Inbox and Environment News: Issue 347

February 11 - 17, 2018: Issue 347

Environmental Restoration And Rehabilitation Grants

February 6th, 2018: NSW O&H
The Restoration and Rehabilitation grants program is now open toapplications, and will close on Monday, 26 March 2018

Purpose
To assist in the ongoing sustainable management and stewardship of significant environmental assets and services in NSW.

Funding
Individual grants of up to $100,000 with a total of $2,000,000 for community organisations and $2,000,000 for government entities. 

Who can apply
Community groups and organisations, incorporated associations, non-profit organisations, non-commercial cooperatives, Trusts and government entities.

Significant Pollution Incident At Beacon Hill

The Northern Beaches Council has tackled a significant pollution incident at Beacon Hill, with crews cleaning up a toxic substance before it made its way into South Creek and Narrabeen Lagoon.

Mayor Michael Regan said the incident had resulted in serious impacts to local environment and wildlife after a stormwater detention basin captured around 200,000 litres of contaminated water in a holding pond near Endeavour Drive.

“The thoughtless actions of one or more people have killed most of the aquatic life within the area, and cost the community around $150,000 in clean-up costs, as well as hundreds of hours of staff time dealing with this situation.

“The only survivors were three native eastern long-necked turtles that were rescued and relocated by Council staff.

“This is one of the biggest pollution incidents we’ve had to deal with as Northern Beaches Council. It happened on Christmas Eve and we’re still dealing with the after-effects.

“Fortunately, the prompt response of Council officers contained the pollution in the pond, but the impact was so bad the only way to remove it was to drain and dig out the entire pond, and that’s a huge job.

“We’ve had to organise a number of waste water tankers, excavators and dump trucks, at considerable expense,” Mayor Regan said on Thursday this week.

Along with emptying the contaminated water, crews have also removed around 60 tonnes of sediment as a result of the incident.

Illegally disposing of chemicals can drastically affect our natural areas and harm our local wildlife. Visit northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au and search hazardous waste for more information and to learn about correct disposal procedures.

“Quite apart from the environmental impact, the cost of this clean-up is substantial, and that’s money which could have been spent providing community services and other benefits. It’s really frustrating,” Mayor Regan said.

Council’s Environmental Compliance team is investigating the source of the pollution, and anyone with information is asked to contact Council on 1300 434 434.


Excavators and bobcats cleaning the polluted area - photo supplied

Keeping Our Waterways Clean

In your Garden

  • Put leaves and grass clippings into compost or onto garden as mulch
  • Cover piles of soil, sand or mulch
  • Build barriers around your garden beds to contain the soil
  • Use organic fertilisers
  • Have your sewer checked
  • Install rainwater tanks and/or systems to divert roof water directly to gardens.

When you Maintain your Car

  • Use a service station car washing bay or a car wash that recycles water
  • Wash your car on lawn and pour any leftover soapy water onto the lawn
  • Regularly service your car

When you Paint and Renovate

  • When you use water-based paint, clean up over soil
  • Keep oil-based paint, turps and solvents clear of gutters and drains
  • Reuse turps once paint has settled
  • Allow unwanted paint to dry out, then take tins to a chemical cleanup event or licensed landfill
  • Don’t hose sand or gravel, or wash out cement mixers or barrows, so waste flows into street gutters
  • Don’t leave piles of sand or gravel uncovered where it can wash or blow into gutters

Industrial Sites

  • Clean up wind-blown litter
  • Store and dispose of oil and waste water correctly
  • Clean out your grease trap regularly

Construction Sites

  • When building, landscaping or renovating, always use appropriate sediment and erosion
  • Store chemicals in a properly maintained and operated bunded and covered storage area
  • Keep adequately stocked spill kits on hand and make sure staff know how to use them
  • Never, ever hose chemical spills down the drain

Sick Bees Eat Healthier

February 7th, 2018
James Cook University scientists have shown that sick bees try to look after themselves by eating healthy food.

Dr Lori Lach, Senior Lecturer at JCU, said the study compared the feeding habits of healthy bees to those infected with the gut parasite Nosema ceranae.

In the study, published recently in the journal Microbial Ecology, the researchers first gave groups of bees different kinds of pollen. They found that sick bees, and not healthy bees, lived longer when they had access to the pollen that was more nutritious, even though it also increased the number of parasites found in their gut.

“The real question then was - when the bees had the opportunity to select their own food, would they choose what was good for them?” said Jade Ferguson, the student who conducted the project for her Honours degree.

The answer was yes. When given the option to forage on artificial flowers with either high quality pollen, lower quality pollen, or sugar water, healthy bees showed no pollen preference. However, twice as many infected bees selected the higher quality pollen than the lower quality pollen.

“Nosema ceranae is one of the most widespread parasites of adult honey bees in the world, and a lot of studies have investigated its effects on bee physiology. Ours is the first study we’re aware of to investigate effects on floral choice,” said Dr. Lach.

It is still unclear how the bees distinguish between pollens of different quality. However, the choices bees make will likely affect the native and crop flowers they visit. Flowers vary greatly in the quality of pollen they offer and are often competing for pollinators.  Parasites appear to be one more factor that may influence which flowers are visited.

Read Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Pollen Foraging Reflects Benefits Dependent on Individual Infection Status HERE

Water Research Laboratory Open Day

When: 17 February 2018 - 9:00am to 1:00pm
Venue: 110 King St, Manly Vale

Ever wanted to know how beaches work? Why do we get rips and what happens to all the sand in a storm? How much water does it take for a car to float away in a flood? How are dams, harbours and breakwaters designed? And how, exactly, is it all tested anyway?…

Based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, WRL spans four hectares tucked away beside Manly Dam. We are also one of the biggest scientific and engineering facilities in Australia, solving all kinds of problems related to water and the environment. Our “laboratories” don’t have test tubes and lab coats; instead we have big wave machines and fly drones. We build scale models of dams and harbours larger than a lounge room!

The WRL Open Day is a fantastic opportunity for you to experience first hand this unique, world-class research facility. Tour our massive labs, meet the experts, and see engineering and science at work.

All are welcome! If you are interested in water, engineering, science or the environment, then come along!

Register your interest to be sure to receive further updates on this upcoming event.


UNSW: Latest ARC Funding

February 7th, 2018: by Louise Caldicott, UNSW
UNSW has been awarded almost $4 million in ARC Linkage Grants for nine projects, including research on marine pollution, coastal hazards, ocean weather, antibiotic use, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing
UNSW research across marine pollution, coastal hazards, ocean weather, antibiotic use, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing are among nine Linkage Projects awarded nearly $4 million in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.

UNSW secured the largest share of the total $9.2 million announced by Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham. It was awarded 43% of the overall total funding, the highest in the Group of Eight (Go8).

To date, UNSW’s combined success rate for the 2017 Linkage Projects round is 32% for 11 Linkage Projects, totalling $4.7 million and placing the University first in the Go8 and the nation. These linkage grants, designed to foster collaboration between universities and industry, involved in-kind and financial support for UNSW research from almost 30 external organisations.

Professor Nicholas Fisk, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at UNSW, congratulated the University’s researchers on securing the most grants in this round.

“This funding will really help overcome some of society’s biggest challenges to achieve real-world outcomes for Australia," he said.

"These projects demonstrate the strength of our researchers, the societal and end-user relevance of their research, and the burgeoning discovery culture and environment here at UNSW. The key to the continuous application process is to be in it to win it, and this approach is now paying off for UNSW.

"Although there has been a lag with the introduction of the continuous process, we are now encouraged to see some impressive runs on the board.”

Among the largest ARC Linkage Project grants announced was $786,000 to Dr Mark Browne from UNSW's School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences and the Dean of Science Professor Emma Johnston. Their project aims to tackle the most abundant type of marine pollution – clothing fibres – which has increased over 450% in 60 years. It will determine how these fibres, along with clothing brands and washing machine filters, reduce fibre emissions and their ecological impact.

Another large grant ($505,000) went to Professor Ian Turner from the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, to develop a new coastal hazard early-warning system to benefit vulnerable communities and infrastructure along Australia’s coasts. This will alert communities, emergency managers and coastal engineers to impending storm wave damage and coastal erosion.

Associate Professor Moninya Roughan, from the School of Mathematics & Statistics, was awarded $440,000 to develop a state-of-the-art ocean weather information system for marine industries. The project will design an end-to-end solution that integrates ocean observations, operational forecasting and data delivery, providing a quicker pathway from research to economic benefit.

Regional Forest Agreements (RFA)

Have Your Say: NSW Government
The NSW and Commonwealth Governments are seeking feedback on five-yearly implementation reviews of RFAs and how to extend them for an additional 20-year term.

Consultation will enable a full appraisal of the current RFAs covering the Eden, North East and Southern regions of NSW. It will also drive optimal implementation of new agreements, including what we can learn from our experience over the past 20 years.

The government is committed to working closely with all parties in getting the balance right in the long-term management of their forest resources.

A number of community meetings are planned across the state. Details will be available shortly.

Have your say
Have your say on the extension of RFAs by 12 March 2018.

More Information
Email: Project Leader
Phone: 02 9934 0728

Promoting The Remediation Of Contaminated Land In NSW

Departmental Media Release - Department of Planning and Environment
The NSW Government is proposing planning policy improvements that will provide greater clarity, guidance and consistency for the remediation of contaminated land.
 
The Department of Planning and Environment’s Deputy Secretary for Policy, Strategy & Governance, Alison Frame, said the Department is reviewing the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) for the remediation of land and the Contaminated Land Planning Guidelines as part of our wider policy review program.
 
“For almost 20 years, the existing remediation state policy and associated planning guidelines have provided the planning framework for the management of contaminated land in NSW,” Ms Frame said.
 
“It’s worked well in the past. But as technology improves and community expectations evolve, we need to make sure we have the latest requirements for the remediation of contaminated lands.”
 
