Sustaining chicken-meat production with alternative protein sources. This project aims to secure sustainable chicken-meat production by the radical reduction or even elimination of imported soybean meal as the primary protein source in Australian broiler diets by its replacement with feed-grade amino acids and local feedstuffs. This project will expand our comprehension of starch/glucose and protein/amino acid digestive dynamics in poultry diets based on wheat, the primary feed grain in Australi ....Sustaining chicken-meat production with alternative protein sources. This project aims to secure sustainable chicken-meat production by the radical reduction or even elimination of imported soybean meal as the primary protein source in Australian broiler diets by its replacement with feed-grade amino acids and local feedstuffs. This project will expand our comprehension of starch/glucose and protein/amino acid digestive dynamics in poultry diets based on wheat, the primary feed grain in Australia; however, wheat does inherently possess nutritional disadvantages. Expected outcomes include soybean meal-free feed formulations for the Australian chicken-meat industry to enhance the affordable and environmentally viable production of chicken-meat coupled with improved bird welfare and flock health. Read moreRead less
Utilising novel Pongamia trees to decarbonise Australia’s beef value-chain. Progress towards a carbon neutral beef industry typically focusses on nutritional strategies, overlooking potential innovations in farming system configuration. This project aims to develop a framework for the integration of Pongamia into beef production systems, so that not only emissions reductions are maximised, but also to support carbon capture and farm system resilience. This project seeks to determine the impact o ....Utilising novel Pongamia trees to decarbonise Australia’s beef value-chain. Progress towards a carbon neutral beef industry typically focusses on nutritional strategies, overlooking potential innovations in farming system configuration. This project aims to develop a framework for the integration of Pongamia into beef production systems, so that not only emissions reductions are maximised, but also to support carbon capture and farm system resilience. This project seeks to determine the impact of Pongamia meal on cattle production efficiency, meat quality and methane emissions. Through quantification of carbon sequestration potential in tree plantations, whole-farm modelling will elucidate production scenarios capable of achieving the reductions needed for a carbon neutral Australian beef industry.Read moreRead less
More than a Roof Overhead: Meeting the Need for a Sustainable Housing System in Remote Indigenous Communities. Many Indigenous Australians live in substandard and over-crowded accommodation, and experience poor health, education, family stability and child-safety outcomes as a result. The lack of improvement in this situation is largely due to levels of funding and approaches to construction and management inadequate to the scale of the problem. This situation is changing and new funding and po ....More than a Roof Overhead: Meeting the Need for a Sustainable Housing System in Remote Indigenous Communities. Many Indigenous Australians live in substandard and over-crowded accommodation, and experience poor health, education, family stability and child-safety outcomes as a result. The lack of improvement in this situation is largely due to levels of funding and approaches to construction and management inadequate to the scale of the problem. This situation is changing and new funding and policies are being established. The researchers will work alongside housing providers and selected Indigenous communities in Western Australia and Northern Territory to develop procurement, construction and housing management practices that will meet the critical need for more affordable, appropriate and sustainable housing.Read moreRead less
Living with Heritage: Integrating time, place and culture for World Heritage conservation. World Heritage conservation in developing countries is challenged by conflicting demands of preservation, economic development and social equity. Managing these demands requires monitoring of the dynamic interaction between natural environment, cultural heritage and contemporary society. Angkor, the great World Heritage site in Cambodia, epitomises the challenge. A joint Cambodian and international team wi ....Living with Heritage: Integrating time, place and culture for World Heritage conservation. World Heritage conservation in developing countries is challenged by conflicting demands of preservation, economic development and social equity. Managing these demands requires monitoring of the dynamic interaction between natural environment, cultural heritage and contemporary society. Angkor, the great World Heritage site in Cambodia, epitomises the challenge. A joint Cambodian and international team will create a time-based, spatial information monitoring system for site management using Angkor as a test case. The new methodology integrates past and future research, community values, national policies and international heritage best-practice. Research, management and governance come together to reconcile the competing demands of living with heritage.Read moreRead less
Avoiding Environmental Bankruptcy: the grazing impacts of red kangaroos and sheep. Overgrazing is one of the most serious environmental and economic problems in Australia. By mitigating overgrazing, our project has three major benefits. Firstly, quantification of the foraging requirements for free-ranging sheep and kangaroos will, for the first time, allow us to identify sustainable practices that prevent overgrazing and contribute to significant land recovery. Secondly, a new mechanistic model ....Avoiding Environmental Bankruptcy: the grazing impacts of red kangaroos and sheep. Overgrazing is one of the most serious environmental and economic problems in Australia. By mitigating overgrazing, our project has three major benefits. Firstly, quantification of the foraging requirements for free-ranging sheep and kangaroos will, for the first time, allow us to identify sustainable practices that prevent overgrazing and contribute to significant land recovery. Secondly, a new mechanistic model for predicting herbivore dynamics will allow us to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on future grazing pressures. Thirdly, our results will inform management plans to sustain Australia's arid rangelands as productive, bio-diverse environments, which currently provide economic returns in excess of $20 billion p.a.Read moreRead less
The next generation rural landscape governance: the Australian dimension. The project team in collaboration with Industry and regional stakeholders will undertake innovative research to develop the next generation of natural resource governance in Australia. This project will focus on the reforms required to improve the sustainability performance of primary industries through reduced transaction costs, co-regulatory structures and stewardship.
