2005 Media Releases
Friday, 29 July, 2005
New building opens for environmental education and research in Northern Victoria
La Trobe University will officially open a new Centre for Research and Training in Environmental Science on its Albury-Wodonga Campus on Monday, 1 August 2005, at 10.30 am.
The state-of-the-art building – which houses the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre and teaching and research laboratories of La Trobe University – will be opened by the Chancellor of La Trobe University and one of Australia’s leading environmental scientists, Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis.
The Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University, Professor Michael Osborne, said the new facility will offer outstanding research opportunities and enhance the unique educational programs of the University’s Department of Environmental Management and Ecology.
The Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre, led by Dr Ben Gawne, is one of Australia’s top research bodies investigating the importance of river-floodplain interactions, environmental flows and the ecology of wetlands and algal blooms. Staff of the Centre are adjunct members of La Trobe University who participate in collaborative research with staff from the University and contribute to postgraduate education.
(The Lower Basin Laboratory of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre is located on La Trobe University’s Mildura campus in a building opened in late 2003, and has a similar relationship with the University.)
La Trobe University contributed some $2.5 million to the new Albury-Wodonga campus building, with other contributions coming from the Victorian Government, $1.5 million; the Federal Government, $1 million and the CSIRO, $0.6 million, with valuable support from the City of Wodonga. Since 1992 La Trobe University has spent more than $21 million on land and buildings at its Albury-Wodonga campus in McKoy Street, Wodonga.
Other officials at the opening ceremony – to be hosted by the Acting Head of the La Trobe University Albury-Wodonga Campus, Dr Roger Croome – will be La Trobe University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham McDowell and Professor John Langford, Chairman of the Board of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre.
The building was designed by Melbourne architects Woods Bagot and built by Zauner Construction.
For further information:
For further information please contact Professor Graham McDowell at La Trobe University, Tel: (03) 9479 1011, or Dr Ben Gawne, Murray Darling Freshwater Centre, Tel: (02) 6058 2300.