The Department is exhibiting an Explanation of Intended Effect (EIE) for a new Remediation of Land SEPP, as well as draft Planning Guidelines and is seeking comment from the community.
 
It is proposed the new Remediation of Land SEPP will:
  • provide an updated and clearer State-wide planning framework for the remediation of land;
  • require consent authorities to consider the potential for land to be contaminated when determining development applications;
  • clearly list the remediation works that require development consent; and
  • introduce certification and operational requirements for remediation works that can be undertaken without development consent.
The EIE and the draft Planning Guidelines, as well as information on how to provide feedback, is available here.

Stop The Senseless Destruction Of Our Wildlife: Nature Conservation Council (NSW) Taking State Government To Court

By Nature Conservation Council (NSW)
Thousands of possums, quolls, koalas and gliders will be killed each year now that the Coalition government has gutted our tree-clearing laws. Nationals MPs, big agri-business and developers are being given powers to trash our precious woodlands under the new Biodiveristy Conservation Act. This new act will:
  • add extinction pressures to our state's 1000 threatened species;
  • threaten our clean, reliable water supplies;
  • turn our fertile land into wasteland through erosion and salinity; 
  • put landmark trees and bushland at risk; and
  • add further to Australia's carbon pollution.

Biodiversity offsets law will drive extinctions
The use of biodiversity offsetting schemes in NSW is adding extinction pressure to the very species those schemes are supposed to protect, anew report has found.

Biodiversity offsetting lets a developer clear bushland if they buy, protect and improve bushland elsewhere.

In theory, offsetting is supposed to ensure there is no loss in biodiversity values. In practice, offsetting is pushing species to the brink. Read our analysis of offsetting schemes in NSW over the past 10 years.

We are taking the Berejiklian government to court to scrap its destructive land-clearing laws, to defend nature and the rule of law.

More information on the case

Our case seeks to overturn the worst elements of the land-clearing laws on two grounds:
  1. Failure to adequately consider the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development
The Primary Industries Minister and the Environment Minister had a legal duty to consider the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development when making the land-clearing codes. That includes proper consideration of internationally recognised legal principles such as intergenerational equity, the precautionary principle, and conservation of biodiversity. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws suggests the Ministers failed to do so.

      2. Failure of the Primary Industries Minister to obtain                                    concurrence of the Environment Minister

The Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair had a legal duty to obtain the “concurrence” (more simply the agreement) of the Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton before “making” the codes. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws suggest that Ms Upton approved the codes on August 25, one day after Mr Blair had made them on August 24.

If our legal challenge is successful, the government should scrap these bad laws, go back to the drawing board and make new codes that actually protect our threatened species.

We are being represented by public interest environmental lawyers EDO NSW. The case was referred to the Land and Environment Court on Friday, November 24, and we are awaiting a hearing date. Check back to this page for updates as they occur.

We need to raise funds to run this court case.

Please donate today to protect nature from unsustainable land clearing. We urgently need your support. 

Proposed Amendments To The Voluntary Land Acquisition And Mitigation Policy And Mining SEPP

by NSW Dept.of Planning
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has revised its policies for noise and air quality impacts.
 
This has resulted in:
  • changes to air quality assessment criteria for fine particles (PM10)  from 30 µg/m3 to 25 µg/m3
  • the introduction of new regulation of very fine particles (PM2.5) at 25 µg/m3 (24 hour) and 8 µg/m3 (annual); and
  • changes to the noise assessment criteria to slightly modify assessment noise levels (however no changes to cumulative noise levels were made).
These changes have triggered a review of the Voluntary Land Acquisition and Mitigation Policy (VLAMP) to ensure the thresholds for the grant of voluntary acquisition and mitigation rights are consistent with the EPA's policies. These rights may be granted by the consent authority when a State significant resources project is determined.
 
As part of the review, the VLAMP has also been updated to provide clearer and more thorough explanations of policy, including policy related to:
  • negotiated agreements;
  • acquisition and mitigation operational processes;
  • the valuation of land that is to be acquired; and
  • the regulation of impacts on land subject to acquisition rights.
As a function of the changes it is proposed to amend the State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) 2007 (the Mining SEPP). It is proposed that, following the completion of the VLAMP review:
  • Clause 12AB of the Mining SEPP will be revised to update the non-discretionary standards to align with the EPA’s revised policies for air and noise. The non-discretionary standards mean that a consent authority cannot require more onerous air and noise standards than the revised assessment criteria; and
  • Clause 12A of the Mining SEPP will be revised to refer to the revised VLAMP. This clause requires the consent authority to give consideration to the VLAMP before determining an application.
The proposed amendments to the VLAMP and Mining SEPP are currently on exhibition until 16 February 2018.
 
You can view the relevant documents below:
Proposed Mining SEPP amendments: Air and noise impacts - Explanation of intended effect (PDF, 980KB)

Call For National Heritage List Nominations

Media release - The Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP, Minister for the Environment and Energy
Nominations are now open for places of outstanding natural, Indigenous or historic significance to the nation for possible inclusion on our National Heritage List.

“Our prestigious National Heritage List celebrates and protects places that reflect our unique landscapes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and development as a nation,” said the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Minister for the Environment and Energy.

“The List currently includes more than 100 sites from across Australia and its territories, ranging from icons such as Bondi Beach, Fraser Island and Kakadu National Park to lesser-known gems such as the Dirk Hartog’s Landing Site, Darlington Probation Station, Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry, Witjira-Dalhousie Springs and the High Court-National Gallery Precinct.”

“Each year, more places are added to the List as our national story unfolds and understanding of our heritage deepens.”

Nominations are open until 26 February 2016 and will be considered by the Australian Heritage Council before a final list of places to be assessed in 2018-19 is developed. As part of that assessment process, there will be further opportunities for public comment on each proposed listing.

Nominations of natural, Indigenous and historic places with significant heritage value for possible Commonwealth heritage listing are also being sought.


No Gas Drilling Off Newcastle Petition

Gas company Advent Energy has approval to start seismic exploration for oil and gas off the coast from Newcastle and the Central Coast. 

Seismic exploration creates sonic underwater blasts that puts marine wildlife at risk, including migrating whales, and impacts productive local fishing grounds.

If Advent Energy finds gas, the next step will be a push for an oil and gas field off the coast off Newcastle and the Central Coast. That's a proposition the local community will never accept. 

It’s not worth risking the health of the marine environment, our valuable fisheries resources and the local jobs it sustains for oil and gas exploration where the community will never accept a future gas field. 

Sign the petition to say NO GAS DRILLING OFF NEWCASTLE:
Dear The Premier of NSW.,

I oppose seismic exploration off the coast of Newcastle and the Central Coast and call on your Government to take steps to cancel the existing exploration licence and ban future offshore oil and gas development in NSW. 

1. Seismic exploration has been shown to impact on the hearing and navigation of whales and negatively impact on marine habitat and biodiversity. 

2. Offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling puts at risk local fishing and tourism industries that rely on a healthy oceans and a vibrant marine and coastal environment. 

3. An oil spill off the coast between Sydney and Newcastle could be catastrophic. The risk of oil and gas leaks and spills has been shown around Australia and the world. No matter the quality of regulations, accidents happen. The risk is unacceptable. 

4. NSW should be pursuing clean renewable energy, not more polluting and risk fossil fuel. 

Update On Baleen 2D HR Seismic Survey 

(The survey comprises 46 2D lines of total length 208km.) - 
NOPSEMA 'Not reasonably satisfied – opportunity to modify EP'
Decision date: 03/08/2017 
Titleholder action Resubmission due date 3: 02/09/2017
Extension of timeframe: 17/08/2017 Titleholder action: 15/10/2017
Extension of timeframe: 05/10/2017 Titleholder action: 31/10/2017
Resubmission of EP: 31/10/2017 NOPSEMA decision: 30/11/2017
Request for further information: 30/11/2017 Titleholder action: 21/12/2017
Acceptance of EP: 10/01/2018 Titleholder action: 20/01/2018Decision notification (PDF 707 KB)
Submission of EP summary 19/01/2018 NOPSEMA decision 29/01/2018




From Decision notification:
Basis of decision 
NOPSEMA has assessed the environment plan in accordance with its assessment policies and procedures. 

On completion of assessment, NOPSEMA has decided that it is not reasonably satisfied that the environment plan meets the criteria below as set out in regulation 10A of the Environment Regulations: 
(a) is appropriate for the nature and scale of the activity 
(b) demonstrates that the environmental impacts and risks of the activity will be reduced to as low as reasonably practicable 
(c) demonstrates that the environmental impacts and risks of the activity will be of an acceptable level 
(d) provides for appropriate environmental performance outcomes, environmental performance standards and measurement criteria 
(e) includes an appropriate implementation strategy and monitoring, recording and reporting arrangements 
(g) demonstrates that: 
(i) the titleholder has carried out the consultations required by Division 2.2A 
(ii) the measures (if any) that the titleholder has adopted, or proposes to adopt, because of the consultations are appropriate 

Titleholder requirements 
For OMR decision In accordance with regulation 10, the titleholder is required to modify and resubmit the environment plan. Upon resubmission of the plan, NOPSEMA will continue to assess the submission in 
accordance with its assessment policies and make a decision under regulation 10. After a titleholder has been provided with reasonable opportunity to modify and resubmit an environment plan, NOPSEMA will 
make a final decision on whether to accept or refuse to accept the environment plan. 

National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) regulates all offshore areas in Commonwealth waters, which comprise those areas beyond the first three nautical miles of the territorial sea. This includes the Ashmore and Cartier offshore territories and offshore areas adjacent to all states and the Northern Territory. 

NOPSEMA also regulates all offshore areas in coastal waters where a state or territory has conferred regulatory powers and functions. In jurisdictions where powers to regulate are not conferred, regulatory responsibilities remain with the relevant state or territory. 

