CSIRO Aspendale gas lab in doubt following Hobart decision

The future of the CSIRO gas lap in Aspendale
in doubt following a decision to
open the Hobart Climate Research Centre. 

The future of a major climate change laboratory in Melbourne is in doubt after the national science agency announced it would cut hundreds of jobs and open a smaller global warming research centre in Tasmania.

Scientists believe CSIRO's Aspendale atmospheric research laboratory – home to about 120 staff who do the bulk of the agency's climate modelling, and greenhouse gas and ice core measurement – is expected to close early as the it axes dozens of jobs from its oceans and atmosphere division.

Built in the 1950s, the Aspendale lab had been scheduled to close in about five years, with the expectation its work may be moved to an existing site at Clayton.

But an email to CSIRO staff on Tuesday from chief executive Larry Marshall said the organisation would now focus its climate research at a new centre in Hobart. It will employ 40 scientists.

Read the story by Adam Morton and Peter Hannam in today’s Melbourne Age - “Confusion over future of CSIRO Melbourne lab as climate science moves to Hobart.”