The National Tour was held from the 15th to 19th of March. WA Nuffield scholars would like to extend our sincere thanks to our event sponsors, Ausplow, CSBP Ltd and The Co Operative Bulk Handling Group of Companies for their support. The tour organisers Peter and Caroline Nixon and Aaron Edmonds packaged a very impressive tour across three distinctive agricultural zones in less than 150 kms and also combined world leading scientific research projects with some social and cultural diversity. It was fantastic to see scholars from all states represented on the National Tour; we really enjoyed the fellowship and trust everyone enjoyed themselves.

Tour participants first travelled to Gin Gin to view the Gravity Discovery Centre, which has been established with government support by a group of universities and is linked into a global research project with six other sites around the world to discover and exploit gravity waves. The site is located on the coastal plain north of Perth and is positioned on an 11 km deep sand plain which insulates the research facility from minor seismic activity. The project aims to detect and explain the presence of gravity waves that Newton predicted. The potential spin off from the research could see communications by future generations being conducted by the generation of gravity waves rather than radio waves.

West Coast Honey was the next stop and the Fewster family gave the group an insight into the bee industry in WA. The innovation shown by this family in adapting to changing environmental, social and political environments was outstanding and the tour participants were treated to tastings of WA’s finest honey products in the family’s state of the art processing and tourist facility that had just recently been opened.

Our group then visited “Larenta”, a large-scale olive plantation, which was about to conduct its first harvest with the expected yield being well above projected levels. The plantation manager was from Argentina and was trained in Israel before coming to WA to manage the plantation for an investment company.

The tour then travelled to New Norica, a privately owned Benedictine town approximately 100 kms north of Perth, to enjoy the hospitality of the monks for the next two nights while touring in the area. Scholar reports from Peter Best, Joe Mooney and Graham Ramsay were presented to tour participants and sponsors on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday started with a visit to the Brennan family at Wongan Hills to gain insights into the vertically integrated “Select Pork Brand” and the production and marketing alliance with Action supermarkets. Michael Brennan and Sue Middleton shared with the tour participants the successes and learning’s in operating a branded product business and managing a marketing alliance with a super market chain. Yerecoin was the next stop to talk to Troy McDonald for a grower’s perspective on export hay production. Troy gave tour members insights into production, business development and quality assurance issues as well as labour management techniques. Troy has successfully grown the farm business from a small mixed farming operation to a specialist hay production enterprise over the last 15 years.

The tour then moved on to Gilmac at New Norcia, which was established by Peter Mackie, an export hay processor. Peter has since expanded the Gilmac company to four production sites across three states and now supplies hay and feed pellets to domestic and export markets.

In the evening Caroline and Peter Nixon hosted tour participants at “Nunnook” and scholars heard presentations by sponsors. John Ryan of Ausplow shared the development and applications of the Auseeder and Erin Cahill from CSBP Ltd gave technical and practical information on the adoption and application of liquid fertiliser, the fastest growing segment of the fertiliser market in WA. The group then returned to New Norcia for a well-earned rest.

At breakfast on Thursday Dom Chris from the Benedictine community shared some of the history and work of the Benedictine community at New Norcia and explored some of the challenges that lay ahead to ensure sustainability of the community. After breakfast an on foot tour was conducted of the Benedictine community, through the boarding colleges, chapels, the flourmill and the monastery. The tour then departed New Norcia for the last time and travelled to Owen Cocking's farm at Mogumber to study the use of Bio Solids in broadacre agriculture in a Water Corporation project that has been running since 1997. The Water Corporation have been developing a Bio Solids management project in WA since 1990 and with an increase in the deep sewage project in the greater Perth metropolitan area the levels of Bio Solids has increased dramatically. The safe use of these Bio Solids as agricultural fertilisers will see the Water Corporation invest $5 million dollars on a proposed Bio Solids storage facility on Owens Farm which will ensure timely access to the product for local farmers.

The tour then travelled south toward Perth and visited the European Space Agency Space Tracking facility. Originally built to assist with the Mars space mission, the facility is also involved with tracking Galileo and landing spacecraft on meteorites. Tour participants were introduced to the complexities of controlling and managing spacecraft and satellites and of particular interest was the management of satellites with the GPS system, communications and weather satellites. Some scholars also took particular interest in the very elaborate UPS power system and stand by generating system required to support the facility.

The group then returned to Perth for a free evening, which included some Northbridge and South Perth nightlife! Friday started with a visit to Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH) at their West Perth Office. CBH have been a long-term supporter of Nuffield in WA and with the merger of CBH and the Grain Pool of WA, is a significant sponsor. The CBH staff organised a very comprehensive briefing of the group’s business capabilities and we were impressed with these capabilities and the efficiencies they obtain in the grain handling industry in Western Australia.

The WA Nuffield tour concluded with an industry luncheon where Ben West, Brendan Kersh and Richard Heath presented scholarship reports to national and state sponsors.