Bushcare Groups Recommence For 2018

Avalon Golf Course
Bushcare will resume on the 2nd Wednesday of the month from 14 February. That is Valentine’s Day and so let’s show the bush some love! The delightful Rachel will be taking care of and supervising us again this year. We will still be meeting in the same golf club car park and at 3pm. Anyone interested in helping out will be most welcome to join us.

No experience is necessary. A tool belt and tools will be provided along with information and a guarantee of good fun and feeling good about caring for the golf course also. For further information contact Geoff on 0439 292 566.

Angophora bushcare
Angophora bush care will resume on the third Sunday of the month from 18 February at 8.30 at one of the entrances to the reserve. Morning tea usually happens around 11. Any queries please call Geoff on 0439 292 566

Friends Of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment Activities

Bush Regeneration - Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment  
This is a wonderful way to become connected to nature and contribute to the health of the environment.  Over the weeks and months you can see positive changes as you give native species a better chance to thrive.  Wildlife appreciate the improvement in their habitat.

Belrose area - Thursday mornings 
Belrose area - Weekend mornings by arrangement
Contact: Phone or text Conny Harris on 0432 643 295

Wheeler Creek - Wednesday mornings 9-11am
Contact: Phone or text Judith Bennett on 0402 974 105
Or email: Friends of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment : email@narrabeenlagoon.org.au

Spotlight Walk - 8pm Friday March 9
7:30pm - 9:30pm.
Ever wanted to see some of Sydney's Bushland icons - the Red-Crowned Toadlet, Giant Burrowing Frog and Eastern Pygmy Possum? Learn about what wildlife lives after dark and witness these unique creatures in their natural habitat. Meeting point provided upon booking. 
Booking essential: email@narrabeenlagoon.org.au

Narrabeen Lagoon Eco Paddle
1pm Sat Mar 31, 2018
A relaxing 2 to 3 hour afternoon paddle. No previous kayaking experience required, tuition given. BYO boat or a hire kayak can be arranged at cost.
Bookings essential.
Email tonycarr@ozemail.com.au or call 0417 502 056

Exploratory Walk 
7:30am Sun 11/2/18 
Walk starting from Deep Creek. Allow 5 hours. Only fit walkers. 
Booking essential: Conny 0432 643 295 

Upper Deep Creek Catchment walk 
Sat 28/4/18 
Start 10am at Terrey Hills and allow 3 hours and bring a screwdriver for some voluntary weeding near the end of the track. 
See and identify spectacular Sydney sandstone flora in “autumn” blossom. Carpool required. Bookings essential: Conny Harris 0432 643 295 

Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment transverse 
Sat 19/5/18 
Start 9am - finish 1.30pm.
This walk is a hidden gem. Also lovely scenic views and sometimes rare fauna. Plant ID as we go and a brief lunch break BYO. Carpool back.
Bookings essential: Conny Harris 0432 643 295

Cromer to Oxford Falls 
Sun 10/6/18 
Start 10am from Cromer Rd, allow 4 hrs and bring lunch to see great carvings near Red Hill, fantastic views over Narrabeen Lagoon and as typical for this catchment very different vegetation communities. Plant ID as we go. We will walk down to Oxford Falls and carpool back. Bookings needed: Conny Harris 0432 643 295 

Green Team Beach Cleans 2018!

Hosted by The Green Team
The Green Team is back for 2018! 
It has been estimated that we will have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050...These beach cleans are aimed at reducing the vast amounts of plastic from entering our oceans before they harm marine life. 

Anyone and everyone is welcome! If you would like to come along, please bring a bucket, gloves and hat. Kids of all ages are also welcome! 

We will meet in front of the surf club. 
Hope to see you there!

The Green Team is a Youth-run, volunteer-based environment initiative from Avalon, Sydney. Keeping our area green and clean.

Beach Clean!
Saturday, February 17 at 8 AM - 9 AM
Palm Beach - We will meet at Kiddies corner (the south side)


Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park: 1080 Fox Baiting Program

1080 fox baits (sodium fluoroacetate) will be laid in various locations across Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and Garigal National Park from Thursday 1 February 2018 to Tuesday 31 July 2018.  

The baited areas will contain buried baits or ejector capsules. Do not touch the baits or ejector devices as they are poisonous. 1080 is highly lethal to domestic animals and pet owners are reminded that dogs are not permitted in national parks.

For further information during business hours please contact NPWS Greater Sydney Branch Pest Officer on (02) 9542 0678.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park: Aboriginal Heritage walk, Akuna Bay,
America Bay walking track, Apple Tree picnic area, Bairne walking track,
Barrenjoey Lighthouse, Basin Aboriginal art site, Beechwood Cottage,
Birrawanna walking track, Bobbin Head, Bobbin Head Information Centre
Centre trail, d'Albora Marinas at Akuna Bay, Empire Marina Bobbin Head,
Gibberagong walking track, Great North walk – Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Kalkari Discovery Centre, Mount Colah Station to Pymble Station cycle route, Mount Ku-ring-gai track to Berowra Station Perimeter trail,
Red Hands Cave walking track - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park,
Resolute picnic area, Salvation loop trail, Sphinx Memorial, Sphinx Memorial to Bobbin Head loop track, The Basin campground, The Basin picnic area, The Basin track and Mackerel track, The Pavillion picnic shelter, The Station picnic shelter, Topham walking track, Wallaroo walking track, Waratah walking track, West Head lookout, Willunga Trig walking track


Clean Up Australia Day 2018

Community - Sunday 4 March
Schools/Youth Clean Up Day - Friday 2 March
Business Clean Up Day - Tuesday 27 Feb

Clean Up Australia Day - Sunday 4 March.
But Remember - Everyday is Clean Up Day - so you can register an event at any time of the year.

Because when the rubbish is gone, nature can carry on ....
Register your own Clean Up site or  volunteer at a site near you .

You can see our Site Supervisor Checklist for how to go about finding, registering and organising your Clean Up.

Site Supervisors will receive a Clean Up starter kit.

For everything you will need and more Visit: www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au

Scotland Island Is Registered To Participate Once Again! 

This event encourages and inspires thousands of Australians to take to their local park, beach, bushland and streets and really help make a difference to their local environment 

If you would like to help out, either by grabbing a bag and filling it, or helping to supervise activities, please email cassgye@spin.net.au to put your name on the list. 

Come down to your nearest Wharf to collect a bag between the hours of 9am and 12.00pm.  
Bring gloves, sunscreen, hat, sensible clothes and footwear – and don’t forget to bring some water too!   
Toby and his crew will be out on the Laurel Mae to collect material. 

Coasters Retreat

Meeting Point: Fire Shed
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.

Next Clean Up: March 2nd 2018
End Date: March 4th 2018
Start time: 8:30 AM
End time: 4:30 PM

Site Coordinator Details
Wilma Taylor

Bayview

Site Address
Pittwater Rd, Bayview NSW
Bayview
NSW 2104

Meeting Point: Bayview Sea Scouts Hall
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.
Next Clean Up: March 4th 2018
End Date: March 4th 2018
Start time: 9:00 AM
End time: 12:00 AM

Site Coordinator Details
Jenny Hermann

Mona Vale Beach

Site Address
Mona Vale Beach
Mona Vale
NSW 2103

Meeting Point: Mona Vale Beach
Date: March 2nd 2018
Start time: 8:00 AM
End time: 10:00 AM

Site Coordinator Details
Natasha Power

Narrabeen-Warriewood

Representing: Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club
About Our Site
Join us to help clean up, fix up and conserve the environment.

Site Address
Coastal Environment Centre
Narrabeen lagoon, Lake Park Road North Narrabeen 2103
Mona Vale
NSW 2103

Meeting Point: Volunteers will meet at the Coastal Environment Centre and work north towards Warriewood SLSC
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.

Next Clean Up: March 4th 2018
End Date: March 3rd 2019
Start time: 9:30 AM
End time: 11:00 AM

Site Coordinator Details
Michael Baxter

Warriewood Beach And SLSC

Join us to help clean up, fix up and conserve the environment.

Site Address
Narrabeen Park Parade
Warriewood
NSW 2102

Meeting Point: Timber platform on beach next to car park.
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.
Next Clean Up: March 4th 2018
Start time: 09:30 AM
End time: 10:00 AM

Site Coordinator Details
Bruce Kelly

Narrabeen Rock Pool

Site Address
Ocean Street
North Narrabeen
NSW 2101

Meeting Point: Car Park
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.

Next Clean Up: March 4th 2018
Start time: 11:00 AM
End time: 12:00 PM

Site Coordinator Details
Peter Collings

Wimbledon Island, Narrabeen Lagoon

Site Address
Wimbleton Avenue Park
North Narrabeen
NSW 2101

Meeting Point: Park at end of Wimbleton Avenue
This Clean Up is a recurring one which takes place yearly.

Next Clean Up: March 4th 2018
End Date: March 4th 2018
Start time: 9:00 AM
End time: 12:00 PM

Site Coordinator Details
Rick Shires

Summer Of Surveillance, Surveys And Sniffer Dogs In Kosciuszko National Park

February 5th, 2018: NSW O&H
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) have started the annual summer hawkweed eradication program with drone surveillance, helicopter surveys and sniffer dogs on duty to find and destroy weeds in Kosciuszko.

NPWS Senior Weeds Officer, Hillary Cherry, said this year they are ramping up efforts to stop orange and mouse-ear hawkweed from invading this iconic conservation area.

"We use a combination of survey methods to check if the weed has spread - and to see how the plants are responding to last year's control treatments," Ms Cherry said.

"A large part of the project is trying to find any new infestations - and this is where we are drawing on cutting edge surveillance technology and 'old school' methods.

"This summer we'll have drones flying over hundreds of hectares of remote back country, taking photos that are then analysed for the distinctive flashes of bright orange-flowering hawkweed.

"We are also working with Macquarie University researchers who are trialling the use of multi and hyper spectral imagery.

"This technology will identify reflectance of a unique 'signature' from the hawkweed leaves, so we'll be able to spot them even if they are not flowering or if they are well camouflaged amongst native vegetation.

