Building products, property and investment group Brickworks achieved a record net profit after tax in FY21 driven by a 38 per cent rise in its investment in WHSP, property development and stronger building products performance in Australia. Underlying NPAT from continuing operations was up 95 per cent to $285 million and statutory profit down 20…
By Peter Roberts Something needs to done to bridge a submarine capability gap no matter what the outcome of an 18 month study by the US. UK and Australia determines about the viability of Australia acquiring nuclear propelled submarines from our allies. This is becoming increasingly clear as a life-extension of the six Collins class…
Strategic Elements creates battery that charges itself from air Investment group Strategic Elements has succeeded in producing a milliamp of electrical current from a battery utilising only the humidity in the air. The company’s prototype battery ink cells (pictured) produced 100mAh of electric charge when run over three days, the company reported. Strategic Elements successfully…
Taiwanese rocket manufacturer TiSpace has abandoned efforts to launch its 10-metre Hapith I rocket from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex near Port Lincoln in South Australia. Launch site operator Southern Launch went on social media to reveal that inspections following a fire on the launch pad last week had led to the decision not…
Perth’s Pawsey Supercomputing Centre has released a timelapse video (below)showing the increase in firepower of Australia’s national digital and data research infrastructure. Phase 1 of a $70 million spend to improve data availability, data transfer speed, and overall storage capacity, the video shows the installation of SetonixHPC with computational power comparable to 150,000 PCs working…
Not content with making only five billion M&M’S and one million PODS confectionery a year, food manufacturer Mars Wrigley has announced a $30 million investment in its Ballarat plant. The investment in 2021/22 will go towards the continued expansion of Mars Wrigley’s local chocolate making capabilities by allowing the manufacturer to introduce more variants to…
By Joseph Brookes Autonomous robots being used today in dangerous precision blasting work in Chile started in an engineer’s backyard in Brisbane six years ago. But getting to this point – an Australian startup exporting advanced technology – required a level of government support and leadership the founder sayid has disappeared in recent years. In…
Canberra’s submarine flip flop has left industry and key manufacturers high and dry with questions raised about the extent of Australian content in an imported nuclear submarine, and manufacturers with existing contracts with the French Naval Group facing an uncertain future. The former head of Australian Submarine Corporation, which built the Collins submarines, Hans Ohff…
Dominic Spooner founded Brisbane battery casing design company Vaulta in response to the looming environmental disaster of batteries from electric vehicles. Currently they mostly go to landfill, a massive waste of resources and an environmental menace. Here Spooner outlines a design-led solution.
Mining company Rio Tinto is to more than triple the local electricity network’s solar generation capacity at its Weipa bauxite operations in Queensland as decarbonisation accelerates in Australia’s mining sector. Announcing a new solar farm and battery storage at Weipa today a Rio general manager Michelle Elvy said: “The new solar farm and battery storage…
