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.

The most recent Department of Primary Industries (DPI) figures suggest that, in NSW, there are 835 horses infected with Equine Influenza on 119 confirmed properties. An additional suspect 2900 horses on 319 locations are also in quarantine. Charles Sturt University (CSU) senior lecturer in equine medicine, Dr Sharanne Raidal says most importantly, the NSW Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer reports that every one of these cases has been traced from known contact with affected horses. This means that, to date, the disease has not escaped surveillance measures. Dr Raidal warns that only by containing the virus within a small proportion of the total horse population, and allowing the disease to "burn itself out", will "we succeeded in eradicating EI". Continued careful attention to quarantine restrictions and prompt identification of new cases is required for this to happen. A number of horses with high temperatures, but no known risk of disease, have been tested negative. It is important that all such horses are examined as part of routine, ongoing surveillance for spread of the disease.

Lessons from agriculture in the Middle Ages could today help farms in Australia become more sustainable. Back in that era, farmers didn’t hold individual titles over land but farmed collectively on common property or "commons". A modern day adaptation of this concept is cross-boundary farming, where farmers agree to pool their land resource and manage it as a whole. A free one day forum on cross-boundary farming will be hosted by the Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Wagga Wagga Campus, on Friday 7 September. The forum will consider the opportunities and pitfalls of cross-boundary farming, the environmental benefits, property rights, relationships between and within farming families as well as workloads. There will be two panel sessions presenting various practical and political points of view on the practice.

Members of the Riverina equine community at a Charles Sturt University (CSU) Equine Influenza (EI) forum have been urged to work together so that NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) quarantine restrictions, imposed in response to Australia’s first EI outbreak, are upheld by everyone in the community. Participants emphasised that the disease poses a threat to all horses, ponies and donkeys. Around 130 people attended the forum which was organised in Wagga Wagga by the CSU School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences. A panel of CSU equine health experts, led by Director of Veterinary Science Professor Kym Abbott, outlined the status of the EI outbreak, how the highly contagious virus is transmitted and ways to prevent its spread through the nation’s equine population. CSU veterinary science lecturer Dr Sharanne Raidal stressed the importance of community vigilance and compliance to halt the advance of equine flu, which can be transmitted by humans, vehicles and equipment.

The enthusiasm and contribution of three Bachelor of Education students on Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dubbo Campus have been acknowledged by the Head of Campus, Mr Gary Shipp, at a ceremony today. “These students all came to study at CSU Dubbo Campus from the coast, and their enthusiasm and contribution to the campus deserves commendation,” Mr Shipp said. “They are spending their last week on the Dubbo Campus prior to leaving for their final internship before graduating from CSU later this year, and we will certainly miss them.” Chloe Macpherson (Early Childhood) was a Resident Advisor at student residences, a committed student representative on the Dubbo OHS committee for three years, and the inaugural student from the Dubbo Campus to study overseas for a semester at the University of Regina, Canada. She committed a great amount of time to promote the exchange program among Dubbo students after her return. Cemone Torrance (Early Childhood) demonstrated leadership and professionalism as the President of the Dubbo Students’ Association, especially during the transition to Voluntary Student Unionism. Todd Mackie (Primary) was actively involved in the organisation of Orientation Weeks for first year students, and assisted staff and students in a range of activities as a volunteer.

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.

For Dubbo school leavers pondering their future, it’s good to know there’s a university on their doorstep, as local resident Mitchell Welham discovered. Born and raised in Dubbo, Mitchell enrolled to study a primary school teaching degree at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Dubbo, next door to his high school.  “Many people wondered why I would want to further my studies in my hometown,” Mitchell said. “I saw CSU at Dubbo as a way to continue my active participation in the Dubbo community and wanted to show that you didn’t have to go far to gain a successful career.” Having begun his teaching career at Tingha Public School in Northern NSW, Mitchell will return to Dubbo next week to graduate. To find out more about the University and its courses available on-campus or by distance education, CSU staff and students will be at Orana Mall to answer questions and guide prospective students through the next steps on their career pathways.