WA: New tech allows customers to pick sweet melons

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2000
WA: New tech allows customers to pick sweet melons

PERTH, Aug 16 AAP - A West Australian farmer has used her melon to commercialise a
high-tech method for testing the sweetness of honey dew and rockmelons.

And Kirsten Stoldt has begun experimenting with using the laser-based sweetness tester
technology for citrus and pineapples.

The technology - which allows a farm or market to guarantee a fruit's sweetness - was
designed by Central Queensland University and Queensland's Department of Primary Industries.

Ms Stoldt won the tender to commercialise the new Near Infra Red Spectroscopy (NIRS)
technology and to establish a market for "sweetness-guaranteed" fruit.

Her Kununurra farm had been involved with another sweetness-testing system, designed
in France, before winning the tender to commercialise the NIRS.

But Ms Stoldt said that the NIRS held the advantage over the French system because
it did not involve puncturing the fruit.

"Last year, 20 per cent of our production was marketed as sweetness guaranteed," she said.

"We saw there was a market for that so when the university put out the tender to commercialise
this technology, we went for it."

Under the new system, each melon is washed, placed on a belt and passed under a non-invasive
laser which measures sugar content, for grading.

Fruit which made the grade was individually bagged so it could be easily identified by customers.

AAP agh/sd mg

KEYWORD: MELONS

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: ABARE expects $A to average 65 US cents this year

AAP General News (Australia)
02-29-2000
Fed: ABARE expects $A to average 65 US cents this year

Australia's leading commodities forecaster says it expects the Aussie dollar to end
the financial year on average of 65 US cents -- despite a recent deterioration in the
exchange rate.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics says it expects the Aussie
to appreciate gradually in the short term, reflecting strong world …

Fed: Mobil to reimburse some costs over contaminated fuel

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-1999
Fed: Mobil to reimburse some costs over contaminated fuel

MELBOURNE, Dec 27 AAP - Mobil today announced it would reimburse people who had to
remove and replace fuel or have their aircraft inspected for potentially contaminated
fuel.

Mobil said it would reimburse them for the cost of inspection of their aircraft's fuel
system in line with Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) airworthiness directive AD/General/77
- Suspect Fuel of December 23, 1999.

"We are setting up appropriate arrangements and we are in the process of advising our
customers directly on how they can progress claims for this reimbursement," Mobil spokesman
Alan Bailey said.

The problem related to the presence in aviation gasoline (avgas), produced at Melbourne's
Altona refinery, of small amounts of contaminant not detectable by normal industry standard
specification testing, he said.

"Our investigation has determined the likely presence of contaminant in batches of
avgas sold from November 24, 1999," Mr Bailey said.

"With the help of an international team of aviation fuel experts we now have a new
test procedure which can detect such small amounts of contaminant," he said in a statement.

Mobil apologised for the inconvenience to customers, but said their safety was paramount.

Meanwhile, all avgas produced by the Altona refinery remains quarantined and any avgas
which fails to pass this new test will be recalled, he added.

CASA issued an urgent warning at the weekend to all piston-engined light aircraft operators
to use extreme care when removing potentially contaminated fuel from their aircraft.

Aircraft must be checked by a maintenance engineer for the fuel, which had the potential
to corrode engine parts and had already caused one aborted take-off, CASA spokesman Peter
Gibson said.

The move has caused major disruption to Christmas holiday plans for many light aircraft
users, who have also threatened major legal action.

In a new warning on Saturday, Mr Gibson said aircraft operators removing the fuel had
to follow safety procedures because aircraft fuel was highly flammable.

"There is a high explosive risk during defuelling of aircraft," he said.

AAP st/pjs

KEYWORD: AVIATION (CARRIED EARLIER)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED: Widespread compliance with coal strike

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-1999
FED: Widespread compliance with coal strike

SYDNEY, Aug 13 AAP - There is widespread compliance with a 24-hour national coal strike
which started at midnight, employers and unions said today.

The coalminers' union called the strike to protest against the federal government's failure
to bail out the financially stranded Oakdale coal mine workers.

