Flinders develops new wave energy system A prototype system for harnessing power from ocean waves designed by Flinders University researchers delivers a robust generator made from recycled material that promises to help address small-scale local energy requirements and environmental pollution issues with further R&D, according to the university. The ‘green machine’, designed around a wave-driven triboelectric…
Today we launch our second Celebrating Australian Made editorial series, running this week and next. By Brent Balinski.
By Dr Jesse Adams Stein It is now a common trope of Australian election campaigns that both major parties pay lip service to the importance of supporting ‘advanced manufacturing’, while regularly donning hard-hats and high-vis vests. But what does ‘advanced manufacturing’ really mean for jobs, for communities, or for the environment? Image by Matt Roberts…
Korean steelmaker Posco and the Hancock iron ore group are studying the feasibility of a Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant in Australia fuelled by green hydrogen to provide iron for Posco’s Korean steel operations. The company revealed the two companies had signed a heads of agreement (HOA) to study the construction of iron ore mines,…
Seed Terminator reaps benefits of non-chemical weed control Seed Terminator’s non-chemical weed control equipment is making waves on farms with its technology that destroys weed seeds during harvesting. The Seed Terminator (pictured) is attached to a combine harvester and processes material before it is returned to the soil. Seed Terminator’s Mark Ashenden said: “It basically…
By Peter Roberts Fires last year, erosion on our beaches, floods this year. No-one could have predicted this is a phrase heard yet again. Yes they did predict it. As a young journalist in the 1980s I travelled to Antarctica’s Casey, Davis and Mawson bases and met the scientists studying the oxygen bubbles trapped deep…
The famous Australian Made logo is not changing or being replaced, despite the release by Austrade of a kangaroo-based Nation Brand. That latest release follows the dumping of the first iteration of the Nation Brand – the infamous gold ‘Wattle mark’ – that drew unfavourable comparisons to images of the coronavirus. The Wattle mark has…
The imminent South Australian state election has flushed out another government-backed project with the announcement of a $400 million Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre (EIC) for the Lot Fourteen precinct on North Terrace, Adelaide. The EIC ‘will set the global pace for multidisciplinary innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship and is specifically designed to suit the secure environment…
By Michael Sharpe As I write, the regional New South Wales town of Wee Waa is cut off by flood waters. There is widespread flooding across the North West of the State. In 2007, just west of Wee Waa, I was standing in the famous Cafe De Luxe at Brewarrina with Angelo Pippos. Opened in…
Leadership in factory automation today looks at 3RT, a company that turns wood waste into a product that looks and performs like 100-year-old hardwood. Founder and managing director Peter Torreele says that advanced automation is essential to goals of an affordable product that performs like naturally-grown timber, and can be made and sold locally anywhere in the world. By Brent Balinski.