RESEARCH HEALTH

DEFENCE

N o r t h Q u e e n s l a n d S i m u l a t i o n P a r k

INDUSTRY BRIEF

INTRODUCTIONWith a population approaching 200,000, Townsville is the largest city in Northern Australia.

A central feature of Townsville’s economy is the ongoing investment in applied science, research, education and health services. Major institutions delivering this capability include:

• James Cook University (JCU) • Townsville University Hospital (TUH) • the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) • the North Queensland operations for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

Organisation (CSIRO)• the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

With over one third of the Australian Army’s deployable combat forces housed within the city, Townsville is critical to the defence of our nation. Within its Defence role, Townsville delivers high-end collective simulation and training by virtue of the location of high-readiness land and air force elements, the presence of the Australian Army Combat Training Centre and its proximity to excellent land, air and maritime training and test and evaluation areas.

The Townsville City Deal (infrastructure.gov.au) is a tripartite inter-governmental commitment to collaboratively grow the economy of Townsville. In part, the Townsville City Deal is achieving this through a focus on developing Townsville as an Innovative and Connected City and Defence Hub.

The North Queensland Simulation Park (NQ SPARK) consolidates and exploits the unique confluence of regional defence, health and knowledge and simulation expertise to construct a multi-user Advanced Environmental Simulation Facility (AESF) as the foundation infrastructure for a technology-oriented collaborative industry precinct. The North Queensland Simulation Park - Feasibility Analysis (townsville.qld.gov.au) is available from here.

With a proposed operational timeframe of 2024, the AESF will have flexible, multipurpose applications as an advanced simulated training facility (Medical, Defence, Veterinary, Police & Emergency Services etc.), an instrumented Operational Test and Evaluation space and a human performance research centre.

Complementing the proximity to world-class land, air and maritime training, test and evaluation areas, the NQ SPARK technology precinct will have access to secure private LTE networks and communication for unmanned systems operations.

NQ SPARK is being considered for funding under the Innovative and Connected City and Defence Hub Initiatives of the Townsville City Deal. Building on the earlier Feasibility Study, the AEC Group has been appointed to complete a business case for the proposal. This analysis includes developing a comprehensive understanding of NQ SPARKS opportunity and potential uses and users.

N o r t h Q u e e n s l a n d S i m u l a t i o n P a r k

LOCATIONLocated on the common boundary for Lavarack Barracks, James Cook University and Townsville University Hospital, NQ SPARK provides proximity and ease of access to world-class land, air and maritime training areas and test and evaluation facilities.

Bureau of Meteorology (Willis Island)

(367 nm)

(340 n

m)

(180 nm)

Coral Sea

Myrmidon Reef Test Range

HMAS Cairns

Davies Reef Test Range

Townsville Field Training Area

Greenvale Training Area

AIMS Marine OperationsTOWNSVILLE

CAIRNS

Cloncurry (Drone Flight Test Facility)

Abbot Point Rocket Launch Facility

Darwin

Brisbane

Sydney

CanberraMelbourneAdelaide

Perth

TOWNSVILLE

Conceptual Illustration Only

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Townsville University Hospital

Lavarack Barracks

James Cook University

Conceptual illustration only

A COLLABORATIVE ECO-SYSTEMNo other place brings together real-world defence, security and health applications with the brightest and best in research, innovation and technological expertise. On one common boundary, Townsville has:

JAMES COOK UNIVERSITYthe world’s leading tropical science university meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

TOWNSVILLE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALthe Norths own tertiary referral hospital providing state-of-the-art medical services, research and teaching.

LAVARACK BARRACKS housing more than 1/3rd of Army’s combat forces + the Combat Training Centre, providing collective live, virtual and augmented training support to ensure operational readiness.

N o r t h Q u e e n s l a n d S i m u l a t i o n P a r k

RESEARCHJamesCook

University

TownsvilleUniversityHospital

Lavarack Barracks

DEFENCE

HEALTH

COMBINING BRILLIANT MINDS

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

TO SOLVE REAL-WORLDCHALLENGES

NQ SPARKA collaborative eco-system connecting industry, research, technology and capability to innovate and lead the development of human, systems and teaming performance and find practical solutions to real-world problems and needs.

