A WORLD leading soil research facility has been unveiled at the University of Newcastle’s Global Centre for Environmental Remediation.
The $15 million set-up, announced Friday June 9, will help Australia lead global research with seven state-of-the-art laboratories for microbiology, wet chemistry, material science, chemical analysis, remediation and heat testing.
Professor Ravi Naidu, the University’s Centre for Environmental Remediation director, helped establish two soil-focused Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) which will use the new facilities.
Prof Naidu said the new High Performance Soils CRC would develop ways to benefit production, working on problems such as hard-setting soils, and building organic matter in depleted soils.
Making research findings relevant for farmers across the country will be a key component.
“A key thing we tend to forget is to recognise Australia is a vast country, with a range of different climate and soil types, which means it is not easy to take an extension approach that works in NSW and bring it to South Australia,” Prof. Naidu said.
“That’s where the High Perfomance Soils CRC can help. If there is a management strategy that works in NSW, we can look at how it can be applied in South Australia.”
Prof. Naidu said the new lab will be a “one-stop-shop for environmental contaminant research”.
It will facilitate work for the CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CARE CRC).
“Out team that we have here is made up of scientists, engineers and mathematical modellers. The equipment we have lets us assess contaminated sites and then work out the remediation strategy in the lab.
“This is the only lab of its kind in Australia, and the world, which is very exciting.”
While contaminated soils are more prevalent in urban areas, there is still a significant challenge for rural areas, with 160,000 potentially contaminated sites across Australia, Prof. Naidu said.
“Cleaning up contaminated land and water costs our nation more than $3 billion every year. Aside from this, areas of potentially valuable land remain unusable and a possible health risk to the communities around them,” Prof Naidu said.
Between 60 per cent and 80pc of contaminated sites are in urban areas, which includes old industrial facilities, disposal sites and a range of other problem areas.
That leaves between 20pc to 40pc in rural areas, which could mean pesticide contamination, or even old railway facilities.
“Or, there might have been rail tracks where at some stage they used treatment on the wooden sleeprs which contained arsenic, for example,” Prof. Naidu said.
CRCs are not for profit organisations that bring researchers with industry and government together to collaborate on projects that are directed toward delivering economic benefits.
The High Performance Soils CRC was established with several other new agricultural CRCs earlier in the year. The CARE CRC is an ongoing initiative.
