With pest animals estimated to cost the Australian economy up to $1 billion a year, CSIRO scientists have developed a humane new technology that could help save Australian farmers’ crops and livelihoods.

After successfully scaring away elephants from farms and crops in Africa, scientists are trialling the Vertebrate Pest Detect-and-Deter (VPDaD) technology in Australia against pests such as ducks, cockatoos, rabbits, wild dogs and more, starting in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley.

“Ultimately we want to scale-up the technology and roll it out across Australia,” CSIRO scientist Dr Ash Tews said.

The technology works by detecting and identifying animals as they come close to farms or crops, and emitting a tailored series of sounds and lights to humanely scare them away before they cause damage.

In Australia, vertebrate pest animals can cause many thousands of dollars’ damage in a single dining experience, causing real problems for farmers’ orchards, vegetable and cereal crops, and potentially for livestock during critical periods of development or birthing events.

In addition to the feasibility study underway in the Lockyer Valley, CSIRO is looking to partner with local agribusinesses, aiming to help primary industries facing problems with an array of native pests.

The previous trial was conducted in Gabon, Africa, where elephants can present a significant problem for villagers and agricultural communities, capable of destroying a community’s entire season’s worth of crops overnight.

In collaboration with agribusiness company Olam International, the VPDaD technology was successfully used to prevent elephants from destroying fruit crops.

The VPDaD technology consists of a motion sensor device, and a collection of cameras that can pick up images and heat signatures of an animal, with lights and sounds that function as the deterrent for pests.

In addition to looking at how animals respond to perceived threats, the scientists are analysing deterrent effectiveness and animal movements over seasons.

 

 

Are you looking to set up a new business, buy or sell a business? The law places tremendous responsibilities upon Business owners and employers.

Starting in business can be exciting. You can’t wait to put your ideas into action and a lot of hard work. However, there are Business Law issues you must consider:

• Will you be employing staff?

• Will you have contracts with customers

or clients?

• How will you deal with leases, insurance,

debt recovery?

• Do you have finance in place?

• What tax implications are there in your

business?

• Do you understand fair-trading regulations?

Before you commit to a lease, employ people or start work for clients, you must be sure you are not putting yourself in legal jeopardy or risking criminal or financial penalties.

Running your business may involve:

• Guarantees and security documents

• Confidentiality agreements

• Copyright and intellectual property law

• Partnership and shareholder disputes

• Customer disputes

• Supplier and contractor agreements

• Terms and conditions of trade

• Bankruptcy and Insolvency

• Work Health and Safety requirements

Selling your business involves issues you need to think through before signing a contract; in particular, the negotiation for the sale. Many factors come into play when deciding on a sale price for your business. Issues that arise include whether GST is applicable in the sale price and liabilities, responsibility for employees, and trading restrictions that may apply, just to name a few. Rushing the sale of a business may devalue your life’s work.

Gabe McMillan is a human dynamo. As a seasoned business woman, mother of four children under five, with a husband who also runs a business, she is celebrating ten years as the owner of Forbes’ only newsagency. The Phoenix caught up with her to get the story.

“We made the decision to purchase the business and took it over in August 2007,” said Gabe. “At that stage it was my two sisters and
I who came in to work the newsagency together. I had relocated to Forbes after working as a journalist in Dubbo.”

The family decided on the newsagency because it was something that Gabe had experience in. She had been a junior retail assistant at News On Rankin while at school, and they felt they had a bit of knowledge going into it. But the reality was a bit different. “I probably thought I knew more than I did. And we probably weren’t that prepared. With a business like this, and I’ve probably had these conversations often over the years, there’s a lot involved in running a newsagency.” “On the first day, the three of us made sure we were here at five o’clock in the morning to open the shop. My two sisters had absolutely no idea about lotteries or any idea of what was going to go into it.”

“The business had a lot of dated stock in it, so that was probably one of the biggest things that I would say that I noticed then, and it was just the feel of it. Straight away from the first day we realised that we really needed to make sure that we separated ourselves from our competitors and made sure that we had an offering that our competitors didn’t.”

“So we really started from that day about the welcoming, about the warmth of the store,” said Gabe. From these beginnings, the business changed and expanded, and Gabe ended up on her own as her sisters pursued other things. “We’ve expanded our stationery area and our stationery lines for business customers. We now have a retail salesperson out visiting businesses at least three days a week. We offer discounts to business, and have strong relationships with businesses in Forbes as their stationery supplier.”

“Toys have also been one of our biggest areas. Because Forbes doesn’t have a toy store, we now find that parents really do look to us for all those small toys for birthday parties and things.” Beginning with one full-time staff member, a couple of casuals in the afternoon, and one delivery driver, News On Rankin now has four full time staff, seven casuals, and two drivers.

Over the years they have employed over 100 people, including 40 junior staff who have benefited from the training and gone on to
achieve bigger and better things. Gabe sees News On Rankin as more than just a newsagency. “I prefer to think of us as a retailer. We offer all the mainstream newsagency products, as well as superior customer service. It’s all about that personal relationship that we have with our customers.”

It hasn’t always been easy. Gabe took over the business in the middle of a decade long drought, then the global financial crisis hit hard. They also experienced the two recent major flood events along with the rest of the community. Gabe says that “Business success is largely about showing resilience, and banding together with the community.” “There’s been lots of highlights, and lots of sleepless nights. A lot of stresses, I would never pretend that there wasn’t, but the good things have far outweighed the bad during that time,” said Gabe.

“The week before Christmas in 2015, we sold the division one winning ticket in Wednesday night Lotto. I think it was so exciting for us to finally sell a winning ticket, because when you sell as many tickets as I have sold over the last ten years it was really nice to get a winner. There was a lot of excitement in the town. But the best part is that, to this day, that winner remains anonymous.”

Another highlight was winning the NSW newsagency retailer of the year award in 2012. “That was a massive achievement for us, and this year we were a regional finalist for the NSW Business Chamber which was an excellent achievement. It’s a great accolade not just for myself but for all of the staff.”

For Gabe, it’s all about the people. “Over the last ten years I’ve loved getting to know the people who come in here. I’ve developed strong relationships with a lot of those people. And I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of loyalty shown to me by customers and staff in that time.”

“The next five years, it’ll be about looking at how we can continue our business and make sure we’ve got longevity. We ask the community to continue to support us, because while they continue to support us, we’ll continue to be here.”

Around 14 locals joined Central West Lachlan Landcare (CWLL) in beautiful weather for the Forbes planting event for Planet Ark’s 22nd National Tree Day on 29 July. Nationally, Planet Ark estimates over 250,000 people took part at over 3,000 planting sites – with results still coming in – run by councils, schools, environment and community groups and Toyota Dealers across the country, planting close to one million native trees, shrubs and edibles and helping to beautify their local communities.

The green-thumbed volunteers in Forbes planted and mulched over 100 trees in the picturesque setting, just off Bedgerabong Road. This is a portion of a larger planting that will be undertaken in the area. When the planting was complete, volunteers enjoyed lunch together and had a chance to catch up and reflect on the work completed.

“The volunteers did a fantastic job and it was wonderful to have their presence at National Tree Day. We are pleased to have such a wide age group joining us and contributing to the project,” said Marg Applebee, Co-ordinator for CWLL. CWLL have been fortunate to have the support of Forbes Shire Council and Toyota to bring NTD to the Forbes Community. CWLL and the Skillset Green Army Team will be continuing planting work in this area over the weeks ahead.

A big thank you to all of the Volunteers who make National Tree Day possible.