Young agri-business Nectar Farms will invest $220 million to build a 30 hectare glasshouse fuelled by solar PV energy at Stawell, Victoria in its first project linking power generation to mass horticultural production. The project go ahead comes after the Victorian government signed up as a cornerstone customer for the proposed the Bulgana Green Power…
With work accelerating on the 10-year, multi billion dollar Inland Rail project, benefits are beginning to flow through to local businesses and railway suppliers. The new 1,700km line, which will link Brisbane and Melbourne via regional centres, has called for expressions of interest for a number of major inputs including a requirement for sleepers for…
The Innovative Manufacturing Co-operative Research Centre is living up to its promise of driving industrial transformation, reporting $140 million worth of manufacturing research underway by June 30 this year. In its annual yearly highlights just released, CEO David Chuter reported a further $23 million of government cash had been invested alongside industry to create new…
Perth marine engineering group VEEM has grown profits in the latest financial year despite the cyclical nature of some of its big ticket defence contracts. The company, which manufacturers ships propellers, drive shafts and stabilising gyro systems, recorded net profit after tax of $2.76 million in 2019, up $500,000, on turnover of $40.7 million. EBITDA…
Australia’s gas industry is up to the challenge and opportunities presented by the increasing use of hydrogen as a fuel, according to industry players. The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association ceo, Steve Davies told the APGA annual convention yesterday that Australia’s 45,000 kilometres of high pressure gas pipelines were the optimal infrastructure to deliver gas.…
Analysis by Peter Roberts It is now official. Australia now has the economic diversity and export profile of a typical third world nation. Our antipathy to value-adding activities such as manufacturing in favour of industries that require little more than digging it up and shipping it out, has left us dangerously dependent on quarrying. According…
Nerve regeneration company Orthocell (ASX: OCC) is one of two Australian biotech to announce good news in the past week. The Perth company reported positive interim clinical results for CelGro, its collagen-based structure used as a scaffold to help rebuild damaged peripheral nerves. Orthocell’s CelGro achieved positive results in studies of 12 patients at St…
Australia’s National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) launched with much fanfare in 2015 is winding down with projects and funding drying up. The latest casualty is CSIRO’s On Accelerator programme which is to be closed as NISA ‘expires’ on 30 June 2020. The ON programme aimed at supporting teams of researchers from publicly funded research…
Robotic technology venture Fastbrick is to build its first new homes using the Hadrian X bricklaying robot under a commercial deal with Summit Homes Group. Fastbrick, a joint venture between technology developer FBR (ASX: FBR) and brick manufacturer Brickworks (ASX: BKW), will commence a three-stage pilot building programme for the builder. It is the first…
Adelaide’s Flinders University has signed two agreements to provide research and advanced manufacturing technologies to the city’s expanding naval shipbuilders.