By Peter Roberts Korean defence group Hanwha has made a bid to buy one of the few Australian-owned defence prime contractors, shipbuilder Austal, and take it into foreign control. The bid was confirmed this morning by the Perth shipbuilder, which has expended from aluminium ferry building to become a major defence shipbuilder in Australia and…
Details
Drone detection and countermeasure manufacturer DroneShield has been awarded a $900,000 R&D contract from a Five-Eyes government to respond to increases in electronic jamming including potentially on the battlefields of Ukraine. The contract aims to leverage the potential of the DroneSentry-X Mk2 and aims to provide a set of software tools to enhance end-user capabilities…
Details
1414 Degrees has announced the completion of the demonstration phase of its $6 million SiBox thermal energy storage project ready for commercialisation. The company, which is developing the SiBox technology in partnership with Woodside Energy Technologies, said the system had delivered continuous process heat at levels needed for industrial use. It defined a cycle of…
Details
Rocket range operator Southern Launch is putting the finishing touches to Australia’s latest permanent spaceport ahead of its first launch. New launch facilities at the Koonibba Test Range north of Ceduna in outback South Australia are almost ready for the launch of German manufacturer HyImpulse’s SR75 rocket. The launch will will test HyImpulse’s hybrid propulsion…
Details
Brisbane’s Graphene Manufacturing Group has secured Queensland government backing for a proposed Automated Battery Pilot Plant for the manufacture of GMG’s Graphene Aluminium Ion Battery. The company signed a Queensland Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund Agreement with the state for a grant of $2 million. GMG is using graphene to produce aluminium-ion batteries utilising…
Details
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed the lifting of punitive tariffs on Australia’s wine exports by China. Speaking at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley wine region Albanese said the flow on of the Chinese change of heart would be enormous. Albanese said: “Now, when the impediments to trade with China were put in place,…
Details
Solar cell manufacturer SunDrive Solar and ASX-listed AGL Energy have announced a Memorandum of Understanding exploring the possibility of building solar panels at AGL’s Hunter Energy Hub. The news coincided with Thursday morning’s announcement by prime minister Anthony Albanese of the $1 billion Solar SunShot scheme, aiming to grow a local supply chain for solar…
Details
Sparc Technologies and the South Australian Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) are to trial the company’s ecosparc graphene enhanced coatings on steel infrastructure such as bridges and jetties in the state. The parties have signed a Trial Agreement under which Sparc and the DIT will conduct collaborative field trials at the West Beach Bridge…
Details
Strong employment outcomes for apprentices and trainees – NCVER The latest report from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows that the proportion of apprentices and trainees who were employed after training remained high in 2023. The report, Apprentice and trainee outcomes 2023, shows that 95.6 percent of apprentices and trainees who completed…
Details
Graphene Manufacturing Group announced this week that it has signed a Queensland Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund Agreement with the state government for a $2 million grant, supporting the company’s proposed battery pilot plant. Brisbane-based and Toronto-listed GMG is commercialising graphene aluminium ion batteries among other graphene-based products. GMG claims that their batteries, developed…
Details