"New wind stations have also been set up to help us predict the direction and distance that hawkweed seeds may spread - helping us pinpoint new sites to survey," Ms Cherry said.

This new technology is backed up by an 'old school' survey method.

From next week through to March, specially-trained conservation detection dogs will be in the field sniffing out the weeds.

They have been trained to sniff out plants that may be hiding under native vegetation and allow NPWS to search a much larger area.

NPWS are now using these tools to help off-park neighbours tackle hawkweeds.

Working with the South East Local Land Services and Snowy Monaro Regional Council, NPWS is making sure that land managers have access to these surveillance and sniffer dog resources - as well as the data NPWS has collected over the last 8 years.

"We're doing this to ensure all land managers can help prevent hawkweed invasion, including on agricultural lands," Ms Cherry said.

Bloomfield Colliery Modification 4 Extension

Extension to the current life of mining.
No details up yet
Exhibition Start         02/02/2018
Exhibition End         02/03/2018

Large-Group Living Boosts Magpie Intelligence

February 7, 2018: University of Western Australia and University of Exeter
Growing up in a large social group makes Australian magpies more intelligent, new research shows.

Using four tasks to test intelligence, scientists from the University of Exeter and the University of Western Australia found wild Australian magpies from larger groups showed "elevated cognitive performance."

The study also found more intelligent females produced more offspring.

The research suggests that the demands of living in complex social groups may play a role in the evolution of intelligence.

"Australian magpies -- from Western Australia, where we conducted our research -- live in stable social groups," said Dr Alex Thornton, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"We showed that individuals living in larger groups in the wild show elevated cognitive performance, which in turn is linked to increased reproductive success.

"Repeated testing of juveniles at different ages showed that the link between group size and intelligence emerged in early life."

Researchers examined 14 wild groups of Australian magpies (Western Australian subspecies Cracticus tibicen dorsalis) in Perth, ranging in size from three to 12 birds.

Cognitive ability of each magpie was tested using four tasks, including one in which they had to learn to associate a particular colour with the presence of food, a memory task where food was hidden in the same place many times.

There was also a test of self-control, in which magpies had to stop themselves from pecking directly at the food through the transparent barrier and instead had to go round to the sides of the tube to get the food.

Lead researcher Dr Ben Ashton, from the University of Western Australia, said: "The challenges of living in complex social groups have long been thought to drive cognitive evolution.

"However, evidence to support this is contentious, and has recently been called into question."

He added: "Our results suggest that the social environment plays a key role in the development of cognition.

"They also suggest that females who do well in cognitive tasks have more offspring, indicating there is the potential for natural selection to act on cognition.

"Together, these results support the idea that the social environment plays an important role in cognitive evolution."

Benjamin J. Ashton, Amanda R. Ridley, Emily K. Edwards, Alex Thornton. Cognitive performance is linked to group size and affects fitness in Australian magpies. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/nature25503


Up Close With Young Fairy Martins – Windsor

February 2018: Published by Birds In Back Yards TV
These Fairy Martins (Petrochelidon ariel) were filmed in early December 2017 at Windsor, NSW. The location is semi-rural with open grassy areas, pockets of vegetation and a waterhole. See https://youtu.be/YWcjCnvj80E for a photo of the exact filming spot. 

This sort of habitat is ideal for Fairy Martins, but they are not always seen there. 

In southern parts of Australia, Fairy Martins are breeding migrants; they arrive in spring and build their nest colonies with mud or clay. By December their numbers swell with newly fledged juveniles and some older offspring with signs of adult plumage. Compare the buff-fringed wing feathers of the juveniles to the glossy blue-black and brown wings of the adults in the footage of six Fairy Martins (four juveniles bookended by two adults). 

You may also notice that juveniles have paler or duller rufous-brown crowns with some streaking, while the streaking on the throat and breast is more pronounced in adults. The other clue to age is the bill. For adults it is clearly black, but the youngest birds have an obvious yellow gape. We also saw a few juveniles where the yellowish tone to the base of the bill was disappearing or gone and the streaking on the throat was increasing. Presumably they fledged earlier in the breeding season.

Mapping The First Family Tree For Tropical Forests

February 5, 2018
More than 100 researchers have collaborated to classify the world's tropical forests according to their evolutionary history, a process that will help researchers predict the resilience or susceptibility of different forests to global environmental changes.

The results, culled from almost 1 million different tree samples from 15,000 tree species, have uncovered a shared ancestry between tropical forests thousands of miles apart and previously believed to be unrelated. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study describes an international, grassroots effort to collect and analyze data from more than 400 geographic coordinates across the tropics, a region that comprises 40 percent of the Earth's surface.

The study was led by Ferry Slik, an associate professor at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam in Brunei. Janet Franklin, a distinguished professor of biogeography at the University of California, Riverside, coordinated the interpretation and reporting of the data, which is publicly available as an open access article.

Franklin said the new classification scheme's value comes from the inclusion of ancestral information about the tree samples (gleaned from DNA analyses), rather than the "snapshot" of tree biodiversity that is obtained from recording a plant's species.

"When ecologists study biodiversity, they look at the present day by identifying the range of species in a particular forest. However, without going deeper into a plant's history by looking at its family tree, each species is considered separate and unrelated," Franklin said. "By adding the evolutionary relationships between species, however, we suddenly have a measure of how similar species are to each other. This means that we were able to do a much more detailed and realistic comparison between forest sites than previously possible."

The study revealed five major tropical forest regions: Indo-Pacific, Subtropical, African, American, and Dry Forests, which are found at the boundaries between tropical and dry climates.

The study also showed the evolutionary relationships between the forests. One surprising finding was that tropical forests in Africa and South America are closely related, with most of the differences between them occurring within the last 100 million years.

"An African tropical forest is evolutionally more similar to tropical forests in the New World than to forests in the Indo-Pacific," Franklin said. "While this was somewhat unexpected, it likely reflects the breaking apart of South America and Africa resulting in the formation of the Atlantic Ocean that started approximately 140 million years ago."

Researchers also found that related subtropical forests exist in two distinct regions: East Asia and Central/South America. "These regions share the same temperate climate and, even though they are not geographically close, their forests share common ancestors, which is a bit of a mystery," Franklin said. "However, it may be that we are actually looking at remnants of the once extensive tropical forests that ranged from North America all the way to Europe and Asia. When Earth's climate cooled down these forests mostly disappeared, but parts seem to have survived in Asia and America."

The researchers hope an understanding of the diversity and composition of the tropical forests will help them anticipate region-specific responses to global environmental change.

"Different forests may be more vulnerable or resilient to climate change and deforestation, so if we understand the similarities and differences between forests it will help inform conservation efforts," Franklin said.


A phylogenic classification of the world’s tropical forests reveled five major tropical forest regions. More than 100 researchers, including one from UC riverside, collaborated on this effort.

J. W. Ferry Slik et al. Phylogenetic classification of the world’s tropical forests. PNAS, 2018 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1714977115

How To Reduce Heat Extremes By 2-3 Degrees Celsius

January 29, 2018: University of New South Wales
New research published today in Nature Geoscience has found that climate engineering that modifies the properties of the land surface in highly populated areas and agricultural areas over North American, Europe and Asia could reduce extreme temperatures there by up to 2-3°C.

The modifications could include lightening buildings, roads and other infrastructure in high population areas and changing crops and engaging in no-till agricultural practices.

Unlike many other climate-engineering methods proposed to tackle climate change, many of these regional modifications have already been tested and proven to work. Critically, this method has fewer risks compared with injecting aerosols into the atmosphere.

"Extreme temperatures are where human and natural systems are most vulnerable. Changing the radiative properties of land helps address this issue with fewer side effects," said Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Prof Andy Pitman.

"This research suggests that by taking a regional approach, at least in temperate zones, policy and investment decisions can be pragmatically and affordably focused on areas of greatest need."

By contrast other proposed forms of large-scale climate engineering, such as spraying sulphate aerosols into the atmosphere, fertilising the ocean with iron and even building giant mirrors in space, have questionable effectiveness and are likely to alter climate systems in unexpected ways. They could make situations worse for some countries.

The researchers gained their results by modelling how changing only the radiative properties of agricultural land and high population areas across North America, Europe and Asia would impact average temperatures, extreme temperatures and precipitation.

The results showed small impacts on average temperatures, little change in precipitation -- except in Asia -- but significant reductions in extreme temperatures.

"Regional land-based climate engineering can be effective but we need to consider competing demands for land use, for instance for food production, biodiversity, carbon uptake, recreational areas and much more before putting it into effect," said lead author Prof Sonia Seneviratne of ETH Zurich.

"We must remember land-based climate engineering is not a silver bullet, it is just one part of a possible climate solution, and it would have no effects on global mean warming or ocean acidification. There are still important moral, economic and practical imperatives to consider that mean mitigation and adaption should still remain at the forefront of our approach to dealing with global warming."

This research was a major international collaboration led by Sonia Seneviratne of ETH Zurich, with researchers from UNSW, University of Tasmania, CSIRO and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the US.

Sonia I. Seneviratne, Steven J. Phipps, Andrew J. Pitman, Annette L. Hirsch, Edouard L. Davin, Markus G. Donat, Martin Hirschi, Andrew Lenton, Micah Wilhelm, Ben Kravitz. Land radiative management as contributor to regional-scale climate adaptation and mitigation. Nature Geoscience, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41561-017-0057-5

Palm Beach Longboarders 'Show Us Your Dooleys' Comp 2018 Opens A Great Year

Palm Beach wrapped up their first comp for 2018 last Sunday, February 4th.

It was the Day of the Dooleys again with patron Mick Dooley attending to enjoy some great waves and great surfing – all on Mr. Dooley’s boards – ergo ‘Show Us Your Dooleys’.


Mick Dooley and PBL VP Greg Nichols 

There were a couple of legends, youthful and mature there. Young Jasper Derwent rode his bike to Palmy for our first comp of the year, Grant Samo Salmon lent him a board then he went out and ripped it! 
Go Jasper!!

