Sneak peek at AgriBio

Victorian ministers Denis Napthine and Peter Walsh got their first look at the building today, in the company of representatives from the Department of Primary Industries, Plenary Research, Grocon, and staff and academics from the building’s home grounds of La Trobe University.

Transcript

Narration:

Work is progressing on Victoria's new home of agricultural science, the $288 million AgriBio, Centre for AgriBiosciences.

Victorian ministers Denis Napthine and Peter Walsh got their first look at the building today, in the company of representatives from the Department of Primary Industries, Plenary Research, Grocon, and staff and academics from the building's home grounds of La Trobe University.

Denis Napthine:

I'm absolutely blown away by the skill of the constructors, of the design, and the overall project management, which has delivered an outstanding project. This is a project that is really technically very difficult. And to have produced a project which is not only a beautiful building but is superbly functional and is at the leadership of the world in these scientific research facilities I think is an outstanding credit to all those involved.

Brian McGaw:

It's an absolutely stellar opportunity for us, involving nearly $300 million of state investments in the facility, in which obviously La Trobe is a fully-fledged partner. We have approximately one quarter of the investment in this building, and one quarter of the staff. About one hundred of our staff will be based in this building as of next year.

Narration:

The building is designed to maximise the use of natural light, and boasts a 5 star green star design rating.

The facility also includes a sophisticated gas fired tri-generator, which powers the building and is capable of feeding energy back into the electrical grid, reducing the reliance on brown coal generated power.

Denis Napthine:

You've got a building which really delivers in terms of low carbon footprint, low energy use, and recycling as much material as possible, so that's a great outcome for a significant building. The other great thing here is a partnership between and the Victorian Government through the Department of Primary Industries, working together on agricultural research, agricultural protection, that will really deliver benefits for Victorian agriculture for decades to come.

Narration:

With state of the art greenhouses, more than seventy controlled environment rooms and high tech labs, the project will help put the state of Victoria at the forefront of international agricultural research.

Brian McGaw:

This is a world-class facility and to have it on La Trobe's campus it's just a wonderful opportunity to see state of the art research, but also for our research students too. It will offer them terrific facilities to be doing their PhD's.

Tim Brown:

We'll see DPI and La Trobe coming together to deliver outstanding research outcomes, and to educate students that will transform agriculture in Victoria over a twenty-five year period. So it's fundamental to the building of La Trobe.

Narration:

AgriBio is just one of a number of building projects that have strengthened the profile of La Trobe University, including the La Trobe Institute of Molecular Sciences.

AgriBio will open in early 2012.

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