Real Impact is Solutions to Climate Challenges

La Trobe’s finalist for the AFR Higher Education Awards tackles the most urgent problem facing Australia’s wine industry.

La Trobe’s researchers, in partnership with Wine Australia and Goanna Ag, have developed Wine Industry Smoke Detectors (WISDs), which are compact, solar-powered sensors that track smoke from bushfires and burn offs and advise winegrowers whether it is likely to taint their grapes – protecting Australia’s wine industry from billions of dollars in unnecessary crop losses.

This world-first solution addresses a pressing climate challenge, mitigating the impacts of fire-related smoke taint in wine – delivering a solution for protecting yields, ensuring wine quality, and increasing resilience in wine regions worldwide