DPIRD’s new home: It took eight ministers and 30 years, but money has now been set aside for a new facility

Decades of debate about where WA’s key agriculture and fisheries body should be located have ended with plans to build a $320 million facility at Murdoch University by 2027. Premier Mark McGowan said the 11.3ha site would enable “world-class science” and replace the “decrepit” buildings currently housing Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development researchers in South Perth. The decision will go down in history as one of WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan’s final legacies before retiring, with efforts by at least eight ministers over 30 years to find suitable premises for the agriculture agency failing. However, the decision flies in the face of Ms MacTiernan’s April 2020 comments that per “personal preference” would be to have more of DPIRD’s capability moved to its Northam site, 95km east of Perth. Ms MacTiernan said grains research would continue to be a key focus for the new centre — including an increasing emphasis on products like oats and lupins — but biosecurity would also play a major role. “We’ll be able to have emergency response teams located here to deal with the ever-increasing threat levels that we are seeing from pest incursions,” she said. The new centre will be contained within the university’s agricultural precinct on the south eastern corner of the university campus, which also includes Murdoch’s part of a $7.45m Grains Research Precinct opened between it and Curtin University two years ago. It will include specialist laboratories and glasshouses, an emergency management operational centre and field plots for on-site research. As many as 350 staff are expected to be based at the new hub, which will also seek to incorporate commercial enterprises Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre — located adjacent to DPIRD’s Kensington site — and InterGrain at Bibra Lake. Construction is expected to begin in 2024, with the centre to open in 2027, when it will replace the existing DPIRD labs in South Perth that date back to the 1950s. Shadow agriculture and food minister Colin de Grussa welcomed the announcement, saying the Opposition had consistently advocated for Labor to support the $11 billion agriculture sector. With the retirement of Alannah MacTiernan now is the time for the McGowan Labor Government to bring a strong advocate for our Agriculture and Food industries into the ministry,” he said. “A minister who will take a whole of government approach, work side by side with our farming and food sectors and take up the fight for issues important to industry.” Farm products are WA’s second biggest export industry behind resources — specifically grain crops such as wheat, barley and canola. Ms MacTiernan said WA’s farmers had quadrupled their grain production in the last 30 years, despite dealing with an increasingly hotter and drier climate. “That’s why it’s so important that we continue researching, that we continue to be developing varieties that will respond to climate change,” Ms MacTiernan said. She said adapting growing regions to climate change was “absolutely” a race against time and critically important to ensuring food security across the globe. “I think one of the things (the new centre) is going to do is enable us to attract and retain the best scientists, people who want good facilities to be able to do their work,” she said. Mr McGowan said agriculture was a “massive” part of the state’s economy. “And what you have by having a strong research capacity is the opportunity to expand production to get more production per hectare and make sure we come up with world-leading varieties of the things that we produce and export around the world,” he said. Murdoch University vice-chancellor and president Andrew Deeks said locating the centre at the university would enable enhanced collaboration between students, researchers and industry. “It’s an opportunity to work together as a research community, where we are more likely to succeed in solving some of the huge challenges we face in providing sustainably produced food for a growing global population,” Professor Deeks said. The announcement comes 18 months after DPIRD secured a city-based premises to house 500 of its public servants in East Perth, with nearly all moving last year. The move left about 200 scientific and specialised technical officers at the South Perth facility, working in 60-year-old facilities facing safety and maintenance issues. Ms MacTiernan announced in September 2020 that the State Government would invest more than $20m over 12 months ensuring functional laboratories and offices were in place while planning was carried out to replace the ageing facilities. The project was completed earlier this year, with the interim upgrades expected to be suffice until the permanent facility is started in 2027. There were initial plans to subdivide and sell some of DPIRD’s 20ha South Perth site and use funds to build $300m facilities on the same location. However, the business case fell apart two years ago after land values declined. Once DPIRD’s 24ha site is vacant, DevelopmentWA will start statutory planning for the site along with demolition of buildings and remediation works. The site has the potential to provide more than 1000 dwellings, including social and affordable options as well as 4000sqm of commercial and retail space.