle or sing to see the sound they produce.

The second exhibit, Million to One, is a clever assembly of cogs and gears that visually demonstrates the relationship between small and large numbers. Turning large metal gears triggers counts on a digital display with each gear moving ten times slower than the previous one. The slowest gear moves a million times slower than the fastest. The Million to One exhibit has been operated over 2 million times since it was installed in March, stimulating many people to think more deeply about mathematics and engineering.

BlueScope Steel has supported the Wollongong Science Centre and Planetarium since 1984.

The BlueScope Steel Star Theatre houses the only major planetarium in New South Wales.

The BlueScope Steel Star Theatre houses the only major planetarium in New South Wales.


BlueScope Steel's annual support of A$25,000 provides equipment maintenance, skilled staff evolving technologies for the planetarium and its laser shows.

BlueScope Steel's annual support of A$25,000 provides equipment maintenance, skilled staff evolving technologies for the planetarium and its laser shows.