In this article, we briefly review the critical behaviour of a long-range percolation model in which any two sites are connected with a probability that falls off algebraically with the distance. The results of this percolation transition are used to describe the quantum phase transitions in a dilute transverse Ising model at the percolation threshold pc of the long-range connected lattice. In the similar spirit, we propose a new model of a contact process defined on the same long-range diluted lattice and explore the transitions at pc. The long-range nature of the percolation transition allows us to evaluate some critical exponents exactly in both the above models. Moreover, mean field theory is valid for a wide region of parameter space. In either case, the strength of Griffiths McCoy singularities are tunable as the range parameter is varied. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.