Congratulations to Blaze Roberts for winning the 4ths final! 
Blaze took part in her first Palmy Longboarders comp in November 2017 by getting involved in their annual Old Mal-Old Log Rally - always a great festival of brilliant boards, great food and some classic vehicles on display.


Blaze Roberts - a grinning winner!

Palmy Longboarders is a longboarding club of mature groms and grommets meeting beachside at 7am on the first Sunday of each month. At Palm Beach of course!

New members are always welcome so if you want to try out that great way of surfing get along to a Sunday meet or get in touch via their facebook page.

You can find out more about Palmy Longboarders in their Profile page

Inside Art Express 2018

Works On Display At The Art Gallery Of NSW 

Until March 25th, 2018

The annual ARTEXPRESS exhibition is one of the most dynamic and popular at the Gallery.

Featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts 2017, ARTEXPRESS 2018 provides insight into students’ creativity and the issues important to them.

The exhibition encompasses a broad range of approaches and expressive forms, including ceramics, collection of works, documented forms, drawing, graphic design, painting, photomedia, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and fibre, and time-based forms.

Maya Williams
Northern Beaches Secondary College, Freshwater Senior Campus

Artwork title
To forage: nature’s jewels
HSC year 2017
ARTEXPRESS year 2018
Expressive form
Documented forms

Artist’s statement
Beauty: (noun) the quality of being pleasing to the senses or to the mind. Natural: (adjective) existing in or derived from nature, not made or caused by humankind. Raw: (adjective) in its natural state, unprocessed. Foraged: (verb) obtain (food or provisions) by searching. Jewel: (noun) an ornament or piece of jewellery containing a precious stone.

My practice focuses on the collection and transformation of raw, natural materials into body adornments. I see beauty in the cycles of nature, from the buds of blossoms to the bounty of fruit and the dried and decaying remnants of these processes.

Influencing artists:
Catriona Pollard
Ren Hang
Freesia Kahlo
Tracey Deep


To forage: nature’s jewels- courtesy AGNSW and Artist

ARTEXPRESS is an annual series of exhibitions of exemplary artworks created by New South Wales visual arts students for the Higher School Certificate examination.

It includes a broad range of approaches and expressive forms, including ceramics, collection of works, documented forms, drawing, graphic design, painting, photomedia, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and fibre, and time-based forms.

Inside ARTEXPRESS (AGNSW)lets you explore artists and works back to 2005. It includes process diaries for some students and related artworks in the Gallery’s collection to consider.

View all other 2018 Works or explore the whole collection at: Visit: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/insideartexpress

Live Music: ARTEXPRESS 2018
Celebrating Young Local Musicians

In conjunction with ARTEXPRESS, we celebrate the talent of young musicians with performances by some of the leading bands and vocalists from Sydney.

Wednesday 7 & 14 March, 7.30pm
Free
Duration 45 minutes 
Location: Entrance court

Related exhibition: ARTEXPRESS 2018

Taj Ralph
Taj was first discovered busking on the streets of Sydney by Solo from the Australian hip hop duo Horrorshow. Impressed with Taj’s voice and musical sensibility, he was featured as a vocalist on their single PUSH, which was released in late 2017. His big break came, at the age of 16, when Taj was selected as a finalist for Triple J radio’s 2017 Unearthed High competition. Since then he has independently released three tracks and his laid-back RnB sounds and jazzy guitar hooks have been recognised by online music editorials such as Purple Sneakers and The Most Radicalist. He has played shows at The Record Crate in Glebe, as well as supporting Kim Churchill, Amy Shark and Horrorshow.
Wednesday 7 March 2018 7:30pm – 8:15pm

Rebecca Hatch
Sydney-based vocalist Rebecca Hatch blends hip hop and indie pop to create a unique sound. She was recently named the winner of Triple J Unearthed High Indigenous Initiative at the 2017 National Indigenous Music Awards. Being of Samoan and Indigenous Australia descent, Rebecca has performed at numerous events in both her local community and the wider community.
Wednesday 14 March 2018 7:30pm – 8:15pm

Winners Of 2018 BHP Billiton Foundation Science And Engineering Awards

February 6, 2918: CSIRO
A robotic window cleaner, a water filter made from agricultural waste, and a plastic made from prawn shells are the main winners of the 2018 BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Awards for school students announced in Melbourne today.
Oliver Nicholls winner of the Engineering category, combined his knowledge of mathematics, physics and design to create an autonomous robotic window cleaner. His design aims to reduce injury and decrease the commercial costs of window cleaning. The final product went through rigorous prototyping, testing and evaluation to show commercial viability.


Oliver Nicholls winner of the Engineering category.

With aspirations to become an environmental engineer, Minh Nga Nguyen, winner of the Investigations category, used agricultural by-products such as corn husks, bamboo scraps and rice waste, to create a biochar product with the dual capability of filtering water and then being used as a fertilizer. This process reduces the effects of contaminated water and pollution created by agricultural waste. She hopes this technology will provide positive impact globally.


Minh Nga Nguyen winner of the Investigations category.

Angelina Arora, winner of the Innovator to Market award, set out to develop a bioplastic made from prawn shell and sticky protein from the silk of silkworms. The plastic completely degrades leaving nothing harmful behind. She tested the strength, elongation, clarity, solubility, deconstruction and endurance of the plastic as well as other plastics made out of potato, corn and tapioca. Angelina hopes this plastic could replace current plastic shopping bags and other packaging to reduce the environmental impact in landfill and in the ocean.


Angelina Arora winner of the Innovator to Market award.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said the award winners' and finalists' ideas could help all Australians cope with a rapidly changing future.

"The world is changing faster than many of us can keep up with, but science, technology, engineering and maths can guide that future through innovation," Dr Marshall said.

"Around three quarters of all future jobs will need STEM and we're absolutely committed to helping school students develop these skills so they can shape Australia's future.

"We know that the achievements of the winners and finalists will inspire other students to become innovators solving the big challenges that face our world."

BHP Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie said the awards had been supporting young people's achievements and interest in STEM since they began in 1981.

"We've seen alumni from the awards go on to do extraordinary things and I have no doubt that the winners and finalists from this year will become leaders in their chosen professions," Mr Mackenzie said.

"The dedication and passion these students have for STEM is inspiring."

The BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Awards are a partnership between the BHP Billiton Foundation, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teacher Association and each state and territory Science Teachers Association. Six of the finalists will have the opportunity to go to Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the USA where over 1800 high school students from 75 countries, regions and territories are given the opportunity to showcase their independent research.

Student Winners and Placeholders

Engineering
Winner: Oliver Nicholls, Barker College, NSW, Autonomous robotic window cleaner
Second: Lachlan Bolton, Redeemer Baptist School, NSW, Future Board
Third: Jack Chapman, St Leonard's College, VIC, Electroduino-mechanical bionics Hand

Investigations
Winner: Minh Nga Nguyen, Sydney Girl's High School, NSW, Recycling waste into biochar: a sustainable agricultural wastewater filter and fertiliser
Second: Caitlin Roberts, The Friends' School, TAS, The protease inhibiting effect of almonds
Third: Ella Cuthbert, Lyneham High School, ACT, Is honeybee silk antimicrobial?

Innovator to Market
Winner: Angelina Arora, Sydney Girls High School, NSW, Shrimp shell bioplastics: A new solution to the world's growing plastic problem.

For more information go to www.scienceawards.org.au

Up Close With Young Fairy Martins – Windsor

February 2018: Published by Birds In Back Yards TV
These Fairy Martins (Petrochelidon ariel) were filmed in early December 2017 at Windsor, NSW. The location is semi-rural with open grassy areas, pockets of vegetation and a waterhole. See https://youtu.be/YWcjCnvj80E for a photo of the exact filming spot. 

This sort of habitat is ideal for Fairy Martins, but they are not always seen there. 

In southern parts of Australia, Fairy Martins are breeding migrants; they arrive in spring and build their nest colonies with mud or clay. By December their numbers swell with newly fledged juveniles and some older offspring with signs of adult plumage. Compare the buff-fringed wing feathers of the juveniles to the glossy blue-black and brown wings of the adults in the footage of six Fairy Martins (four juveniles bookended by two adults). 

You may also notice that juveniles have paler or duller rufous-brown crowns with some streaking, while the streaking on the throat and breast is more pronounced in adults. The other clue to age is the bill. For adults it is clearly black, but the youngest birds have an obvious yellow gape. We also saw a few juveniles where the yellowish tone to the base of the bill was disappearing or gone and the streaking on the throat was increasing. Presumably they fledged earlier in the breeding season.

Australia A Study Of Warm Environments And Their Effect On British Settlement By Taylor, Griffith. Publication Date 1940 By Metheun, London.

Moran Contemporary Photographic Prizes

The 2017 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize has been deferred until early 2018.
The growth in interest in the Photographic Prize is such that the Moran Arts Foundation wants to recognise photography as an art form in its own right and give the artists the profile they deserve.

About the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Established in 2007, the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (MCPP) is a national competition that awards and promotes Australian contemporary photography and excellence in all forms of still based artwork. 

The MCPP invites photographers to interpret ‘Contemporary Life in Australia’ with an emphasis on Australians going about their day-to-day life. We aim to encourage the production of photographs taken in Australia, by Australians, that reflects the diversity, multiculturalism and uniqueness of life, no matter where you live in Australia.

There are many ways to interpret this brief, but we are after your perspective on contemporary Australian society, your life, your dreams, your abilities, your inabilities, your mates, your loves. We want the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful and the everyday. Entries are NOT restricted to portraits.

Currently with an annual first prize of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), the Prize is an important part of Australia's Arts calendar. The Moran Prize is acquisitive and the winning photograph(s) immediately becomes the property of the Moran Arts Foundation, to be held and exhibited permanently as part of the Moran Arts Foundation Collection.
 
