Contributor, ARR.News

The Nationals’ Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, has expressed frustration over the decision to abandon a major munitions manufacturing agreement in Benalla, labelling it a devastating blow for the local community. The Department of Defence quietly scrapped its agreement with Thales Australia to manufacture 155-millimetre M795 artillery ammunition at the Benalla munitions facility.

...Using vanadium sourced from Julia Creek, the Townsville facility will anchor a pit-to-port product manufacturing chain, supplying vanadium flow batteries for global energy storage markets. The project is expected to support nearly 600 jobs across North and North West Queensland, with early works scheduled for 2026 and operations to commence in early 2028.

Fun-runners and athletes alike will be putting their best feet forward when the inaugural Horsham Running Festival gets underway on Sunday 14 September. Top of the bill will be a full marathon – 42.2 kilometres – comprising four laps of a picturesque circuit on the banks of the Wimmera River.

Over a million people have experienced the wonder of the national collection closer to home since it launched in 2023, and now it’s Mudgee’s turn. A collection of works by some of the 20th century’s most notable artists will travel to Mudgee Arts Precinct as part of the Albanese Labor Government’s Sharing the National Collection program. 

The WA Opposition has called for an urgent, nationally coordinated response to the spread of the destructive polyphagous shot-hole borer, following revelations that Western Australia has abandoned efforts to eradicate the pest after more than 5,000 trees were lost in the Perth metropolitan area.

A report released in partnership with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, Commonwealth environmental water sustaining Murray–Darling Basin ecosystems: 10-year (2014–24) retrospective, outlines how a decade of monitoring, evaluation and reporting is optimising management of Commonwealth environmental water holdings – a public asset with a market value approaching $10 billion.

Australian milk production is set to fall again in the current season, as ongoing feed shortages and a smaller milking herd in drought-affected areas continue to impact, Rabobank says in newly-released research. This comes as global milk supply surges, with production increasing across other key dairy-exporting regions across the world.

A major milestone in Victoria’s decade-long Treaty process has been achieved with the Victorian Government and First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria reaching in-principle agreement on Australia’s first Treaty. The first negotiated Statewide Treaty Agreement brings together First Peoples, through the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, and the Victorian Government, to build a new relationship based on respect, trust and integrity.

A new drone test flight facility in the Northern Territory will give manufacturers the chance to test their technology in some of the most diverse terrain and extreme weather conditions in the world. The North Australia Centre for Autonomous Systems (NACAS), based out of Charles Darwin University (CDU), has launched its Airspace Integration Research Facility (AIR-F), the only purpose-designed and built Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) test flight facility based in northern Australia.