Research impact

LYNDON ORMOND-PARKER: The world is moving online. Access to basic services like education, banking and healthcare now tends to require a device and a good connection. You really have to look at the communities that are getting left behind.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities living very remotely in Australia, you find that access to infrastructure, basic services and communication is often very limited. This creates a significant digital divide. It really is important that people in remote communities have access to the same quality of service as in the capital cities.

We established the Mapping the Digital Gap program in 2021 supported by Telstra. We wanted to really understand the digital divide between First Nations people living in remote and very remote communities compared to other Australians in the rest of the country.

Over the last three years, we've visited 12 First Nations communities in remote areas to see how they access the internet, use their mobile devices, and their digital ability to get online safely. Getting out into community is the best way to understand the obstacles for digital inclusion in remote communities. We also learn and see how people are actually using infrastructure, whether the infrastructure is working or not, and what are some of the requirements that communities need to move forward to get better connection. It's really important when we partner with community organisations that they have some sense of ownership over the research. We also feed back to the community all of the results. They can use the Community Outcomes report as an advocacy tool for their services locally.

MADELINE GALLAGHER-DANN: Basically the partnership and the research part of it has been awesome. It's basically highlighted a lot of areas that, majority of us wouldn't think of on a day-to-day basis. It also highlights the remoteness of Kalumburu and what is needed for these parts of the world and you know, what can be done, what needs to be improved and what still is a possibility.

KYLIE HANSLOW: The reports from the Mapping the Digital Gap were really good for us to use as an advocacy tool for improving services here in Wujal. They were really good to use for an advocacy tool for the for the Regional Connectivity Grant. They were one of the main resources we relied on for the increase in the speeds and the requirements for improvements, digital connectivity in Wujal. It's something we refer to quite often.

LYNDON ORMOND-PARKER: We also provide those reports to Telstra, our funding partner.  Telstra is then able to utilise the research and reports and look at them in a way that supports them, and Lauren Ganley, the Telstra advocate, to really advocate for services required in those communities that we’ve done our our research in.

Galiwin’ku was one of our research partners for the last three years. From those reports, we found that the Telstra Tower and Telstra services were very congested under 4G. That provided the data for Telstra to go back and look at replacing that 4G tower with a 5G tower.

LAUREN GANLEY: The Mapping the Digital Gap research has been instrumental in providing the data on remote communities and the gap that exists with digital inclusion. It gives us the evidence, you know, to help us work out where we're going to invest to help close that digital gap.

LYNDON ORMOND-PARKER: Through the Mapping the Digital Gap project, we've seen that it's really important to ensure that industry gets on board, governments get on board and communities are on board, and that all of these initiatives to close that digital divide are run and led by the communities themselves.

The Australian Urban Observatory is a digital liveability planning platform. Liveability to us is really important because your local environment has a huge impact on your overall health outcomes. So if you live in a place that's highly liveable, you're also living in a place that supports your health and wellbeing.

What we're really trying to do is work a bit further upstream and think about how do we change the factors that influence whether or not people develop an illness. These are complex problems we're dealing with in urban systems, and they require complex and transdisciplinary approaches. There is not one person that has all the skills. It is a true teamwork experience.

We launched in 2020, and since that time we've been releasing data every three years, and along that time we've also developed a whole range of different tools within the observatory too. We continue to grow because we continue to work with the partners that use our research. So as they tell us, "This is what we really need" or "This is how we'd like to use it," then we're able to expand.

As one of Australia's largest diversified portfolio property groups, we knew that we impact, you know, millions of Australians' lives every year but had no way of evidencing the social value that we were creating through that impact. What the AUO evidence and research enables us to do is to bring social outcomes alongside commercial feasibility into decision making right along our value chain, especially with a focus on social infrastructure. It enables us to develop a common language with stakeholders such as local councils and state government, and a shared vision in terms of wellbeing outcomes across our communities.

So I'm working with Stockland, and the partnership has been a fantastic experience, particularly with such a large organization that has such impact on housing choices for a huge number of Australians. To answer a question, we need to know what question we should be asking, and that really comes from working so closely with our partners to understand what are the questions they want answers to, for us to actually go on and do that research and share it back with them.

Now more than ever, it's really important for business to be transparent and credible. Using objective, high-quality data such as that from RMIT enables us to deliver those outcomes.

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[Jenny Pullen] I didn't hear anything I didn't smell anything I didn't see any Flames I was just so full of adrenaline that this is the next thing I have to do I have to get Mom into Alexandra and um and then we were going to come back.

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[Text on screen] On 7th February 2009, the Victorian town of Maryville was devestated by bushfire.

[Text on screen] 40 people lost their lives and around 90% of the town's buildings were destroyed.

[Jenny Pullen] I lost very very close friends in the in the fires um and even one of our friends who was just about to give birth to her very first baby she didn't make it in the fires um there's so many so many we went to so many funerals.

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[Text on screen] The fire was allegedly caused by a break in an electrical conductor on a power pole near a local sawmill.

[Michael Thorne] So I'm when I'm driving around the property I'm looking at the stock or at the pasture I'm not looking up at the power line which is well above me um and uh it would be pretty hard to spot a broken strand uh even if you were paying a reasonable amount of attention.

[Professor Alan Wong] When I went to Michael's property and discover the failing conductor I was thrilled like um you know we we always tell people that these Technologies can potentially save life prevented fires I think in Michael's uh example it captured all this Essence right it it has prevented a catastrophic a potential catastrophic fires.

[Michael Thorne] The the risk is that the power line breaks drops to the ground starts a grass fire grass fires can move very quickly faster than a bush fire typically because the wind's not interrupted as it flows across the grass and the fire could have swept up to the house through the sheds and then beyond uh to adjacent Farms very rapidly

[Professor Alan Wong] So efd uh is acronym for early fault detection is a system that can see and detect and locate faults on power line before they happen can think of it like a smoke alarm for the power Network right so if you place enough sensors across the network this uh sensors or alarm system will will send out alert when it thinks that there's a a certain risk exist in the network

[Michael Thorne] In addition to uh the houses lost uh in a major fire there's the lives uh there's the lives lost and the lives disrupted um fire uh fire can rip apart communities it can destroy so much that people value and so much uh that matters.

[Jenny Pullen] I was unpacking boxes of things that we needed and I can remember sitting on the floor and just bursting into tears because I didn't want to unpack what somebody had given me I wanted to unpack my things it has taken it it's taken a huge toll the bushire took a huge toll and there's still people who are trying to get over it and who will never never get over it

[Michael Thorne] The uh idea of a fire ripping through um my community is obviously deeply distressing and something that uh I'm Keen to celebrate any any tools that we have that can help reduce the risk of the kind of Devastation we can see uh and have seen across towns uh like Maryville and others in Victoria

[Jenny Pullen] I can remember one time coming in which was very soon after we're allowed back in after the 12 weeks and thinking when I get in into Maryville it's all going to be there cuz it's all just been a dream I'm sure it's just been a dream we couldn't have lost everything surely it was just a dream but went a bit further and we had had lost everything.

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[Text on screen] With 2500 units installed worldwide, including the US and Europe, Alan's technology now monitors over 12,500kms of powerlines.
[Text on screen] His early fault detection system has prevented more than 750 potential failures and saved potentially countless lives.