Charles Darwin University is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, the Menzies School of Health Research, and Centralian College.

Logan is a rich and diverse community filled with a myriad of talented and dedicated artists, makers and creatives – musicians, performers and producers, writers, visual artists and more.

While local council is supportive of arts culture, there is a distinct lack of diversity in local infrastructure and community-led programs for the creative sector.

We lack a range of independent commercial spaces to develop, practice and engage the greater community in the arts.

Anyone can have a great idea or come up with an innovative solution to a problem. The hard part when you’re in a region can be getting access to the help you need to turn ideas into a business and a business into a global success story. Advance Queensland is helping Queenslanders to grow their business and build an innovation economy.

The Whitsunday Climate Innovation Hub, an initiative of the Whitsunday Regional Council, is aiming to improve the resilience of the Whitsunday region in the face of increasing climate change hazards, such as storm tide and coastal erosion. The Hub acts as a think-tank, bringing together national and international experts in law, climate adaptation, finance, insurance, tourism and agriculture, and provides climate information to the wider community.

The Great Southern is Western Australia’s southernmost region, bordered by the Southern Ocean where the coast stretches for approximately 250 kilometres. Spanning over 39,007 square kilometres, the region represents 1.5% of Western Australia’s total land mass and extends inland for 200 kilometres.

Deemed as one of the most liveable regions in WA, the Great Southern is renowned for its unspoilt natural environment including white sand beaches, tall timber forests, wildflowers and a spectacular rugged coastline complete with whales, dolphins and other marine life, the region has an inspiring and diverse tourism offering.

The Great Southern region is known for its primary production, natural and harvested fishing, aquaculture, award winning vineyards, fine food and wine culture, ecotourism and natural attractions.

The City of Albany, the State’s oldest European settlement (settled in 1826) is the region’s administrative, business and financial hub.

Gippsland offers a variety of natural attractions like nowhere else in Victoria. From rugged alpine mountain ranges, historic rural towns to pristine beaches, Gippsland is a diverse place attracting local and international visitors all year around.

The tourism industry in Gippsland is an important contributor to the region’s economy, worth $2.4 billion in direct and indirect expenditure per annum. Gippsland has outperformed regional Victoria for domestic and international visitation percentage growth, with 10.8 million visitors to the region annually. The visitor economy supports over 3,000 businesses who derive the majority of their income from overnight and daytrip visitors.

Strongly backed by the government, multiple projects have been put into place to further Gippsland’s visitor economy. This includes the $48 million upgrade of the Philip Island Nature Park, the $30 million Latrobe Creative Arts Precinct and the $13.9 million West Gippsland Arts Centre.

The Australian seaweed industry is small: currently valued at an estimated GVP of AUD $3 million. Of this, the majority is from one company, Kelp Industries Pty Ltd on King Island in Tasmania, who collect storm-cast Bull Kelp (Durvillea pototorum) predominantly for export to a large alginate manufacturer and for use in biofertiliser products.

Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows seaweed exports from Australia are valued at $1.5 million for non-human consumption and it is assumed that this is almost entirely from Kelp Industries exports.

There are currently no commercial ocean seaweed farms in Australia and only two small land-based operations for Ulva spp. cultivation in Shoalhaven, NSW (Venus Shell Systems) and Ayr, QLD (Pacific Biotechnology). Both of these operations each have less than five hectares of seaweed under production.

Two Australian seaweed product manufacturers of note are Seasol, who make a biofertiliser from Australian Bull Kelp, and Marinova who manufacture fucoidan extract from largely imported seaweeds for the health and nutrition market. There are also a small number of boutique food product producers using some Australian and imported seaweeds, such as Alg Seaweed.

But much of the recent commercial interest has been sparked by the discovery that a group of native Australian seaweeds, Asparagopsis spp., can reduce the methane emissions from cattle by 99% when as little as 2% is added to their feed (Kinley et al., 2016; Machado et al., 2016). This discovery is being commercialised by FutureFeed Pty Ltd, which was established by CSIRO to hold the exclusive rights to the patents from CSIRO, James Cook University and Meat and Livestock Australia.

As there is currently no large-scale commercial cultivation of this seaweed anywhere in the world, there is now a global race to begin large scale cultivation. FutureFeed will work with partners across the value chain to bring this product to market: establishing the production supply chain, processing, storage, distribution, QA, certification, marketing and carbon credit methodology. In Australia, there are two new entrants: 1) CH4 Global in South Australia and 2) Sea Forests in Tasmania. This is a fast-emerging, major opportunity for growth of the Australian seaweed industry and is discussed in the next section.

