Historically and as the economic hub for Central Queensland, our Region has many strengths in agriculture, mining services, energy, construction, education and health services. Our strategic location as a logistics hub well serviced by road, rail, air and sea positions us positively for future opportunities as Northern, Central and Southern Australia continue to grow.

Apprenticeships and traineeships are excellent examples of pathways into work that have proven to be effective. But they are specific to certain occupations.

Apprentices and trainees made up about 10 per cent of the pathways people take into the workforce. He said policymakers needed to create better vocational education and training (VET) courses to give young people stronger options outside universities and apprenticeships.

3.9 million people were enrolled in vocational education and training last year, but up to 2.4 million of those were in short courses such as first aid and construction safety.

Fitzroy agriculture is predominantly based on livestock. It is the main hub for meat production throughout the entire GBR Region. Cattle meat production in 2014-15 was an estimated $1,285 million, which is 54% of the total value of cattle meat production within the GBR Catchment Area. Other agricultural commodities make up a smaller share of production value in Fitzroy, with the most significant of these being broadacre crops less sugar and cotton, with production of $236 million in 2014-15.

Is Australia’s housing crisis self-inflicted? If so, then we need a series of reforms to reverse it
The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public and/or affordable housing.

Make renting more Sustainable. Increase rent assistance or look at rental caps, similar to countries in Europe and some US states, long term tenancy agreements with incentives for all parties to the agreement.

Build to Rent
The Build to Rent property sector is growing in Australia – this new class of housing is focused on providing high quality purpose designed and built rental stock, creating an additional housing choice for Australian renters with greater security and service.

Build to Rent developments are typically owned by institutional investors for the long term and the owner could be the developer/ongoing building manager. The format provides tenants with the flexibility of renting with the security of home ownership.

Build-to-Rent developments are usually large-scale residential properties specifically designed, built and managed for long-term ownership and rental.

Social Housing
In the 40 years between 1981 and 2021 the percentage of all Australian households living in social housing (i.e. state owned and managed public housing or community managed housing) has ranged from 4.9 per cent in 1981 to 3.8 per cent in 2021. Such a drop in the proportion of social housing raises the question of has Australia achieved the balance right, and also just what is the right level of social housing for Australia?

In 2018 Statistics Canada said 628,700 Canadian households, more than one in ten renter households nationally (13.5% of 4,652,500), were living in social and affordable housing.
In New Zealand, as of 30 June 2021, there were 74,337 public housing households. This equates to 4.0% of households living in social housing.

In England (in 2018) 17% of households (3.9 million) lived in social housing, while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes that 1.2 million households live in public housing, which is 0.98 per cent of all housing.

Innovation isn’t just something happening in our big cities. It is important people living in remote areas are able to participate in these programs, events and activities.

Central Highlands Development Corporation Acting General Manger Liz Alexander said the funding would support CHDC, Central Highlands Regional Council, BMA, CQUniversity, Rural Business Collective and C-RES (Queensland) to boost the emergence and development of innovation and cross-regional collaboration.

The Central Queensland resource sector, which includes not just coal, but other minerals like gold, copper, magnesium and salt, contributes significantly to the Rockhampton economy. Over 1500 Rockhampton locals are directly employed by the resource sector, with this sector responsible for 25% of Rockhampton’s Gross Regional Product at a value of over $1.4 Billion.

It is an exciting time for Rockhampton with the amount of large infrastructure projects currently in construction, the ever increasing presence of local, superior mining sector companies operating out of Rockhampton, with projects such as Carmichael Mine, Olive Downs Mine and the potential of Mt Morgan gold mine being reopened.

Leveraging its proximity to the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Rockhampton Airport, Port Alma, and the Bajool Magazine, Rockhampton Region is uniquely placed to support a permanent Australian Defence Force (ADF) presence. With experienced large equipment maintenance providers, Rockhampton provides future defence industry capability.

As the name suggests, Capricorn Region lies on the Tropic of Capricorn, spanning from the National Parks of the Central Highlands that border Outback Queensland to the coastline of the Southern Great Barrier Reef and the green continental islands of the Keppel Group. At the heart of the region is the city of Rockhampton, ‘Rocky’ to the locals and those who know it well – it’s Australia’s ‘Beef Capital’.

