50 Australian Inventions Changing the World
In this list of 50 world-changing inventions across health, technology, sustainability, fashion and the arts you’ll find creativity, imagination, and a talent for invention – it’s a tribute to the Australian spirit.
The 21st-century tech revolution has catapulted a host of Australian start-ups onto the world stage. Among the big commercial success stories of the past decade are software giant Atlassian, design platform Canva, financial service disrupter Afterpay and even Bitcoin gambling destination stake.com.
Of course, these innovations stand on the shoulders of giants of Australian know-how. Homegrown ideas that have changed history are seared into the nation’s DNA: from the humble Hills Hoist – an enduring symbol of Australian suburbia, which was the product of the busy mind of Adelaide inventor Gerhard “Pop” Kaesler before it was taken into commercial production by Lance Hill in the 1940s (it is listed as a National Treasure by the National Library of Australia) – to Wi-Fi technology, which underscores practically every moment of our lives today. Engineer John Sullivan was famously working in the field of radio astronomy in the late 1970s, and this research evolved with the support of the CSIRO in the 1990s into the modern Wi-Fi networks used by people practically everywhere.
Australians have always played particularly hard in the fiercely competitive health tech space. We contributed to modern medicine ultrasound technology; Gardasil and Cervarix cancer vaccines to protect women against the human papillomavirus; cochlear implants, or bionic ears, to help those with hearing loss; and spray-on skin for burns victims.
Long before any of that, we gave the world the cardiac pacemaker, developed in the 1920s by Dr Mark Cowley Lidwill and physicist Edgar Booth (Lidwill’s revelation that electricity could stimulate muscles led directly to the lifesaving devices), and even more fundamentally, the medical application of penicillin.
The Australian inventions changing the world
Brain powered: control a computer with your thoughts
It was once the realm of science fiction. Now, a brain-computer interface developed by this Aussie team promises to revolutionise and reshape the way we communicate.
Soldier’s best friend: why ‘Bushie’ is a great Aussie invention
Since it entered service the Bushmaster has saved hundreds of Diggers from landmines, IEDs and enemy fire – it’s one of our country’s best industrial innovations. | FULL LIST
Can these engineers disrupt a billion dollar market?
Their microneedle medical patch designed to monitor the efficacy of administered drugs is among the top Australian medical breakthroughs improving human health. | FULL LIST
Heaven sent: two Aussie punks take over Marc Jacobs’ world
When the fashion supremo needed a breath of fresh air he turned to two Australian creatives - Ava Nirui and Elliot Shields. The pair are now among our leading fashion innovators | FULL LIST
How a Tassie seaweed farm can help save world
Methane-eating seaweed, avocados grown in a lab, and the march of the flat white towards World Domination. In the world of sustainability, food technology and dining, these Aussies are making a global impact. | FULL LIST
Man behind the ‘masterpiece nobody should miss’
He is the pioneer of ‘cine-theatre’ whose latest five-star production is headed to the West End and will feature a Hollywood star. Kip Williams leads our list of cultural innovators | FULL LIST
The Aussie company out to send astronauts to the moon
A plan to send a 25-metre tall rocket into orbit from a North Queensland spaceport is just the beginning for Gilmour Space, who lead our list of Australian tech and gadgetry innovations making an impact in 2023.
But what of the groundbreaking ideas you haven’t heard of and yet influence the very way we live right now? And those inventions we all know, but have a locally-sourced story behind them you’ve never heard?
Take aviation: it’s well known Australia gave the black box flight recorder to the world but did you know that the ubiquitous aircraft safety slide was the brainchild of Qantas operations safety superintendent Jack Grant in 1965? Or that our national airline, more aspirationally but no less transformative, disrupted air travel forever with the concept of business class?
Behind our list of 50 world-changing inventions across health, technology, sustainability, fashion and the arts you’ll find creativity, imagination, and a talent for invention and reinvention. Because Australians have always been innovators. Perhaps the tyranny of distance had a hand in it. The fact that we’re girt by sea at the bottom of the world. Australia has always been a country that, because of its remoteness, has had to look inward for its inspiration and innovation.
