Smart Connections Edition 1 - June 2005
Welcome to the first edition of the Smart State e-newsletter, Smart Connections. This quarterly newsletter is our way of keeping you informed with the latest Smart State news, success stories, upcoming events and initiatives.Subscribers will continue to receive periodic updates on major Smart State initiatives.
Get smart, get connected
We have recently named this e-newsletter Smart Connections as a clear indication of what we are aiming to achieve: clever connections with people throughout the State. We hope you will share this information with family, friends and colleagues, thereby creating a wider awareness, understanding and ownership of the Smart State Strategy and initiatives in the wider community.
Sharing the vision
It is also our way of sharing the Queensland Government's vision of a State where knowledge, creativity and innovation drive economic growth to improve prosperity and quality of life for all Queenslanders. Smart Queensland: Smart State Strategy 2005-2015 is a 10 year action plan for Queensland’s future. While the Queensland Government may be driving the Strategy, it is up to all Queenslanders to rise to the challenge, use our unique strengths, skills and ingenuity, and help build the kind of future we want for ourselves and our children in this great State we call home.
Share your thoughts
If you have any information, ideas or feedback on what you would like to see in this e-newsletter or on the Smart State website, email us at smartstate@premiers.qld.gov.au.
In this issue... Smart initiatives |
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Tools for the talented
A 'Creative Business Toolbox' with essential information for people in, or thinking of starting a creative business is now available. Read more |
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Biotechnology on wheels
A mobile biotechnology exhibition, the BioBus will visit some 80 centres - targeting over 20,000 Queensland school children, teachers and community members throughout Queensland. Read more |
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Telecommunications information in Queensland
is now ‘en@bled’ Accessing information about telecommunications in Queensland is now much simpler with the introduction of a new Queensland Government website. Read more |
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Smart State planning for the future
Find out where and how an extra one million people will live in South East Queensland in 20 years time and still enjoy the lifestyle, open space and clean resources that others envy. Read more |
Who's great in the Smart State? |
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Professor Julie Campbell - Vascular biologist
In each edition of Smart Connections, we will profile brilliant, creative and innovative Queenslanders. In this edition, we feature an inspiring scientist who is pioneering a project whereby people may one day be able to grow their own replacement arteries. Read about the brilliant work of vascular biologist, Professor Julie Campbell. Read more |
Smart State inventions and innovations |
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Fibre composite manufacturing
In each edition of Smart Connections, we will feature amazing Queensland inventions and innovations. In this edition, we take a look at Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies and their exciting new engineering material that has the potential to revolutionise the construction industry in Queensland. Read more |
Tools for the talented
The
Creative Business Toolbox, an initiative of the Queensland Government, was
launched on 17 May 2005 by Minister for Education and the Arts, Anna Bligh,
and Minister for State Development and Innovation, Tony McGrady.
The Toolbox, a CD-ROM package, features information about the comprehensive range of services the Queensland Government offers creative businesses.
It provides the latest information for businesses in the creative industries on how to plan, finance, protect, market and export. This easy-to-use resource contains advice, templates, courses and contacts to help people realise the potential of their businesses.
A joint venture between Arts Queensland and the Department of State Development and Innovation, the Creative Business Toolbox is an initiative of the Queensland Government's Creativity is Big Business economic development strategy and the Government's cultural policy Creative Queensland.
Reflecting the Government's Smart State thinking and policies, the Toolbox will effectively help Queensland's writers, musicians, filmmakers, performers, publishers, fashion and jewellery designers, who are among the most creative in the world, to develop and add value to their goods and services.
Copies will be available from the Department of State Development and Innovation and Arts Queensland and will be distributed to universities, libraries and TAFE institutes.
To register for your free copy of the Creative Business Toolbox, visit www.sdi.qld.gov.au/toolbox or www.arts.qld.gov.au/publications/cbt.html.
For more information, email creative-business-toolbox@qld.gov.au.
To view the Creative Business Toolbox launch media statement, visit
statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/display-statement.pl?id=6696&db=media.
Biotechnology on wheels
The
BioBus was officially launched on 11 May 2005 by the Premier of Queensland,
Peter Beattie.
A mobile biotechnology exhibition, the BioBus will visit some 80 centres - targeting over 20 000 Queensland school children, teachers and community members throughout Queensland.
The initiative will boost young people’s knowledge and interest in science ensuring that Queensland has the future workers needed to keep the biotechnology industry strong.
The BioBus is another Smart State initiative through which the Queensland Government is demonstrating its ongoing commitment to strengthening the State’s biotechnology industry.
Biotechnology is one of Queensland’s fastest growing industries and looks set to provide the high-tech industry jobs of tomorrow. Projections show that the biotechnology industry will provide 2500 Queensland jobs by 2010 and 10 000 by 2025.
