Bulletin

Issue: March/April 2008

Awards and Graduations

'Riverlink' graduates a first for Mildura

From left, Dr Lindhout, Ms Philp and Dr Tregeagle after the ceremony. Photo: Courtesy Sunraysia Daily.

La Trobe University's Mildura campus recently graduated its first 'Riverlink Postgraduate Research Network' Doctoral students.

The network – set up in 2004 to meet the need for specialised training, education and research for regional irrigated horticultural industries – is a joint initiative between the University and federal and state government research agencies.

The graduates are Katina Lindhout and Joanna Tregeagle who gained their PhD degrees for projects that assist two major local industries: grape and citrus growing.

Executive Director of the Mildura Campus, Kent Farrell, said they undertook a significant part of their study in the region. Dr Lindhout's research has led to a better understanding of mechanism that can cause deterioration of orange rind after harvest. She says storage disorders of navel oranges are a problem for the citrus industry, but objective descriptors for the various types of disorders were lacking and knowledge of the physiology underpinning them was poor.

She identified seven distinct forms of chilling-related injuries and demonstrated that each was formed by different patterns of cellular collapse in fruit rinds. Dr Lindhout also found plant cells may experience oxidative stress, an imbalance between damaging free-radicals and restorative antioxidants. Her project was supported by the Murray Valley Citrus Board, Horticulture Australia Limited and CSIRO.

With salinity of irrigation water of great concern to the wine industry, Dr Tregeagle examined the response of Chardonnay and Shiraz grape vines, each grafted to a variety of root stocks, to determine which root stocks coped better with long-term exposure to saline irrigation in vineyards.

She studied salt concentrations in juice and leaves from grapevines at two sites in Victoria and South Australia, comparing samples from 1997 and 2004. Her work showed that the ability of some root stocks to exclude chloride diminished after long-term exposure to salinity, and that this was determined by mechanisms mainly in the roots.

About 70 graduates were awarded their degrees and diplomas at the ceremony which was held at the Mildura Arts Centre.

Art award

Aboriginal graduate Belinda Philp, who received her Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at the ceremony, is also a winner of the latest Victorian Indigenous Art Awards which attracted a record number of entries.

She took out the top prize from 47 selected items – the $15,000 Deadly Art Award sponsored by Arts Victoria – for her work, Homage to My Mother, Family Circle. The judges commended it as 'a poignant, dramatic creation… which relates directly to the life of the artist and her people'. Ms Philp is planning a career as a teacher.