First-of-its kind UOW centre to shed light on our history

That’s when Federal Minister for Education and Training, Senator Simon Birmingham, officially launches the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) at Parliament House.

CABAH will be led by Distinguished Professor Richard (Bert) Roberts, an ARC Laureate Fellow and Director of UOW’s Centre for Archaeological Science.

Professor Roberts said the first continental-scale project of its kind in the world will pioneer a new understanding of the natural and human history of Australia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Indonesia from 130,000 years ago until European arrival.

That’s why CABAH has enlisted ‘’world-leading’’ researchers from science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines (spanning the natural sciences) together with scholars from the humanities and social sciences, such as archaeology and Indigenous studies.

‘’One of the reasons we’ve got the Indonesians in there is because for most of that last 130,000 years we’ve actually been joined by dry land to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. You could just walk to East Indonesia,’’ Prof Roberts said.

‘’Really the whole continent of Australia was about 50 per cent larger than it is now. They are all part of that big geographical area...the same fauna and the same kind of flaura.’’

While gaining greater knowledge of Australia’s history is important in its own right, CABAH is as much about the future as it is about the past.

Prof Roberts said a better understanding of the effects of previous periods of climate change on the distribution of Australia’s natural resources will help the nation adapt more successfully to future environmental challenges.

‘’Australia boasts an array of fauna and flora that exists nowhere else on Earth,’’ he said.

‘’It has some of the world’s most ancient landscapes and deeply weathered and depleted soils, and is home to Indigenous peoples whose genetic and cultural history extends back many tens of millennia.

‘’But we still do not have answers to some of the most fundamental questions about this continent or its people, such as the timing and routes of their dispersal around the continent, the timing and extent of major changes in climate and fire regimes, or how landscapes, plants and animals responded to the altered conditions.’’

The centre is based at UOW but researchers from James Cook University, the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University of South Australia, Monash University and the University of Tasmania are also involved in the project. 

CABAH also has strategically important international partners in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, France, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The project will also contribute to Australia’s future through a training program to foster young researchers, with an emphasis on Indigenous participation and support for female researchers.

UOW Senior Professor Amanda Lawson, a deputy director of the new centre, said CABAH would bring educational materials generated from its research into Australian schools.

Senator Birmingham said he looked forward to seeing the results of the important research planned for CABAH, which is funded by a $33.75 million grant from the ARC, $1 million from the NSW Government, and $11 million from participating universities, museums and other organisations.

The funds will support at least 40 new research positions and more than 50 new research students over the life of the centre.

‘’“The Turnbull Government is proud to back the Centre’s work because it has the potential to add to better environmental understanding and have a positive impact on the lives of Australians,’’ Mr Birmingham said.