Galloping pace

An investment in equine facilities at Gatton has given the University a rails run in horse research.

An expanded centre for equine teaching and research opened this year is one of many developments set to completely transform the UQ Gatton campus in the next decade.

The most comprehensive set of horse facilities at any Australian university has been established at UQ Gatton. The $1.5 million expansion of its Equine Precinct was opened in May. The expansion, around UQ Gatton’s historic stable block Farm Square, includes eight new crushes for reproductive, dental and performance testing, holding yards, teasing lanes, a mechanical horse walker and new dressage and show-jumping arenas. A new reproduction laboratory allows semen evaluation, embryo transfer and a clean dust-free serving area for semen collection.

Professor Wayne Bryden, UQ’s Head of the School of Animal Studies, said the Equine Precinct development had taken two years of careful planning.

“The new facilities and those that have been replaced or upgraded provide best practice for horse handling and welfare,” Professor Bryden said.  “It gives us extremely good facilities and resources to further our links with the thoroughbred breeding and racing industries, the stock horse industry and the recreation horse industry.”

Professor Bryden said the Equine Precinct was linked to many other UQ units such as the Australian Equine Genetics Research Centre at St Lucia, which DNA-profiles all Australian thoroughbreds for the Australian Stud Book.

The equine expansion came as UQ Gatton prepares for the $85 million relocation of UQ’s School of Veterinary Science from St Lucia in late 2008. “The equine precinct development is just one small part of the overall development plan for UQ Gatton during the next five to 10 years,” Professor Bryden said.

A $30 million Centre for Advanced Animal Science is also being developed at UQ Gatton in conjunction with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, and there are also plans to build an equine veterinary clinic.  It is estimated the School would bring about 1000 people to live in the Gatton area including students and staff and their families. The School, which enrolled 130 undergraduates into its first year in 2006, is actively seeking to strengthen industry links and partnerships in the lead-up to the move.

“These developments totalling about $120 million, will result in the best animal education and research amenities in the Southern Hemisphere,” Professor Bryden said.

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