The Far North Queensland region is centred on the coastal city of Cairns. The region includes Daintree and Mossman to the north, Innisfail to the south and the Atherton Tablelands to the west. It contains a number of world heritage-listed areas, including the iconic Great Barrier Reef, and the Wet Tropics and Daintree rainforests, which are major world biodiversity hotspots and significant international tourist destinations.

Protecting the world’s largest living structure (the Great Barrier Reef) and the oldest continuously surviving rainforests (the Wet Tropics) – as well as the other spectacular natural areas in the region – is a huge challenge and needs resources.

These World Heritage Areas are important to Australians and global citizens alike so we also need people outside the region to join and support us in giving voice to the local community members who speak and act for these globally-recognised natural wonders.

The Central Coast is a region of New South Wales, Australia, lying on the Pacific Ocean north of Sydney. Towns like Terrigal and Avoca Beach feature expansive beaches and surfing. The Entrance is a resort area offering a range of recreation at the confluence of the ocean and Tuggerah Lake, a saltwater wetland. The city of Gosford is the main commercial hub and visitor gateway.

As a region, we have economic opportunities in front of us – the digital revolution, emerging local industries, smart technologies, a growing innovation eco-system, and a desirable growing visitor economy.

The Wheatbelt is so called because of its extensive agricultural industry. The region is the primary producer of cereal crops in the state and contributes other agricultural products such as canola, olives, vegetables, wine grapes, honey, citrus fruits and livestock.

Whilst agriculture remains the dominant industry, the economy of the region is also supported by mining, commerce, retail, manufacturing, fishing and tourism.

The natural and cultural attributes of the region make it extremely versatile in tourism service and product offerings.

Support for local government, business and communities is required to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the regional, state, national and international tourist sectors. A collaboration model across 42 shires is required.

A ‘Wander the Wheatbelt’ online platform is being investigated with short term opportunities to boost tourism.

The University of Melbourne is Australia's Number One university and is a world leader in education, teaching and research excellence.

RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.

Monash University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named after prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state.

Victoria University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a dual-sector university, providing courses in both higher education and technical and further education.

La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria.

Swinburne University of Technology is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College to serve those without access to further education in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

The Toowoomba’s region’s economic role as a smart region, an agricultural centre, knowledge and research region and freight and logistics hub, provides enormous strengths and competitive advantages. This role will be pivotal in the region positioning itself to catch the next wave of industry, employment and investment opportunities.

Those industries with a relatively high knowledge worker content and which present opportunities for growth in the Toowoomba region, include business services such as financial and legal services, education and training, specialist health care and wellbeing, scientific and technical services to agriculture and mining, including specialist agriculture-related research and technology industries, and the creative industries, particularly creative services like architecture and design, communications and marketing and digital content.

Ipswich economy is driven by high value industries of manufacturing, health care and social assistance, retail trade, education and defence. Ipswich is located in a prime location in South East Queensland, between Gold Coast to the south, Toowoomba to the west, Brisbane to the east, and the Sunshine Coast to the north.

Culture and creativity are part of our Tasmanian story – it’s who we are and what we do and why we do it. It touches every facet of our lives.

Tasmanian culture is our most treasured asset, which no other people and no other place can replicate. It is the source of our pride, our regret, our mutual understanding, and our most honest and reliable engine of growth. Our culture is an expression of who we are, what it feels like to be Tasmanian.

Tasmanians express it to each other and tell our 60,000 year-old stories to visitors and to the world. We feel it in our museums, galleries, natural environment and historic places. We hear it and read it and watch it, play with it, wear it, bring it into our homes, taste it, and, most importantly, we share it.

Brisbane has rapidly emerged as an influential leader in the Asia Pacific and a highly desirable place to do business. The city’s growing global recognition was accelerated by its highly successful staging of the 2014 G20 World Leaders Summit. Capitalising on its enhanced international reputation, Brisbane is shaping itself as a vibrant hub and world leader attracting industry sectors that are globally scalable in the new world economy.

New investment helps to establish Brisbane as a global hub for competitively advantageous industries. Brisbane’s strong growth prospects can be leveraged to attract new investment to the city, even during a time when global investment trends are weak.

