t's shaping up to be a full house again this year at the University of Queensland's Heron Island Research Station, on the southern Great Barrier Reef.
In 1998, about 1500 people are expected to visit the station, Australia's largest university marine research facility, and one of the main coral reef research centres in the world.
A further 15,000 annual visitors to the adjoining resort are likely to come in contact with the University, particularly through regular lectures on eco-friendly themes. These are given by volunteer staff, postgraduates and visiting academics to the research station.
Heron Island is a 16-hectare coral cay straddling the Tropic of Capricorn. The island is surrounded by a large, flourishing platform reef, most of which is a national park, 80km offshore from Gladstone and 570km north of Brisbane.
The island offers an impressive and extensive range of reef habitats. It is also an important nesting site in the Capricorn Bunker group for seabirds (noddy terns and wedge-tailed shearwaters) and turtles (green and loggerhead). Humpback whales also visit the surrounding ocean.
The research station was established in the early 1950s by the Great Barrier Reef Committee with assistance from the University of Queensland and other institutions. It became the first permanent centre for coral reef studies on the Great Barrier Reef.
The station has been solely owned and operated by the University of Queensland since 1980 and is integrated into teaching and research programs. The University also has marine research stations on Low Isles, near Port Douglas, and at Stradbroke Island.
With accommodation for 90 and a permanent staff of 12, Heron Island Research Station this year is already booked by 44 scientific groups and about 30 Queensland and New South Wales school groups, many accompanied by teachers who visited the station themselves as children.
Name an academic study area from anatomical sciences to zoology and you are likely to find academics engaged in field and laboratory studies. In the past five years more than 300 scientific papers have been published from research conducted at Heron Island. They add to an impressive tally of about 1600 international publications from the facility.
University of Queensland postgraduate students use the station's high-quality facilities and unique access to coral reef habitats to undertake research. Undergraduates compete fiercely for limited places in parasitology, earth sciences, zoology, botany and coral reef ecology.
University groups include La Trobe, Monash and Macquarie conducting undergraduate subjects, and biological societies of Sydney, Australian National University and Newcastle. Regular international visitors include German university groups and South Carolina University, which sends contingents of five to 50 students.
Director Dr Ian Whittington said the station raised about $500,000 annually in revenue - comprising $320,000 in group stays, and the rest from researchers - out of an annual $1.1 million budget. He said as a world-class centre for marine research, the University had recognised the need for the station to be brought up to world-class standards.
Recently the University completed a $1.6 million station upgrade including construction of 12 staff duplexes, a new combined boatshed and workshop, and connection to the P&O Resort's sewerage system.
The upgrade complements existing facilities including five well-equipped research laboratories, a seminar room, library, computer laboratory, boating and diving equipment, and an aquarium.
Station staff headed by maintenance technician Kevin Townsend have worked closely with the University's Property and Facilities section on a range of projects, including an energy audit which has significantly cut running costs for electricity, gas and water.
With no natural drinkable fresh water on the island, all fresh water must be bought from the resort's desalination plant. By fixing leaking pipes and lowering the water pressure, the average daily water consumption for the station has dropped from 11,000 litres to between 5000 and 6000 litres, while the gas bill is $3000 cheaper through replacing old gas hot water units with solar-powered systems.
Simple measures such as low voltage pathway lights; insulation in roofs; installation of whirlie birds for ventilation; and replacement of louvre windows with full-pane tinted sliding windows in air-conditioned rooms have also significantly cut costs.
Preventive maintenance is the order of the day, but it is often out of the ordinary. Recently staff dug the A-cabins out of one metre of sand and built retaining walls to keep the sand from re-invading. Buildings are gradually being re-painted an attractive grey-green to blend with the surrounding dense pisonia forests.
Community-minded staff are devising ways to improve the operation in their own time, visible signs including 190 seedlings planted by the staff garden club to re-vegetate sand dunes, and new gardens planted with native species.
Community spirit is also evident in other ways. Staff have pooled their own equipment to create a makeshift gym which can be enjoyed by colleagues in their spare time. Team-building activities range from regular barbecues, to training in a six-person outrigger canoe after work led by energetic operations manager Ted Upton.
Mr Townsend admits to lying awake at night dreaming up plans to beautify the station, or to improve the facilities for visiting scientists from universities and government institutions. He also wishes to establish a permanent 'museum walk' showcasing world-class research breakthroughs made by University of Queensland academics at the station.
The future looks bright for the station's immediate future. A $100,000 University infrastructure research grant will allow a significant upgrade to the seawater delivery system and to scientific instrumentation.The station's maintenance crew, together with Property and Facilities section, is implementing a five-year maintenance plan to keep the high standards expected of the University.
In the longer term, Dr Whittington hopes the University will support plans to upgrade group accommodation to hold small conferences and workshops, as a potential new revenue stream and to enhance the station's international reputation.
For further information, contact Dr Whittington, telephone 07 49781 399/07 3365 3302
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