Forget waiting months for sailing ships to deliver us the materials we needed to flourish as a society. We had to make do with what we had, and we learned to use everything at hand to solve our problems. This isolation bred into us ways of looking at complex questions and finding our own unique solutions. This list is a tribute to that very spirit.
Technology
A plan to send a 25-metre tall rocket into orbit from a North Queensland spaceport is just the beginning for Gilmour Space, who lead our list of Australian tech and gadgetry innovations making an impact in 2023.
Gilmour Space
The countdown is on for the first ever orbital launch of a commercial rocket in Australia. Gilmour Space, based on the Gold Coast, is currently assembling its 25m-tall, three-stage Eris rocket in preparation for a scheduled launch in December from the new Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Far North Queensland.
Among the innovations developed by the Gilmours is the proprietary solid fuel used in the Eris’s five main rocket motors, the liquid-fuel motor for the rocket’s third stage was also designed in-house, and fabricated by 3D printing. Also designed and manufactured in-house were the motors’ flight nozzles, which use special composite materials that can withstand temperatures of over 2500C.
Aria glasses
ARIA (Augmented Reality in Audio) is a bionic solution for the blind or those with low vision, recreating the user’s world via sound courtesy of complicated technology housed in what appears to be a regular pair of sunglasses. In essence, the user can “see” the world through sound.
Vanadium Redox Flow Battery
In 1985, Skyllas-Kazacos invented the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) approximately 30 years too soon – but now that the green energy revolution has finally arrived, it’s time for her battery to shine. VFRBs are longer-lasting than the lithium batteries found the world over, and when all costs are considered, it is also the far cheaper option.
Linktree
If you’re on Instagram, there’s every chance you’ve used it. Alongside the social media revolution has come the ability to distribute media through a digital universe. Landing page Linktree is a way of linking various social media pages providing access to all kinds of websites, video and audio and in some cases take payments all via one social media account.
Apate
The whole premise of the idea goes against the grain of telecommunications companies which have long been trying to prevent and block scam calls. Apate instead seeks to answer those calls and waste so much of a scammer’s time that it no longer becomes financially feasible for the trade to continue.
Sapia.ai
Can Artificial Intelligence replace a recruiter? The founder of Sapia.ai doesn’t believe so, but she does believe that AI can provide a more equitable experience for job applicants. The start-up picked a number of major organisations in Australia including Qantas, Starbucks and Woolworths, which have also invested.
Jigspace
This augmented reality app is “a platform to explore, create and share truly interactive, 3D knowledge for anything, whether you are a teacher, salesperson, designer or engineer”. The app was featured by Apple at the Worldwide Developers Conference in California in June.
Baby Boom
The baby products industry has never been short of weird and wacky innovations over the decades, from anti- thumb sucking guards (imagine the metal casing on a champagne cork clamped to the baby or toddler’s offending appendage) to a tripod-style automatic feeder that dangled a full bottle above the hungry infant. Curiously, modern Australians are leading the way in timesaving, germ-avoiding kiddie care inventions. Find out more about the Snotty Boss, the Nail Snail, Happy Hair Brush & Love to Dream.
Vitruvian
The Australian-founded business, which operates out of Perth, has built a machine which can automatically adjust the resistance of cables to simulate weighted squats, dead lifts, bench presses, shoulder press and more, all from a device about the size of a boogie board.
espresso Displays
The brand has ponied up to go head to head with some of the biggest brands in the world – think Apple or Dell or Lenovo – with its high quality portable extra screen for your laptop or tablet. The vast majority of espresso’s customer base is global – the US is its largest market by far – and in the past month, the team has secured distribution agreements with partners in the UK, Germany, and Israel.
HiSmile
Gold Coasters Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic have built a global teeth whitening empire. Their products – teeth whitening kits, strips, mouthwash and now (banana and grape flavoured-) toothpastes – are stocked in Walmart, Harrod’s & the French department store giant Galeries Lafayette. Not bad for a pair of 20-somethings who started with $20,000 back in 2014.
Medical
Their microneedle medical patch designed to monitor the efficacy of administered drugs is among the top Australian medical breakthroughs improving human health.