Finding new economic drivers for Sea Change (coastal) and similar rapidly growing communities. This project is of major benefit to developing more environmentally sensitive but diverse economies for coastal communities. Coastal communities are commuter or tourism dominated, each of these issues generate both current and future liabilities for the communities and the nation.
Novel, Cost-Effective Methods for Measuring Methane Emissions from Grazing Livestock. Agriculture is second only to energy generation as a source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Methane from cattle and sheep constitute 60% of these agricultural emissions. Their abatement is a win-win goal for the agricultural industry, reducing greenhouse emissions while increasing food efficiency. This project will develop a novel, cost- and-labour efficient method for on-farm measurements of the emis ....Novel, Cost-Effective Methods for Measuring Methane Emissions from Grazing Livestock. Agriculture is second only to energy generation as a source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Methane from cattle and sheep constitute 60% of these agricultural emissions. Their abatement is a win-win goal for the agricultural industry, reducing greenhouse emissions while increasing food efficiency. This project will develop a novel, cost- and-labour efficient method for on-farm measurements of the emissions of methane from free-grazing cattle and sheep in their undisturbed environment. The method will be used to assess the dependence of methane emissions on factors such as diet and the efficacy of proposed methods for abatement of methane emissions, as well as providing improved data to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.Read moreRead less
Plant diversity in restored native vegetation of agricultural landscapes. This project will assess the success of current practices of native vegetation restoration in agricultural regions, ie whether they provide sustainable habitat for native plant species. While there is currently a massive expenditure on revegetation in agriculture, there has been almost no assessment of whether it works well or not. This study will compare the plant species present in restored and comparable native vegeta ....Plant diversity in restored native vegetation of agricultural landscapes. This project will assess the success of current practices of native vegetation restoration in agricultural regions, ie whether they provide sustainable habitat for native plant species. While there is currently a massive expenditure on revegetation in agriculture, there has been almost no assessment of whether it works well or not. This study will compare the plant species present in restored and comparable native vegetation. Additionally, intensive study of some key plant species will be undertaken to determine what features of these plants enable them to persist in restored patches. Outcomes include new assessment techniques and original data.Read moreRead less
Advancing the Ecological Footprint for Application to Policy Development. To be effective, policies that promote Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) must operate at many levels. For example, it is of little consequence if individual consumers are empowered to achieve greater sustainability but the capability of corporations and governments to do so remains limited. Our carefully chosen industry collaborations will ensure that effective environmental policy development can be implemented a ....Advancing the Ecological Footprint for Application to Policy Development. To be effective, policies that promote Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) must operate at many levels. For example, it is of little consequence if individual consumers are empowered to achieve greater sustainability but the capability of corporations and governments to do so remains limited. Our carefully chosen industry collaborations will ensure that effective environmental policy development can be implemented at the global, national, state and corporate level. This will allow us, as a nation, to better protect the resources upon which the environment and the economy rely. This research will also allow Australia to be a world leader in the implementation of sustainable development.Read moreRead less