Conceptual illustration of NQ SPARK

SUPPORTING THE NEXT WAVE OF INNOVATION FROM WORLD-LEADING BUSINESSES, RESEARCH PARTNERS, ENTREPRENEURS AND GOVERNMENT.

NQ SPARK will:

Be founded on an Advanced Environmental Simulation Facility for simulated training (virtual and augmented), research and test and evaluation purposes.

Provide a collaborative space in the tropics for high tech industry and enterprises in proximity to end users and state-of-the-art training and test facilities.

Bring together the best of our nation’s scientists and researchers to partner with industry to provide cutting-edge solutions to increasingly complex needs.

INNOVATION & INVESTMENT

The combination of advanced technology and diversity of expertise consolidated within NQ SPARK establishes an ecosystem ready and able to support the next wave of innovation from world-leading businesses, research partners, entrepreneurs and government. Cost effective operational test and evaluation facilities will improve the time and cost of bringing new technologies to market.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

NQ SPARK partnerships and collaborations solve the challenges of:

• Human Performance and Human Machine Teaming (HUM-T) • Integrated Soldier Systems (ISS)• Operating in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Environments • Agile Command and Control (C2) for Military, Health, Police and Emergency Services applications.

TEST & EVALUATION

Australia has invested heavily into combining industry, science and technology to develop Defence capability. An obvious gap has opened in the need to provide a place and space to operationally test and evaluate developing technology that provides:

• Easy access to end users and world-class digitalised training and testing ranges• The provision of an Advanced Simulation Laboratory to provide a “Digital Twin” for Test and

Evaluation purposes.

NQ SPARK will fill this test and evaluation gap.

ENHANCED TRAINING & PREPAREDNESS

NQ SPARK will optimise performance outcomes through scalable and repeatable training. The controlled environment of NQ SPARK will deliver effective and timely training to Defence, Health, Police, Emergency Services and Disaster Response personnel.

Training activities are continuously improved through real-time human performance monitoring and research, leveraging the video, audio and biometric information recorded during training activities.

IN DEMAND SKILLED WORKFORCE

With JCU producing thousands of undergraduate and post graduate science, technology, engineering and maths graduates each year, and many highly trained and experienced ADF personnel choosing Townsville to retire from military life, Townsville provides a wealth of talent.

N o r t h Q u e e n s l a n d S i m u l a t i o n P a r k

• Semicircular 270-degree LED video wall providing an immersive visual capability within a large operating space up to 12 metres in diameter and 6 metres high. The video wall will be segmented, allowing it to be broken down into multiple smaller training and research arenas.

• Precision motion capture OptiTrack camera system suitable for research in robotics, unmanned aerial systems, movement sciences, virtual reality, and animation.

• Private 4G/5G LTE Network providing specialised and secure research and data collection.

• Situational training and experimentation space, a large configurable training arena with variable environmental control to support simulated complex tactical emergency training for defence, police, and emergency services.

• Clinical simulation centre reconfigurable to support up to four simultaneous resuscitation bays, hospital ward, triage, or trauma training scenarios.

• C2 decision superiority space to provide collective training for command elements in critical incident, emergency, and disaster management. This capability will be virtually linked to other training spaces in the facility and/or other remote Coordination Centres to provide simultaneous coordination and decision-making training scenarios for tactical and operational level commanders.

• Large capacity auditorium to deliver briefs, lectures, and training information. The auditorium will also act as a briefing and holding area to expedite throughput during high participation training activities.

• Visiting research space to provide staff from collaborating universities, industry partners or research participants who are not locally based with working facilities when using the SPARK for training or research.

• Secure data portal to allow SPARK users to capture and transfer research or training data and information with classified, commercial or privacy restrictions.

To meet identified needs, NQ SPARK will be equipped with cutting-edge technology systems and training and research facilities, including:

NQ SPARK is being developed under the TropiQ partnership with support from James Cook University, Townsville Hospital and Health Service, Townsville City Council and Queensland Government.

For further information on NQ SPARK, please contact

David BurkeDefence Engagement OfficerTownsville City Council

David.Burke@Townsville.qld.gov.au

Links with industry and research organisations are forming with strong interest expressed from Cubic Defence Australia, AIMS (REEFWORKS), University of SA, University of NSW and Central Queensland University.