Nutromics
Nutromics, founded by Vranes and Hitesh Mehta in 2018, has developed a medical patch that can monitor the effects of antibiotics on a patient in real time. The patch, which is about the size of a watch face, connects to a portable hub via Bluetooth to monitor how a patient is responding to the medicines they’re given.
Synchron
It was once the realm of science fiction. Now, a brain-computer interface developed by this Aussie team promises to revolutionise and reshape the way we communicate. It involves an operation to implant an endovascular neural stent into the brain of a patient with motor neurone disease via his blood vessels. The tiny device is the key to a human being able to control a computer with their thoughts.
The Mayes Method
Through her work as the principal physiotherapist of the Australian Ballet, Mayes has made two major breakthroughs. The first involved a rethink on excessive stretching exercises and instead introducing resistance training and calf-strengthening regimes to help protect dancers from ankle injuries. The second involved busting the myth that dancers were more likely to get arthritis in their hips.
Breaking through the blood-brain barrier
For the first time, two researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane have shown that drugs can be made to pass through the blood-brain barrier via the use of focused ultrasound. The finding is set to expedite the development of Alzheimers drugs, or help prove that old drugs may be effective.
Mind Strength Method
When anxiety becomes epidemic, exacerbated by a global pandemic, how do you help more people? You write a book. And so in March 2021, Dr Jodie Lowinger’s expertise was distilled into The Mind Strength Method: Four Steps to Curb Anxiety, Conquer Worry and Build Resilience. Lowinger’s methods are rooted firmly in neuroscience, and have been translated into Spanish and Mandarin.
Recaldent
Recaldent is now sold in sugar-free chewing gum, toothpaste and other oral hygiene products around the world, with sales in excess of $2 billion. It was developed by Eric Reynolds, formerly head of the University of Melbourne’s dental school, who spent years looking into anecdotal evidence that suggested people who drank a lot of milk had reduced risk of tooth decay, and ultimately discovered that a protein in milk called casein remineralised teeth and repaired them.
Ivy – the AI powering a more accurate IVF
Ivy can process an enormous amount of data, too much for a human to process, to more accurately and objectively predict the best embryo to select for transfer. It’s “an invaluable tool”, he says, “speeding up the process and helping the patients find the right embryo more quickly”.
Orthocell
Australian scientists have now invented a device that overcomes these surgical challenges: a collagen-based “scaffold” that is wrapped around severed nerves. It acts like a bioactive healing chamber, retaining nerve growth factors and allowing severed nerves to meld together without scarring or ingrowths from the surrounding tissues. The device, known as Remplir, is an invention of Australian biotech firm Orthocell. In clinical trials, nerve repair using Remplir has resulted in quadriplegic patients regaining some voluntary movement of their paralysed limbs.
The Green Whistle
The Melbourne-based Medical Developments International (MDI) manufactures Penthrox, which is used by medical practitioners, the armed forces, paramedics, sports clubs and surf lifesavers to administer on-the-spot treatment. It’s non-addictive and simple to administer, and therefore an excellent choice for situations where fast and uncomplicated action is required.
Sustainability and Food
Methane-eating seaweed, avocados grown in a lab, and the march of the flat white towards World Domination. In the world of sustainability, food technology and dining, these Aussies are making a global impact.
Sea Forest
Two species of a particular Australian red seaweed – the Asparagopsis taxiformis (found in warm Queensland waters), and the Asparagopsis armata – (common in the cooler waters of Tasmania) – reduced livestock methane production by up to 90 per cent if added to the animals’ diet. Sea Forest grows commercial quantities of Asparagopsis and takes a significant chunk out of the world’s, greenhouse gas emissions. (The planet’s 1.5 billion cows and 1.1 billion sheep contribute roughly 6 per cent to all global emissions.)
Plastics Pulped
Bio-Pak was founded in 2006 with a singular mission – to eradicate harmful plastics and replace them with compostable plant-based materials. Bio-Pak produces everything from plates and cups to straws and napkins. Another Aussie company, rePlated, has ambitions to eliminate single-use plastic food containers by replacing them with recycled meal boxes that are made – in a world-first innovation – from ocean-bound plastic.
