Business

Globally, as the aquaculture sector moves operations further offshore, the sector is encountering new challenges to access clean and reliable energy ... Carnegie’s wave-powered barge concept, MoorPowerâ„¢  offers a solution to this energy challenge – providing clean, reliable, predictable energy to support the growth of a diverse sustainable blue economy.

Australia is set for a second consecutive bumper winter harvest, with total production forecast to come in just five per cent shy of last year’s near-record crop, according to Rabobank. In its just-released Australian Winter Crop 2021/22 Production, Price and Inputs Forecast, the specialist agribusiness bank estimates the nation will harvest 52.87 million tonnes of winter grains, oilseeds and pulses this season. While down five per cent on last year’s crop, this is still a hefty 25 per cent above the five-year average.

What better place to taste test fake meat than in the Beef Capital of Casino? Dale Paget and Pete Rogers were filming a segment for Channel 10’s  The Project  to be screened on television. “We wanted to see what people on the front line of the meat industry thought,” Dale said.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) published its submission to the Regional Telecommunications Review 2021. The submission highlighted the concerns of telco consumers living outside Australia’s metropolitan centres and provides insight into phone and internet complaint trends.

The Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) is going from strength-to-strength with five new tenants bringing more than 150 new jobs to the precinct – cementing BWEZ as an engine room for growth in regional Victoria. Minister for Regional Development Mary-Anne Thomas visited the BWEZ headquarters of Office Vision, which is expanding its operations to the manufacturing hub.

Emma Pritchard. The 2021 Jacaranda Festival has been postponed for five weeks due to community concerns amidst Grafton’s rising Covid-19 case numbers ... "we were also expecting no restrictions on who could attend, but the double-vax rule has since meant many who haven’t been fully vaccinated won’t be able to. Moving the festival back five weeks will alleviate both of these issues and enable us to keep its tradition very much alive:” Jacaranda Festival Manager, Mark Blackadder

Emma Pritchard. Fuelled by his inspiration to provide the local community with affordable and reliable public transport, Mark Ruthven decided to put his business plan into first gear, and two years later, his investment is continuing along the road to success ... “Rabbit Ride-Share works along a similar line to Uber, but unlike Uber where customers use an app, they contact our call centre in town, talk to an operator, tell them where they are and where they need to go, they’re quoted an exact fare and one of our vehicles is immediately dispatched.”

New research from the University of Wollongong, a partner at the NSW Bushfire Research Hub, has found climate change will expose larger areas of forest in coastal NSW to higher frequency and more intense fires, amplifying the changes to fire regimes brought about by the 2019/20 fires ... Amongst other findings: Previous timber harvesting did not increase the fire extent or severity of the 2019/20 fires. However, there is potential for cumulative impacts in harvested landscapes that are subject to fire, particularly in the next 5 to 10 years.

The  Abrolhos Island and Mid-West Scallop Trawl Fishery  has achieved certification to the  MSC fisheries standard. It is the first scallop fishery in Australia and the eleventh fishery in Western Australia (WA) to gain this certification.

A new independent report titled 'Decarbonisation Pathways for the Australian Cement and Concrete Sector' confirms the Australian industry's ambition of net zero carbon cement and concrete to Australian society by 2050 is achievable.

A partnership between the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation and a major bank has helped preserve Cape York country and employ a number of Traditional Owners. As part of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s carbon neutrality, the bank supports traditional Aboriginal fire management generating Australian Carbon Credit Units for the second year running.

The Grass Tree Lookout at Mount Archer is ready for visitors once again, following upgrades completed by Rockhampton Regional Council and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) ... “In addition to the amphitheatre and the skywalk, we are really pleased that residents and visitors can once again enjoy this beautiful vantage point, taking in the incredible views Mount Archer has to offer."

There was nothing new or unexpected about the recently announced NSW Natural Resources Commission research on timber harvesting and koalas ... There’s nothing in the NRC report that actually deserves a tick. It’s a well-established historical and scientific fact that koalas are an irruptive species which responds positively to soft new growth ... Declining trees continuously resprout soft young growth until they eventually run out of resources. Koalas breed up in declining forests.

The Northern Australia Committee has tabled the final report of its  Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.  The report follows on from the work of the Committee’s interim report  Never Again  tabled on the 9 December 2020.

Gabrielle Duykers. In a world first, a Limestone Coast food manufacturer will convert oat husks into electricity, enabling it to offset almost all its monthly energy costs.  Cereal oat supplier Blue Lake Milling, located in Bordertown, completed construction of its $8.1 million biogas plant last week. Commercial projects manager Jeremy Neale said the plant would generate enough bioenergy to power both the plant and nearby homes.

A small-scale solar farm on Newstead’s outskirts is still on track for completion by 2022, albeit, a downsized version. After community consultation and feedback from the energy industry, the community group behind the project down-scaled it from 9 mega watts (MW) to 5MW ... The project is run by a group of dedicated volunteers with a range of expertise in business, PR, communication and project management.

Timber Towns Victoria welcomes a motion calling on the Victorian Government to table all documents relating to the closure of the native timber industry ... “Full, open and transparent information is needed that provides assurances to communities, workers and all sectors of the industry that decisions have been made based on evidence, and in the best interest of all Victorians. This decision has far reaching consequences that need to be fully understood and debated:” TTV President and Glenelg Shire Deputy Mayor Cr Karen Stephens.

2019 saw the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Mt Tarrengower hill-climb ... There are not very many combined car and motorcycle events in the Australian historic events calendar. This combination contributes to making the Mt Tarrengower hill-climb a unique event and one of the oldest such events in Australia ... The event was so popular in 2019 that capacity was reached within a week of entries being opened.  

Kel York. On 2 June 1916 the Maldon News reported there was some excitement around Sandy Creek following the discovery of gold on the property of Mr Gordon, just below Cookman’s Ranges, about three miles (five kms) south of Maldon.  The lucky prospectors were John Annand and A Thomas. John had discovered gold in that locality in 1902, and had been prospecting there since.