Billy cart

A billy cart is a popular Australian form of gravity powered vehicle, often homemade and constructed for either recreational or competitive use.

This design was advantageous for kids who would scavenge areas for food, scrap materials and more,[3] whilst also becoming a pastime wherein children would challenge others to see who could travel the fastest/furthest with gravity to assist in building momentum.

[5] As automobiles rose to prevalence during this time there was an increase in incidents involving billy carts identified, this can be attributed to the fact that impromptu races organised by neighbourhood children were often run on the same roads as vehicles, without road closures, and as car ownership grew in suburban areas of Australia the risk of colliding with vehicles grew.

Following the successful prototype Richardson created the Victa Mowers company, producing lawnmowers which quickly became an Australian icon.

This can be linked both to the nostalgia of parents who built carts in the decades prior providing the same opportunity for their children, and to the immense popularity of Soapbox Racing in the United States.

The more traditional cart style however remained a staple of recreational use, used by children living in suburbs either on grassed hills or streets with low volumes of vehicle traffic.

[11] Whilst the popularity of billy carts as a competitive sport has declined from the mid-late 1900s there remains a dedicated number of groups which organise annual derbys as a community event.

[17] Optional design features include a scrub brake on either one or both rear wheels and a wooden block to limit the pivot angle of the front axle.

[31] One STEM program sought to address high school students (year 10) not selecting higher level mathematics and science subjects for their final years of study, to achieve this the Design Technology class created a project which involved constructing a billy cart in stages and integrated each of these stages with mathematics and science classes wherein teachers would explore relevant topics such as budgeting, associations between wheel sizes, speed, stability and the forces which affect a billy cart's competitive ability.

[36] A number of organisations which provide school incursion & excursion programs have included billy carts as a program option, typically requiring students to utilise simple tools and teamwork to build a simple billy cart kit before racing around a short track either being pushed or utilising small hills.