$6M rebuilding programme at Invermay

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 2

$6M rebuilding programme at Invermay

PA Wellington A $6 million rebuilding programme has been approved for the Invermay

Agricultural Research Centre, near Dunedin, which runs the largest and most comprehensive research programme in the South Island. The centre is the regional headquarters for the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Division for Otago and Southland. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) said yesterday that a new complex would replace existing sub-standard buildings and would enable research and administration functions to be located on the same site.

The 10-year programme will provide office and laboratory space for all sections of the research centre except the nutrition and energy and environmental monitoring sections, which already have relatively new facilities.

The animal health laboratory, the largest in the South Island, will also be rebuilt.

The new complex will be built on the Invermay farm, and all staff will be relocated from the old Taieri Airport site.

Construction is planned to start in 1981-82 on buildings to replace those which, because of inadequate size or structural deficiencies, are prejudicing the outcome of work having high regional and national priority. Mr Maclntyre said the new Invermay complex would provide the necessary resources for further advances in agricultural research and its application in Otago and Southland. It represented a clear expression of the Government’s commitment to continuing investment in realising New Zealand’s agricultural potential, he said.