@AuManufacturing Conversations

@AuManufacturing•aumanufacturingconversationswithbrentbalinski.buzzsprout.com

@AuManufacturing Conversations is a regular interview program hosted by Brent Balinski (with other hosts occasionally) bringing you discussions with the folks who are contributing to a critical part of Australia's economy.

We hope to capture something of the variety of manufacturing, its place in the nation, its changing nature, and some of the personalities within it.

From the boutique to the billion dollar, if it's manufacturing and it's Australian, then it likely matters to us. This podcast is an extension of the @AuManufacturing news and analysis website and the community around it, and complements what's written online at www.aumanufacturing.com.au.

Interested in advertising? Get in touch via editor@aumanufacturing.com.au

Last refreshed: July 20th, 2025 at 5:56 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Episode 5 -- Catie Fry from Clovendoe

Send us a text In episode five of @AuManufacturing Conversations , Brent speaks to Catie Fry, founder and Master Distiller at Clovendoe, a Gold Coast-based distillery with a difference. Catie’s career in the drinks business began with a gin and rum enterprise that she, her husband and some friends opened in Rockhampton in 2016. It was before the current explosion in popularity for no-alcohol beverages, but the number of designated drivers visiting their establishment on the Bruce Highway, and th...

Jul 21, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Episode 4 -- John Mellowes from PyroAg

Send us a text In episode four of @AuManufacturing Conversations , Brent speaks to John Mellowes, CEO of PyroAg Wood Vinegar and Director at Biocarbon. We learn some of the fundamentals of pyrolysis and its products -- such as biochar, wood vinegar and syngas -- when used to decompose biomass. John tells us about the potential of wood vinegar, also known as pyroligneous acid, which PyroAg makes. PyroAg has worked with University of Newcastle researchers over the last few years on the product to ...

Jul 17, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Episode 3 -- Jon Bulman from Finisar

Send us a text In episode three of @AuManufacturing Conversations , Brent speaks to Jon Bulman, Director of Manufacturing at the greatest Australian manufacturer you’ve never heard of, Finisar. We featured a story this week on our recent visit to Finisar’s Rosebery factory, a few kilometres south of Sydney’s CBD. As promised, here is the extended interview that informed that story. Jon talks us through his career in high-tech electronics after moving here in 1994 from London, assembling Waveleng...

Jul 14, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Episode 2 -- Henry Bilinsky from MicroTau

Send us a text In the second episode of Conversations , Brent speaks to Henry Bilinsky (no relation), the founder and CEO of MicroTau. Henry founded his company in 2016 after proposing an approach he calls “Nature’s 3D printer” in response to a US Air Force challenge to reduce fuel use for transport aircraft. Out of nearly 300 entries, his idea to improve fuel efficiency -- which creates a surface like shark’s skin for the outside of a plane -- made the final ten. Then it was one of only three f...

Jul 07, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Episode 1 -- Jo Murphy from EFC Manufacturing Co

Send us a text In the first episode, Brent speaks to Jo Murphy, Owner of EFC Manufacturing Co since 2019. Jo is the third owner of the company, which has made the Eezy Fabric Comb/Original Fabric Comb since the 1970s. Each comb is still made using the original machinery and tooling, and no two are exactly alike. Jo tells us about how she came to be custodian of an Australian invention with oodles of heritage following a career in the fashion industry and her recovery from a health scare, the tea...

Jun 30, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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