Business

A spaceport on the outskirts of Weipa is still a major possibility as an Australian-based company eyes the Cape York location. Discussions have already begun between the Palm Branch Group’s Spaze Oz arm and key stakeholders in Weipa and Napranum. The site would be located near the RAAF Scherger base, about 43km from Weipa.

Wendy Kozicka believes the state government could buy Cape York’s most northern cattle station for conservation. The owner of Bramwell Station said it wouldn’t surprise her if the Queensland government made an offer to buy the property before it goes up for auction on August 11.

Kevin Tolhurst, Jerry Vanclay. Some ecologists and conservationists, opposed to timber harvesting, are trying to use bushfire disasters as a lever to stop native forest harvesting, but their case is based on opinion, beliefs and selective science. A 2016 study of over 1 million hectares burnt by wildfire in the 2003 fires in Victoria, showed that fire severity across the landscape was driven by weather conditions, slope aspect, fuel levels, atmospheric stability, and the scale of the fires. There was no discernible impact of timber harvesting on fire severity at the landscape scale.

The Victorian Government’s long-deferred decision to announce more National Parks in the West of Victoria last week dodges the real challenges of managing and conserving these forests. The Mt Cole – Pyrenees, Wombat, and Wellsford forests have all been re-assigned after an investigation by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) completed in June 2019.

With James Blundell officially opening on Saturday at 12pm, you’ll be wowed with the monster trucks and thrilled with all the action of a two day campdraft. Plus, rock climbing, side show ally and plenty more.

Rottnest Island will come alive to the inaugural Island Jazz Festival to be held across three days, between July 23 and 25. Those keen for a weekender on Rottnest can immerse themselves in top-class performances from sunrise to late into the night. There will be 13 free performances from some of the best talent Perth has to offer, including Adam Hall and the Velvet Playboys, Band of Soul featuring Solomon Pitt and Rubaclava.

Millions of horse owners the world over are set to benefit from a more effective method to treat equine gastric disease, a common condition affecting horses, especially in thoroughbred racing and the endurance riding sector.

Lismore Friendship Festival will host the second annual Italian Film Festival at Lismore's bccEvent Cinemas on Saturday, August 7 and Sunday August 8 2021. Following the success of the first event in 2019 it was decided that a sweep of historic and contemporary films will attract another audience of movie buffs.

Mining Minister Nicole Manison was in town to check out the progress of the highly anticipated Castile Resources’ Rover 1 project, 80km south-west of Tennant Creek. ... The Rover 1 project is targeting high grade gold and copper zones associated with massive magnetite ironstone (IOCG), similar to the mines around Tennant Creek.

A survey of Leading Sheep’s network of Queensland sheep and wool businesses found industry collaboration and information sharing helps facilitate improved flock, drought, and business management changes for producers.

Shortly after its recent merger with Centuria Capital Group and the sale of the Vitalharvest Freehold Trust, Primewest has launched a new wholesale unlisted agricultural fund that will be seeded with a $53.9 million almond farm in the Riverina region, offered as part of the Western Rosella farming portfolio.

One of the sunshine state’s largest agribusiness properties, Croydon Station, spanning nearly 60,000 hectares, has been sold for a speculated figure of around $80 million in the sector’s latest blockbuster deal ... “We fielded around 40 enquiries from buyers, which resulted in 10 inspections and seven tenders, which is very significant in this price bracket,” Pat O’Driscoll said.

Australian agriculture is set to become a $100 billion industry by 2030, though positive conditions will need to be backed up by increased investments. According to NAB and Agrifutures Final Report on the capital needs of the industry, the $63.3 billion agribusiness sector is on track to meet the $100 billion target set by the National Farmers’ Federation.

Chinese billionaire Xingfa Ma’s Tianma Bearing Group (TBG) has listed the modern feedlot and grazing property Emu Downs for lease, while it continues to shop around Balfour Downs and Wandanya stations in the Pilbara region.

We've sung about the pub with no beer. Tabulam now has the pub with no publican. George and Alison Martin ran the Tabulam Hotel for decades and George, now 78, had talked about retiring for years ... The person who bought the pub has on-sold the entitlements. This includes the six poker machines.

Four women want to make a difference to business in Coraki. The Coraki Business Chamber was officially launched on Wednesday, June 16 but Carol Hill, Debbie McGillan, Paula Starkey and Brenda Jones have been working behind the scenes for 18 months.

Jesse Scott, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer for GrainCorp, speaks with Fiona Fox from Australian Rural & Regional News about his background, his role at GrainCorp, GrainCorp's core businesses and some of its newer projects, including with FutureFeed and the Asparagopsis (red seaweed) industry, alternative protein and smart agriculture.

Worldwide, seaweed cultivation and utilisation are multi-billion dollar industries, yet Australasia plays little role in either. This is set to change, with growing interest in using our coastal and offshore waters to produce seaweeds that will not only provide high-value products for global markets, but will help mitigate human carbon emissions both directly through products that lower methane emissions and indirectly through long term carbon sequestration.

“At a dog park in Sydney in 2018, my wife and I got to talking about food security; how the global population is forecast to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050, yet we don’t have enough protein to feed everyone. I was looking at the ‘fur babies’, wondering how we could feed them more sustainably: could we feed them insect protein instead?” asked Shaun Eislers, founder of BuggyBix.

The Tweed JUNKtion tip shop regular has been able to turn his passion for restoring discarded equipment into a lucrative business. With a keen sense of what can be repaired, Adam visits the JUNKtion more than once a week looking for mowers, chainsaws and whipper snippers.