Over three days in late March 2017, the University of Newcastle will hold, in Muswellbrook, the Seventh Annual Mined Land Rehabilitation Conference. The conference will bring to one venue, experts in the science and practice of restoring disturbed lands to full function in terms of regrowth, regeneration and reuse.

 

Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment, International Centre for Balanced Land Use, Global Centre for Environmental Remediation, CRC-CARE and Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources, Muswellbrook, as host city, is ideally suited as venue for the conference. Not only because of its proximity to so many working mines and the many examples of rehabilitated land post-mining which are easily seen, but also because Muswellbrook is actively seeking to grow opportunities for the region post-mining through diversification and transitioning to an innovation intensive region. Muswellbrook Shire Council with the University of Newcastle and Hunter TAFE has established a tertiary education precinct in the Muswellbrook CBD. The University and the Council have also collaborated in the formation of The Hunter Region Innovation Precinct with aims to promote economic diversification in the areas of energy technologies and environmental remediation, land use management, soil productivity, water management, climate adaptation, energy efficiency and precision or high efficiency agriculture.

 

The conference, which is organised by UON’s Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment, International Centre for Balanced Land Use, Global Centre for Environmental Remediation, CRCCARE and Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources, has been slightly expanded this year and will be complemented by three workshops, and conducted tours of rehabilitation in progress on four of the Hunter’s mines, along with a welcome soiree and conference cocktail dinner.