Research Highlights

Full article issued by University of Tasmania.

ARC supported researchers at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), who developed a world-first method to breed rock lobsters commercially, have now paved the way for a Moreton Bay bug aquaculture industry in Tasmania.

Based at IMAS’s Taroona laboratories, the ARC Research Hub for Commercial Development of Rock Lobster Culture Systems began researching hatchery techniques for the bay lobster, Thenus oriental, better known as the Moreton Bay bug, in September 2017.

The Research Hub’s Director, Associate Professor Greg Smith, said the successful application to Bay lobsters of the IMAS techniques developed for tropical rock lobsters has now made possible a commercial operation in Tasmania.

Full article issued by the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products.

A research project based at the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products at the University of Tasmania is working on increasing the shelf life of baby spinach and other baby salad leaves, so it keeps fresh in your fridge for longer.

A PhD candidate at the ARC Training Centre, Ms Vongai Dakwa, is working with research partner Houston’s Farm, a Tasmanian grower and processor of baby leafy salad vegetables, and conducting a range of laboratory experiments to examine factors that can be controlled by the vegetable industry to increase shelf life.  Ms Dakwa’s research project is just one of ten PhD projects of the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products, directed by food safety expert Associate Professor Tom Ross, from the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture.

Full article issued by the University of Wollongong.

In a breakthrough discovery, researchers based at the University of Wollongong (UOW) node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) have created a ‘heartbeat’ effect in liquid metal, causing the metal to pulse rhythmically in a manner similar to a beating heart.

The researchers produced the heartbeat by electrochemically stimulating a drop of liquid gallium, causing it to oscillate in a regular and predictable manner. Gallium is a soft silvery metal with a low melting point, becoming liquid at temperatures greater than 29.7C.

The discovery has potential applications for fluid-based timers and actuators in artificial muscles, soft robotics and ‘lab-on-a-chip‘ microfluidic circuitry.

Full article issued by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.

Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) have used high-resolution close-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and a suite of spatial information analytical techniques to investigate Kaiadilt Aboriginal stone-walled intertidal fishtraps on Sweers Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.

Stone-walled intertidal fishtraps were built to control the movements of marine animals. They are the largest structures built by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and surround the Australian coastline, with dense complexes around the South Wellesley Islands and some Torres Strait Islands. The new fascinating aerial images document trap walls hundreds of meters long and up to a meter high. In the Sweers Island case study area, thirteen fishtraps were identified, ranging from 38m to 287m in length.