Rockhampton lies on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River, the second largest river system in Australia. The city’s wealth of historic buildings, best illustrated in the riverside precinct of Quay Street, reflects the age of the gold rushes in the 19th century centred at nearby Mt Morgan and followed by the cattle grazing industry. Visitors can get a taste of the local steaks and a rodeo at one of Rocky’s heritage pubs. Be sure to also visit the limestone caverns of Capricorn Caves.

On the nearby Capricorn Coast holiday havens start with the welcoming seaside town of Yeppoon. On the northern edges of this coast is Byfield National Park, rich in birdlife while to the south lie small beachside communities, a marina and attractions including a crocodile farm. Floating on the horizon, Great Keppel Island is a tropical island destination with 17 glorious beaches and a choice of holiday options.

Inland you can discover real gems – sapphires and other precious stones – amidst the prospectors’ claims in the Gemfields. Head south to include Carnarvon National Park and the walking path through Carnarvon Gorge with its steep escarpments, pockets of rainforest, ancient Aboriginal rock art and native fauna.

Resource recovery from a number of different waste streams is already being undertaken in the region, diverting materials such as clean fill, green waste, paper and cardboard, timber, metals and glass.

The amount of material recovered through these activities has followed an increasing trend over the last three years and is likely to continue as further resource recovery initiatives and technologies are introduced.

Education and engagement with the community plays a critical role in meeting waste management targets and reducing contamination rates. It is a key element in the successful implementation of this strategy, supporting the actions and objectives of other priorities.

Flow batteries were first developed in the 1980s, by now-Emeritus Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos at the University of New South Wales.

“Most of the batteries that we use are enclosed systems,” says Associate Professor Alexey Glushenkov, a chemist and research lead in battery materials at the Australian National University’s Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program.

In the coming decades, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind will increasingly dominate the conventional power grid. Because those sources only generate electricity when it’s sunny or windy, ensuring a reliable grid — one that can deliver power 24/7 — requires some means of storing electricity when supplies are abundant and delivering it later when they’re not. A promising technology for performing that task is the flow battery, an electrochemical device that can store hundreds of megawatt-hours of energy — enough to keep thousands of homes running for many hours on a single charge. Flow batteries have the potential for long lifetimes and low costs in part due to their unusual design. In the everyday batteries used in phones and electric vehicles, the materials that store the electric charge are solid coatings on the electrodes.

A flow battery contains two substances that undergo electrochemical reactions in which electrons are transferred from one to the other. When the battery is being charged, the transfer of electrons forces the two substances into a state that’s “less energetically favourable” as it stores extra energy. (Think of a ball being pushed up to the top of a hill.) When the battery is being discharged, the transfer of electrons shifts the substances into a more energetically favourable state as the stored energy is released. (The ball is set free and allowed to roll down the hill.)

At the core of a flow battery are two large tanks that hold liquid electrolytes, one positive and the other negative. Each electrolyte contains dissolved “active species” — atoms or molecules that will electrochemically react to release or store electrons. During charging, one species is “oxidized” (releases electrons), and the other is “reduced” (gains electrons); during discharging, they swap roles. Pumps are used to circulate the two electrolytes through separate electrodes, each made of a porous material that provides abundant surfaces on which the active species can react. A thin membrane between the adjacent electrodes keeps the two electrolytes from coming into direct contact and possibly reacting, which would release heat and waste energy that could otherwise be used on the grid.

A critical factor in designing flow batteries is the selected chemistry. The two electrolytes can contain different chemicals, but today the most widely used setup has vanadium in different oxidation states on the two sides. That arrangement addresses the two major challenges with flow batteries.

First, vanadium doesn’t degrade. If you put 100 grams of vanadium into your battery and you come back in 100 years, you should be able to recover 100 grams of that vanadium — as long as the battery doesn’t have some sort of a physical leak.

And second, if some of the vanadium in one tank flows through the membrane to the other side, there is no permanent cross-contamination of the electrolytes, only a shift in the oxidation states, which is easily remediated by re-balancing the electrolyte volumes and restoring the oxidation state via a minor charge step. Most of today’s commercial systems include a pipe connecting the two vanadium tanks that automatically transfers a certain amount of electrolyte from one tank to the other when the two get out of balance.

Remote microgrids are perfect for flow batteries of all scales.

They’re not temperature sensitive, like lithium-ion batteries, so they can operate quite comfortably in hot conditions, which is a real benefit. And they’re non-flammable.

Australia has around 18% of the world’s vanadium reserves, mostly in Western Australia – hence Australian Vanadium’s interests. The element is still, mostly, used in steel, but flow batteries are going to change things.

