Ex-military electronic engineer Ian Firns, former Google employee Scott Weston and drone-racing software developer Brett James teamed up three years ago to find a space for people in their hometown to try new technology, experiment and create. They volunteer their expertise.

Walk through their doors and there are half-finished projects deliberately on display. A glowing light bulb changes colour at the whim of online followers, who can also activate and move a toy digger or watch their every move. By the door is a rustic, old-school arcade game the hackers whipped up in a couple of hours for an open day. Benches are lined with 3D printers.

“It’s showing off what is possible, getting people thinking how can you make something better. Hopefully it’s sparking someone’s imagination,” Weston said. “This is an awesome space with awesome toys. There are a lot of half-finished projects so people can figure out how things work. A lot of people who come in here don’t like starting from scratch. They can add and contribute to the space.”

Hackerspace has settled into Ballarat Technology Park Central the past year. Their headquarters are among Federation University buildings, across the road from Federation College tech classes, and neighbour to exciting organisations like Ballarat-made Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute. It is their perfect fit.

Firns said the past 12 months had allowed a chance to get a feel for how the space could run. Growth has been organic, Firns said, to ensure they do not grow too fast, too quickly. Group membership and a couple of sponsors has allowed the non-profit organisation to provide for materials, space and tools – from soldering and circuit building to additive manufacturing.

Anyone can pop in to seek inspiration, advice or just a more-tech-savvy environment.

“A couple of us wonder had this space existed in high school where we would have been now,” Firns said. “By year nine we’d pretty much tapped out the teacher’s knowledge and really had to wait until university before we were learning something new.

“Who knows how different it might have been – we could have arrived at university ahead of the pack.”

Firns and James, former Sebastopol College students, and Weston, who graduated from Mount Clear College, ventured along their own career paths abroad before moving back to Ballarat. They found a common cause – wanting to give back.

Ballarat teenagers constantly pop into Hackerspace after school. Alex Drew is building an electronic skateboard. His work project – an idea he was keen to try building – requires motor stability control and some mechanics. The hackers are on hand to offer a little direction or technical assistance.

Alex’s friend Isaac constructed an electronic puzzle box.

Hackerspace is also a place for helping Ballarat workers up-skill and re-skill, like a local painter who learnt 3D printing techniques to build dinosaur fossil replicas.

The hackers also run workshops on custom-making and operating 3D printers and pocket-sized Raspberry Pi computers.

They take pride in seeing how people’s projects and skills evolve, often from first approaching them with a need or basic idea of how they would like something to work.

Weston wanted the ability to open and close his garage door from anywhere in the world. He pulled apart his garage and created the software to make this possible. So, if his brother wants to borrow the lawn mower, Weston can open the garage via his phone. If Weston, or his brother, leave the garage door open too long, an alert Weston will receive an alert on his phone to get it shut.

The hackers say they do not feel like their upgrades are truly unique in any way. All their work goes online anyway.

“It’s just about retroactively adding features,” Firns said. “Basically, this is the old school definition of hacking: when you pull something apart to understand how it works and modify to do something it was otherwise intended to do.”

The hackers say Ballarat is a prime location for a start-up culture, particularly being so close to Melbourne and with an advanced NBN roll-out across the city.

Firns said there was so much technology potential right here – and Hackerspace is excited to be part of it.

“Moving forward, we hope to help grow the community here and be part of the driving force progressing the tech culture,” Firns said. “We’re privileged to have this space. We want to attract skill that wants to learn more and we want to keep skill in Ballarat because we all had to travel away after school to further our learning.”

An electronic skateboard could just be the start for young hacker Alex. The hackers are encouraging Alex to keep looking at how using science, technology, engineering and mathematics could make the little things a whole lot better to use. 

Hackerspace strives to fuel interest to keep pushing and unlocking potential around us – pulling things apart and building them back better, right here in Ballarat.