A team of Charles Sturt University (CSU) animal science and livestock production students has returned from northern NSW confident in the new meat grading skills they gained while training and participating in the 2008 Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition (IMJC) held in Armidale. Competing against university students from across Australia as well as students from Japan and the United States (US) in July, third year agricultural science student Mr Campbell Ross was selected in a group of ten to undertake a national training program with Meat Livestock Australia in Brisbane in November. Mr Ross, from West Gippsland in Victoria, has a chance to be included in the final Australian team to compete in US competitions later this year. CSU Professor of Animal Production, Peter Wynn, said “it was also very exciting for second year animal science student Ms Tiffany Robertson from Camden, NSW, to be named as one of the fifteen finalists in Armidale, as the competition was dominated by third and fourth year university students.”. The CSU team of fifteen students was among the largest participating from any Australian institution. Training at local abattoirs was conducted by fourth year veterinary science student Mr Richard Saunders who was a member of the Australian IMJC team to tour the USA in 2004.

Jane Mills, a media practitioner with extensive industry experience, has joined the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Communication as Associate Professor in Communications, Research and Teaching. The Head of School, Associate Professor Rod McCulloch, welcomed the appointment of Professor Mills, saying it is a major step in the development of the School’s higher degree programs and adds considerable depth to the professional and practical experience the School brings to its research and teaching. “Jane’s teaching experience includes film, television, digital media, documentary, radio and journalism, an interdisciplinary approach that will be fundamental to her teaching role within the School,” said Professor McCulloch. Dr Mills’ career roles include Head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, arts program presenter for Granada Television in the United Kingdom, and a producer for BBC and Channel 4. She has also been a freelance journalist for The Guardian, The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Times.

Staff from the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Communication gathered in Bathurst’s Machattie Park on Thursday 12 February to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. When Darwin voyaged to Australia in 1836, Bathurst was the most westward point of his inland journey, and when his book On the Origin of Species was published in November 1859, it changed the scientific understanding of life on Earth. At the commemorative morning tea in the park’s rotunda yesterday, CSU Professor of Communication, John Carroll, read extracts from Darwin’s journal to the gathering which also included members of the Bathurst branch of the Pensioners and Superannuants Association. Writing on 20 and 21 January 1836, Darwin observed ‘Bathurst has a singular and not very inviting appearance; groups of small houses, and a few large ones, are scattered rather thickly over two or three miles of a bare country which is divided into numerous fields’. He described conditions as hot, dry and dusty, noting the Macquarie River was a ‘mere chain of ponds … separated from each other by spaces almost dry’, but added ‘a little water does flow, and sometimes there are high and most impetuous floods’. He acknowledged that ‘the season had been one of great drought, and that the country does not at present wear a favourable aspect; although I understand two or three months ago it was incomparably worse’. T’was ever thus.

There was special mention of Australian veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturer Jurox at the official opening of the Veterinary Clinical Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Wednesday 9 July. Before more than 180 people at the opening, the Head of the CSU School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Professor Kym Abbott, presented Jurox Research and Development Head, Dr Ted Whittem, with a certificate for the company’s early support of veterinary science activities at CSU. Praising the CSU veterinary science program for its “unique” focus on biosecurity, leading equine veterinarian Dr Nigel Nichols said the University “will have a standard of training equal to anywhere in the world”. The former federal Agriculture Minister and Chief Executive Officer of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, Mr Peter McGauran, said CSU had the “best equipped veterinary school in Australia”. He said training professionals for regional and rural Australia “permeates the DNA of CSU”. The new Veterinary Clinical Centre includes large and small animal operating theatres as well as recovery wards. The theatres are supported by the latest in diagnostic imaging and anaesthetic equipment, and the equine reproduction unit provides an outstanding teaching and clinical resource.