The BioBus will help explain what biotechnology is and ensure that Queensland communities understand the significance of how biotech discoveries can benefit all Queenslanders.
For more information on the BioBus, visit www.sdi.qld.gov.au/biobus
To view the BioBus launch media statement, visit
statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/display-statement.pl?id=6613&db=media
Telecommunications information in Queensland is now 'en@bled'
Accessing
information about telecommunications in Queensland is now much simpler with
the introduction of a new Queensland Government website.
The en@ble telecommunications portal gives visitors interactive access to
a wide range of Statewide telecommunications information and resources including
easy-to-understand fact sheets, frequently asked questions and a telecommunications
glossary.
It includes detailed information on telecommunications policy and regulatory framework, a user-friendly tool kit for telecommunications development applications and assessment, environmental and health information as well as key contacts and other resources.
The
portal supports the Smart State vision of an information economy and forms
part of a broader effort by the Queensland Government to remove barriers to
the roll-out of telecommunications infrastructure and services.
The en@ble telecommunications portal can be found at www.enable.qld.gov.au
To view the en@ble telecommunications portal media statement, visit
statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/display-statement.pl?id=6697&db=media
Smart State planning for the future
The
Queensland Government has unveiled Australia's largest and most ambitious
infrastructure plan since Federation, outlining investments of up to $55 billion
in South East Queensland over the next 20 years and detailing more than 230
projects and initiatives.
The South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program 2005-2026 (SEQIPP) maps out two decades of road, rail, water, energy, health, education, and community infrastructure.
SEQIPP provides a detailed timetable and plan for the provision of the region’s infrastructure and outlines where and how an extra one million people will live in South East Queensland in 20 years' time and still enjoy the lifestyle, open space and clean resources that others envy.
It can be downloaded at www.oum.qld.gov.au/?id=315
To view the SEQIPP launch media statement, visit
statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/display-statement.pl?id=6435&db=media
Who’s great in the Smart State?
In each edition of Smart Connections, we will profile brilliant, creative and innovative Queenslanders. In this edition, we feature an inspiring scientist who is pioneering a project whereby people may one day be able to grow their own replacement arteries.Professor Julie Campbell – vascular biologist
Vascular biology is the study of the vessels that carry blood around the body. In humans, these vessels (including arteries, capillaries and veins) can become diseased and no longer work effectively.
Professor
Julie Campbell is Director of the Centre for Research in Vascular Biology
at the University of Queensland (UQ) and Director of the Wesley Research Institute
at the Wesley Hospital in Brisbane. She is also a Senior Principal Research
Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. In
1995 she was awarded the Wellcome Australia Medal and in 2000 was elected
to the Australian Academy of Science. In 2003 she received a Centenary Medal,
and in 2004 was named a 'Queensland Great'.Julie's passion for science began at an early age. An inquisitive child with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, she always wanted to know more and to know how things worked. She was also a very competitive, persistent and outspoken child. These traits proved to be a great asset, helping propel her through her schooling, university studies and on to becoming a scientist and later a professor.
At the outset of Julie's university studies, she had her sights set on a career in industrial chemistry. However, during a first-year unit in biology, she discovered and became enamoured with the wonderment of the living organism. This was a turning point in her life, and from then on the workings of the living cell became the focus of her work.
Following a Bachelor of Science degree with first class Honours at the University of New South Wales, Julie went on to complete a PhD at Melbourne University. Her postdoctoral years were spent at Melbourne University, University College London, the University of Iowa and the University of Washington.
While at Melbourne University, Julie met and later married fellow PhD student Gordon Campbell. In the years that ensued, Julie and Gordon took up positions in several universities and in more recent years worked together on research projects.
In the early 1980s, while experimenting with putting foreign bodies into the peritoneal cavity to initiate an inflammatory response, Julie and Gordon observed that the myofibroblast capsule that formed around the outside of the foreign object exhibited similar characteristics to an inside-out artery.
Julie and Gordon hypothesised that this discovery could one day have us growing and harvesting our own blood vessels to replace diseased ones.
This ground-breaking work in developing blood vessels naturally within a patient, known as the ‘Grow Your Own Arteries’ project, has received worldwide acclaim.
Based
at UQ’s Centre for Research in Vascular Biology, the professors have
found that by placing a piece of plastic tubing inside a mammal's abdomen,
cells from the bone marrow will rush to that site and form a tube of living
tissue. When harvested, the tissue is identical to a blood vessel that could
be used to help renal failure patients and those with cardiovascular disease.Julie says the body reacts to the plastic tube as an oyster does to a piece of grit. It takes two to three weeks for the tube of tissue to form. The 'designer artery' is created when the plastic tube is removed and the living tissue is turned inside out. Because the blood vessel is made from the patient's own cells it's a perfect genetic match.