Vow
Sydney-based start-up Vow could become the first cultivated meat company in the country, inventing and experimenting with meat that is, according to its website “tastier, more nutritious, more functional or more exclusive” than, let’s say, chicken, beef or pork. Its founders George Peppou and Tim Noakesmith operate from a facility in inner-city Alexandria where their team can grow meat from cells-to-plate in about 4-6 weeks.
Harrington Seed Destructor
The Harrington Seed Destructor takes the concept of a cage mill, used to reduce rock into powder, and fits it to a combine harvester. The chaff stream from the harvester is directed into the mill which pulverises the chaff, including weed seeds that would otherwise have been returned to the field. Et voila! Studies have shown it reduces weeds by close to 100 per cent.
Who Gives A Crap?
A direct-to-consumer toilet paper company committed to donating 50 per cent of its profits to the cause. To date, Who Gives A Crap, has donated $11m to projects in places like Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and East Africa.
Nanollose
A Western Australian company which has developed a world-first process creating microbial cellulose from industrial organic and agricultural waste, which is then transformed into rayon fibres, which in turn can create a sustainable textile. The process doesn’t involve felling trees or require any land and therefore no irrigation or pesticides.
Stelvin cap
In 1964 Yalumba first began investigating the viability of a screw cap sealing system. It had been used in the past on bottles of spirits, so why not wine? And without a cork, there was no possibility of corking or “cork taint”, when the wine is spoiled most often courtesy of a faulty stopper. It was time to leave the romance of the cork behind, and it was this early advocacy of Australian winemakers that won the world over to Stelvin.
Avocado on toast PLUS Avocado tissue culture breakthrough
Whichever way you spread it, Bill Granger is credited with exporting the Aussie breakfast to the world – first to Japan and then on to his restaurants in London, Korea and Hawaii – and the dish that took hold was avocado on toast. Speaking of avocados, while Granger was starting a global food phenomenon, a team of Queensland researchers has been working at changing the way we propagate the fruit at the root. her team is generating 25,000 avocado plants in a 10 sqm room. It’s a development that reduces the resources required and time it takes to produce a plant. The breakthrough represents a sustainable technology that reduces the need for water, fertilisers, land and pesticides.
Flat white
A cherished standard of the Australian cafe scene for decades, the flat white is the love child of the cappuccino, brought to Australia by Italian immigrants in the 1950s. Transported to London in 2011 by Sydney cafe king Bill Granger, the creamy, caffeinated goodness of the flat white took a hold.
Culture
He is the pioneer of ‘cine-theatre’ whose latest five-star production is headed to the West End and will feature a Hollywood star. Kip Williams leads our list of cultural innovators
Kip Williams
the 36-year-old NIDA graduate is now seen as the pioneer of convention-busting cine-theatre shows that are reinventing theatre and have played to capacity audiences around the country. Now, this award-winning show, which has been seen by 145,000 Australians and New Zealanders, is heading further afield: it will be staged in London’s West End in January 2024 and Succession alumnus Sarah Snook will star.
Virtual Holocaust Museum
The new Queensland Holocaust Museum in Brisbane is launching the world’s first virtual and interactive journey through one of the darkest chapters in human history. Unlike other virtual exhibits, it won’t show visitors around bricks and mortar museum-based installations, but rather, it transports them to 1930s Europe via virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Frazier Lens
A lens that provides a massive depth of field, allowing both the foreground and the background to be in focus. The invention was snapped up by Panavision in the ’90s and used in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters – Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and James Cameron’s Titanic among them
Causeway Films
Seekers of cerebral and smart horror the world over have their eyes trained on one production house Down Under – Causeway Films. Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton launched the production company, based in Sydney’s Leichhardt, after collaborating on Jennifer Kent’s eerie thriller The Babadook. Ever since, the independent company has consistently punched above its weight, producing films that have earned accolades at festivals locally and internationally.
Sampa the Great
Zambia-born Australian hip hop star Sampa Tembo made history in 2020 to win the prestigious $30,000 Australian Music Prize twice with judges praising her 2019 album The Return as “an absolutely magnificent work of art”.
