What you agree to when you enter.

01

Who these terms are with

These terms are an agreement between you and the organiser of TechFest Australia. “We” and “us” mean the organiser. “You” means the person who submits an entry, and, for a school team, the school and the teacher mentor who registers on the team’s behalf.

The organising entity is [PLACEHOLDER: registered entity name], an australian proprietary company (pty ltd), registration in progress based in Victoria, ABN [PLACEHOLDER: ABN], of [PLACEHOLDER: registered office and postal address]. Until that entity is registered, the trading name TechFest Australia is used on this site and these terms are not yet in force.

TechFest Australia is an independent program. It is not run by, funded by or affiliated with any government.

02

Entry fee

Entry is paid for everyone. There is one fee per entry, and it is the same for schools, teams and individuals.

The amount for the 2027 season is [PLACEHOLDER: amount]. The entry fee for the 2027 season will be published before registrations open. We will show it as a single price in Australian dollars including GST. That single price is the whole amount you pay us to enter: no booking fee, no card surcharge, no stage fees and nothing added at the last step.

Payment will be taken through a hosted checkout run by our payment provider, in the organiser’s own account. Card details are entered on the provider’s page, never on this website, and we never see or store a card number.

Registrations open on 12 October 2026 and close on 19 February 2027. Indicative dates, final schedule to be confirmed. If the fee is not published before registrations open, registrations do not open.

What the fee covers

The entry fee is planned to cover:

• a place in the competition for one team or one individual entry
• the online workshops run during the season
• a mentor match for the build phase
• judging at every stage your entry reaches
• a certificate of participation for every entry that submits a proposal

It does not cover:

• build materials, components and tools
• travel and accommodation to any in-person event
• tickets to the public festival
• any equipment your project needs

If a part of the season changes so that we cannot provide something in the first list, the refund policy applies.

What is not guaranteed

Much of the 2027 season is still being planned, and we will not pretend otherwise. As at the date of this draft, the following are planned and not confirmed:

• The festival dates and the venue. Indicative dates, final schedule to be confirmed.
• Regional hubs and any in-person judging. Judging is planned to run online where a hub is not available.
• Model rocketry, drone demonstrations and any other flight activity, which depend on a suitable site and on the approvals the aviation rules require.
• Travel support, accommodation support and build materials support, which depend on funding we secure.
• Prizes, awards and sponsors. We do not publish a prize value until the prize is committed in writing.
• Scholarship, incubator and further study pathways, which are run by other organisations. We do not award places ourselves.

We will confirm each item on this site as it is locked in. If a change means you no longer want to take part, see the cancellation and refund section below.

03

Eligibility

• Junior: primary students in Years 3 to 6, entering through their school with a teacher mentor.
• Secondary: high school students in Years 7 to 12, entering through their school with a teacher mentor.
• Tertiary: university and TAFE students aged 18 and over.
• Open: makers, innovators and early-stage founders aged 18 to 30 inclusive.

Entrants must be resident in Australia. Team sizes are set by the category you choose and are shown on each category card. Every person under 18 needs consent from a parent or guardian before taking part in any stage, and school teams need a teacher mentor who holds the Working with Children Check required where the activity takes place.

If we find that an entry does not meet these rules, we will contact the lead contact first and give you a reasonable chance to correct it. We only withdraw an entry where the problem cannot be fixed, and in that case we refund the entry fee.

Registering an entry

• One entry competes in one category and one division.
• The details you give must be accurate. You can ask us to correct them at any time.
• For a school team, the teacher mentor registers on behalf of the students and confirms that a parent or guardian has agreed for each student.
• You can add or change team members until registrations close on 19 February 2027, within the team size for your category.
• Work submitted must be your team’s own. Say where you have used someone else’s code, design or data.
• The full competition rules, including the judging criteria, will be published on this site before proposals are due.

04

Judging and awards

Every stage is scored by a panel of judges against a published rubric covering the problem, originality, technical quality, testing, teamwork and presentation. Judges declare any conflict of interest and do not score a team they are connected to.

