Over AU$8.6 million has been donated to the University of Sydney for research into sustainable agricultural science.
The bequest was made from the estate of the late Nancy Roma Paech, the daughter of a farming family from Winton, in outback Queensland.
Research and associated activities supported by the bequest will be conducted through the faculty of agriculture’s Centre for Carbon, Water and Food, based at the Camden Campus.
A facility to house the interdisciplinary centre is due for completion in 2012.
According to Mark Adams, dean of the faculty, the gift will be used to support research that benefits pastoral industries and the sustainable management of rangeland, pastoral and related inland Australian landscapes.
“In particular it will be supporting research into the types of low-impact, broad-acre agriculture that are the future of sustainable land management for a large proportion of the Australian continent,” he said in a statement on 24 October.
The bequest will also be used to establish an academic chair in Range Science, which will focus on the sustainability of inland Australian landscapes used for animal production.
There will also be a number of visiting professorships, PhD scholarships and master’s scholarships available, all named after Nancy Roma Paech.