Røde microphones
Røde Microphones, it is a $318 million powerhouse producing world-leading audio equipmentand that is beloved by a generation of indie filmmakers, TikTokkers, YouTubers and podcasters alike. Røde sells microphones, headphones, interfaces and mixers but there are several innovations created by the company that stand out as having been pivotal to its success.
Fashion and Beauty
When fashion supremo Marc Jacobs needed a breath of fresh air he turned to two Australian creatives – Ava Nirui and Elliot Shields. The pair are now among our leading fashion innovators
Ava Nirui
Jacobs took note of Nirui after she garnered a following on Instagram for her custom and DIY projects that subvert ideas of luxury. The pair first collaborated in 2017 on a hoodie embroidered with the deliberately misspelt logo “Mark Jacobes est 1985.” Nirui and fellow Aussie designer Elliot Shields now work on Jacobs’ Gen-Z brand, Heaven.
The International Woolmark Prize
John Roberts, chief executive of The Woolmark Company, says that decision “was the first step taken in marketing their fibre”. The next major leap in the growers’ campaign to promote their product was a fashion design award “to highlight the versatility and modernity of wool”. That invention, which now dates back further than any other major designer prize, still runs today and is only growing in significance.
Speedos
Call them Speedos, swimming trunks or budgie smugglers, but there’s certainly no missing a pair – despite their essential scantness. Indeed, so shocking was the first appearance of the tight-fitting briefs, worn by some men strutting the sand on Bondi Beach in 1961, that they were arrested for indecent exposure.
Puffer jacket
The puffer jacket, worn by Wall Street types and tech-bros, hikers and festival goers, royals and rappers, has Australian origins. Australian chemist and mountaineer George Finch wore it first. In 1922, Finch was invited on Britain’s first Everest expedition. His outfit for the occasion? An “eiderdown coat” of his own making, crafted in bright green hot air balloon fabric.
Christopher Esber
When the pop singer and influencer Addison Rae – then the biggest TikTok star on the planet – stepped on to the MTV Awards red carpet in 2021 wearing what appeared to be a strip of fabric as a top paired with a silver chain and a maxi skirt, Australian fashion let out a collective gasp. It marked the latest step in the global ascendancy of designer Christopher Esber.
Aesop
In a global beauty industry worth $580 billion, Aesop – the cult skincare brand that was born in Melbourne but grew to have stores in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai and a flagship on London’s Regent Street – has moved slowly and steadily since 1987 to seize a slice of it. This year L’Oreal bought the brand for $2.5 billion.
Industry and Aviation
Since it entered service the Bushmaster has saved hundreds of Diggers from landmines, IEDs and enemy fire – it’s one of our country’s best industrial innovations.
Bushmaster
It’s been called an ugly duckling and even an “armoured Winnebago”, but while the Bushmaster might not win a beauty contest, it ranks as one of the most inspiring lifesaving Australian inventions. This is a vehicle which can transport a section of soldiers including food, water and fuel at up to 100km/hr for 1000km without refuelling. And it can do it while being also able to withstand blasts from very large landmines and improvised bombs.
TOLIMAN Project
The TOLIMAN project is developing the TOLIMAN space telescope aimed at detecting exoplanets, specifically in the Alpha Centauri system, where scientists believe we may find the “Goldilocks” planet with conditions most similar to our own.
Business Class
It was Qantas in 1979 that refined the idea of Business Class and shared it with the world. Comfortable, lounge-style seats. Better quality food and fine wines. Separate check-in. A new flying class was born and – excuse the pun – it took off.
Aircraft slide raft
For years jet aircraft had life rafts stored overhead throughout the cabin but Jack Grant’s idea was simple and fast, and after rigorous testing and sea trials, it was ultimately accepted by aviation authorities around the world and has remained a critical, and mandatory, safety staple of passenger aircraft ever since.
Derlot
At some point you’ve actually sat on a Derlot, somewhere in the world, without realising. They can be spotted in airports across the planet. (They even come with an anti-graffiti sealant). Derlot’s influence is all over a rapidly evolving Brisbane CBD (in time for the 2032 Olympic Games), from universities to restaurants to surf clubs. And, slowly but surely, to the wider world.