Rural lab for carbon capture to close

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| By Daniel Lewis - Sourced From |

AS WELL as closing five rail branch lines used to transport grain, the State Government is going to shut eight Department of Primary Industries offices and agricultural research stations.

The closure of the Glen Innes research station has sparked special concern because it has hosted one of the world’s longest-running crop rotation trials, in which soil carbon has been measured since 1934.

Storing more carbon in the soil could become a major weapon in the battle against global warming and farmers hope it will produce a lucrative income stream.

The Deputy Mayor of Glenn Innes-Severn, Col Price, said it was unbelievable that the Government was going to close “an internationally significant living laboratory. There must be options to further the [soil carbon] research, rather than close it down … It seems short-sighted to say, ‘We are a bit short of cash. Let’s close it’.”

Archie Cameron, a Glen Innes grazier, said the station also did important work on beef cattle in temperate, high-summer-rainfall areas, and there were no other stations where that work could be copied.

The other closures are at Alstonville, Berry, Condobolin, Gosford, Griffith, Temora, and the Jindabyne trout hatchery.

The closure of the hatchery is also being opposed because recreational fishing is so important to the Snowy Mountains economy.

The Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, said the facilities were no longer needed. The Government had “a strong commitment to continue its research into soil carbon storage” at the recently formed National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research in Armidale.

The “unviable” grain lines include Nevertire-Warren and Cowra-Koorawatha.

The president of the NSW Farmers Association, Jock Laurie, said it was vital that affected councils receive additional money to upgrade their roads.