Showcasing our Agricultural Innovations to a Global Audience

Showcasing our Agricultural Innovations to a Global Audience

Asia Pacific's premier agrifood innovation event, evokeAG 2025, was hosted in Brisbane last week, giving Queensland the chance to showcase the best of our booming agriculture sector. With this year’s theme of Common Ground, the aimed to highlight Australia's leadership in agricultural technology and attracted delegates from around the world.

A significant part of the conference included 12 regional sideline tours across Queensland, showcasing the capabilities of local producers. Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE), in partnership with SQNNSW Innovation Hub, hosted the "Transforming Agriculture in Real Time" tour of the Darling Downs Region, attracting over 70 delegates, with participants from across Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Taiwan.

The tour focused on real-time advances in robotics, automation, and tech-driven innovation that enhance business efficiency, drought resilience, and sustainability.

The weather was spot on, allowing us to highlight a snapshot of local agricultural operations in great conditions. The delegation visited Toowoomba Region operators Boomaroo Nurseries, Story Fresh, RDO Equipment, Tosari Crop Research Centre, Pulse Data Centre, AgiBusiness Connect, Swarm Farm, and Pyrocal. Each visit emphasised the importance of sharing our stories and showcasing the innovative work being done in regional Queensland's agricultural sector.

TSBE Executive Director, Dr John McVeigh’s sentiment sums it up – “These tours are so important in demonstrating the capability and capacity in our region and promoting the valuable benefits of agtech to farmers, community and industry is paramount.”

Telling stories - where technology meets tradition to find Common Ground in the future of food and farming.

Boomaroo

Southbrook-based Boomaroo Nurseries has been producing premium-quality commercial seedlings for over 30 years. With the capacity to grow up to 400 million vegetable seedlings annually, Boomaroo has evolved into an internationally recognised leader in the horticulture sector. Their Southbrook location was strategically chosen to minimise storm and pest risks, ensuring year-round production and seamless customer connections.

As part of the Transforming Agriculture in Real-Time tour, Boomaroo showcased its latest innovations and automation technologies, addressing workforce shortages, enhancing water efficiency, and maintaining consistently high product quality.

Story Fresh

The Story family began growing lettuce in the Toowoomba Region back in 1965. Since then, this family operation has adapted and embraced agtech to become one of the most trusted vegetable processors in Australia, producing enough shredded lettuce product to make 750,000 burgers per day.

Providing high quality, consistent product and supply chain services to most major food service outlets across Eastern Australia, including McDonalds and Subway, the Story Fresh story is one of regional and family innovation and tenacity.

RDO Equipment

A key player in regional Queensland’s agriculture, offering advanced machinery and technology. Their products, like tractors and harvesters, help farmers boost productivity and efficiency. The Toowoomba facility is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, showcasing the region's demand for top machinery.

Innovation drives RDO Equipment. They provide the latest machinery and precision farming tools, aiding farmers in optimizing operations and cutting labour costs. By partnering with local businesses and focusing on local employment, RDO Equipment supports the regional economy and community.

Tosari Crop Research Centre (TCRC)

Run by the University of Southern Queensland, Tosari spans 748 hectares and serves as a research and commercial cropping facility. It focuses on grains industry research and training, helping to drive innovation in Australian agriculture.

TCRC addresses issues like disease management, soil compaction, cropping constraints, and rotation strategies. To ensure reliable research outcomes, the facility operates on permanent tramlines and an eight-year commercial cropping rotation.

During the Transforming Agriculture in Real-Time tour, TCRC showcased its spray drone technology, showing its potential to support the creation of floating solar farms that reduce water evaporation and preserve cropping land.

Pulse Data Centre

Pulse Data Centre, developed by Toowoomba-grown FKG Group, is Australia’s first major data centre outside a metropolitan area. Designed to support corporate enterprises, all levels of government, Defence, and global technology leaders, the centre was strategically built in the region to enhance disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring asset security for clients.

The centre guarantees 100% uptime for power and cooling, backed by advanced infrastructure that includes redundant power systems and onsite generators, providing continuous operation even in the most challenging circumstances.

FKG’s Pulse Data Project has injected the Toowoomba business community with investment into future data security and management and is another fantastic example of the capability of our local contractors and enterprises.

Swarm Farm

SwarmFarm Robotics began in a paddock in 2012 on Andrew and Jocie Bate’s Central Queensland farm. Today, the company has grown significantly, recently opening a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Wellcamp Business Park outside of Toowoomba.

With 145 autonomous spray units operating across Australia, SwarmFarm’s robots work around the clock, providing real-time data and direct feedback to farmers, accessible from everyday devices like laptops and smartphones.

Unlike larger agricultural machinery, these lightweight robots minimise soil impact while offering simplicity and ease of use. SwarmFarm continues to push the boundaries of innovation, developing new automation technologies and adaptable enhancements to meet the evolving needs of their partners and customers.

Pyrocal

Pyrocal is committed to delivering scientifically verifiable environmental solutions, helping industries and communities navigate the carbon economy and accelerate decarbonisation. Founded with a focus on tackling the growing volume of non-recyclable agricultural waste, Pyrocal has spent over a decade designing and manufacturing industrial-scale biochar production systems for global clients using continuous carbonisation technology.

Operating from Toowoomba, Pyrocal’s systems offer a unique advantage, full-scale trials can be conducted at their demonstration plant while simultaneously producing biochar from nutshells and generating carbon offset credits. In agriculture, biochar provides significant benefits, including improved soil fertility, enhanced nutrient and water retention, heavy metal immobilisation, and even animal health benefits when used as a feed supplement.

With its scientifically proven ability to capture and store carbon in a stable form for centuries, biochar stands as one of the most effective Carbon Dioxide Removal methods available today.

Media contact:

Katie Craymer

Manager – Strategic Communications

Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE)

M: 0427 685 295