MATTERS OF INTEREST

URRBRAE AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:27): On Saturday 25 August I had the great pleasure of representing the Premier at the Australian Year of the Farmer and 80 years of specialist agricultural education celebrations at Urrbrae Agricultural High School. Among distinguished guests on the day were Mark Parnell MLC, his wife (Senator Penny Wright), Adrian Pederick MP (member for Hammond and a former student of the school) and Martin Hamilton-Smith MP (member for Waite). Michael Keelan (horticulturist, TV presenter and another former student of Urrbrae) was MC for the day.

In October 1913, Peter Waite wrote to the then premier of South Australia (Hon. A.H. Peake) and the chancellor of the University of Adelaide (Rt Hon. Sir Samuel Way) informing them that, subject to his own and his wife's life interests, he intended to present the Urrbrae property of 54 hectares to the university. After almost continual dialogue between the SA government, bureaucrats, the University of Adelaide, Roseworthy and others, Urrbrae Agricultural High School opened in 1932 with an enrolment of 60 students. Gradually, these numbers increased.

In 1974, Urrbrae became a coeducational institution, much to the dismay of some traditionalists. Another initiative carried out at Urrbrae was to include TAFE School of Horticultural and establish a skills centre and education centre on the site. The building and redesign of Urrbrae was completed in the early 2000s. The Australian Year of the Farmer has the following objectives:

to share how Australia is leading the world in farming technologies and innovation;

to promote the role our farmers play as environmental managers, creating and delivering sustainability through best practice management; and

to focus on and prepare for the future of farming in Australia by creating the awareness of career opportunities in agriculture and related industries.

I believe that Urrbrae is contributing to those objectives by educating young people with the potential to enter agricultural and related industries. At the Urrbrae celebrations there were presentations given on Innovations in Agriculture Science on the Breakthroughs in Animal Science by Professor Phil Hynd, Deputy Head of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide and Forensic Agriculture. Another presentation was on Fingerprinting DNA by Dr Kathy Ophel Keller, Research Chief, Sustainable Systems, from SARDI.

The day was about Farming the Future, with an emphasis on innovation and sustainability. We visited the farm areas and viewed displays with examples of innovation and sustainability. We also visited the wetlands where we were told how attempts were being made to pump water into the local aquifer. Unfortunately, at this stage, the local ASR system has not worked but there are significant initiatives been undertaken by the CSIRO to try to find a solution to this problem. We also looked at waste recycling in the piggery and methane capture and Urrbrae's aquaculture program and their approach of tending to stock to maximise condition and appearance.

One project that Urrbrae is currently involved in is the successful breeding of the endangered purple-spotted gudgeon that are being released back to the River Murray to replenish stocks. This is a three year program which is a great credit to the teachers and students at Urrbrae. I particularly enjoyed the tour of the woodwork and metalwork areas. One student in particular was showing off his prowess and making a suit of armour.

Urrbrae currently has over 1,000 high school students and approximately 500 TAFE students. Urrbrae's technology centre was re-equipped with funding in 2008 and is of a high order. Employers such as the pastoral industry, Santos, Elders, Detroit Diesel, amongst others, are known to approach students of the college.

Time expired.