Technology

TTV met with six parties yesterday, calling for pre-election commitments on three policies, one of which proves technology that has already detected 90 unplanned fires across Victoria in two seasons.

“Mobile connectivity in the regions is not a luxury; it is a critical and essential service.” That was the tone set at the Senate inquiry into the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025 where the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) gave evidence on behalf of remote families.

A ground-breaking artificial intelligence (AI) system has detected almost 90 unplanned fires since it was rolled out across more than a million hectares in South Australia, helping firefighters coordinate earlier bushfire responses.

The most sheep producers ever assembled on stage will headline LambEx26, with a freshly released program designed to bring the entire supply chain together - and onto one agenda.  

A Riverland school has become the first in the region to introduce Virtual Reality (VR) education into the classroom, allowing students to now completely immerse themselves in their learning – whether that includes being launched into space, walking through ancient civilizations, or exploring a world of their own digital creation.

The first major project unveiled by the Australasian Space Innovation Institute, the National Digital Twin for Australian Agriculture holds immense potential for the agricultural industry to harness existing national datasets and observation systems to model scenarios, test options and inform discussions and decisions, including at scale. Australian Rural & Regional News found out a good deal through an in depth interview with Andrew Beveridge, Director of the National Digital Twin for Australian Agriculture.

TasFarmers welcomes the Tasmanian Government’s decision to update its gene technology policy, enabling farmers to access advanced plant breeding technology. TasFarmers CEO Nathan Calman said the decision reflects a practical, evidence-based step forward for the state’s agricultural sector.

Austinn Lane. A large bronze whaler shark was spotted at the recent Berry Bay Surf Jam on southern Yorke Peninsula, thanks to drone technology. South Australian Shark Watch founding director, Anton Covino took drones to the event to test their potential for monitoring shark activity.

Global investment in data centres is accelerating – and Australia is well-placed to lead – but this must happen on terms that benefit the community and deliver for the national interest. The Albanese Government’s National AI Plan, released in December 2025, sets out our ambition: to harness the benefits of AI while ensuring all Australian’s shares the benefits.

Professor Bhattacharya from Monash University says advancing domestic refining and feedstock technologies is critical to improving long-term fuel security. Monash engineers have developed a pyrolysis technology that converts end-of-life tyres and plastics into high-value liquid hydrocarbons, creating a new, circular source of refinery-ready feedstocks.

Continence Health Australia is once again on the hunt for Australia’s missing public toilets. The Great Dunny Hunt is back in 2026 to help uncover the hidden toilets and add them to the National Public Toilet Map.

Meat & Livestock Australia has announced the successful completion of an MLA Donor Company AgTech project that has demonstrated reliable and affordable two-way satellite connectivity for livestock and on-farm Internet of Things sensors across Australia. The project was led by eSAT Global, with Smart Paddock providing on-farm visualisation and Viasat delivering satellite connectivity.

Pack your curiosity, leave the textbooks behind, and experience an unforgettable adventure where breakthroughs are built one LEGO® brick at a time! Created by LEGO® Certified Professional Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught and his team, CURIOSITY explores scientific knowledge, engineering feats, mathematical puzzles and more, brought to life in spectacular detail with the wonders of LEGO® bricks.

Madison Eastmond. A Renmark business has become a major sponsor of the reinstated 2026 Riverland Rose and Garden Festival after pledging of upwards of $5000 in support for the event. Locally owned business, Harvey Norman Renmark, has become one of the first major sponsors of the upcoming Riverland Rose and Garden Festival.

An American defence contractor, Lockheed Martin Australia, is seeking planning approval for a "global navigation satellite system reference station" in Ilparpa Road, near the popular claypans. The facility is part of a satellite based system pinpointing locations to the accuracy of as little as 10 centimetres, and while it is described as a civilian asset it clearly can have military applications.

The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across society in the past few years has both its benefits, and downfalls, which could change the way our communities are today. The Clarence Valley Independent spoke to a Northern River’s based tech expert, who is a husband, father, and computer programmer, about the explosion in society of AI.

Vytelle last week announced the commercial release of Vytelle SENSE™ Methane, a methane phenotyping system that costs a fraction of available systems and enables concurrent measurement of intake and sustainability. The technology was featured at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association CattleCon in Nashville on February 3, where producers saw live demonstrations.

Satellite imagery and artificial intelligence can detect with high accuracy two invasive weed species in Australia, posing a new opportunity for defense against these pervasive plants. Research conducted by Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Charles Sturt University (CSU) explored the potential for SkySat satellite imagery and AI algorithms to detect and map African lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula) and bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata).

This week, the comparison shifts to machinery and markets — how, in both decades a century apart, a revolution in farm equipment collided head-on with falling commodity prices and soaring machinery costs. The rhyme is almost eerie: technological leaps meeting financial cliffs.

Six hi-tech monitoring buoys which will automatically detect future harmful algal blooms before they reach our shores are being deployed across South Australian waters. The state-of-the-art oceanographic moorings are equipped with specific sensors for early detection of key harmful algal bloom (HAB) species such as Karenia.

A study tracking not only the forces that drive drought but the damage it leaves behind has revealed that droughts have lasted longer in Australia in recent decades, especially in areas with the most people and farms. UNSW researchers analysed drought trends across Australia between 1911 and 2020 based on rainfall shortages and falling river and dam levels.