Jake Nelson

Speaking at the Herald Sun’s Future Victoria event on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that the Commonwealth will help foot the bill for the long-delayed project, including a mixture of new and existing funding.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will provide $8 million to technology developer Licella to assess the viability of a biorefinery at a Bundaberg sugar mill, while Viva Energy has been awarded $2.4 million to demonstrate SAF use and storage at Brisbane Airport.

VH-VPY was on a ferry flight to Pago Pago in American Samoa when it lost an engine and was forced to come down in the ocean about 35 nautical miles off the coast of Queensland on the morning of 10 November, 2023.

Led by the North Australia Centre for Autonomous Systems at Charles Darwin University and supported by the Queensland Defence Science Alliance, the project is looking to adapt hybrid two-stroke engine drones for long-range cold chain operations such as medical drops.

The six-week mission by UK and US-based marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity will survey an area of around 15,000 square kilometres, focusing on four “hotspots” where researchers believe the plane is most likely to be found.

Speaking before Senate Estimates on Monday, CEO Rob Sharp said Airservices had found out about the naval exercises at 9:58am, 30 minutes after they had started, as reported in The Australian Financial Review. A hazard alert was issued within two minutes, with 49 flights ultimately diverted.