Cities are at once among humanity’s crowning achievements and core drivers of the climate crisis. Their dependence on the outside world for vital resources is causing global temperatures to rise and wildlife habitats to shrink. But we have the opportunity to make cities more sustainable by transforming the built environment.

Dickson D. Despommier proposes a visionary yet achievable plan for creating a new, self-sustaining urban landscape. He argues that we can find solutions through the concept of biomimicry: emulating successful strategies found in nature. A better city is possible if we heed the lessons that forests and trees teach about how to store carbon, grow food, collect rainwater, and convert sunlight into energy.

Touring established and leading-edge technologies, The New City provides a blueprint for tomorrow’s urban environment. Cities built from wood will be more resilient and less destructive than concrete and steel construction; they will also encourage reforestation, boosting carbon sequestration. Vertical farms inside city limits will supply residents with a reliable, healthy food supply. Buildings will harvest moisture from the rain and air to secure a clean water supply.

Renewable energy, including not only wind, solar, and geothermal but also clear photovoltaic window glass and non-polluting hydrogen fuel cells, will power a cleaner city.

The Hinkler Innovation Initiative is a community-led initiative striving to foster and champion innovation throughout the Bundaberg Region. Inspired by the pioneering spirit and trailblazing legacy of Bert Hinkler, an innovator and explorer from the Bundaberg Region, this initiative is a platform to bring together global thought leaders and our local innovators to strengthen regional innovation.

City of Moreton Bay with Moreton Bay Region Industry & Tourism (MBRIT) have partnered to provide specialist innovation and growth services to foster the region's entrepreneurial spirit, under the revised Innovate Moreton Bay program.

Supporting the region’s start-ups, scale-ups and providing access to resources will enable locals, including our youth, to prosper and build the capability to compete successfully in global markets.

Established in 2019, Smart Precinct NQ is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a springboard for collaboration, learning and growth through a range of start-up accelerators and incubator programs, business growth advisory services, investment support and events.

We bring together a range of stakeholders to provide a positive impact to North Queensland Founders, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Industry and the wider Business Community.

Innovation isn’t just something happening in our big cities. It is important people living in remote areas are able to participate in these programs, events and activities.

Central Highlands Development Corporation Acting General Manger Liz Alexander said the funding would support CHDC, Central Highlands Regional Council, BMA, CQUniversity, Rural Business Collective and C-RES (Queensland) to boost the emergence and development of innovation and cross-regional collaboration.

The Cairns Health Innovation Centre will incorporate research, education and training facilities and will be part of the transition to Cairns University Hospital.

The project will deliver additional capacity for clinical services within the existing Cairns Hospital precinct and provide necessary health education, training, and research facilities for our future medical professionals in Cairns.

Australia’s only primary tungsten producer, EQ Resources, is processing waste from an historic Far North Queensland mine to produce the critical mineral in increasing demand around the world, while creating good job jobs for the local community.

Mt Morgan is located in Queensland and was the largest gold mine in the world at its peak in the early 1900s. Over its lifespan, the mine yielded approximately 262 metric tons of gold, 37 metric tons of silver and 387,000 metric tons of copper.

The recovery of gold and copper from tailings will help meet increasing demand for the resources required for the clean energy transition, while also improving environmental outcomes for the region and industry.

Repurposing mineral waste may reduce the burden of waste management and generate cost-effective products. Converted waste products can support mine rehabilitation processes. For example, a common practice of waste repurposing is the co-disposal of tailings and waste rock to create physically stable mixtures to backfill mining voids.

Converted waste products can also support other industries, such as agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. Technical solutions can convert mineral waste into neutral and stable products depending on mineralogy.

Ideally, solutions will align with circular economy principles and generate waste-derived products to meet local demand such as the production of construction materials for local infrastructure.

Solutions that enable the cost-effective recovery of secondary minerals from mining waste can unlock valuable critical and strategic mineral resources and may offset the costs of mine rehabilitation activities.

