Kimberley Research Station - CSIR/O (1946 - )

Summary

The Kimberley Research Station was a joint venture between the Western Australian Government and the CSIRO. The Station was established in 1946 in the north of Western Australia. The main function of the Station was cotton research. In 2003 the Station was part of the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry.

Details

From National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch:
"In August 1946 Kimberley Research Station was formally established as a jointly operated research centre, following an exchange of letters between Prime Minister Chifley and Western Australian Premier Wise. This agreement was terminated in 1973, when the station was taken over by CSIRO. The division of responsibilities for research and management of the station stipulated that CSIRO would be responsible for 'plant research' while the WA Department of Agriculture would accept responsibility for entomological, soil and cattle studies. The Department would also be responsible for day-to-day management of the station, as well as for capital works. Each organisation would pay the salaries of its own officers while the operational and capital costs would be shared equally between the two governments, with the Commonwealth contribution being paid by the Department of National Development."

"These administrative and financial arrangements continued for the next 28 years of joint operations of KRS, although CSIRO gradually became increasingly involved in entomological research, in soil fertility studies and in cattle experiments aimed at assessment of the nutritional deficiencies of native pastures. Because the post of Director, and later Officer-in-Charge of KRS was, with one exception, filled by CSIRO officers, increasing involvement of the organisation in administration was also inevitable. In 1967 it led to the appointment of a CSIRO Administrative Officer who took overall responsibility for the station's day-to-day management."

From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 29:
"C.S.I.R.O.'s interest in the underdeveloped regions of northern Australia began in 1945, when the Government of Western Australia asked for Commonwealth assistance with an appreciation of the Ord River region in the far north of the State. Mr. C. S. Chrislian, an officer of the Division of Plant Industry, was asked to join the reconnaissance team. Events moved swiftly in 1946. Following the reconnaissance of the previous year the Kimberley Research Station was set up in the Ord Region by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and C.S.I.R.O. The Station was to investigate the possibilities for an irrigated agriculture which would justify investment in a water conservation and irrigation project. The North Australian Development Committee, representing the federal Government and the Queensland and Western Australian Governments, asked C.S.I.R.O. to undertake a series of regional surveys to assess the agricultural and pastoral possibilities of the under-developed north. A survey of the Katherine-Darwin region of the Northern Territory was undertaken and a second research station, for the study of dry land agriculture, was established at Katherine. During the next five years further surveys were made of the Ord-Victoria region, the Townsville-Bowen region of Queensland, and the Barky Tableland."

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• CSIRO, CSIRO research for Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, 1962), 64 pp, https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS15940.pdf. Details
• Schedvin, C.B; Trace, K., Historical Directory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, 1926-1976 (Canberra: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/csiro_historical_directory_1926_1976.pdf. Page 76. Details

Reports

• Basinski, J. J.; Wood, I. M.; Hacker, J. B., The Northern Challenge: a History of CSIRO Crop Research in Northern Australia (Brisbane: CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures, 1985). Details

Resources

• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-625432. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Primary description of agency CA 7944; CSIR/ (from 1949) CSIRO, Kimberley Research Station, Western Australia, Registration of entity: 25 May 1994', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2003, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CA%207944. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_c.html. Details