1986 to 1990

Water is our most precious resource, and one small Australian company is doing its part to make sure it is measured and managed in the most efficient and safe way possible.

Hydrological Services provides water cycle measurement and monitoring solutions that enable councils and water management organisations to accurately measure rainfall, and to determine natural inflows and yields from water catchments and areas covered by melting snow and ice.

The company's products also assist with predicting flood flows or peak water velocity in streams to determine, for example, how high a bridge should be built to avoid floodwater.

Sydney-based Hydrological Services has 20 staff comprising engineers, scientists, hydrographers and manufacturing specialists. About half of the company's sales revenue from the 2010 financial year was generated from sales to foreign organisations and government departments.

In 1986–87, Hydrological Services accessed the Australian Government's Discretionary Grants Scheme.

Over the past seven years, Hydrological Services has grown substantially assisted by the R&D Tax Concession program. The company claims tax deductions to help offset the cost of researching and developing new products.

"By supporting the development of innovative products, the tax concessions have helped the company stay competitive in the global water management market," says Mike Lysaght, Business Development Manager.

One of these products was an automated cableway system used to measure stream discharge across large rivers and flooded areas, enabling the person taking measurements to do so safely from the shoreline using a handheld controller.

"This new technology minimised the risk of working above dangerous flood waters in cable cars, as the hydrographic team can now remain on the river bank, away from danger," says Lysaght.

Hydrological Services also received around $150,000 in grants between 2000 and 2003 through Austrade's Export Market Development Grants Scheme. This funding helped the company promote its products at overseas trade shows and develop a network of international agents in Europe, North America, South Africa and South East Asia.

Over the past five years, Hydrological Services has won significant contracts with organisations such as the Meteorological Service of Canada, the Water Survey of Canada, the US Geological Survey, NASA, the Royal Irrigation Department in Thailand and the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission in China.

In early 2004 when Coalition forces in Iraq were looking for a light surveillance aircraft to patrol the country, they chose a model built by Australian company Seabird Aviation.

The aircraft manufacturer's joint venture company in the Middle East, Seabird Aviation Jordan, supplied its Seabird Seeker aircraft to forces in Iraq so they could conduct air surveillance of the Iraqi border, oil pipelines and electrical transmission facilities. Pilots used the aircraft to spot insurgents who may have been sabotaging oil pipelines or other equipment.

Iraqi and Coalition forces in Jordan also used the Seabird Seeker aircraft to identify individuals who may have been a security threat, and then relayed this information to ground troops.

Other overseas organisations use the aircraft for environmental and stock monitoring, coast patrols, detecting forest fires and aerial photography.

Peter Adams and his father, Don Adams, established Seabird Aviation in Hervey Bay, Queensland in 1983. In 2011, Don received the Medal of the Order of Australia for more than 50 years' service to the aviation industry. Today, the company employs 17 staff and earns about $2 million per annum.

Seabird Aviation's rise began following a grant awarded by the Australian Government in 1987 through the Discretionary Grants Scheme. The company used the grant to help fund a $10 million project to design and develop its Seabird Sentinel surveillance aircraft. This was the precursor to the current Seabird Seeker, an aircraft the company claims can be run for one-third of the cost of an equivalent helicopter.

"We would not have been able to develop the Seabird Sentinel without that initial funding," says Peter Adams. "It's helped us grow our business substantially and develop aircraft that are used by governments and organisations outside Australia."

In 1995, the company also received $110,932 through Austrade's Export Market Development Grants Scheme to attend trade shows such as the Singapore Airshow, and carry out marketing activities across South East Asia.

The Queensland Government recognised the company's export success in 2006 with an Export Award for its work in the Middle East.

Seabird Aviation's growth has also had a positive impact on the local community. The area between Hervey Bay and Bundaberg is an aviation industry hub and is attracting engineers and designers looking for a lifestyle change.

Seabird Aviation also won a significant contract in early 2011 to provide modified Seabird Seekers to Queensland-based energy provider, Ergon Energy. The company is using the aircraft to create geo-spatial 3D modelling of its electricity network to improve the way it manages powerlines and pipelines.

