Twenty years before television began broadcasting in Australia and decades before iPads had been invented, a bright little girl started to dazzle Melbourne children with a skipping rope.

Little Audrey, as the Skipping Girl Vinegar neon sign became known, this years marks her 75th year but her child-like appeal has not faded for the city that loves her as an icon.

Audrey the Skipping Girl in 1968.

It was today announced that the sign will be powered with solar energy, cementing a future that was not always so bright.

There was a time when it was feared much-loved little Audrey, Australia's first animated neon sign, would disappear into darkness forever.