Past Events

Presented by Murray R Hall, PhD Candidate, Geography Planning and Environmental Management, UQ and Research Scientist, CSIRO

Some 300 years ago Jonathan Swift parodied resource recovery from sewage. Gulliver, in his travels to the Island of Laputa, met the Professor at the Grand Academy who sought to ‘reduce human Excrement to its original Food, by separating the several Parts, removing the Tincture which it receives from the Gall, making the Odour exhale, and scumming off the Saliva’ (Swift 2003) p168.

An important element of the water-energy-food nexus is the recovery of nutrients from wastewater to use as a renewable fertiliser source. Wastewater treatment plants are increasingly becoming essential recycling facilities for water, energy and nutrients – mainly phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium. Present research is focused on developing technologies which will allow wastewater treatment plants to operate as net energy producers and maximise the recovery of nutrients as a comparable product to existing supplies.

Presented by Professor Jochen Mueller, National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology

Many factors have been related to the deterioration of Caribbean coral reefs. Among those factors, about 35 years ago a disease known as "white-band" almost drove two of the most prominent corals to extinction: Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis.

During her expedition to The Great Barrier Reef in November-December 1987, Captain Cousteau’s exploration vessel “Calypso” was equipped with the small 2-man submersible SP-350.

Presented by Mr Doug Yuille - Water Quality Policy Manager, WWF Sustainable Agriculture