Specific advantages linked to Brisbane include:
 competitively positioning Brisbane within Asia as a global centre of excellence for mining and energy technologies
 a desirable location to support fly-in fly-out operations
 significant and growing capacity in innovative manufacturing, ICT, design, creative industries, biomedical, education, research, food manufacturing, clean technologies, aviation and logistics
 large and continuing infrastructure investments  a single council looking after most of the
capital city economy
 a world class air and sea port located close to the city, with capacity to accommodate new industrial developments within the precinct at Australia TradeCoast.

The region is renowned domestically and internationally for its premium seafood, high quality agricultural product, and the pristine nature of its landscapes, seascapes and conservation parks.

The regional economy is primarily driven by the agriculture, manufacturing, fishing, tourism and mining industries. While these industries are well established, aquaculture, food, renewable energy, and health and community services are fast developing as major sources of employment and revenue generation.

Whyalla is unique having a substantial industrial base, providing mining, engineering and steel manufacturing services.

The region is the base for renewable energy generation – solar, wind, hydrogen, satellite launching and smart green manufacturing.

The region is popular for high quality and very different nature-based tourism experiences. The region’s pristine natural parks, coastal environment and Aboriginal tourism product are key attractions.

The region also has some of the world’s highest quality mineral resources of magnetite, graphite, zircon and kaolin. The mining industry is expected to have additional growth in future years when developing mines and prospects progress from exploration to operation.
This will create numerous employment and business opportunities and further diversify the regional economy.

Renewable energy is growing due to the region’s natural assets of consistent wind resources, abundant sunshine and high wave action. The region has an estimated 300 cloud free days per annum, making it ideal for large-scale solar energy farms. The wave climate on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula is the best available in South Australia for wave harnessing technologies.

Ipswich economy is driven by high value industries of manufacturing, health care and social assistance, retail trade, education and defence. Ipswich is located in a prime location in South East Queensland, between Gold Coast to the south, Toowoomba to the west, Brisbane to the east, and the Sunshine Coast to the north.

Much of the RDA Murray Regions’ economy is driven by agriculture, timber production, viticulture, horticulture, health care, retail, manufacturing, construction and tourism.

Of critical importance to the RDA Murray Region is water availability. The Region is situated on the Murray River and is reliant on the river system for its contribution to production, tourism and liveability.

The Australian nut industry is experiencing its largest expansion in a decade with the farm gate value expected to rise from $1billion in 2018 to $1.7 by 2025. Permanent nut tree infrastructure (including irrigation) and plantings are expanding significantly in the Murray Region

The arts and creative industries impact us all, collectively and individually, in myriad ways.

Creative industries are an evolving mix of sectors spanning arts, culture, screen, design, publishing and advertising. They cover disciplines as diverse as game development and graphic design, fashion and filmmaking, performing arts and publishing, architecture and advertising, media and music, comedy and craft. They include activities that are commercially-driven and community based, experimental and export-intense.

The Sunshine Coast encompasses beach resorts, surf spots and rural hinterland in southern Queensland, Australia. It stretches from the coastal city of Caloundra, near Brisbane, north to the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, home to multicoloured sand dunes, mangrove forests, and shallow lakes. Upscale Noosa Heads has boutique shops, waterways, and walking trails through Noosa National Park.

The Sunshine Coast’s economy continues to evolve into a modern, ‘smart’ economy based on sound growth across numerous high valued and knowledge-based sectors including professional business services, innovative manufacturing and numerous high-tech start-ups.

The strength of the regional economy is based in its diversity and strength across a number of key sectors including healthcare, education, finance and professional business services.

The Sunshine Coast is home to industry disruptors like Youi, Huddle, Gourmet Garden, Country Chef, Ambrose Building, Auto & General, Get Wines Direct and Office HQ.
Businesses tap into an inspired workforce of more than 83,000 students across University of Sunshine Coast, two TAFE campuses and more than 150 registered training organisations.

Flinders University’s award-winning New Venture Institute is a leader in the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in metropolitan Adelaide and in regional South Australia and has supported over 327 local start-ups to date.

For more than 40 years Flinders University has been a leader in the Creative Industries with a global reputation which has contributed to making Adelaide an international leader in the Arts.

The University of Adelaide’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning, Lot Fourteen’s first anchor tenant, is a global leader in machine learning and artificial intelligence. In addition, Lot Fourteen based industry will link with the University’s leading capability in cybersecurity, data analytics and entrepreneurship and will connect with students to develop new innovations through work integrated learning and internship opportunities.

The University of South Australia’s mission is focused on educating highly skilled professionals for the South Australian workforce and producing knowledge through applied research in Health, IT, Engineering and Future Industries, Education, Arts and Social Sciences and Business.