| From pit to pitch
Melbourne parks and sports fields in the City of Port
Phillip will be greener thanks to an innovative
waste-water project which recovers and reuses water
from Telstra pits.
Telstra has joined the City of Port Phillip, waste
management company Barry Brothers Specialised Services,
CitiPower and South East Water in an environmental
management venture where water that collects in street
pits is cleaned and then used to water council parks
and sports fields.
Paul Baulch, general manager, Telstra's Health, Safety
and Environment, said the water recycling initiative
highlights the community and business benefits of responsible
environmental management.
"Instead of going to a water treatment plant,
the water collected by is cleaned and used for the
benefit of the environment and City of Port Phillip
residents," Paul said.
"Recycling water is not only a smarter use of
a precious resource, but it is more cost effective
- this process is up to 30 per cent cheaper than traditional
methods for waste-water disposal."
Pumping out pits to remove water is necessary to ensure
access to the underground network is safe for Telstra
communication technicians, and to protect customer
services. Last year an estimated 12 million litres
of water was pumped out of Telstra pits in Victoria.
Barry Brothers Specialised Services also operates
in New South Wales and Queensland and Telstra plans
to adopt this approach on a wider scale if the pilot
is successful.
Million dollar boost for country health
A new $1.3 million State Government information management
initiative is helping to deliver better health care
for all South Australians.
Health Minister Lea Stevens says the recently completed
roll out of a new data network will link health professionals
in the city with the rest of South Australia.
"We need to be able to access health information
and link all the players across our hundreds of health
care facilities," Ms Stevens says.
According to Ms. Stevens, the improved links will
mean better information management and ultimately better
health care.
This latest improvement adds to a number of integrated
health systems aimed at improving health care for South
Australians.
Putting in your 50c worth
One primary school student in Australia will have the
chance to have his or her design immortalised on
an Australian 50c coin to be released next year.
And the school submitting the winning design will
receive a prize of $10,000 from the Royal Australian
Mint.
Two primary school students in New South Wales,
two students in Victoria and one student in South
Australia have had their designs selected to be the
top 5 of the almost 2600 designs submitted to the
Royal Australian Mint earlier this year.
To decide the top design, the Royal Australian Mint
is inviting Australians to vote for the design they
think is the best.
The winning young designer will have their initials
appear on the coin, commemorating the student's designing
ability for as long as Australian coins are used
and collected. The winner will also receive a pristine
sample of the coin, hot off the press.
The theme of the design competition was "AUSTRALIA" and
it was deliberately kept very wide to allow the maximum
amount of artistic expression to the young students.
The five young designers will not have long to wait
to see who will win this competition and a $10,000
prize for their school.
The Mint's website (www.ramint.gov.au) home page
has an icon which links with the page showing the
top five designs as well allowing people to vote
for their choice.
A bright future for a Bright company
A Bright company that’s pioneering
the use of a revolutionary welding technique in
Australia is one of more than 100 companies to
have received funding through the Australian Government’s
R&D Start program this year.
Federal Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, revealed
that up to October, 104 companies across the country
had been awarded a total of more than $98 million
in grants and loans through the program.
“R&D Start is a highly competitive program
that is nurturing an incredible range of bright ideas,” said
Mr. Macfarlane.
“We have projects from development of an all-natural
food flavour enhancer to an electronic version of
the hospital medical chart, numerous cutting edge
IT products and a bedspring manufacturing centre
for the worldwide bedding industry.”
“These are mostly small companies, like MIAB
Technology, with a clever project or a smart idea
who need a little help turning it into a commercial
product or service. The program helps them over the
research and development hurdles,” he said.
MIAB Technology, based in the regional Victorian
town of Bright, is using its $210,000 grant to develop
a system for applying ‘single shot’ welding
to long distance oil and gas pipelines. The technology
is especially suited to the smaller pipelines that
are needed to connect many rural and regional towns
to natural gas.
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