Competing against some of the top young environmental scientists in Australia, Charles Sturt University (CSU) honours student John Rawsthorne has won a scholarship from the eminent Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists in recognition of his project on the importance of birds in spreading mistletoes in the Australian landscape. His supervisor Dr David Watson from the CSU School of Environmental Sciences asserts that the mistletoe is an important indicator of the health of Australian bush, and John’s research project will help discover how this occurs. In addition to receiving financial support from the Purves Environmental Trust to attend the 2007 Ecological Society of Australia conference in Perth in November, Mr Rawsthorne will also receive advice from leading Australian ecologists Professor Hugh Possingham and Dr Denis Saunders during the project, as well as attend a master class with senior scientists and fellow students in Sydney in October. John’s award is one of 19 presented to research students in universities around Australia. He is based in Forbes in central NSW.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter, will welcome the Federal shadow Minister for Health, Ms Nicola Roxon, MP, and NSW MP Mr Bob Debus, when they visit the Bathurst Campus on Tuesday 31 July. Ms Roxon and Mr Debus will arrive at 3pm at the Heffron Building for a briefing with Professor Goulter before a tour of the Bathurst Campus, which will include an inspection of the new library Learning Commons and the School of Nursing buildings. Mr Debus is also the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate for the new seat of Macquarie in the coming 2007 Federal election.

The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Winery has been awarded three more prestigious wine show medals at the 2007 Boutique Wine Awards in Sydney. The CSU Winery claimed two Gold Medals and one Silver Medal, continuing the winery’s success at major Australian wine shows. The 2006 Limited Release Chardonnay was awarded a Gold Medal and more recently won Top Gold in its class at the 2007 Cowra Wine Show. This wine is produced from grapes grown in the University’s vineyard at Orange. The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot also took a Gold Medal. This wine is produced from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the University’s Wagga Wagga vineyard and from the Hilltops region in Young, NSW and Merlot grapes from Cowra. The 2005 Shiraz won a Silver Medal and although this wine is not yet released, it was also awarded a Silver Medal at the 2006 Wagga Wagga (Southern NSW) wine show. It is produced from grapes from CSU vineyards at Orange and Wagga Wagga and from the Gundagai region.

A group of Charles Sturt University (CSU) students are out to "put the sting" into their more fancied rivals when they compete in the water polo competition in the upcoming Australian University Games, to be held on the Queensland Gold Coast from 23 to 28 September. The CSU Bluebottles, comprising nine CSU students from its Albury-Wodonga and two from Bathurst campuses, boasts seven regular top grade players who have represented the Ovens & Murray Association, NSW and Australian Country Teams. In July, the Bluebottles walked away with a bronze medal at the Australian universities’ East Coast Challenge and are confident of an even better performance on the Gold Coast. Team captain Matt Hogan, who played for the last three years in England and before that had stints with the Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Dolphins in the Australian National League, said, "We are going to the Gold Coast confident in our ability to be competitive. After our top three finish in Sydney we can go to the Australian University Games believing we are a medal chance.” The Bluebottles are looking for support from the Border community to get to the Games. Anyone interested can send an email to csubluebottles@hotmail.com

Two new Charles Sturt University (CSU) scholarships will give postgraduate students the chance to achieve positive environmental change at Newcrest Mining’s Cadia Valley Operations near Orange. Cadia Valley Operations’ Acting Environment and Community Relations Manager Belinda Perry says the company is keen to collaborate with the University in restoration ecology. “Cadia Valley Operations is working with CSU on several projects involving operations, environmental assessments, rehabilitation research and the positive impact our work has on the local economy,” Ms Perry says. “We were delighted to offer two new $2 500 scholarships to areas that interest both our company and the local community.” With research topics covering biodiversity of soil biota in topsoil stockpiles, and metal uptake by vegetation in a mine rehabilitation area, the recruited candidates could start their year of research study and intensive field work as soon as August 2007.

Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Maree Donna Simpson has spoken publicly about the development of a new online program designed to support rural based health professionals during clinical placements. A member of the Australian Consortium for the Education of Preceptors (ACEP), Maree explained, “The aim of the program is to ensure pharmacy students gain high quality learning experiences in rural health care settings by adequately preparing rural pharmacy student supervisors.” CSU is one of four Australian universities that are part of ACEP. Supported by two Pharmacy Guild Federal Government grants the consortium developed and offers an online training program for pharmacy student supervisors. Successful award of a Rural Health Support Education and Training grant last year has allowed the consortium to extend the program to allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and audiologists.

Staff and students of Charles Sturt University (CSU) helped raise over $65 000 in the fight against cancer at Orange’s Relay for Life held last weekend. CSU’s 19 member team - the Wonder Walkers -  walked continuously for 18 hours to support cancer research through the Cancer Council event. Held at Endeavour Oval in Orange, the Wonder Walkers were encouraged by the thoughts of friends and family affected by cancer. “Our team walked, and ran, their hearts out for cancer research all through Saturday night and the atmosphere at the oval was tremendous,” said CSU team coordinator, Geoff Watson. The event raised a significant amount of money and gave hope to sufferers of the disease. “This is the message from Relay for Life, and it was all around me in the faces of the people who were walking beside me shoulder to shoulder,” Mr Watson said. “It is about life and about the hope that one day we will live in a world that has an answer to cancer.”

In what’s been described as a "U-turn of dramatic proportions", the same study that in 2002 warned menopausal women to abandon Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) has now released findings that show HRT risks are not as bad as first thought. The Women's Health Initiative Study (WHIS), a major 15-year research program to address the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women, last week stated any additional risks may apply only to older women. Charles Sturt University (CSU) biomedical researcher Dr Christopher Scott says he is not surprised by the new findings. “The initial findings were quite scary, but since then they have done a lot more thorough number-crunching. HRT is considered to be beneficial to deal with the symptoms of menopause, but a woman with a strong family history of breast cancer and cardiovascular should not take HRT long term. You have to look at the particular person and what they want to use it for and how long they want to use it.”

No doubt it is a very nice accolade when a national newspaper describes your latest film as “shaping up as the year's top Australian comedy”. However, director and Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate Darren Ashton says, “Although we are really chuffed at the response, at the end of the day the most important thing is that people go and see it”. The idea for Razzle Dazzle grew out of a short story written by Darren’s partner, and fellow CSU graduate, Carolyn Wilson. Described as “a fly-on-the-wall look at the tears, tantrums and tiaras in the world of competitive dance eisteddfods”, it was filmed in the “mockumentary” style because, “The dance world is really heightened, and I wanted to balance that with being observational and understated,” said Darren, whose debut feature film was Thunderstruck. His next project is a wrestling film set in the 1970s.