Research

Two Allora families have returned from a successful 11 day cycling adventure through France and the UK. Mark Mason and James Turner completed the 1200km ride from Lourdes France to Lords Cricket Ground in London to raise funds and awareness for type 1 diabetes research.

The latest national koala population estimates from CSIRO’s National Koala Monitoring Program (NKMP) have revealed a staggering leap in koala numbers that upends years of alarmism. The 2025 CSIRO report estimates the listed population between 398,000 and 569,000, a dramatic rise from the 2024 estimate of just 95,000 to 238,000.  

The 2024 - 2025 Blue Economy CRC Annual Report is now available. As we enter the final half of our 10-year journey, our measure of success is no longer knowledge generation alone, but how that knowledge is applied and adopted.  

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has stated that tackling regional worker shortages is the key to unlocking productivity growth in Australian agriculture. In a recent report, the NFF stated that more planning is needed to safeguard the sector’s future.

Confidence in Australia’s farming sector has lifted, as the nation’s farmers hang their hopes on continuing strong commodity prices – particularly in livestock sectors – and better seasonal conditions in a number of regions, the latest Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey has found.

University of South Australia and Kangaroo Island Research Station ecologists have made a remarkable discovery about the mysterious and endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart: it is partial to climbing trees ... “The last thing I expected to find in one of our pygmy-possum nest boxes some distance up in a mallee eucalypt was a dunnart.  It was a wonderful surprise,” says Peter Hammond.

Australian livestock producers have been facing an unprecedented period of market volatility over recent years, with swings in cattle and sheep prices reaching record extremes, Rabobank says in new research. In the report Managing increased volatility in Australian livestock markets … volatility has long been a feature of livestock markets, both the scale and frequency of price swings have intensified significantly over the past five to 10 years.

North west Victoria hosted some of the nation's leading agricultural researchers last week when 17 senior CSIRO scientists visited Birchip for a three-day think tank with the Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) focused on driving the next wave of innovation in broadacre farming.

Animal cloning never became a popular or profitable business. However, this industry has made human cloning a reality. For better or worse, all that remains is to legalise it. The first animals that were cloned in Australia were a sheep named Matilda ...

Australia is forecast to harvest a larger winter grain crop this year, with Rabobank estimating total volumes to reach 62.8 million tonnes in its just-released annual 2025/26 Australian Winter Crop Forecast.

Australia’s horticulture industry is set to benefit from a major innovation in weed management, announced ... at the Gatton AgTech Showcase. The Next generation weed management project - a three-part project being delivered by Applied Horticultural Research, Nufarm, and La Trobe University, and funded by Hort Innovation - aims to transform how growers tackle weed challenges...

Artificial Intelligence is part of the fourth industrial revolution. The previous three industrial revolutions turned rural life upside down and the fourth revolution will be no exception. The only difference will be in the scale and speed of change ... To make sure this is not a useless test, rural voters will have to actively work with politicians.

On a cotton farm near Emerald in central Queensland, something unusual is taking root. Among the cotton, mung beans and peanuts that typically fill the rotation, a small but mighty crop is showing its potential to change the face of Australian agriculture: sesame.

Australian beekeepers are being urged to share their experiences in the 2025 COLOSS Survey, as the industry faces rising costs and labour demands from Varroa destructor (Varroa) management. The 2024 Australian Colony Loss (COLOSS) Survey revealed that Varroa is costing the honey bee industry more than just dollars, with labour impacts also increasing.

As October arrives, so too does the first flush of mauve from Australia’s beloved jacaranda trees. I trace the jacaranda’s journey from the dry slopes of the Andes to its spectacular springtime display in towns like Grafton, where more than 1,700 trees transform the streets into rivers of purple. With the bloom set to reach its dazzling peak in just a fortnight, it’s the perfect moment to celebrate this fleeting spring spectacle.

An independent, NSW Government-commissioned study released in September 2025 has confirmed there is no evidence that selective timber harvesting harms koala populations in NSW’s North Coast forests. 

The Australian industrial hemp industry is rapidly evolving, supported by legislative reforms, growing consumer interest, and increasing research into hemp’s agronomic potential ... To address this knowledge gap, the Industrial Hemp Variety Trials (IHVT) were initiated to provide independent, regionally specific data on hemp variety performance.

Australia’s goat fibre industry is gaining momentum and there’s never been a better time to get involved. Whether you’re an experienced producer, run a mixed cropping farm business or just curious about what fibre goats could offer your enterprise, the Goat Fibre Gateway is a practical touchpoint to expand your industry knowledge and build networks.

Sarah Herrmann. Garfish, whiting and calamari stock assessment began in Gulf St Vincent last week, with the opposition calling the government's timing "sluggish". The state government announced a "rapid assessment of fish stocks and fisheries" on July 22 to measure the impact of the algal bloom, but more than two months later, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries Nicola Centofanti said there had been little evidence of a rapid response.

QUT has launched an $18 million upgrade to its Mackay-based QUT Pioneer BioPilot, transforming it into Australia’s leading pilot-scale fermentation facility and advancing Queensland’s ambition to become an Asia-Pacific biomanufacturing hub.

Tasmania has emerged as a "standout success story" in Australian agriculture, powered by a vibrant and varied farming sector which has experienced sustained and widespread growth in recent decades, according to a new report. In the report, Gearing up for mature growth in Tasmanian agriculture, agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank says agriculture remains the cornerstone of Tasmania’s economy...

...Crocodiles aren’t just an iconic part of the Northern Territory - they’re powering our economy too. A new report estimates the industry will contribute $151 million in 2025, supporting more than 300 jobs. The Economic Value of the Northern Territory’s Crocodile Industry ... outlines three growth scenarios that could see the industry’s contribution rise to between $176 million and $243 million by 2035.