In the 1980s, Ultralite, a Sydney-based manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting products, was an organisation ahead of its time.

The company had already started developing the electronic ballast that provides a consistent electricity flow to fluorescent lamps, conserving energy in homes and businesses.

The Ultralite ballast consumes less than five per cent of the energy that powers the lamps, considerably lower than the up to 30 per cent consumed by traditional iron-core ballasts.

In April 1989, the Australian Government awarded Ultralite $637,500 through a dollar-for-dollar Discretionary Grant to help set up a research and development program to further develop and refine its energy saving technology. This funding enabled the company to make three major technical breakthroughs that have contributed significantly to its growth.

Ultralite developed a unique circuit designed to prolong the life of the filaments – the thin wires that heat up to create light inside a fluorescent tube.

The company also developed improved control of the electrical current that flows through a fluorescent lamp, prolonging both the life of the lamp and the ballast, and technology that enabled the electronic ballast to operate with a high-power factor, reducing the amount of power wastage that occurs with low-power factor products such as the iron-core ballast.

The company patented these advances, along with nine others, in the following years.

Electrical engineer Siung Yang, who built the world's first digital computer control system for a steel slab reheat furnace for BHP in 1967, founded Ultralite in 1986.

Today, the company has grown to be a world leader in developing electronic energy saving lamps, electronic ballasts, LED drivers, LED lighting, high bay lighting, T5 luminaires and street lighting.

Ultralite's products, which are now manufactured in three – soon to be four – Ultralite-owned and operated factories in China, are exported to over 30 overseas markets and use at least 50 per cent less energy than conventional lights. The company's research team has developed products that use up to 90 per cent less energy than traditional lights, providing the same or improved output.

"Over the past 25 years, our focus hasn't changed," says Tony Peardon, Marketing Director. "We care about the environment and want to keep developing products that contribute to lowering global carbon dioxide emissions."

"As a result of the innovation made possible with the assistance of the R&D Start Grant, Ultralite has grown from a small factory in Sydney's southern suburbs to three factories in China, with a fourth very large LED dedicated facility currently under construction," says Peardon.

"In terms of market development, more than 30 countries have been supplied with products from the Ultralite range, up from just one market prior to 1989."

As greenhouse gas emissions rise and the ozone layer deteriorates, one Australian company is helping minimise the damage caused by commonly used refrigerants.

Founded in 1964, Victorian-based Javac manufactures and distributes equipment that extracts refrigerants from air conditioners, domestic refrigerators and other cooling equipment, for recycling or disposal.

The company's product portfolio also includes vacuum pumps, leak detectors, vacuum gauges, oils and filters, and spare parts.

In 1988–89, Javac realised it had an opportunity to help businesses meet new legislative requirements that arose from Australia's obligations under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

In 1989–90, Javac were awarded a Discretionary Grant of around $185,000 to develop a refrigerant recovery machine.

"At that time nothing similar existed and the project involved a great deal of risk," says Andrew Davies, Managing Director. "The Australian Government grant gave us the confidence to plough some of our own earnings and savings into developing the machine."

The first iteration of the machine, which Davies describes as "agricultural by today's standards", looked like a lawnmower, but incorporated a one-horsepower motor, an automotive compressor and a number of devices and filters that enabled a mechanic to retrieve the refrigerant safely. However, the machine was unwieldy and difficult to haul up to air-conditioners, refrigerators and devices on the higher floors of multi-storey buildings.

By contrast, Javac's current handheld refrigerant recovery machine is small enough and light enough for a mechanic to easily carry up several flights of stairs.

At the time of the grant, Javac had around 10 staff and turned over $1.5 million to $2 million per year. Today, the company employs 25 staff, seven of whom are located in the UK, and turns over about $10 million per year.

"We're now the only people in Australia manufacturing refrigerant recovery machines and, over the lifespan of the product, we've delivered about 100,000 units," Davies says. "We've now also developed a range of large machines that can recover up to 500 kilograms of refrigerant per hour, and we've been installing these in a lot of commercial buildings to support their chiller plants."

The Australian Government also provided a grant in the mid-1990s to support Javac's development of a range of equipment for charging domestic refrigerators and automobiles with refrigerants.