RCE Western Australia

Date of RCE Acknowledgement:
January, 2011

Description of RCE and Geographic Region:
RCE Western Australia brings together the passion and expertise of researchers, educators, students and partners of the University of Western Australia to make change in their regions, nationally and globally.
Western Australia is geographically Australia’s largest state, occupying nearly one third of the continent, and is home to more than 2.7 million people. Just over 2 million of these residents are clustered in the 6,412 square kilometres that constitute the Perth metro area, meaning that just over a quarter of the population live in regional and remote Western Australia, in nine diverse regions covering more than 2.6 million square kilometres. This unique context represents a staggering scale of opportunity and challenge.
Climatic constraints and geographic distance often mean large distances exist between coastal centres and more isolated regional towns and communities.
The land is extremely ancient and infertile compared with other regions of the world, with most of the state having very low relief and average elevation of 400m. In the most heavily populated areas in the south-west of WA, mean annual rainfall varies from a low of 301mm up to a high of 1278mm.

Organisation Hosting RCE Secretariat:
University of Western Australia

Goals and Objective:
Broad goal:
Contributing to a more sustainable planet.
How are we doing it:
To build the capacity of UWA and partner organisations to support a process of change and embed education for sustainability.
To support the translation of established research expertise appropriate to the context of Western Australia for application in diverse community setting to support education for sustainability and broader climate action initiatives (e.g. oceans; biodiversity).

Key Partners:
Name of organisation: UWA Albany Campus
Role: Member
Contact name: Jennifer O’Neil
Contact email: Jennifer.oneil@uwa.edu.au
Name of organisation: Wave Energy Research Centre
Role: Member
Contact name: Wiebke Ebeling – Centre Manager
Contact email: wiebke.ebeling@uwa.edu.au
Name of organisation: City of Albany
Role: Member
Contact name: Mary Holt – Environmental Sustainability Officer
Contact email: maryh@albany.wa.gov.au
Name of organisation: Discovery Bay Tourism Precinct Ltd
Role: Member
Contact name: Elise van Gorp – General Manager
Contact email: generalmanager@discoverybay.com
Name of Organisation: Southern Ports, Port of Albany
Role: Member
Contact name: Paul Mackey – Environment Manager
Contact email: paul.mackey@southernports.com.au