Prize Money
Open Section - $80,000 in prize money with the winner awarded $50,000. All 30 finalists will each receive $1,000. 
Secondary School Students, Year 11 to 12 - The winner is awarded $5,000 and their school is awarded $5,000 for the development of arts at the school;
Secondary School Students, Years 9 to 10 - The winner is awarded $3,000 and their school is awarded $3,000 for the development of arts at the school;
Secondary School Students, Years 7 to 8 - The winner is awarded $2,000 and their school is awarded $2,000 for the development of arts at the school;
Primary School Student Category, Kindergarten to Year 6 - A digital camera will be awarded to 25 selected winners plus a certificate of merit.
 
2018 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Entries open in January 2018 for the next Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize. Photos taken from 1 Sep 2016 up until the entries close date (yet to be announced) will be valid for entry. 

2018 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize Judges
Cheryl Newman
Jon Jones

Queensland Scientists Discover Off-Switch For 'Molecular Machine' Active In Many Diseases

February 6, 2018: University of Queensland
A discovery by Queensland scientists could be the key to stopping damage caused by uncontrolled inflammation in a range of common diseases including liver disease, Alzheimer's and gout.

University of Queensland researchers have uncovered how an inflammation process automatically switches off in healthy cells, and are now investigating ways to stop it manually when it goes awry.

UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) researcher Associate Professor Kate Schroder said this inflammation pathway drove many different diseases.

"Now that we understand how this pathway naturally turns off in health, we can investigate why it doesn't turn off in disease -- so it's very exciting," Dr Schroder said.

Her work at IMB's Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research focuses on inflammasomes, which are machine-like protein complexes at the heart of inflammation and disease.

"These complexes form when an infection, injury or other disturbance is detected by the immune system, and they send messages to immune cells to tell them to respond," Dr Schroder said.

"If the disturbance can't be cleared, such as in the case of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's, these molecular machines continue to fire, resulting in neurodegenerative damage from the sustained inflammation."

Dr Schroder's team, led by Dr Dave Boucher, discovered that inflammasomes normally work with an in-built timer switch, to ensure they only fire for a specific length of time once triggered.

"The inflammasome initiates the inflammation process by activating a protein that functions like a pair of scissors, and cuts itself and other proteins," Dr Schroder said.

"What we've found is that after a period of time this protein cuts itself a second time to turn off the pathway, so if we can tweak this system we may be able to turn it off manually in disease."

Dr Schroder's laboratory has begun studying the inflammasome in fatty liver disease, a rapidly growing health issue due to the increasing global incidence of obesity and diabetes.

"In some patients with this condition the liver becomes increasingly fatty and inflamed, and this can lead to cirrhosis -- which can require liver transplantation -- or even liver cancer."

Compounds to block inflammasome have been developed by IMB researchers including Dr Schroder, and are being commercialised by start-up drug development company Inflazome Ltd.

The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine was supported by the Australian Research Council, and involved laboratories at IMB and the UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.

Imaging for the project was performed in the IMB Cancer Biology Imaging Facility, funded by the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

Dave Boucher, Mercedes Monteleone, Rebecca C. Coll, Kaiwen W. Chen, Connie M. Ross, Jessica L. Teo, Guillermo A. Gomez, Caroline L. Holley, Damien Bierschenk, Katryn J. Stacey, Alpha S. Yap, Jelena S. Bezbradica, Kate Schroder. Caspase-1 self-cleavage is an intrinsic mechanism to terminate inflammasome activity. The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2018; jem.20172222 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20172222

A Place For Men To Speak Up When Times Get Tough

February 6th, 2018
The NSW Government is providing funding to a fly fishing program that aims to give hope to men suffering from mental health disorders.

The Fly Program is designed to help men who may be struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and/or suicide. Through the program’s fly fishing and wilderness experiences, men find a place to talk with others and be supported to live physically and mentally healthier lives.

Originally delivered in the Snowy Mountains, founder Matt Tripet hopes the $41,000 in government funding will help the program expand to help men across NSW.

Minister for Mental Health Tanya Davies said suicide affects men at a rate three times greater than women. Men are less likely to access mental health services.

“This program means men can seek advice or help in a less daunting way. The outdoors creates a relaxed opportunity to share their stories with other men who may be experiencing similar challenges,” Mrs Davies said. 

If you or someone you know needs help, call MensLine Australia on 1300 78 99 78. For crisis support, phone Lifeline 24/7 on 13 11 14 or visitlifeline.org.au.

Diet May Influence The Spread Of A Deadly Type Of Breast Cancer

February 7, 2018: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
A single protein building block commonly found in food may hold a key to preventing the spread of an often-deadly type of breast cancer, according to a new multicenter study published today in the medical journal Nature.

Investigators found that by limiting an amino acid called asparagine in laboratory mice with triple-negative breast cancer, they could dramatically reduce the ability of the cancer to travel to distant sites in the body. Among other techniques, the team used dietary restrictions to limit asparagine.

Foods rich in asparagine include dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood, asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy and whole grains. Foods low in asparagine include most fruits and vegetables.

"Our study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests diet can influence the course of the disease," said Simon Knott, PhD, associate director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics at Cedars-Sinai and one of two first authors of the study. The research was conducted at more than a dozen institutions.

If further research confirms the findings in human cells, limiting the amount of asparagine cancer patients ingest could be a potential strategy to augment existing therapies and to prevent the spread of breast cancer, Knott added.

The researchers studied triple-negative breast cancer cells, which grow and spread faster than most other types of cancer cells. It is called triple negative because it lacks receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone and makes little of a protein called HER2. As a result, it resists common treatments -- which target these factors and has a higher-than-average mortality rate.

Research from past studies found that most tumor cells remain in the primary breast site, but a subset of cells leaves the breast and enters the bloodstream. Those cells colonize in the lungs, brain and liver, where they proliferate. The study team wanted to understand the particular traits of the tumor cells circulating in the blood and in the sites where the cancer has spread.

The researchers discovered that the appearance of asparagine synthetase -- the enzyme cells used to make asparagine -- in a primary tumor was strongly associated with later cancer spread.

The researchers also found that metastasis was greatly limited by reducing asparagine synthetase, treatment with the chemotherapy drug L-asparaginase, or dietary restriction. When the lab mice were given food rich in asparagine, the cancer cells spread more rapidly.

"The study results are extremely suggestive that changes in diet might impact both how an individual responds to primary therapy and their chances of lethal disease spreading later in life," said the study's senior author, Gregory J. Hannon, PhD, professor of Cancer Molecular Biology and director, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge in England.

Investigators now are considering conducting an early-phase clinical trial in which healthy participants would consume a low-asparagine diet. If the diet results in decreased levels of asparagine, the next scientific step would involve a clinical trial with cancer patients. That trial likely would employ dietary restrictions as well as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, Knott said.

Studying the effects of asparagine also could alter treatments for other types of cancer, investigators say.

"This study may have implications not only for breast cancer, but for many metastatic cancers," said Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, vice dean, Research and Graduate Research Education, at Cedars-Sinai.

Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, under these awards numbers: P50-CA58223-09A1, R00 CA194077 and 5P30CA045508; by the National Institutes of Health grant number 5 P01 CA013106-44; and by the Susan G. Komen Foundation (SAC110006); the ICR and CRUK grand challenge award (C59824/A25044); and a grant from the DOD BCRP (W81XWH-1-0300).

Simon R. V. Knott, Elvin Wagenblast, Showkhin Khan, Sun Y. Kim, Mar Soto, Michel Wagner, Marc-Olivier Turgeon, Lisa Fish, Nicolas Erard, Annika L. Gable, Ashley R. Maceli, Steffen Dickopf, Evangelia K. Papachristou, Clive S. D’Santos, Lisa A. Carey, John E. Wilkinson, J. Chuck Harrell, Charles M. Perou, Hani Goodarzi, George Poulogiannis, Gregory J. Hannon. Asparagine bioavailability governs metastasis in a model of breast cancer. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/nature25465

Nine Fishermen Saved After Six Days Adrift At Sea

January 5th, 2018
Nine Papua New Guinean fisherman are lucky to be alive after being found in the Torres Strait, having drifted without fuel or food for six days.

On Friday 2 February, a Maritime Border Command (MBC) helicopter spotted the seven metre Banana Boat adrift on the Warrior Reef.

Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Cape Fourcroy was tasked to respond and located the vessel at approximately 12:30pm on 2 February.

Despite their ordeal the men were uninjured. The Cape Fourcroy crew resupplied the vessel with food, water and fuel and they were able to proceed back to PNG under their own steam.

Commander MBC, Rear Admiral Peter Laver, praised the work of the Cape Fourcroy crew on board.

“While our focus in the Torres Strait is protecting Australia’s waters from maritime security threats, the presence of the dedicated crews of our MBC vessels means we are never far away when emergencies like these occur,” Rear Admiral Laver said. 

“The waters of the Torres Strait can be treacherous and these men are very lucky that MBC located and intercepted them when we did.”

MBC is a multi-agency taskforce within the Australian Border Force (ABF) that maintains a constant presence in the waters off northern Australia, including the Torres Strait.

MBC utilises a range of aerial and maritime surveillance and response assets from the ABF and Australian Defence Force.

Study Finds Inaccuracies In Global Reporting Of Fish Catches

Wednesday, 7 February 2018: University of Western Australia
Research carried out by The University of Western Australia and The University of British Columbia has found inaccuracies in the data collected globally on fish catches.

The researchers found that improved data collection on fish catches in recent years by countries throughout the world has led to a misconception that there are more fish in the ocean, when in fact global marine catches have been declining by around 1.2 million tonnes per year since 1996.

The research was carried out by the Sea Around Us researchers (an research initiative at the UWA and the University of British Columbia). 

Lead author, Professor Dirk Zeller from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and the Sea Around Us – Indian Oceansaid the recent improved reporting includedunmonitored fishery, region and fleet data not previously collected.

