Project update – March 2021
Smart technologies are helping create a safer environment for Australians including via Smarter and Safer Homes.
What a different start we have had to 2021 than 2020, which was a year like no other in recent memory.
CSIRO Ginninderra, like many parts of our local region, has benefitted from a milder and wetter start, in stark contrast to last year when bushfires, smoke and hot temperatures were prevailing across large areas of the eastern states.
With the La Niña weather pattern influencing conditions, Ginninderra weather station recorded 169 mm of rain in January and February (42 mm above average) and maximum temperatures on site in the 20s or below for all of February and most of January. The maximum temperature recorded at Ginninderra across summer was 37.20C on 26 January.
Unlike past decades, there are no agricultural crops in the ground at Ginninderra to take advantage of these conditions, however the recently planted Blakely’s Red Gum provenance trials and community shrub plantings, in the box gum woodlands and dry forest areas, are reaping the benefits.
A legacy of benefits from agricultural research at Ginninderra continues for our farming sector with news like the recent Australian record NSW Canola crop, just one example.
After more than 60 years operation, 2021 will mark the final decommissioning of agricultural research at Ginninderra, as we take the next steps to prepare Ginninderra East for future sustainable urban development. As we have reported previously, CSIRO has moved the focus of its agricultural research to a state-of-the-art and digitally-enabled site – the Boorowa Agricultural Research Station – which was officially opened in November 2019.
While Ginninderra will farewell farming research, it will continue to host a range of exciting environmental and sustainability research which we will provide further updates about over coming months. Across the nation we continue to solve challenges through innovations such as recent advances in smart technology enabling Australians to live safely and independently at home for longer.
Moving forward in a COVID-safe and digitally-enabled way, our Ginninderra team is engaging with key experts and a number of Commonwealth and ACT agencies as we work through all of the environmental, heritage, infrastructure, land planning and site technical activities needed to realise the vision for a sustainable urban community.