Contributor, ARR.News

Gold nanorod probes combined with an optical microscope can now be used to detect signs of a highly contagious and lethal virus that poses a major threat to the swine industry worldwide. The state-of-the-art technology has been developed by Chinese and Australian biomedical scientists to diagnose porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV), a disease that has wreaked economic havoc on piggeries in recent years.

The innovative use of drone technology combined with coding software is helping to improve the accuracy of waterbird monitoring across the Murray–Darling Basin ... "Collecting accurate data about waterbird numbers is vital to building our scientific knowledge and assessing the impacts of the Basin Plan": MDBA’s General Manager of Applied Science, Dr Matthew Coleman.

Australia’s volunteer tagging database Infofish recently became the first citizen science tagging program in the world to tag 1 million fish since its inception in 1986 ... “Community-based fish tagging has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the movement patterns and growth rates of many fish species, and the Infofish program is recognised as a world leader in this space": Mark Furner, Qld Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries.

Private banks are abandoning rural Australians at an alarming rate and are relying on public-owned infrastructure – namely the Australia Post network – to plug the local service deficits left in their wake, Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said. Speaking following news that Westpac would close its branches in Cloncurry, Tully and Ingham while NAB would depart Longreach in the coming months, Mr Katter said there was a growing onus on governments to intervene in the growing failure of banks to service the regions.

Australian grain leaders are calling on other growers and farm businesses to show generosity and donate a tonne of grain or more, to help support Ukraine farmers and rural communities. The #AUSSIEGRAIN4UKRAINE initiative was established last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to give Australian grain producers a way of supporting their farming colleagues and communities facing the continuing challenges and horrors of war.

"Since late 2019 Coober Pedy water consumers have been calling on successive State Governments to introduce SA Water pricing in Coober Pedy. This would result in prices being reduced by two thirds. Unfortunately, no State Government commitment has been secured. In that time Coober Pedy consumers have paid $5 million more for their water than if they lived in Adelaide. This is scurrilous": Tim Jackson, Administrator, District Council of Coober Pedy.

Moyne Shire Council has launched a new roads portal to give the community quick access to information about council’s road network and planned upgrade works across the shire. The portal includes a map pinpointing road renewal and resealing works, before and after photos, expected timeframes and information about how the works are funded.

Students in Rochester will return to their schools this week after being affected by the devastating flooding across Victoria last year. It’s the first time the students at Rochester Primary School and Rochester Secondary School will be able to walk back through the school gates since the flooding left both schools inundated with water.