This incredible little creature is a tardigrade, otherwise known as a water bear. Although tiny in size (about 0.5mm), it can withstand all kinds of normally un-survivable conditions including air deprivation, dehydration, starvation and even radiation, making it one of the most resilient creatures on Earth. In 2020, we’re facing…

My colleague Matt Benson recently pointed me to a paper by a European think tank on cultured meat: a topic I had not given any thought to since it hit the headlines in Australia about 6–7 years ago. …

Population Growth in NSW In 2019 Geografia collaborated with Dr Tom Wilson from the University of Melbourne to build Australia’s most complex and comprehensive population forecasting models. Used by the NSW State Government, it is a complex systems-based forecasting tool developed on a Python open-source platform. …

White-collar workers usually commute to large employment hubs, but not now, which means there has been a substantial contraction in spending in employment hubs (on lunch, coffee, and so on). Some of this spending has been redirected back into residential neighbourhoods. For the top 20 dormitory suburbs in Greater Melbourne…

Last week our Geospatial Analyst, Alex Wycherley, mapped the location of vulnerable elderly residents of Greater Melbourne with the location of public hospitals (using the measure of bed count for hospital capacity). We wanted to show the spatial pattern of at-risk residents during this difficult time. Alex found a few…

There are some positive signs in Latrobe City’s economy. That makes it a good time to make some transformative changes. Changes to Australia’s economy makes places Like Latrobe vulnerable Latrobe City (150km east of Melbourne) is often in the news for the wrong reason. The stories are about an economy…

In 2017 the AFL commenced games at a refurbished football stadium in the regional city of Ballarat, west of Melbourne. We took a look at how much new money the first game brought into the City. Rather than just guestimating, based on spectator numbers, we used bank transaction data to…

When public funds are directed towards putting on events, the intention is usually to stimulate local economic activity and, to demonstrate the value of this investment, an economic impact study is usually commissioned. Unfortunately, there’s an incentive there for the event proponent to encourage the people doing the study to…

It matters how much snow you start with The snow season is important for local government areas near our mountain resorts. Comparing expenditure data over the last three years highlights a few interesting patterns. …