School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications

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    Global review of incentive schemes for the retention and successful establishment of trees on private urban land – Expert Opinions and Case Study Synthesis
    Ordonez Barona, C ; Bush, J ; Hurley, J ; Livesley, S ; Amati, M ; English, A ; Caffin, M ; Franks, S ; Hertzog, K ; Callow, D (Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA), The University of Melbourne, 2020)
    This project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the nursery research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.
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    Global review of incentive schemes for the retention and successful establishment of trees on private urban land: Literature Review - Interim report
    Ordonez Barona, C ; Bush, J ; Livesley, S ; Amati, M ; Hurley, J ; English, A ; Callow, D ; Hertzog, K ; Caffin, M ; Franks, S (Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA), The University of Melbourne, 2019)
    This project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the nursery research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.
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    High-Tech Modular Building Components with High Contents of Australian Hardwoods
    Zhang, X ; LI, S ; Belleville, B ; Ozarska, B ; Gutowski, M ; Kuys, B (Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited, 2020-03-23)
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    Advancing enhanced wood manufacturing industries in Laos and Australia - PML Easbeam Study Tour
    REDMAN, A ; Belleville, B ; Dakin, T ( 2019-11-01)
    This study tour was undertaken as a component of VALTIP 3 Activity 3.2 of Objective 3 (Develop and conduct formal and informal training programs for industry) in the ACIAR co-funded aid project FST/2016/151 Advancing enhanced wood manufacturing industries in Laos and Australia. The aim of this Study tour was to expose the new project partner PML Easbeam Company to engineered wood product manufacturing, potential markets and industries operating in Australia. The PML Easbeam company is a subsidiary of the PML company and was established in July 2019. The PML Company was successful in tendering for the construction of an add-on facility at the National University of Laos to contain equipment for veneer-based product production research. Subsequently, as an established construction company, the company saw the potential and were interested in engineered wood products made from wood veneer, in particular laminated veneer lumber (LVL) structural beams. At the point of writing this report, PML Easbeam is in the process of setting up an LVL plant in Vientiane to manufacture LVL beams using certified, plantation eucalyptus material for domestic and international markets. The PML Easbeam Company financed the study tour themselves. The expected mid to long-term outcome of this exposure is to facilitate the uptake of veneer-based processing and product development in Laos PDR. Previous research conducted during ACIAR co-funded aid project: FST/2008/039 Enhancement of veneer products from acacia and eucalypt plantations in Vietnam and Australia, identified spindleless-lathes as the most likely evolutionary technology to improve the productivity of processing small plantation-logs in Lao PDR. The veneer processing sector in Vietnam is well established and involves 4,200 wood processing and trading enterprises and in the order of thousands of household businesses employing over 300,000 labourers operating in over 300 traditional wood-processing villages (To and Quang, 2012). During surveys of small rural areas of Northern Vietnam, Ozarska et al. (2015) identified that exporters of peeled veneer to China and India cannot meet the demand of these countries. Therefore, this undersupply could provide potential export markets of processed veneer from small plantation-logs currently growing in Lao PDR.
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    Advancing Enhanced Wood Manufacturing Industries in Laos and Australia - Rubberwood and Eucalyptus K7 Panel Manufacturing September 2019 (Internal Report)
    Belleville, B ( 2019-10-09)
    This report presents an overview of a research and training activity conducted at the Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos, between 10-13 September 2019. The aim of the activity was to: • Provide hands-on training on plywood and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) manufacturing to Valtip 3 team members (4) and 3rd- and 4th- year students from the Faculty of Forestry at the National University of Laos (8); • Prepare plywood and LVL panels (dimensions: 1.2 m x 1.2 m) from rubberwood and eucalyptus K7 using phenol-formaldehyde (PF) and long open time polyurethane (PUR) adhesives; • Prepare promotional and mechanical testing samples to assess the selected species and manufacturing conditions (material to be tested in November 2019).