‘There are no rejection or infection issues and the “grow-your-own-artery” is proving to be as strong as a native blood vessel,’ Julie said.
The Campbells are working on a technique whereby the required artery is grown in the patient and harvested under a local anaesthetic. They have completed several animal trials that indicate it should be possible to grow artificial blood vessels of almost any length and diameter in the human abdominal cavity.
There is a critical medical need for replacement arteries that are viable long term. Recognising the commercial potential of the work, UQ's main technology transfer company UniQuest Pty Ltd formed VasCam Pty Ltd to commercialise the technology.
An $85 000 Innovation Start-up Scheme grant from the Queensland Government has helped to the company progress the new technology to the clinical trial stage.
The pioneering work in science by Professors Julie and Gordon Campbell is helping to cement Queensland's reputation as the Smart State.
Smart State inventions and innovations
In each edition of Smart Connections, we will feature amazing Queensland inventions and innovations. In this edition, we take a look at an exciting new engineering material that has the potential to revolutionise the construction industry in Queensland.Fibre composite manufacturing
Modern day fibre composites consist of polymers reinforced with carbon, glass and/of aramid (e.g. Kevler ) fibres.
Toowoomba-based
company, Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies, in collaboration with the University
of Southern Queensland's Fibre Composites Design and Development Centre (FCDD),
has developed a highly versatile fibre composite product that is destined to
become a major building material of the future.Fibre composite is lightweight, yet six times stronger than steel or concrete. It is not corrosive, magnetic nor toxic, and can be installed much quicker than other materials.
It is already being used in applications such as racing yachts and the wingtips of the new Qantas Boeing 737-800s. However, through the efforts of Wagners, fibre composite now has the potential to be used in a variety of construction works including bridges, telephone and electricity poles, railway sleepers and wharves.
Wagners has concentrated research and development on the design, testing and installation of the world’s first fibre composite road bridge of its kind.
Two bridges have been installed – one at Wagners Wellcamp Downs Quarry near Toowoomba and a bridge over the Orara River at Coutts Crossing south of Grafton in NSW.
The Toowoomba quarry bridge was placed and independently tested as a prototype
and, once proven, the same design was used for the NSW bridge. The bridge was installed during a five-day road closure, in which time the old bridge was demolished and the new composite bridge put into place.
Wagners is rapidly moving to the forefront of the global fibre composite manufacturing industry. The firm recently put Smart State fibre composite manufacturing on the international map by winning the prestigious New York 2005 Project of the Year - Transport Category award.
The Queensland Government has recognised the potential of fibre composites and has provided grant funding to Wagners to assist with developing the product as well investing $7.4 million to establish the Centre of Excellence for Engineering Fibre Composites at the University of Southern Queensland.
The research and development work with this emerging technology is a wonderful example of smart people doing smart things that not only benefit their region, but the State as a whole.
For more information on Wagners work with fibre composites, visit www.wagner.com.au (non-Queensland Government link).
Did you know…
…that the Queensland Government is propagating one of the world’s oldest and most rare trees?
Drawing
on their world-class clonal tree breeding expertise, Queensland Government
forest scientists have brought a botanical dinosaur back from the brink of
extinction and will soon put it into gardens around the world. For six years,
scientists from Queensland’s DPI Forestry and Department of Primary
Industries and Fisheries Horticulture and Forestry Science Group, together
with other Australian and international collaborators, have worked on propagating
Australian’s Wollemi Pine for worldwide distribution.
Dubbed the botanical find of the 20th century, the Wollemi Pine was thought
to be extinct until a stand of fewer than 100 mature trees was discovered
in a deep gorge northwest of Sydney in 1994. The Wollemi Pine’s discovery
is likened to finding a small dinosaur still alive on Earth.
The mass propagation of the Wollemi Pine is an innovative Queensland smart science project that will guarantee the survival of the species as well as generate valuable export revenue for Queensland.
…that in 1905, the school leaving age was 12 years?
By 1960, almost 80 per cent of 14-year-olds were remaining at school of their own volition. This led to a recommendation that the leaving age be increased. In 1964, it became compulsory for students to remain at school until age 15.
From 2006, young people entering Year 10 will be the first group required
to be in education, training or work until they turn 17.
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Disclaimer
This publication is produced to convey general interest policy information
and highlight innovative developments in Queensland. While every care has
been taken in preparing this publication, the State of Queensland accepts
no responsibility for decisions or action taken as a result of any data, information,
statement or advice, express or implied, contained in the publication.
© The State of Queensland Department of the Premier
and Cabinet 2005.
Copyright protects this publication. The State of Queensland has no objection
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unaltered.