Supreme Court injunctions urging the strikers to return to work were granted late last
night in Queensland and NSW but have failed to have an impact.

Reports this morning indicated most mines in NSW and Queensland had closed, although
several managed to maintain some production.

The biggest employer on the Queensland coalfields, BHP Coal, said production had stopped at
seven central Queensland mines - Blackwater, Goonyella/Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich
Park, Gregory and Crinum.

Production was continuing at South Walker Creek, where staff were employed by contractor
Thiess, and at Moura, which is soon to be sold.

"Moura is in the last weeks of sale to Peabody and as a sign of good faith they may have
decided to go back," spokesman Ian Dymock said.

Mr Dymock said BHP's five mines in the Illawarra region of NSW were shut.

CFMEU mining NSW southern district secretary Ken Harris said all 10 mines of the Illawarra
fields, employing about 1,800 miners, had ceased production from midnight.

"The southern coalfields are in stoppage," he said.

A Rio Tinto spokesman said there was at least some production at all its mines in the two
states.

"All our Hunter Valley mines are operating at reduced production," he said.

"I can't tell you what percentages but we moving coal and washing coal."

Rio Tinto has three mines in NSW - Hunter Valley No 1, Howick and Mt Thorley - and three in
Queensland - Kestrel Coal, Blair Athol and Tarong.

"In Queensland, we are still working. I understand that production at Blair Athol and
Kestrel that production is running reasonably normally. I don't know the situation at Tarong
as well.

"There were some people who didn't show but that hasn't prevented us from operating fairly
normally," the spokesman said.

Queensland Mining Council chief executive Michael Pinnock said news was slow to filter
through from the coalfields.

He said coal production in Queensland ground to a halt overnight with Shell and BHP
completely shut down and MIM mines yet to report progress.

He said if the strike continued for 24 hours as planned, it would cost Queensland coal
mining companies $11 million in lost production.

"The strike itself is futile. It does not help those (Oakdale) guys in NSW. It's just a
political statement," he said.

Mount Isa Mines Ltd spokesman Colin Myers said he was unsure how many had started the
scheduled morning shifts at MIM's three central Queensland coal mines.

AAP dep/ah/de

KEYWORD: OAKDALE SECOND DAYLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

VIC: Baby badly burned in housefire

AAP General News (Australia)
02-19-1999
VIC: Baby badly burned in housefire

MELBOURNE, Feb 19 AAP - An eight-month-old baby boy is in a serious condition in a
Melbourne hospital after a house fire in Ballarat this morning.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) said the baby had burns to 60 per cent of his body. His
father was also injured in the blaze but not as seriously.

The George Street house caught fire about 9.30 am.

Investigations involving the arson squad, CFA and a forensic chemist are continuing but a
CFA spokesman said it was not suspicious.

The fire was believed to have started in the kitchen but did not involve cooking, although
the cause is yet to be determined, the spokesman said.

AAP jlw/cfm/jnb

KEYWORD: BURN LEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED:AAP 4-week diary from Feb 6 to March 4

AAP General News (Australia)
02-05-2012
FED:AAP 4-week diary from Feb 6 to March 4



AAP 4-WEEK DIARY FROM EBRUARY 6 TO MARCH 4, 2012



MONDAY FEBRUARY 6



ADELAIDE:



BRISBANE:



CANBERRA:



DARWIN:



HOBART:



MELBOURNE:



SYDNEY:

ST. GEORGE OPENAIR CINEMA 2012

January 11-February 18, 2012

Mrs Macquarie's Point Adjacent to the Royal Botanical Gardens)

Website: http://www.stgeorgeopenair.com.au/

MORE THAN 100 CEOS TO JOIN QANTAS AND OZHARVEST FOR THE …

QLD:Missing teen found: police

AAP General News (Australia)
02-06-2011
QLD:Missing teen found: police

A teenage boy who was swept away in a river near Townsville has been found safe and well.

Police say the 13-year-old's father plucked him from the Black River downstream of
the spot where …