Research

New research from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency shows how Australia's mining and manufacturing sectors can work together to turn critical minerals resources such as lithium and silicon into much needed products for renewable energy, like electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.

Sparsely populated and prone to natural hazards, northern Australia is home to nearly 36,000 people – predominantly Indigenous Australians who live in remote communities. Previous fire and emergency management training has been seen as inadequate by local Indigenous land, fire and emergency managers, as it was based on suitability for southern Australia and lacked the tailored, collaborative strategies required to keep remote northern communities safe from frequent natural hazards in unique environments.

The development of ‘long coleoptile’ genetics that allow wheat plants to establish on moisture deeper in the soil has attracted strong interest from grain growers looking to improve crop establishment and therefore yields in a drying climate.

Healthy soils are fundamental to ensuring productivity and sustainability on‑farm – and winter through spring is a good time to have a look in the paddock to see what’s happening. Producers can access practical tips to maximise their soil health and drive pasture performance with a new, three‑part video series.

A new research investment by GRDC, led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has enabled evidence-based increases to zinc phosphide (ZnP) mouse baits that will help grain growers battling above-average mouse numbers in eastern Australia. ZnP-coated wheat bait is the only registered in-crop rodenticide for the management of mice damage in broad-scale agriculture in Australia. The new Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Authority emergency use permit increases the concentration of zinc phosphide active per wheat grain from 25 mg/kilogram to 50 mg/kg.

George Muirhead of Bioenergy Plantations, a commercial pongamia plantation company, said there are two key factors that have substantially changed the economic potential of pongamia. “Initially pongamia was explored purely as a renewable energy, with the oil used for bio-diesel. Significant research has shown the value of the meal, which alters the economic model completely. “In Indonesia and the United States, removal of the alkaloids from both the oil and meal have made them suitable for human and animal consumption, which considerably increases the financial viability of pongamia.”

Melinda Browning responds to Beverley McArthur MP's media release ... "Mrs McArthur has been misinformed. The correct interpretation of the research is as follows: Out of a sample size of 623 wild canids killed in Victoria as a result of ‘Wild Dog’ (Dingo) Control activities 98.5% proved to be either pure dingoes or have greater than 50% dingo ancestry. Conversely, just 1.5% proved to be domestic dogs with less than 50% dingo ancestry ..."

Australia can become a player in the billion-dollar global edible insect industry, producing nutritious, sustainable, and ethical products to support global food security, according to a new roadmap by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO ... CSIRO researcher and report co-author, Dr Rocio Ponce Reyes: “The worldwide edible insect market is expected to reach $1.4 billion AUD in value by 2023. Europe and the United States of America lead the western world market, with more than 400 edible-insect-related businesses in operation.”

Researchers Andrew Baird and Tom Bridge from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University and Queensland Museum Network recently visited to document the biodiversity of corals in the Lord Howe Island Marine Park, accompanied by field assistants Matt Curnock and Duan Briggs. Andrew and Tom are key members of Project Phoenix, an international collaboration seeking to re-invent hard coral taxonomy, using both old methods and new technologies.

Agriculture is the next frontier for space tech, with billion-dollar opportunities to super-charge technology adoption for farmers, fishers and foresters over the next five to ten years. That’s according to a new report by AgriFutures Australia, commissioned to give producers awareness of the depth and breadth of available space technologies, the potential uses and insights into what is coming over the next decade.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia have identified the cause of the devastating faba bean gall disease for the first time, a disease that causes significant destruction of bean crops in Ethiopia and China ... Faba bean is of critical importance for food security in Ethiopia, and faba bean gall disease is especially devastating for this East African community ... Australia is the world’s leading exporter of faba bean, producing up to 500 thousand tonnes annually and supplying one-third of faba bean traded internationally.

Granular Products, in collaboration with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), have launched the new Regain 750WG herbicide for control of Prickly Acacia and other woody weeds - with the new formulation providing graziers with an option to manage infestations as they arise, while using existing spray equipment and their previous knowledge of spray chemicals.

With seeding ramping up across many parts of the southern region, growers are being reminded of the importance of monitoring and maintaining soil phosphorus levels in order to maximise yield and profit.

Regional housing markets, which increased in value more than capital cities during 2020, will have different recovery needs in the wake of the pandemic, according to research by AHURI (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute). The report, Pathways to regional housing recovery from COVID-19, conducted by researchers from the University of Tasmania, examines the consequences of COVID-19 for households in regional Australia.

Narrandera may be a future home to a critically important research centre for one of the nation’s most iconic species, the koala. A notice of motion was submitted by deputy mayor David Fahey to Narrandera Shire Council to lobby Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service to establish a Koala Research Centre in Narrandera. Cr Fahey said the centre would research and protect the koala population in the Shire, create a tourism opportunity and employment for the town, and protect the disease-free status of the local koala population.

Emergency management teams are often required to work under considerable pressure and heavy workloads, during times of stress and fatigue. Researchers have developed two new tools that help support and enhance individual and team capabilities during emergencies.

Despite the global economic shocks like those produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural sectors and economies overall are better off when exposed to international trade, the latest ABARES research paper shows. The research report, Understanding effects of supply disruptions on globally and locally focused economies, examines the effects of exposure to the global market on supply chains, and the risks and shocks of this exposure.

Researchers at UniSA have developed a cost-effective technique that could deliver safe drinking water to millions of vulnerable people using cheap, sustainable materials and sunlight ... A team led by Associate Professor Haolan Xu has refined a technique to derive freshwater from seawater, brackish water, or contaminated water, through highly efficient solar evaporation, delivering enough daily fresh drinking water for a family of four from just one square metre of source water.

Kirstin Nicholson. A turtle nest – a wonderful construction, dug by the female to lay her eggs in and filled back up to keep the eggs safe from the world until they hatch up to a year later ... Despite being backfilled, the eggs are still in danger from predators like foxes and water rats. While we may not be able to easily identify a turtle nest, unfortunately a fox can ... Graham Stockfeld from Turtles Australia has been visiting the Gunbower and Cohuna area several times a year to protect the nests and collect data.

A University of South Australia research team is developing a prototype it hopes will one day be able to measure a whole vineyard microclimate in 3-D and in real-time. Professor Anthony Finn and his team are pioneering a technology known as AAT (acoustic atmospheric tomography), which observes the temperature and wind flow in the atmosphere above a vineyard and combines it with observations of the vineyard obtained using miniaturised long wave infrared cameras. This creates an accurate temperature mosaic of the vineyard infrastructure (vines, posts, inter-row ground, etc).

A more sustainable global fish economy could be created by using food scraps to make high-quality food for farmed fish, according to a team of researchers at The University of Western Australia.

Almost all wild canines in Australia are genetically more than half dingo, a new study led by UNSW Sydney shows – suggesting that lethal measures to control “wild dog” populations are primarily targeting dingoes ... Rio Tinto Weipa and the Weipa Town Authority recently embarked on a “feral animal control” program that targeted “wild dogs”. Both bodies did not believe they were killing dingoes.