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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-29 Daily Xml
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ROSEWORTHY CAMPUS

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (15:38): The Roseworthy campus of Adelaide University has recently undergone yet another restructure, the end result of which seems to be the placement of some animal sciences and the veterinary school at Roseworthy, with all other courses to be shifted to the Waite campus. All courses now will be purely science based and, while I commend the university for at last attracting a veterinary course to South Australia, I am extremely concerned about the future of the Roseworthy campus and some of the unique qualities that that campus was able to provide.

Roseworthy College has a proud history of providing residential and practical training to those who intended to have a career in agribusiness as well as those who intended to have a career in science. The former Roseworthy oenology course is responsible for some of the world's best and most famous winemakers. As late as the 1980s, Roseworthy provided diploma courses for those who did not require a full degree course, and it also provided networks between the practical farmer, the business operator and the scientist which lasted a lifetime and were a great asset to all concerned and to all sectors of primary industries. Those networks provided practical advice to the farmers who had worked with the degree course people, and they provided areas where on-ground experimentation could take place all over South Australia.

Sadly, all that seems to have changed since the university took ownership of Roseworthy under a former Labor government. The focus is now concentrated on pure science. The residential area is largely falling into disrepair. Primary industries still provide the greatest percentage of income to this state, and many practitioners handle businesses worth millions of dollars, with turnovers in excess of $1 million per year; although, currently, those broadacre farmers, while they may handle businesses with a turnover in excess of $1 million a year, their profit margin, if any, would be narrow. Yet there seems to be a complete vacuum in post-secondary school training for practical farmers.

We have seen the creation of VET courses and apprenticeships in preparation for trained people for the mining industry—and I applaud these initiatives—but why has there been no similar development for primary producers? It saddens me that the working farm at Roseworthy campus, rather than being used as an excellent practical experience for those who wish to go home to the farm, is now relegated to nothing more than an income stream for Adelaide University—and, indeed, I would allege, the Adelaide campus.

It saddens me that what was a wonderful residential facility is now largely used, as I understand it, on a transitional basis for overseas students or others who may be here for a two or three month posting; and, even more so, for undergraduates who are working within the science faculties.

It saddens me also that at a time when primary industries is still vital to this state and this state's economy nothing seems to have been developed, other than by private providers, to fill the gap that has been left by the lack of any practical hands-on training for young people who wish to go back to their farms. Indeed, there is also a gap between those who wish to do agricultural economics courses and those who wish to do agricultural science courses because ne'er the twain appear to meet.

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