Thursday, 3 April 2025

Ministers statements: Mallee Regional Innovation Centre

Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:37): Mildura is truly a hub for place-based innovation. The Mallee Regional Innovation Centre, or MRIC, was a highlight of my recent trip to Mildura, connecting the community with the partnership of SuniTAFE, La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne, driving innovation across horticulture, energy and the environment and of course water. The centre is a true one-stop shop that will soon be home to 13 PhD students, bringing more research and resources to Mildura. It is a place where local people can come to discuss their needs, problems and ideas. The centre develops real practical solutions. With SuniTAFE SMART farm the centre has developed innovative demonstration projects, supporting local farmers to gain hands-on experience with new technology that can support everyday farming challenges. This includes crop cameras, a weather station, soil and moisture probes, direct plant sensing and pest detection, just to name a few. MRIC also hosts the teams of the One Basin Cooperative Research Centre and the Victoria drought and innovation hub, bringing researchers together with community and each other. The drought and innovation hub seeks to work with communities across the north-west to co-design projects to enhance their drought resilience, while the One Basin CRC is home to a multitude of projects, including transforming climate change risk assessments to be people-centric, strategies to adapt to evolving water availability in an increasingly dry climate and optimising water distribution systems. MRIC started with the vision of the regional partnership that Regional Development Victoria made possible with funding from the Allan Labor government. This is about place-based solutions with community, with industry and with TAFE.