Are your feet, legs or lower back sore? Do you live in Albury-Wodonga or surrounding areas? From Wednesday 25 February, podiatry and physiotherapy students from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Community Health will assess and treat clients for a broad range of problems in the lower body, supervised by experienced clinical educators and professionals. Problems could include lower back pain, joint pain, soft tissue injury and sporting injury, as well as developmental problems or lower limb pain in children. “The clinic provides a vital health service for the local community while also helping provide CSU health students with invaluable supervised experience that prepares them for their professional lives,” said clinic coordinator, Ms Kristy Robson. The clinic will run each Wednesday from March to June. Contact the CSU Allied Health Clinic, Olive St, Albury on (02) 6051 6922 for an appointment, which will cost $30 per session.

International recognition for his expertise in wetland management has led to the reappointment of a senior Charles Sturt University (CSU) scientist to a scientific panel for the international Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Director of CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society Professor Max Finlayson will be a member of Ramsar's Scientific and Technical Review Panel from 2009 to 2012, specialising in the effects of climate change on wetlands and water and the social and economic effects on people who rely on them. Professor Finlayson said the appointment is a great honour and is recognition of scientific expertise available at CSU. The Ramsar Convention, established in 1975, aims to protect wetlands worldwide, including the iconic Barmah Forest and Lower Lakes on the Murray River and the Macquarie Marshes in central NSW.

Fourteen visitors from Indonesia touring Victoria and Tasmania to bring closer understanding between Muslims and Christians will meet with members of the Border community at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Tuesday 3 March. Hosted by the Uniting Church in Australia, the group particularly aims to increase mutual understanding and cultural appreciation between the Muslim majority of Indonesia and Australia’s Christian communities. While in Albury, the group will visit the University’s facilities and speak with CSU students at Thurgoona. “The University hopes the visit will enhance understanding and relations between the faiths and our cultures,” said visit coordinator and CSU student counsellor Mr Geoff Simmons. The visit will include a public forum hosted by CSU Professor The Rev. James Haire from the University’s School of Theology in Canberra.

In this Year of the Blood Donor staff and students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) are being asked to donate blood on its five campuses from Monday 2 to Friday 6 March. As part of CSU’s 20th anniversary celebrations this year, the University has issued a ‘North-South’ challenge, with the total staff and student donations at CSU campuses at Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst (North) being tallied against donations at Wagga Wagga and Albury-Wodonga (South). The Head of Campus at CSU at Bathurst, Mr Col Sharp, said the University aims to achieve 1 000 donations during the week. “While we have been planning this event for some time, it is given added urgency and significance by the needs of burns victims from the recent bushfires in Victoria,” Mr Sharp said. “I urge all University staff and students to donate blood if they possibly can. It costs nothing, takes less than an hour and does so much good.” One in three Australians will need blood during their lifetime, yet only one in 30 donates blood.

Governments across Australia have spent billions of dollars on programs to encourage rural landholders to implement sustainable farming and biodiversity conservation practices, but has this money been well spent? Drawing on his research in south eastern Australia, Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic Professor Allan Curtis will address this question when he speaks at the Fenner Conference on the Environment in Canberra on Wednesday 11 March. Professor Curtis will highlight the reality that most conservation work undertaken by private landholders is not funded by governments and that government investment in conservation programs, particularly those that invest in building and engaging human and social capital in rural communities, makes a difference. “The ‘business as usual’ approaches to engaging rural landholders are unlikely to work in the future given the remarkable change occurring as a large proportion of longer-term owners leave the land,” he said.

People in and around Maryborough and Castlemaine in Central Victoria will soon be able to have their say on how communities value natural assets. Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher and PhD student Ms Eloise Seymour is hoping for over 500 replies to a mail survey she is sending out which will give her feedback on how people value local environmental assets such as the local Box-Ironbark Forests, the Moorlort wetlands, and the Loddon River between Baringhup and Vaughan Springs. “The Moorlort wetlands have been dry for 10 years due to the drought but local farmers have said how important they are for bird migration and how spectacular they used to be. Survey participants should consider how they value wetlands now and in the past,” Ms Seymour said. The survey, which should take 20 minutes to complete, will be sent to people living in small towns, regional centres, on farms and with special interests such as field naturalists. “The survey results will help develop better ways for environmental organisations in Australia to decide what natural places should receive government funding and resources,” Ms Seymour said.

While 2009 provides Charles Sturt University (CSU) with an opportunity to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the year is also a time to honour the 114-year tradition of excellence and innovation in teaching, learning and research. The University was established when the Charles Sturt University Act was passed by the NSW Parliament in July 1989, however the institution’s history can be traced back to the Bathurst Experimental Farm, established in 1895.The official opening ceremony for the University’s 20th anniversary will be held from 11am, Thursday 12 March, in Joyes Hall at CSU at Wagga Wagga. Read more here.

The search for treatments to beat such modern day diseases as cancer and diabetes is prompting scientists to examine traditional medicines used by Indigenous Australians. Native plants including Prickly Fanflower were used by Indigenous Australians and Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher Dr Philip Kerr is investigating their potential as anti-cancer and anti-diabetic medicine. “Australian and other naturalised flora represent a vast, untapped reserve of potential eco-friendly medicinal agents,” he said. Other plants under investigation include Desert Poplar, Sticky Goodenia, Stiff-leaved Bottlebrush and the well known weed Bathurst Burr which may have the potential to combat cancer. Dr Kerr says his interest was triggered while studying in Western Australia where a controversial ‘cancer treatment’ derived from an Australian native plant was being dispensed to terminal cancer patients. "For many years, natural products from Australian flora had been studied but with no apparent connection to their medicinal potential, but with the renewed interest in medicinal plants worldwide, that interest has burgeoned," he said. 

Celebrating Australia’s cultural diversity is the goal for Harmony Day to be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury on Monday 23 March. With the theme of ‘everyone belongs’, event coordinator Ms Lynn Furze said the day is about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone in the Albury community. The day will be opened by the acting Cultural and Education Attaché of the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, Mr Yoni Utomo. Members of the Border community are invited to enjoy music, dance, food and entertainment from around the world, including a free barbeque. Harmony Day at CSU will run from 11am to 1pm at the barbeque area on the University’s Albury City site, off Olive St, Albury.