AEGIC’s noodle and Asian products technical functions have moved to the Food Innovation Precinct of WA. Photo: FIPWA
THE Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre is in the midst of an unexpected move in Western Australia.
It has come about following the detection in June of concerning levels of asbestos at the WA Government’s Department of Primary Industries and Resources Development site in South Perth.
While AEGIC’s WA non-technical staff were quickly relocated to leased premises in Subiaco in Perth’s inner west, a new home for the unit’s technical staff has taken longer to find.
This week, AEGIC has announced its technical functions related to noodles and Asian products will temporarily relocate to the Sustainable Innovative Food Technology (SIFT) facility within the Food Innovation Precinct of WA, east of Mandurah, and around 50km south of the city.
“As WA’s leading food innovation and technology facility, SIFT is the ideal home for our Asian products and flour-quality labs in the medium term as we work towards more permanent arrangements,” AEGIC executive general manager Courtney Draper said in a statement.
Move expected, but not so soon
AEGIC is an independent not-for-profit company funded by the WA Government and Grains Australia, an initiative of the grower levy and Federal Government-funded Grains Research and Development Corporation.
Following the end of the single-desk marketing era which saw entities such as the Australian Wheat Board promoting Australian grain in offshore markets, AEGIC was founded in 2012 to increase value in the Australian grains industry.
In WA, AEGIC’s home from the start has been at DPIRD South Perth.
The WA Government had earlier announced plans to include AEGIC in a move to Murdoch University as part of a new complex which would enable DPIRD to move out of the aged South Perth site.
Announced in December 2022, the new facility was also to be home to InterGrain, DPIRD’s and GRDC’s joint-venture seed company.
AEGIC technician Kishor Sharma Regmi at AEGIC’s previous site in South Perth with udon noodles made from flour milled on the premises.
The asbestos issue has necessitated a faster move.
“Our technical experts have been hard at work moving equipment and setting up the new noodle labs at SIFT, which I’m pleased to say are already operating,” Ms Draper said in a statement.
SIFT is an investment of DPIRD and is operated by the Future Food Systems Co-operative Research Centre and Murdoch University.
AEGIC said it was working closely with DPIRD, Grains Australia and other industry stakeholders to identify medium-term alternative arrangements for all its WA-based technical functions.
This indicates baking is yet to find a new home.
New home for biosecurity prioritised
DPIRD’s South Perth site was also home to its Diagnostics and Laboratory Services.
On August 8, the WA Government announced a new State Biosecurity Response Centre was to be built for emergency management of priority pest and disease threats such as the critical polyphagous shot-hole borer response.
It is expected to accommodate more than 200 staff, and the location is yet to be announced.
“The Response Centre will also accommodate the department’s Diagnostics and Laboratory Services which were disrupted due to asbestos management and restricted access at DPIRD’s South Perth site,” the WA Government said in a statement.
“Suitable metropolitan locations have been identified for the new centre which is expected to be operational within months.”
The government said it has fast-tracked $83 million to urgently procure and fit out diagnostic laboratories and biosecurity response operations at the new centre, and that work on a new fit-for-purpose facility for DPIRD at Murdoch University will not proceed as planned.
It went on to say it “remains fully committed” to providing a scientific base for DPIRD with the previously allocated $320-million budget.
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