“A lot of the data was previously not captured so when the reporting was improved, it was not applied retrospectively. This means that the emphasis is on the ‘present’ at the expense of the ‘past’ and does not paint an accurate picture of trends over time,” Professor Zeller said.

“One example is Mozambique where we found officials reported that small-scale catches ‘grew’ by 800 per cent from 2003 to 2004.

“But what really happened was that the small-scale sector was massively under-represented in the reported data for the longest time and when an improved reporting scheme was put in place in the early 2000s, improved catch data was added.

“A similar amount of fish was caught in previous years, but it was not in the reported data.”

“This means that when Mozambique submitted its data to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), they were already biased, as neither the country’s statistical agency nor FAO insisted on undertaking retroactive adjustments. Many other countries’ statistics have the same issue.”

Professor Zeller said countries’ efforts to improve the collection of fisheries statistics was highly commendable but needed retrospective data to paint an accurate picture.

The scientists suggest using methods such as the Sea Around Us reconstruction approach to fill gaps with best estimates of unreported catches.

The study, "Thailand's Missing Marine Fisheries Catch (1950–2014)" has been published in Marine Policy

Got A Coastal Bridge To Retrofit? There's An Optimal Approach For That

February 7, 2018: Lehigh University
Bridges make great metaphors for connection, as in "bridging our differences" and "building bridges." That may be because bridges play such a vital role in connecting people in real life.

And, in a natural disaster such as a flood, hurricane or tsunami, connecting people via functioning bridges can mean the difference between life and death during the event itself. In the aftermath, bridges are vital for recovery efforts.

When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in the summer of 2017, damage to the city's infrastructure was considered an immediate potential threat to public health and safety during the storm. Repairing damaged structures afterwards was vital to the city's return to functioning -- though the price was steep. Moody's Analytics estimated that repair to Houston's infrastructure would cost $5 billion to $10 billion.

Using probabilistic modeling and analysis, as well as advanced computer simulation, Dan Frangopol, the inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture at Lehigh University, and his research team develop the tools and techniques necessary to assess the effects of multi-hazards, such as natural disasters, on infrastructure. They find optimum solutions that can save money, time and even lives.

In their latest research, Frangopol and Mondoro integrated -- for the first time -- the three most common failure modes for bridges exposed to flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other extreme hydrologic (water-related) events into a comprehensive risk assessment framework.

The work fills a key gap in the way risk for such bridges is assessed over their life-cycle. Their research was published in in Engineering Structures (Vol. 159, 2018) in an article titled "Risk-based cost-benefit analysis for the retrofit of bridges exposed to extreme hydrologic events considering multiple failure modes."

Deck, pier and foundation failure are the three most common bridge failure modes. However, the risk assessment of bridges exposed to hazards have typically included only one or two of these.

"Considering only one or two failure modes provides an incomplete picture because the risk level of each mode differs and, when assessed together, they compete with each other," says Frangopol. "Our analysis finds that any risk assessment must incorporate all pertinent failure modes of a structure."

Frangopol and Mondoro illustrate their analytical method using a riverine bridge as an example. They calculated the impact of bridge retrofit actions on possible failure modes in terms of probability of failure, risk, and benefit-cost ratio using a logic modeling technique called an event tree.

In the riverine bridge case study, all of the bridge retrofit options resulted in a reduction in the probability of failure for the examined bridge. However, these options did not provide a unilateral decrease in risk.

For example, the addition of retrofit measures to prevent deck dislodgement decreased the probability of failure of the deck, and, in turn, the bridge. However, it increased the probability of failure of the foundation. Since the consequence of a foundation failure is larger, the overall risk is increased.

"Effective management strategies will vary depending on the bridge and the intensity and frequency of the hazard to which it is exposed," says Frangopol. "This may be of particular interest in regions where the impacts of natural and anthropogenic climate changes are felt most acutely."

While the illustrative example focuses on the flooding hazard, the methodology can be applied to other extreme hydrologic events, such as hurricanes and tsunamis.

Taking the long view
Given aging U.S. infrastructure, limited public resources and the challenges created by a changing climate, the need to understand the most cost-efficient approach to the design, construction and maintenance of structures is more important than ever.

Nearly twenty years ago, Frangopol pioneered life-cycle engineering, an approach to analyzing the true cost of structures which looks at cost and performance across their entire life span. He has been developing the field ever since.

Frangopol boils the concept down to the question: "How do we encourage policy makers and engineers to take the long view rather than focus on the upfront sticker price?"

The benefits of such an approach? Cost is certainly one. According to Civil Engineering Magazine, a life-cycle cost analysis is helping the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey save an estimated $100 million over 20 years on repairs to George Washington Bridge.

Frangopol's research on bridge retrofitting is part an initiative spearheaded by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Frangopol, as part of the ASCE Industry Leaders Council, helps lead ASCE's efforts to achieve a "Grand Challenge" of reducing the life-cycle cost of infrastructure by 50 percent by 2025.

Alysson Mondoro, Dan M. Frangopol. Risk-based cost-benefit analysis for the retrofit of bridges exposed to extreme hydrologic events considering multiple failure modes. Engineering Structures, 2018; 159: 310 DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2017.12.029

2017 Was An Average Year For Worldwide Shark Attacks, Deaths

February 5, 2018
With 88 reported unprovoked shark attacks and five fatalities worldwide, 2017 was "just an average year," according to the University of Florida International Shark Attack File.

While the 88 reported attacks are slightly higher than the most recent five-year annual average of 83, the five fatalities are just below the average of six deaths per year. Of the 88 attacks, 60 percent (53) occurred in the U.S. Australia had the second-highest number of attacks with 14, including one fatality.

Lindsay French, who manages the database housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, said the slightly higher than average attack numbers were expected as human populations continue to climb and people spend more time in the water.

"It really was just an average year, and significantly, the U.S. saw no shark attack fatalities for the second consecutive year," French said. "While we don't put too much emphasis on year-to-year changes, a slight increase is expected as beach tourism and water sports gain in popularity. And as has been the case for years, Florida saw more attacks (31) than any other state while Volusia County led the state in reported attacks with nine, 29 percent of Florida's total."

Worldwide, Reunion Island had three unprovoked attacks and two fatalities. Ascension Island, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Indonesia and South Africa each had two attacks, with one fatality occurring in Costa Rica. Brazil, the Canary Islands, Cuba, Egypt, England, Japan, the Maldives and New Zealand reported single attacks, with Cuba's attack resulting in the country's first fatality since the 1930s.

"The hotspots we're keeping an eye on are Ascension Island, which had its first attacks since the 1800s, and Reunion Island, which had two of last year's five fatalities," French said.

In the U.S., other states reporting attacks were South Carolina (10), Hawaii (6), California (2), with single incidents in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Fifty-nine percent of the attacks worldwide involved board sports. French said this group spends a large amount of time in the surf zone, an area commonly frequented by sharks.

"We need to remember we're going into a shark's natural habitat when we enter the water," French said. "Water sport activities often unintentionally attract sharks because of splashing, paddling, kicking and wiping out. But the number of unprovoked attacks is remarkably low considering the billions of people who participate in water sports each year."

French said the world's shark populations continue to suffer as a result of over-fishing and habitat loss.

"On average, unprovoked shark attacks cause six fatalities worldwide each year," she said. "But fisheries kill about 100 million sharks and rays annually, so there's definitely a real need to conserve these animals and their habitat to ensure their long-term survival. They play an important role in marine ecosystems."

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Florida - written by Paul Ramey. 

A Plan To Make NSW Roads Safer

February 6th, 2018: NSW Government
The NSW Government’s new Road Safety Plan addresses speeding, drink and drug driving, driver distraction, driver fatigue, truck safety and safety on country roads.
Some of the measures in the Road Safety Plan include:
  • expanding the mandatory alcohol interlock program, so mid-range drink drivers must provide a negative breath testing sample before a car will start
  • giving police the power to issue on-the-spot fines and licence suspensions for low-range drink driving
  • changing laws so camera technology can be used to enforce mobile phone offences
  • increasing the number of heavy vehicle average speed camera locations, including in metropolitan Sydney.
A new Saving Lives on Country Roads program will fund safety barriers, tactile line markings, wide centre line and safety upgrades of high risk curves.

In the short term, the government will launch a review into driving on prescription drugs by April 2018 and the NSW Sentencing Council will report on sentencing of repeat traffic offenders who may pose an ongoing risk to the community.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Road Safety Plan is a concerted effort to save lives by making sure roads and vehicles are as safe as possible.

“Every 41 minutes in NSW someone is either killed or seriously injured on our roads, leaving families and friends with the heartache,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“This plan makes it clear if you break the law you will be caught and will pay the price.”

The plan joins other government road safety programs, including the Safer Roads infrastructure program, safety around schools and mandatory road safety education for every child in NSW.

UNSW: Latest ARC Funding

February 7th, 2018: by Louise Caldicott, UNSW
UNSW has been awarded almost $4 million in ARC Linkage Grants for nine projects, including research on marine pollution, coastal hazards, ocean weather, antibiotic use, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing
UNSW research across marine pollution, coastal hazards, ocean weather, antibiotic use, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing are among nine Linkage Projects awarded nearly $4 million in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.

UNSW secured the largest share of the total $9.2 million announced by Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham. It was awarded 43% of the overall total funding, the highest in the Group of Eight (Go8).

To date, UNSW’s combined success rate for the 2017 Linkage Projects round is 32% for 11 Linkage Projects, totalling $4.7 million and placing the University first in the Go8 and the nation. These linkage grants, designed to foster collaboration between universities and industry, involved in-kind and financial support for UNSW research from almost 30 external organisations.

Professor Nicholas Fisk, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at UNSW, congratulated the University’s researchers on securing the most grants in this round.

“This funding will really help overcome some of society’s biggest challenges to achieve real-world outcomes for Australia," he said.

