Australia's creative spark ignites the Olympic Cauldron

The concept of the magnificent London Olympic Flame and Cauldron was brought to life thanks to experts from a South Australian company, FCT Flames.
The Adelaide-based company, which specialises in the design and manufacture of flame effects for ceremonial and sporting events, supplied the gas burning system used to ignite the 204 individual copper 'petals' before the burner 'stems' came together to form one giant flame during the ceremony.
FCT Managing Director Constantino Manias told the Sydney Morning Herald "we spent quite a lot of time researching what sort of burner and what sort of flame shape was needed and how the air flow around this would occur to produce the effect that was wanted by the artist."
FCT Flames' work has been commended by Federal Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy, who stated "the Olympic flame is the symbol of any Games and keeping it alight requires enormous technical skill and knowledge.
"It was a challenging structure to create and one that required incredible technical experience. Fortunately, South Australia's FCT Flames provided the cauldron and torches for the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games and they were able to draw from their vast experience.
"This is yet another example of Australian innovators working behind the scenes to ensure the London Games works seamlessly."
FCT Flames also provided the technology for the cauldron and the Olympic torches for the Sydney and Athens Games.
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