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<br><b>Rehabilitating mine sites with vegetation</b>
<p>How scientific research has improved mine site rehabilitation in Australia
was the focus of a seminar presented at the Northern Territory University
today, Thursday, 19 September, 2002.
<p>NTU Lecturer in Plant Science, Botany and Restoration Ecology, Dr Sean
Bellairs, presented the one-hour seminar, titled ‘Creation of native ecosystems
on mined land: from seeds to assessing success’, as part of the Key Centre
for Tropical Wildlife Management seminar series.
<p>Throughout the presentation, Dr Bellairs focused on the establishment
of native vegetation communities on mined land, and spoke of how the mining
industry has supported research investigating a wide range of vegetation
establishment issues, including stabilisation of the land surface, creating
a favourable growing medium, seed germination, plant establishment and
ecological sustainability.
<p>Dr Bellairs presented case studies that have dealt with a variety of
mining types and revegetation goals from the Northern Territory, Queensland,
New South Wales and Western Australia.
<p>Prior to moving to the Territory this year, Dr Bellairs was a Research
Fellow at the Centre for Mined Land rehabilitation at the University of
Queensland. He has been researching native vegetation establishment on
mine sites since 1987 and is now located at the NTU’s Casuarina Campus.
<p>ends.
<br>19 September, 2002
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<p>For further information contact:
<br>Jane Coates
<br>Media Liaison
<br>Northern Territory University
<br>(08) 8946 6019
<br>0438 466 439
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