Food Agility makes innovation easier. We broker, design and deliver innovation programs for the Australian agrifood industry, ensuring maximum impact for investment. We specialise in using data and digital technology to increase profits and improve sustainability.

Japanese processors, wholesalers, restaurant chains, supermarkets and premium food stores are proactively looking for new products that are safe, price-competitive and uniquely value-added overseas. Consumer buying patterns continue to influence demand, procurement and marketing.

Trends and opportunities include:
• Ageing demographic: Japan’s ageing population and rising single person households is increasing the demand for food products such as ready-to-eat meals.
• Unique products: Wholesalers look for products that are ‘interesting’ for consumers. ‘Unique’ and ‘high quality’ attributes are seen as strong selling points and are often used in marketing strategies. For instance, in many cases, products with a distinct ‘Australian’ flavour or feature are at an advantage
• Seasonal gifts: There is a strong gift culture in Japan around seasonal events such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year and Obon. Opportunities are open for food products that can be tailored to meet this seasonal demand.
• Natural products: The natural and organic market continues to gradually expand, opening up new opportunities. The emphasis is on natural ingredients which minimise additives and preservatives. Australian products in this area remain well regarded in terms of quality. However, competitive pricing remains a challenge.
• Sweets and snacks: Demand for confectionery and savoury snacks remain high with the focus on quality and uniqueness rather than the overall size of the product.
• Health food: Demand for healthy food is increasing due to an ageing and more health-conscious population. In response, Japanese manufacturers are focusing on healthy, functional and anti-ageing products.
• Growing cities: There is a growing demand for high quality, gourmet and uniquely packaged food products in some of Japan’s major cities. For example, as Japan’s overall population continues to decline, Tokyo’s population is expected to expand.

Organic waste makes up around half of what Queenslanders throw away each week in their kerbside waste (red lid) bin. Diverting organic material from landfill presents numerous environmental and economic benefits, ranging from significant landfill methane emissions reduction to the generation of a value-added product.

The Queensland Government supported Townsville City, Rockhampton Regional and Lockyer Valley Regional Councils to undertake the trials.

As part of the trial, each council provided an additional bin to a sample of households to test collection frequencies, equipment types and community engagement methods.

The trials successfully diverted hundreds of tonnes of organic waste from landfill. The information gathered from the trials is being used by the Queensland Government and councils to assess the suitably of ongoing FOGO collections in Queensland.

The trials were made possible due to the dedicated waste management teams in the local governments who have been on the ground every day ensuring that their communities embrace new ways of managing their waste.

Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions.

Fusing atoms together in a controlled way releases nearly four million times more energy than a chemical reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas and four times as much as nuclear fission reactions (at equal mass). Fusion has the potential to provide the kind of baseload energy needed to provide electricity to our cities and our industries.

The Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre is enabling the growth of battery industries to power Australia’s future. We bring together industry, researchers, governments and the community to ensure Australia plays a leading role in the global battery revolution.

Our work is critical in making our industries more competitive by harnessing the research skills and industry expertise required to create new economic opportunities.

The FEnEx CRC will execute cutting-edge, industry-led research, education and training to help sustain Australia’s position as a leading LNG exporter, and enable it to become the leading global Hydrogen exporter.

‘Future food’ is our shorthand for categories of food that are differentiated by exceptional values for nutrition, environmental sustainability, safety and trust. Not only does Australia have capability to build global market share in these categories, we think consumers are increasingly demanding a future in which the food industry responds to these values.

Systems technologies and ‘systems thinking’ are critical to increasing the efficiency and resilience of the food supply chain, nationally and globally.

An industry survey has found Australian architects are worried about the climate crisis and frustrated by barriers to action but are confident the profession can contribute to a sustainable future.

There appears to be a real problem in implementing new technologies in an ordered, coordinated fashion.

As a fragmented industry with many small contractors, the adoption of new technologies has been uneven and uncoordinated, and the adoption of AI in the industry could result in fundamental restructuring of the industry.

It could no doubt solve some of the issues of compliance and quality but could equally lead to issues of uncertain liability and risk shifting, where the architect’s current professional responsibilities for their work are blurred by the use of AI in their practices.

Automation may push some architects out of their comfort zone, but that doesn’t mean it’s game over. In a world where creativity and innovation rule, architects must keep their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, while also mastering data analysis, digital literacy, and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams.