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Global investment in offshore wind farms is booming as nations seek to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. This week, Australia officially joined the party.

Renewable energy advocates are celebrating the passage of pivotal laws that will govern the installation of towering turbines off the coast in coming years.

They say a new offshore wind power industry will help Australia dump fossil fuels sooner while also creating clean, green jobs in regions that have always depended on coal and gas.

Project proponents are celebrating too.

They now have a framework for the infrastructure they want to build and have expressed a new level of confidence about pursing an industry that's been powering Europe for years.

So what will a new offshore wind industry mean for Australia? Where are plants likely to pop up? What will they look like? And what's on offer in terms of power supply, new jobs and climate action?

So far, there are about a dozen offshore wind farm proposals on the drawing board.

Most will hug a coastal path from just north of Sydney, past Melbourne and hook around towards Adelaide. There's also one planned off northern Tasmania and there are three proposed for Western Australia, one near Geraldton and two near Bunbury.

But only one - the Star of the South project off Gippsland in Victoria - is well advanced.

It's been under development since 2012 and is now majority owned by Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a long-term player in Europe's offshore wind industry.

The fund manager is also developing the first commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States just south of Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island that's long been a playground for the rich and famous.

It is one of many farms that will soon be springing up off the US coast after President Joe Biden announced a target of 30 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2030.

That's enough to power 10 million homes and it's part of his plan to tackle climate change by ramping up renewable energy sources.

The Star of the South project off Victoria promises to do its bit to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

It's forecast to generate enough wind electricity to power about 1.2 Australian homes and save an average of 2.6 megatonnes of carbon dioxide each year - the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road.

It will see up to 200 enormous turbine towers driven into the seabed over about 500 square kilometres off Port Albert, Mcloughlins Beach and Woodside Beach. Some could be just 7km from shore, others 25km out.

Offshore wind power will then flow via undersea and underground lines to the Latrobe Valley, which has long provided Victoria with coal-fired power and has the plug-in points needed to feed wind energy into the national grid.

There is no question the offshore turbines will be highly visible.

Depending on their size, the structures could reach 350 metres above the surface of the ocean. For perspective Melbourne's tallest skyscraper - the 92-storey Eureka tower - is 297 metre tall.

But supporters say Australians should consider the greater good of offshore wind farming while also noting there's nothing attractive about coal-fired power stations belching out emissions.

"This is that golden ticket for places like the Latrobe Valley and the Hunter Valley in NSW, that have been reliant on jobs in coal and gas," says PJ Jacobs, a climate campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation.

And that's because they already have sophisticated transmission infrastructure and highly-skilled workers that will be essential for new clean energy projects.

"Not only will offshore wind boost renewable energy and slash emissions, it will create thousands of regional jobs in the communities that are most at risk from energy transition."

Andrew Bray is the national director of the RE-Alliance, a community-based group that represents landholders, farmers, small businesses and environmentalists pushing for a rapid shift to renewable energy.

He agrees it's a no-brainer to build offshore wind farms near the nation's coal hubs because their power plants are on borrowed time and their workers need new jobs.

"It could have happened earlier," he says of the new legislation for offshore farms. "There were certainly people calling for it a lot earlier."

He sees offshore wind power as "a fantastic adjunct" to Australia's renewable energy mix, one that will help even out what's produced by onshore farms that are more susceptible to wind fluctuations.

As for visual impacts, Mr Bray says there's a "certain inevitability" about Australia sourcing its power from the wind and sun, and people are going to have to get used to seeing the infrastructure that allows it to happen.

Casper Frost Thorhauge is the CEO of the Star of the South project and a veteran of the offshore wind farming industry, having helped deliver projects in Europe and Asia.

He's frank about the visual impact of up to 200 towering turbine towers appearing in the seascape off Gippsland.

"When you are at the beach you will be able to see the turbines. It's a common phenomenon and people have found that acceptable in other countries," he says.

But he says the company is going through a thorough community engagement process "to determine how people would like the wind farm to be designed and built".

Work is also advancing on pre-construction studies including seabed assessments, wind and wave monitoring, and a raft of ecological surveys looking at impacts on marine life and birds.

Detailed environmental impact assessments will have to win government support before the Start of the South has the right to proceed. The project will also hinge on a final investment decision by its backers due in 2025.

Once that happens, it will take about two years for the first turbines to be generating power.

Over its 30-year life span, the project is expected to create about 3,000 direct jobs. In coal-dependent Gippsland, the estimates are about 760 jobs during construction and 200 ongoing operational positions.

"It's an opportunity for places like Gippsland to continue a proud history of power generation," Mr Frost Thorhauge says.

But not everyone is sold on the idea of installing banks of gigantic turbines along the coast.

Tim Buckley, from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, says nations investing heavily in offshore wind like Japan and Korea don't have what Australia has.

"We're blessed with high onshore wind and solar resources," he says.

"I am a strong advocate for onshore wind because at the end of the day the consumer has to pay the bill ... offshore wind is a lot more expensive.