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    Roadmap for a resilient and sustainable Melbourne foodbowl
    Carey, R ; Larsen, K ; Sheridan, J (University of Melbourne, 2019)
    This report outlines a vision and roadmap for preserving Melbourne’s foodbowl for current and future generations as a fundamental building block in a healthy, resilient, sustainable and fair food system. This vision and ‘roadmap’ was developed through a collaborative process involving a wide range of stakeholders. Key elements include: Planning for a sustainable and resilient city foodbowl requires an integrated policy approach Five key pillars of policy action underpin a resilient and sustainable city foodbowl – farmland protection, farm viability, water access, nutrient recycling and sustainable farming Farmland should be permanently protected on Melbourne’s fringe by maintaining Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary, mapping agricultural land and introducing a new agricultural ‘zone’ Promoting the viability of farming in Melbourne’s foodbowl is as important as protecting farmland Farm viability should be promoted by investing in infrastructure that enables small-medium scale farmers to gain greater control of supply chains, ensuring that peri-urban producers are able to access relevant funding streams and applying local government ‘farm rates’ to all actively farmed land Water reuse for food production should be increased to address water scarcity in a warming climate Water reuse should be increased by adopting an integrated water management approach to managing water assets in farming areas, developing integrated assessment frameworks to cost delivery of recycled water and investigating options for greater reuse of storm water City foodbowls offer opportunities to close the loop by returning valuable nutrients from city organic waste back to the soil Nutrient recycling on farm should be promoted by preventing contamination of organic waste streams, collaborating with farmers to develop ‘fit for purpose’ compost products and establishing a Melbourne Nutrient Recycling Network Sustainable farming should be incentivised in Melbourne’s foodbowl Sustainable farming approaches should be incentivised through local government rate rebates, direct payments and extension services aimed at peri-urban farmers A diverse range of sustainable farming approaches should be promoted to increase the resilience of the city’s food system, including regenerative and agroecological approaches as well as sustainable intensification and closed-environment agriculture
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    Higher welfare labelling for eggs: A summary of findings from the project Regulating Food Labels: The case of free range food products in Australia
    Parker, C ; Carey, R ; Scrinis, G (The University of Melbourne, 2018)
    A summary of findings from the project Regulating Food Labels: The case of free range food products in Australia
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    Enhancing the knowledge of wood properties and processing characteristics of PNG timbers - Gluing characteristics of PNG timber species for various wood product applications
    Belleville, B ; Lancelot, K ; Galore, E ; Ferhmann, J ; Ozarska, B ( 2019-02-01)
    Gluing is considered one of the most important technologies in the production of value-added wood product. In the majority of wood products, both appearance (e.g. furniture, flooring) and structural (e.g. glue-laminated beams, plywood, LVL) timber elements are joined together into larger components through edge and surface laminating, finger jointing and other types of joints. In order to meet requirements and criteria for strength and performance of glued components and products a sound knowledge of gluing characteristics of PNG timbers is required. The present document presents the gluability behaviour of 24 species sourced from the Morobe and West New Britain provinces, Papua New Guinea. Seven species have been harvested from plantations and 17 from secondary forests. The group included 3 softwoods and 21 hardwoods. Two species, Eucalyptus pellita and Wau Beech (Magnolia tsiampacca) could not be assessed because of lack of enough timber. The report is based on activity 1.5 results which consisted in laboratory testing of glue-bond strength and performance of various types of glues for PNG selected timber species in various climatic conditions to simulate service conditions in potential market destinations. Two criteria, namely shear strength and wood failure, have been used to determine if a species can meet the minimum requirements for either dry use or wet use applications. Five species showed to bond very well i.e. achieved satisfactory results for both dry use and wet use applications: PNG Basswood (Endospermum medullosum), White Cheesewood (Alstonia scholaris), Erima (Octomeles sumatrana), Labula (Anthocephalus chinensis), and Klinki Pine (Araucaria hunsteinii). A second group of seven species provided results satisfying or able of satisfying the requirements for dry use applications: Grey Canarium (Canarium oleosum), Pencil Cedar (Palaquium warbargianum), Pangium (Pangium edule), Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribaea), Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), PNG Quandong (Elaeocarpus sphaericus), Taun (Pometia pinnata), and Brown Terminalia (Terminalia brassii). Where PNG Boxwood (Xanthopyllum papuanum), Kwila (Intsia bijuga), PNG Mersawa (Anisoptera thurifera), PNG Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus), and PNG Vitex (Vitex cofassus) could not meet the requirements for dry use applications using a standard cross-linking PVA, preliminary trials using a non-structural polyurethane showed they could possibly satisfy the requirements for dry use applications and even wet use applications in some cases (e.g. PNG Vitex). Two species classified under bond with difficulty, namely White Albizia (Falcataria moluccana) and Water Gum (Syzygium spp.), would most probably achieve satisfactory results (i.e. upgrade to bond well) with optimisation of gluing parameters. Four species provided low shear strength results and very limited wood failure resulting in them being classified as very difficult to bond: Blackbean (Castanospermum australe), Heavy Hopea (Hopea iriana), Kamarere (Eucalyptus deglupta), and Malas (Homalium foetidum). Not surprisingly, most of them are high or very high-density species which are known to be very difficult to bond. One species (Heavy Hopea) failed to meet the requirements for both dry and wet uses when using EPI. Such species would probably need some mechanical or chemical surface treatment to improve adhesion. Additional tests with dense species from 2nd batch i.e. Blackbean, Water Gum, Kamarere, and Malas would also be recommended to fully assess their suitability for non-structural applications.
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    Higher welfare labelling for chicken meat: A summary of findings from the project Regulating Food Labels: The case of free range food products in Australia
    Parker, C ; Carey, R ; Scrinis, G (The University of Melbourne, 2018)
    A summary of findings from the project Regulating Food Labels: The case of free range food products in Australia.