"These projects demonstrate the strength of our researchers, the societal and end-user relevance of their research, and the burgeoning discovery culture and environment here at UNSW. The key to the continuous application process is to be in it to win it, and this approach is now paying off for UNSW.

"Although there has been a lag with the introduction of the continuous process, we are now encouraged to see some impressive runs on the board.”

Among the largest ARC Linkage Project grants announced was $786,000 to Dr Mark Browne from UNSW's School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences and the Dean of Science Professor Emma Johnston. Their project aims to tackle the most abundant type of marine pollution – clothing fibres – which has increased over 450% in 60 years. It will determine how these fibres, along with clothing brands and washing machine filters, reduce fibre emissions and their ecological impact.

Another large grant ($505,000) went to Professor Ian Turner from the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, to develop a new coastal hazard early-warning system to benefit vulnerable communities and infrastructure along Australia’s coasts. This will alert communities, emergency managers and coastal engineers to impending storm wave damage and coastal erosion.

Associate Professor Moninya Roughan, from the School of Mathematics & Statistics, was awarded $440,000 to develop a state-of-the-art ocean weather information system for marine industries. The project will design an end-to-end solution that integrates ocean observations, operational forecasting and data delivery, providing a quicker pathway from research to economic benefit.

A project aimed at developing what governs antibiotic use in the health sector and how this can be made more effective was also granted $318,473. Professor Alexander Broom, from the School of Social Sciences, will develop strategies to improve antibiotic use and reduce resistance.

Dr Joanne Bryant, from the Centre for Social Research in Health, received $211,408 to support the sexual wellbeing of Aboriginal young people. The project will examine how Aboriginal people draw on social, cultural and personal resources to build their sexual wellbeing.

Other successful UNSW researchers include:
Professor Dennis Del Favero: $542,916 to investigate the emergence of novel forms of interactive aesthetics in contemporary performance design. This will allow Australia to capitalise on new digital opportunities to advance its performing and creative arts industries.

Professor Justin Gooding: $416,287 to develop a simple method for creating complex, multiple-cell-type three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures for in-vitro cell-based assays. Using 3D printing of multiple cell types, biological scientists will have more realistic in-vitro cell assays to those found in-vivo.

Dr Gemma Carey: $405,000 to develop methodologies to identify thin markets in the public service sector. Thin markets, where there are a low number of buyers or low number of sellers, are a major risk for governments using a personalised approach to service delivery.

Professor Sri Parameswaran: $300,000 to develop simpler image recognition systems to improve motor vehicle safety. This project will develop algorithmic and circuit techniques, provide training for research students, and build capability in approximate computing. It is also expected to lead to commercial products, licences and revenue, which will enable new job creation.

See the full list of recipients here.

New Fact Sheet Helps Businesses Identify Beneficial Owner Requirements

6 February 2018: AUSTRAC
A new fact sheet to help businesses understand and comply with their beneficial owner identification requirements has been published by AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence agency and regulator.

Dr Rachel Challis, AUSTRAC’s Acting National Manager Compliance, said the fact sheet draws on feedback from businesses and past compliance assessments conducted by AUSTRAC to clarify the key steps for businesses to determine beneficial ownership.

"Criminals use complex ownership structures to hide and move their illicit profits from crimes such as fraud, drug trafficking and corruption," said Dr Challis.

"Not only is beneficial owner identification an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligation, it is an important tool for businesses to know who they are really doing business with to help stop crime."

"The Paradise and Panama Papers are examples of how businesses can be exploited by criminals through complex ownership structures." said Dr Challis.

"Preparing this fact sheet is consistent with AUSTRAC’s commitment to partner with reporting entities to help them make their AML/CTF regimes the best they can be."

The fact sheet sets out the main beneficial owner identification obligations and describes AUSTRAC’s expectations in terms of meeting these obligations.

"We are confident that this fact sheet will assist those reporting entities that may be struggling to understand their obligations or implement their processes" said Dr Challis.

The new Meeting your beneficial owner obligations requirements fact sheet is now available.

The Future Of Wireless Communications Is Terahertz

February 6, 2018
Electrical and optical engineers in Australia have designed a novel platform that could tailor telecommunication and optical transmissions. Collaborating scientists from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and Canberra, the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and the Australian National Universityexperimentally demonstrated their system using a new transmission wavelength with a higher bandwidth capacity than those currently used in wireless communication. Reported this week in APL Photonics, from AIP Publishing, these experiments open up new horizons in communication and photonics technology.

Optical fibers are the frontrunners in fast data transmission, with data encoded as microwave radiation. Microwave radiation is a type of electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths, and therefore lower frequencies, than visible light. Current microwave wireless networks operate at a low gigahertz frequency bandwidth. In our current digital age that demands speedy transmission of large amounts of data, the limitations of microwave bandwidths become more increasingly more apparent.

In this study, scientists examined terahertz radiation, which has shorter wavelengths than microwaves and therefore has higher bandwidth capacity for data transmission. Furthermore, terahertz radiation provides a more focused signal that could improve the efficiency of communication stations and reduce power consumption of mobile towers. "I think moving into terahertz frequencies will be the future of wireless communications," said Shaghik Atakaramians, an author on the paper. However, scientists have been unable to develop a terahertz magnetic source, a necessary step to harness the magnetic nature of light for terahertz devices.

The researchers investigated how the pattern of terahertz waves changes on interaction with an object. In previous work, Atakaramians and collaborators proposed that a magnetic terahertz source could theoretically be produced when a point source is directed through a subwavelength fiber, a fiber with a smaller diameter than the radiation wavelength. In this study, they experimentally demonstrated their concept using a simple setup -- directing terahertz radiation through a narrow hole adjacent to a fiber of a subwavelength diameter. The fiber was made of a glass material that supports a circulating electric field, which is crucial for magnetic induction and enhancement in terahertz radiation.

"Creating terahertz magnetic sources opens up new directions for us," Atakaramians said. Terahertz magnetic sources could help the development of micro- and nanodevices. For example, terahertz security screenings at airports could reveal hidden items and explosive materials as effectively as X-rays, but without the dangers of X-ray ionization.

Another advantage of the source-fiber platform, in this case using a magnetic terahertz source, is the proven ability to alter the enhancement of the terahertz transmissions by tweaking the system. "We could define the type of response we were getting from the system by changing the relative orientation of the source and fiber," Atakaramians said.

Atakaramians emphasized that this ability to selectively enhance radiation isn't limited to terahertz wavelengths. "The conceptual significance here is applicable to the entire electromagnetic spectrum and atomic radiation sources," said Shahraam Afshar, the research director. This opens up new doors of development in a wide range of nanotechnologies and quantum technologies such as quantum signal processing.

This research was funded by Commonwealth and South Australian State Government, the Australian Research Council and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant.

Shaghik Atakaramians, Ilya V. Shadrivov, Andrey E. Miroshnichenko, Alessio Stefani, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Tanya M. Monro, Shahraam Afshar V. Enhanced terahertz magnetic dipole response by subwavelength fiber. APL Photonics, 2018; 3 (5): 051701 DOI:10.1063/1.5010348

Searching For Targeted Treatments For Inflammatory Diseases

February 6, 2018: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis have been linked to faults in a critical immune pathway that enables inflammation to continue unchecked.

Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have shed new light on how this immune response is controlled, and hope it could lead to new drugs for people with these chronic diseases.

A NOD to inflammatory diseases
Mr Che Stafford, Dr Ueli Nachbur, Professor John Silke and colleagues at the Institute led the research, which was published today in Cell Reports.

The critical immune pathway in question is the NOD2 pathway, which detects and responds to bacterial invaders by releasing inflammatory signals to fight the infection.

Inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease (an inflammatory bowel disease) and inflammatory skin diseases have been linked to faults in how the NOD2 pathway is regulated.

Dr Nachbur said faults in how the NOD2 pathway was controlled could enable the cell to continue to cause inflammation long after the bacterial threat has passed, leading to chronic inflammatory diseases.

"Inflammation occurs when our immune cells release inflammatory messengers, or cytokines, which is a normal response to disease. However when too many cytokines are produced, inflammation can get out-of-control and damage our own body -- a hallmark of inflammatory diseases," Dr Nachbur said.

Inflammatory 'controllers' identified
Mr Stafford said the research team showed that a protein called xIAP was the 'master controller' that initiated inflammation via the NOD2 pathway.

"We revealed that xIAP was the key to initiating the inflammatory response in these cells," Mr Stafford said. "We also showed that, once the NOD2 pathway trigger is initiated, the cells need a second, amplifying step to complete a full-strength immune response."

Knowing the key players in the entire NOD2 pathway, from initiators to enhancers, would pave the way for new strategies to treat inflammatory diseases, Mr Stafford said.

"Targeting key components of the NOD2 pathway shows promise as a way of switching off ongoing inflammation associated with diseases such as Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis.

"In 2015 our research team showed that blocking a different protein in the NOD2 pathway could halt inflammation, and was able to halt the progression of multiple sclerosis in a preclinical model. So it is very exciting to identify other potential targets for treating these diseases," he said.

Need for targeted treatments
Clarifying how the NOD2 pathway was regulated on a molecular level was important for developing new treatments for inflammatory diseases, Dr Nachbur said.

"Chronic inflammatory conditions such as Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis have a very significant impact to people's lives and new, targeted treatments are urgently needed.

"xIAP has other roles in the cell, such as regulation of cell death, so it is a tricky target for treating inflammatory diseases. However these new discoveries provide us with vital information to develop new treatment strategies that could lead to a safe and effective way of switching off inflammation for treating disease," Dr Nachbur said.

The research was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation and Victorian Government.

Che A. Stafford, Kate E. Lawlor, Valentin J. Heim, Aleksandra Bankovacki, Jonathan P. Bernardini, John Silke, Ueli Nachbur. IAPs Regulate Distinct Innate Immune Pathways to Co-ordinate the Response to Bacterial Peptidoglycans. Cell Reports, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.01.024

Disclaimer: These articles are not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.  Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Pittwater Online News or its staff.