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New building to be the focus of Indigenous education strategy

April 20, 2006

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A new, $2.3 million building at The University of New England will make university education more accessible to Aboriginal students throughout northern NSW – and the nation.

The new building will accommodate UNE’s Oorala Aboriginal Centre, which provides educational resources and advice – and academic support – to Aboriginal students, as well as being a link between the University and the Aboriginal community. In addition to the Oorala Centre, the multi-purpose building will include areas for use by the entire University community.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, who signed the construction contract for the building last week, said it would be “a great new addition to the campus”. The re-housed Oorala Centre would be “a focal point for the University’s Indigenous education strategies,” Professor Pettigrew said.

“We’ve put a lot of thought into the design, to make it accessible both to students and to the local community,” said Diane Mumbler, Director of the Oorala Aboriginal Centre. “It’s a vital educational centre, with a state-of-the-art computer laboratory and lecture theatre. It will be equipped with the latest information technology to facilitate our distance education programs, and will have video-conferencing links with UNE’s regional Access Centres. This will make education and study much more accessible to Aboriginal students - throughout the New England region and nationally.”

“It will incorporate public space,” she continued, “for local and travelling exhibitions that will be of interest to the whole New England community. And it will enable the community to have greater access to Indigenous research projects of local interest.”

Work will begin on Monday 24 April with the removal of the old Oorala building (a demountable structure set up in the 1960s) to make way for the new building on the same site. The contract, with the Armidale-based company National Buildplan Group, is for an estimated construction time of eight months. The company has won and completed several contracts on the UNE campus, including the building of the Natural Resources complex and the refurbishment of the Riggs chemistry building.

Funding for the project comprises a $1.26 million grant from the Capital Development Pool of the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, and more than $1 million from UNE’s Capital Development Fund.

The new building will allow for greater integration of the Oorala Centre’s educational programs with the life of the University as a whole. “I see it, in fact, as a tangible reconciliation statement,” Ms Mumbler said. “It will be an educational resource for everyone, and a University-wide asset at UNE.”

The photograph displayed here, taken just before the signing of the building contract, shows (from left) Diane Mumbler, Professor Alan Pettigrew, Michael Quinlan (Director of UNE's Facilities Management Services), and Mark Kelly (a Project Manager for National Buildplan Group). Click on image to enlarge.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at April 20, 2006 12:16 PM