Research
Research (CRCFEII)

Water lillies (John Hawking)
The Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology (CRCFE) began operations on 1 July 1993, as part of the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Programme.

CRCFE Mark II ran from July 1999 to September 2005.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology was a world-class research centre specialising in river system ecology, river restoration and sustainable river management. Its research portfolio addressed the short and longer term issues facing land and water managers, such as:
  • Environmental flows
  • River and wetland rehabilitation
  • Measuring river condition
  • Native fish decline
  • Floodplain and wetland ecology
  • Conserving aquatic biodiversity

To address these issues, the research portfolio contained a range of short and long term projects. These projects used expertise from across the CRC to focus on problems and produced some exciting initial results. With over 70 projects in total, the CRC was well positioned to make a real difference to sustainable water management in Australia.

The research was managed through the four research programs, under the general direction of Professor Stuart Bunn. These research programs were:
  • Program A – Flow-related Ecological Processes (Program Leader: Associate Professor Martin Thoms)
  • Program B – Restoration Ecology (Program Leader: Dr Nick Bond)
  • Program C – Conservation Ecology (Program Leader: Dr Margaret Brock)
  • Program D – Water Quality & Ecological Assessment (Program Leader: Professor Richard Norris)
(use the left-hand menu to explore these projects in more detail)

CRCFE Mark II favoured large integrated projects because the magnitude and scale of the problems we were asked to help with require multi-disciplinary teams. Large, multi-disciplinary projects formed the backbone of the CRC’s research portfolio.

In many of the research projects, industry partners were active collaborators either as research staff or in providing industry support for projects. In some cases, such as the Campaspe project, this went as far as altering the operating procedures for dams to provide appropriate experimental situations. This level of cooperation would have been unlikely outside the CRC framework.

To browse projects of CRCFE Mark II, use the Program list in the left hand menu.

Redgum regrowth (Ruth OConnor)