Awards are decided on merit only. No award, place or prize is decided by a random draw, a ballot, a lucky entrant or any other element of chance, at any stage, including at the festival. A tie is broken by the head judge re-scoring the tied entries against a named criterion, never by a toss or a draw.

Judges’ decisions are final in the sense that we do not re-run judging on request. That does not affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, or your right to complain to us about how the process was run.

05

Cancellation and refunds

The short version, with the detail on the refund and cancellation policy page:

• If we cancel the competition, you get a full refund of your entry fee.
• If we make a major change, for example moving the national final to a different city or to materially different dates, you can withdraw and ask for a full refund.
• If you withdraw before [PLACEHOLDER: withdrawal cut-off date], you get a full refund.
• After that date we do not refund entry fees, because judging places and mentor time have been set aside. This does not affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
• We will confirm by [PLACEHOLDER: go or no-go date] whether the national final is going ahead.

To ask for a refund, email hello@techfestaustralia.com.au with your registration reference. We aim to acknowledge within 5 business days and to pay a refund to the original payment method within [PLACEHOLDER: refund turnaround].

06

Your intellectual property

You keep ownership of your project and everything in it. Entering does not transfer any intellectual property to us, and we do not take a share of anything you build or later commercialise.

By entering, you give us permission to use your team name, project title, project summary and images you have approved, to run and report on the competition and the festival. That permission is non-exclusive, and it does not let us sell your work or license it to anyone else.

Judges and mentors see your material to do their job. We ask them to keep it confidential and not to use it for anything else. If your project includes something you cannot share, say so in your entry and we will discuss how to judge it without publishing the sensitive part.

School teams should also check whether their school or education department has a policy on student work.

Photos and video

Photo and video consent is optional and separate from entry. Saying no has no effect on your entry or on judging. For a student under 18, consent comes from a parent or guardian through the teacher mentor. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing privacy@techfestaustralia.com.au, and we will stop using the material in anything we publish from that point.

Conduct

Everyone taking part agrees to the code of conduct. It covers how we expect people to treat each other, online and in person, and what happens if someone does not. Serious breaches can lead to an entry being withdrawn. Where we withdraw an entry for a breach that is not the entrant’s fault, we refund the entry fee.

Our child safety statement sets out the rules that apply to every adult working with participants.

07

Liability, and your rights

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law, including the consumer guarantees. Where those guarantees apply, they apply whatever else these terms say.

We will run the competition with due care and skill. Beyond the consumer guarantees, and to the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for loss or damage you could not reasonably have expected, such as lost profits or lost opportunities.

You are responsible for your own equipment, materials and travel, for building and testing your project safely, and for supervising the students in your team at any in-person event. [PLACEHOLDER: insurance position, to be confirmed with the insurance broker]

Some activities carry physical risk, for example a model rocket launch or a drone flight. Where we run one, we will publish the safety rules for it and you must follow them and any instruction from a safety officer on the day.

Privacy

We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. The privacy policy and collection notice explains what we collect, why, who sees it, where it is stored and how to access, correct or complain about it.

Changes to these terms

We may need to change these terms, for example when the venue or the competition rules are confirmed. If a change materially affects entrants who have already paid, we will email the lead contact and explain it, and you may withdraw and ask for a full refund if the change is one you do not accept. We will show the version and date at the top of this page.

08

Complaints and disputes

Tell us first. Email hello@techfestaustralia.com.au with what happened and what you would like us to do. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to respond within 20 business days. For a complaint about personal information, email privacy@techfestaustralia.com.au.

If we cannot sort it out, you can take the matter to the consumer protection agency in your state or territory, or to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission at accc.gov.au. These terms are governed by the law of Victoria, and the courts of Victoria have jurisdiction, which does not stop you bringing a claim where you live. [PLACEHOLDER: governing law clause to be confirmed by the lawyer]