Seven sports teams comprised of 70 students from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Albury-Wodonga, Wagga Wagga and Bathurst campuses have performed well at the East Coast Challenge (ECC) - University Games staged in Sydney from Sunday 6 to Wednesday 9 July. CSU entered men’s and women’s hockey teams, two men’s and a women’s water polo teams, a women’s netball team, and a rugby league seven-a-side team. Mr Nik Granger, a CSU student support officer and the Team Manager, said all the CSU teams performed strongly in the eleven-sport one thousand-competitor Games. “The women’s netball team, made up of Bathurst and Albury-Wodonga students who had never played together before, convincingly beat all opposition to win the ECC championship. The hockey teams continued their dominance of the University Games with the CSU women’s hockey team becoming the ECC champions for the third year in a row, while the men’s team won the bronze medal. The men’s number 1 water polo team dominated the competition and was undefeated to win gold, while the men’s number 2 water polo team won the bronze medal. The rugby league ‘sevens’ team of students from Wagga Wagga and Bathurst Campuses won the silver medal. The women’s water polo team was unplaced in their first time in the competition. It is a testament to our students’ attitude to competition against much larger universities that CSU placed fifth overall, and again won the ‘Spirit Award’ as it did at the 2007 Australian University Games,” Mr Granger said.

Bigger and better is an apt description for the new Sutherland Laboratory, which will be opened at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga on Tuesday 17 February. The building is a teaching and learning facility for the CSU School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences and serves a range of Schools within the Faculty of Science. Classes in the multipurpose laboratory will include microbiology, plant science and animal nutrition. The laboratory complex was damaged in a fire at the University in 2007. “With the immediate and future needs of students in mind, the $1.05 million construction project began in the middle of 2008 and is ready in time for the imminent return of students in 2009,” said Head of the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, Associate Professor John Kent.  The new facility will accommodate 72 students with a preparation room, solvents room, wash-up area and incubator room.

Some of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) brightest science minds will gather at the Wagga Wagga campus on Thursday 17 July to present their innovative research at the annual Faculty of Science postgraduate seminar day. Of the 200 undertaking Master degrees and PhDs at CSU, 70 will speak before an audience of peers, lecturers and colleagues about the significant research they are undertaking. Convenor and Sub-Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor Patrick Ball, said ”The day encourages students to communicate their research in terms that are easily understood by anyone who does not have an in-depth knowledge of their topic, and it is also an opportunity for students to hear what others are researching. Covering a broad range of areas including irrigation, social impacts, viticulture and advances in animal and plant science, the day is an opportunity for students to present their ‘big ideas’, many of which will contribute to advances in science in Australia,” he said.

A beach-side holiday was not on the minds of two Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturers as they headed north to the tropics and Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) second largest urban centre, Lae, in January. Dr Peter Rushbrook from CSU’s School of Education in Wagga Wagga and Dr Peter Wilson from the University’s School of Teacher Education in Bathurst spent a fortnight at the Balob Teachers’ College in Lae. Amid a frustrating dial-up internet service, earth tremors, the city’s notorious security problems and potholes, the educators worked with lecturers from the College, including teaching subjects from CSU’s Master of Education. “This was my third trip to the country and I greatly admire the PNG spirit,” said Dr Rushbrook. “PNG is the ‘Land of the Unexpected’.” His travel companion, Dr Wilson said, “our work at the Balob Teachers’ College reminded us how well resourced we are in Australia which we take for granted. College staff were keen to get our support for their institution’s move to become the Lutheran University in 2010.” Eager to return to PNG, Dr Rushbrook said, “there is something about working and living on the edge, using your wits to make things work in adverse or challenging conditions”.

Final year agricultural students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will resume their studies shortly with their sights firmly set on international experience in the middle of the year. Third year students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) degree will spend two weeks visiting sites of agricultural significance in the south of Vietnam. The group will visit the fertile Mekong Delta, spending much of the time at Can Tho University in Cantho City, a major centre for agricultural education.  Accompanied by CSU lecturers Dr Jason Condon and Dr Alison Southwell, the students will look at tropical farming systems, agricultural research and markets, with some time set aside to visit Long Tan, a place of Australian historical significance. “The study tour is a great opportunity for CSU agriculture students to experience the many differences between Australian and Vietnamese farming whilst still being able to appreciate the similarities that exist, such as, the loss of small family farms, the effect of rising costs of inputs and increased urbanisation on rural communities,” said Dr Condon.   Travelling with the students will be CSU Honours student Ms Melanie Bower. Supervised by Dr Condon, Melanie will undertake three months of research in Vietnam investigating the advantages of using compost with small rates of fertilizers rather than relying on fertilizers alone. “With the cost of fertilizer rising, a reduction in its use would greatly benefit small farmers in Vietnam,” said Ms Bower.