"There's clearly investor interest and appetite but I'd question how many of those projects would work without a massive government subsidy."

© AAP 2021

Australia is rolling in spuds and swimming in carrots.

In fact, the nation's potato farmers grew enough of them in the past year to fill the MCG. Not just cover the hallowed turf knee-deep or to the top of the boundary fence. Actually fill the 1.574 million cubic metre arena to the brim.

By any measure, that's a hell of a lot of mash.

Aussie carrot growers are no slouches either. They raised enough of the juicy orange blighters to pack 300 Olympic pools.

Australia's vegie growers are indeed going swimmingly, according to AUSVEG national manager Shaun Lindhe.

Not only are they among agriculture's strongest performers, they're part of a technically advanced and rapidly growing sector.

"It's a major contributor to agricultural employment and provides economic benefits to all businesses throughout the agricultural supply chain, Mr Lindhe said.

"It's the lifeblood of many regional and rural communities."

As the peak body for vegetable and potato producers, AUSVEG reckons the rest of Australia needs to appreciate what they do too.

#knowyourAUSVEG aims to spread the word about the sector's substantial contribution to the national economy, the livelihoods of its workers and the health and wellbeing of every Australian, Mr Lindhe says.

With an annual farmgate value of almost $5 billion, it's hard to argue.

Vegetables are Australia's largest horticulture market, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

They're a bigger concern than fruits, nuts, flowers, turf and nursery products. They outdo most domestic meat markets and all fisheries, forestry operations and grain crops.

The dollar value of the nine billion litres of milk produced by the nation's dairy herd is roughly on par.

"The vast majority of vegetables that are sold in Australia are grown in Australia," Mr Lindhe said.

"This tremendous effort is possible because of the hard work and determination of our growers and the support from the broader supply chain to ... supply vegetables for Australian and international consumers."

Australian farms have grown more than 3.8 million tonnes of vegetables in the past year, enough to put 87kg of them on the table for every woman, man and child.

The nation's top vegie by value and volume is, of course, the humble spud. More than 1.45 million tonnes of them were dug from the ground and sold for $800 million.

Tomatoes are second, with the annual 470,000-tonne harvest worth $560 million.

Australia's leafy salad vegetable production is valued at $410 million, mushrooms $360 million and broccoli $280 million.

By volume, carrots rank third (335,000 tonnes), onions fourth (270,000 tonnes) and lettuce fifth (139,000 tonnes).

© AAP 2021

Australia is sending police, diplomats and defence personnel to the Solomon Islands to provide stability and security after rioting in the capital Honiara.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said protests in the capital had become disorderly and a high school, police station and leaf hut adjacent to the parliament had been torched.

"The situation remains volatile with reasonably large crowds on the move," Mr Morrison said.

The deployment, which is expected to last a few weeks, includes a detachment of 23 Australian Federal Police and up to 50 further AFP officers to provide security at critical infrastructure.

In addition, there will be 43 armed defence force personnel, a patrol boat and at least five Department of Foreign Affairs personnel.

An RAAF aircraft left Canberra on Thursday night to carry federal police and DFAT officials in support of Australia's response, the federal government said in a statement.

About 40 defence force personnel will leave Townsville for Honiara on Friday, along with another ADF flight carrying more federal police and DFAT officials which is scheduled to depart Canberra.

A Navy vessel will also be sent to the Solomon Islands, and Australia's response will be scaled up as needed.

All Australian high commission staff and locally engaged staff have been accounted for but the exact number of citizens is not yet known.

"Our purpose here is to provide stability and security," Mr Morrison said.

"We have always been there to help our Pacific neighbours when they need us."

Local police have been "stretched" as anti-government protesters set fire to buildings in the centre of Honiara.

Mr Morrison was adamant the deployment of Australian troops should in no way be seen as the country taking a side in the internal conflict between the Solomon Islands' government and opposition.

"We believe in their sovereignty and we believe in them being able to resolve these issues (democratically)," he said.

Australian police will help local authorities with riot control and defence force personnel will secure critical infrastructure like the airport.

Mr Morrison said the national security committee of cabinet had met just after he received a formal request for support from Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Reports and images shared on social media show crowds of protesters and burning buildings in the Chinatown district of Honiara as protesters defied a lockdown in a second day of unrest.

Media reports said people had travelled from the most populous province of Malaita to the capital because of concern about being overlooked by the national government.

The province opposed a 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China, resulting in an independence referendum last year which the national government has dismissed as illegitimate.

Mr Sogavare on Wednesday declared a 36-hour lockdown in Honiara after the latest unrest, calling it "another sad and unfortunate event aimed at bringing a democratically elected government down".

The lockdown, which will run until 7am on Friday, would "allow our law enforcement agencies to fully investigate the perpetrators of today's events and to prevent further lawless destruction", Mr Sogavare said.

It is unclear whether China will seek to evacuate its people in Honiara.

In 2006 after Honiara Chinatown was burned down, the Chinese government sent an Air China plane.

© AAP 2021