Category Archives: 2016

Stories of Australian Science and Stories of Australia-Indonesia Innovation 2016

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Building port cities

Port cities can be lively, vibrant hives of activity—the hub of a nation’s economic health—if they’re planned well.

Indonesia’s busiest port, Tanjung Priok, has roughly two and a half times the container traffic as the Port of Melbourne. But it also has a reputation as one of the least efficient ports in Asia. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has recognised the need to transform the nation’s ports and plans to develop 24 new ports by 2019. One recently established, state-of-theart port is Teluk Lamong in Surabaya.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration, The Australia-Indonesia Centre

Infrastructure

• Building port cities
• A safe and efficient rail system
• East Java’s new freight system

Indonesia is undergoing massive economic growth. That’s going to place huge requirements on the nation’s infrastructure, including ports and transport. And a changing climate increases the risk of environmental disasters. Take ports for example: maritime trade is vital to the island nations of Indonesia and Australia— to maintain connections between cities within and without. But ports need to work with the environment they’re built into, and both countries need to improve efficiency and accessibility for goods and passengers to move between land and sea.

Credit for banner image: Max Richter.

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Earth sciences

• Searching for hidden gold and copper
• Finding the Hobbit and more
• Making artificial tsunamis
• Where are Asia’s lost ‘elephants’ ?
• Re-evaluating Jakarta’s seismic risk
• Predicting Indonesia’s weather

Indonesian and Australian teams are digging, sifting, and scanning the earth to discover treasures, secrets of the past, and the hazards of the future.

Credit for banner image: David Elkins.

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Island nations sharing expertise, not pests

Biosecurity research, training and education in Indonesia and Australia are set to benefit from a bilateral research agreement between five Indonesian research organisations and the Australian Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre (PBCRC), announced in April 2016.

The first project in the partnership is the development of a virtual diagnostic network using the Pestpoint software developed by the PBCRC.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Getting the most out of Indonesian specialty coffees

Coffee processed on the Indonesian island of Flores has gained popularity in the international specialty coffee scene, as a result of efforts to improve revenue for small coffee farmers in regional areas.

The global market for specialty coffee continues to grow, but that demand is increasingly paired with a call for traceability, enhanced quality demands, and evidence of environmental and social standards throughout the production chain.

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2016

Making biosecurity profitable for Indonesian poultry farmers

Domestic poultry, farmers, and consumers will all benefit from the work of an Australian-Indonesian research team in improving the understanding, and use, of biosecurity measures in Indonesian farms.

Making sure poultry stay healthy is important not only for the welfare of the birds, but also the lives of people interacting with them. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is extremely contagious, and control of the disease is essential to reduce the risk of a global outbreak, improve livelihoods of everyone involved in the poultry industry, and prevent further human deaths.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Saving Indonesia’s cocoa

Supporting farmers and improving crop sustainability are the focus of collaborative work to save Indonesia’s ailing cocoa bean yields.

Production of cocoa beans for chocolate making is big business in Indonesia, especially in Sulawesi—where from the 1970s to 1990s, production grew from almost nothing to around 1.5 million hectares of smallholder plantings, and the third-largest production output in the world.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Joining the race for better, safer lithium batteries

Commercialising the technology or the next generation of lithium batteries is the target for a team of Indonesian and Australian scientists, who are backed by battery manufacturer PT Nipress Tbk.

Lithium batteries allow for a large amount of energy to be packed into a small space. But they’re costly compared to single use ‘disposable’ batteries, and have special requirements for transportation and storage.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Designing the coolest and most efficient tropical houses

Traditional buildings in Indonesia make use of ‘passive’ cooling techniques.

Being well ventilated, raised off the ground, and with shady verandas, their design allows them to stay cool in a tropical climate without air conditioning. The classic timber ‘Queenslander’ house also follows a similar design.

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