Recognising the potential value of these assets, Geoscience Australia recently launched an online Atlas of Mine Waste to provide information about mine tailings, waste rock, and other mining waste stockpiles in Australia.56

Cost-effective solutions that support secondary mineral extraction from waste streams such as tailings, wastewater, and waste rock stockpiles present an opportunity to improve closure outcomes. Consultations have noted that economic recovery opportunities are present in legacy sites where less efficient extractive processes have left high concentrations of target minerals in waste.

Mine rehabilitation is the return of disturbed land to a safe, stable, non-polluting condition that supports a post-mining land use (PMLU). In Queensland, grazing and native ecosystems are the most commonly proposed PMLUs for rehabilitated land. However, there are a range of other PMLUs, as well as post-rehabilitation opportunities for future landholders, that could be explored to maximise social, economic and environmental outcomes from rehabilitation in Queensland.

This project will take the insights gained from LHP1 and LHP2 and develop them into investible business cases for new PMLU solutions. These solutions will support improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes for specific sites across Queensland, making it our third Lighthouse Project.

We are heartened by the overwhelming support from the community for our structured approach to establish several pilot/test site facilities in Queensland. These sites will allow stakeholders to discover and validate innovative new economic purposes.

Progress so far? Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of LHP1 and LHP2 attendees, we are gaining interest from government bodies, communities, mining companies, METS suppliers, and other industry sectors. Initiatives for scoping and funding have already begun.

Developing a Business Case Method
Dr Ian Dover is at the helm of this project, which begins with a comprehensive board-style workshop on October 23rd in Brisbane CBD. The workshop will review existing economic, social, environmental, and governance models for post-mining land-use options, incorporating fresh insights from expert stakeholders to craft a draft business case methodology for application across Queensland regional sites.

The initial workshop phase has secured funding from enviroMETS, and we are actively seeking full funding from other stakeholders. This phase will:
• Distil viable options from site and regional characterization.
• Identify the net value uplift (in dollars) of mineral resources, new commercial opportunities, social benefits, environmental advantages, and cultural enrichment options.
• Standardize a format to make the 'authorization process' comparable and efficient.
• Test a 'practitioner toolkit' with five pre-feasibility regional pilot site business cases.

Mapping the Regulatory Environment
Led by Prof Brett Heyward, this project is on a mission to gain a practical understanding of Queensland's regulatory framework and industry practices, and how they impact the economic transformation of mining-affected land and communities. This fully funded initiative will:
• Identify and map regulatory pathways and industry practices posing challenges to repurposing scenarios.
• Uncover opportunities for establishing pilot/trial sites.
• Gather insights from international experiences with innovative post-mining land use.
• Provide recommendations for solutions to address these challenges.
• Extend industry and regulator support to establish an enabling environment for innovative post-mining land use.
Where are we now? We've completed numerous stakeholder meetings, including a workshop with industry and regulatory participants that revealed a multitude of factors influencing the feasibility of post-mining land use opportunities. Our research team has also kicked off several case studies covering various mining types and PMLU options, all aimed at further enriching our project findings.

CORE works with members and stakeholders on innovative solutions to challenging soil related issues. From enhancing agricultural soils to treating complex soil contamination issues, CORE develops solutions using methods and technologies involving bio-products tailor-made for the situation.

Organic waste makes up around half of what Queenslanders throw away each week in their kerbside waste (red lid) bin. Diverting organic material from landfill presents numerous environmental and economic benefits, ranging from significant landfill methane emissions reduction to the generation of a value-added product.

The Queensland Government supported Townsville City, Rockhampton Regional and Lockyer Valley Regional Councils to undertake the trials.

As part of the trial, each council provided an additional bin to a sample of households to test collection frequencies, equipment types and community engagement methods.

The trials successfully diverted hundreds of tonnes of organic waste from landfill. The information gathered from the trials is being used by the Queensland Government and councils to assess the suitably of ongoing FOGO collections in Queensland.

The trials were made possible due to the dedicated waste management teams in the local governments who have been on the ground every day ensuring that their communities embrace new ways of managing their waste.