San Remo business weeding out the weeds

TerraLab becomes Innovate with nbn Grant Program Agriculture category winner & overall Champion

Thursday 23 February, 2023 – San Remo business TerraLab was last night awarded $35,000 in grants through the Innovate with Grant Program nbn awards for its STA logger, which is helping to revolutionise land management with new efficiencies in weed control and elimination. 

Their hardware and software solution – named STA logger, uses the internet to help accurately log data, work, statistics, produce and public maps and help landowners not just with weed and pest management, but also manage planting, saplings and crops.  

 The STA logger is a first in land and weed management business owner Harley Schinagl said. 

“It is giving land managers all over the world control of their land by providing them with a type of data that has previously been absent, but in a streamlined and automated way,” he said.   

“Controlling weeds is only one part of the equation. Most land managers, whether involved in forestry, conservation, or carbon offsetting, are also planting trees. Our hardware is multi-use and our platform is dynamic so we wanted to encapsulate that activity too. 

“We are progressing plans so that existing users can utilise the same hardware on tree planting tools so they can record the location of every tree planted – something not done often.

“While this data on tree location is powerful enough on its own, we also hope follow up maintenance – where weeds are controlled near the tree to help it survive – that uses the STA logger will highlight where trees have not survived and infill planting may be required.”   

As the Agriculture category winner, TerraLab was awarded $15,000 and as the overall Innovate with nbn Champion collected a further $20,000 to continue development and expansion of their platform.  

The Innovate with nbn Grant Program winners announced last night include:  

• Women in Regional Business – Vennu (NSW, Berry)
  
• Tourism – Busselton Jetty (WA, Busselton)
  
• Health – Connect Paediatric Therapy Services (WA, Karratha)
  
• Agriculture  (and overall Innovate with nbn Champion)– TerraLab (VIC, San Remo)
  
• Arts – Radio Margaret River (WA, Margaret River)
• Education – iClick2Learn (NSW, Dubbo)
• Indigenous Business – The Cultural Intelligence Project (Make it happen) – Cable Beach WA.  

Notes to editors:

• There was $125,000 in grants awarded to innovative businesses in regional and remote Australia to help them bring their bright ideas to life.  
• Finalists and winners are those harnessing the benefits of the nbn network to develop products or solutions that improve digital participation, productivity, or social outcomes for regional and remote Australians. 
• Finalists are spread across seven categories that include: Health, Agriculture, Tourism, Arts, Education, Indigenous Business and Women in Business.   
• The winner of each category received a $15,000 grant. Each of the category winners were entered into a pool to become the overall winner (and Champion) and receive an additional $20,000.  
• Winners were announced last night (Wednesday 22 February) at a ceremony in Canberra.