BOOK REVIEW: “SCIENCE IN THE OUTBACK – THE LIFE OF CSIRO AT DENILIQUIN AND ITS PEOPLE” BY DR ALLAN WILSON

December 6, 2024

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Review by Martin Andrew. Email: martin@martinandrewsolutions.com.au

 

My connection with CSIRO Deniliquin is physically rather tenuous – I visited the complex only twice. Yet I really enjoyed this book. Why? Because my connection with CSIRO Deniliquin was with the researchers and the work they did – and that’s the focus of this book.

The back cover says “Science in the Outback charts the history of CSIRO in Deniliquin, from its establishment in 1945 with the aim of assisting the development of soldier settler farms on the new irrigation lands of the NSW Murray, to its extensive research on the Management of the Rangelands of Western NSW. It details the many organisational changes that occurred across its 45-year history and its major research findings. It also presents vignettes of more than 80 of the scientific and supporting staff of the 500 so who worked there over that time.

Science in the Outback tells the story of an important part of Deniliquin’s history. It is widely referenced and includes many original photographs of major events and staff who were employed there”.

 

About the author the back cover says “Allan Wilson was a scientist at CSIRO [Deniliquin] for 27 years, spanning both the irrigation and rangeland eras, including 12 years as its OIC. He is thus in a unique position to write this history. In doing so, he has supported his wide memory of events with detailed searches of official reports and documents”. I’d like to add that Alan is “one of nature’s gentlemen” and highly regarded in the rangelands sphere. I have enjoyed many thoughtful conversations with him over the years. I did my BSc(Hons) and PhD research in the chenopod shrublands in South Australia and cited many of his papers.

I knew many of the researchers mentioned in this book both personally via the rangeland community and especially the Australian Rangeland Conferences, and via their papers and contributions to rangeland science. (Likewise, you will probably know many of them too). So, reading this book was rather a nostalgic journey.

Note that this book does not adequately review the CSIRO Deniliquin group’s major contribution to Rangeland Research, nationally and internationally (which included about 40 papers in The Rangeland Journal alone!). So that opportunity is still open. Any takers?

Importantly, this book covers not only the research staff but also the technical and field staff, secretarial staff, administrators etc – all of whom contributed to the impact of the Deniliquin Laboratories. And it shows the huge impact these people had on Deniliquin over the 46 years of the CSIRO’s existence there – in local government, in service clubs (the Rotary Club was founded by one), and in other community organisations.

Not surprisingly, knowing many of the characters as it do, it is enlivened with numerous humorous anecdotes – the best, in my view, featuring Dr Graham Harrington (who was a leading light in the local dramatic society).

The Deniliquin Laboratories loom large in the history of the Australian Rangeland Society. The inaugural general meeting was held there. I vividly remember flying across to attend it in a light aircraft as a junior research student along with another research student from Adelaide University. I was somewhat in awe to be in the presence of the researchers whose work I was reading and quoting in my research.

I was part of CSIRO in the early part of my career, but of a different Division – the then Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures. The descriptions of the early days of the Deniliquin Laboratories brought back fond memories of what life was like in my Division’s headquarters, the Cunningham Laboratories in Brisbane, in the late 1970s.

I’m sure there’s many of you readers who will also get a lot of pleasure from browsing this book.

Thanks, Allan, for writing it.

Like to purchase a copy? It is only available from Allan; the cost is $30 + $13 P&H:  Email: adwilson13@bigpond.com.
(CSIRO Publishing declined to publish the book, correctly calling it ‘A Memoir’ – Allan had to publish it himself).