Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has joined forces with Australia, Argentina, Canada, New Zealand and other large drinks exporters, in proposing that a register of geography-linked names of wines and spirits – now being discussed at the World Trade Organisation – should be voluntary, carrying little legal weight.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE UNIVERSITY of Queensland, Australia, has developed a method of making leather out of chicken skin that it says will be extremely useful for products requiring drip, notably steering wheels, driving gloves and mobile telephone covers. The university’s John Dingle says leather could provide another use for old chickens than pet food.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
RESEARCHERS at Australia’s Hydrometallurgy CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) have successfully recovered gold from solution using resins in an effort to reduce the industry’s reliance on cyanide extraction. Thiosulphate is seen to be an environmentally friendly alternative to cyanide for gold extraction so the researchers have been looking at methods of recovery after gold is leached with thiosulphate.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THREE software programmes developed by Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment are enabling mines to make better use of powerful geo-sensing techniques. By providing a cheap and easy way to process and interpret data, the programmes are removing impediments to the use of tools that provide much greater geological certainty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AUSTRALIAN microbiologist Michelle Bull is helping to pioneer the processing of orange juice at high pressure. Bull, from Food Science Australia, said the system means microbes such as yeast, bacteria and mould are “squeezed to death” extending the life of the product.…

BY MARK ROWE
SHIPPING lines are resisting Australian government plans for greater use of pilots to guide them past the Great Barrier Reef. Shipping Australia Ltd argues that pilots are overworked and that pilots sleep an average of just five hours each day.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE STAR Alliance group of carriers is interested in leasing the terminal space at Australia’s Sydney airport vacated by the failed airline Ansett. Investors backed by Singapore Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance, are believed to want to start up a new Australian domestic carrier by the end of the year.…

KEITH NUTHALL
This is based on a feature I wrote for Geographical Magazine a couple of years ago but which I am now focusing solely on Tasmania rather than nationwide.

Tasmanian aquaculture

Matthew Brace, Sydney

Australia is sold to the world as a vast baking continent with quartzite ridges stretching to the horizon like the fossilised carcasses of fallen dinosaurs.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERNATIONAL organisations are supposed to help business fight off sophisticated crime networks, but now the fraudsters are turning the tables and using the good name of these institutions as part of their scams. Mark Rowe reports.

IT STARTED with a fax from a Chinese businessman to the Vienna headquarters of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, MONICA DOBIE AND PHILIP FINE

IF there is one striking characteristic about Washington’s Bush Administration, it must be its almost unprecedented ability to infuriate the entire world with its unilateralism, especially its self-serving trade policies.

For years, the US government has actually played Mary Poppins on food production subsidies, claiming that its handouts do not encourage farmers to overproduce when prices are low.…