Federal Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad, has maintained a strong commitment towards supporting the underground physics laboratory project at Stawell.
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Mr Broad visited the Stawell Gold Mines site on Wednesday afternoon along with the Deputy Leader of The Nationals and Minister for Regional Development, Fiona Nash.
He said the visit was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the project’s potential to Ms Nash.
“It was great to be able to bring Fiona Nash to Stawell to see first-hand what the underground physics laboratory involves,” Mr Broad said.
“We stayed above ground, but it was still a good opportunity to have discussion with key players in the project about Stawell Gold Mines itself and its future and also the future for Stawell.
“It was also a good opportunity to discuss what else can be brought into Stawell and the Northern Grampians with the establishment of the underground physics laboratory.”
Mr Broad said as Minister for Regional Development, Ms Nash is one of the most senior members of government.
“Ms Nash oversees the portfolio where the National Stronger Regions Fund, where the original $1.75 million in federal funding for the laboratory came from,” he said.
“Given there will be the need for an expansion of that laboratory in the future, the Minister will now be well briefed for that funding when it is required.”
Mr Broad said he was interested to also learn about the current mining operations at Stawell and what the future might hold for the operation, which remains one of Stawell’s key employers.
“The mine still has 170 employees and is very important to the town of Stawell,” he said.
“The focus on Wednesday was really on Dark Matter and research into that from a science perspective, but I was also keen to speak with mine management about securing local jobs.
“I believe the underground physics laboratory will be a great complement to the mining operation.
“This whole project shows that high-end science really does have a place in regional communities and not just big cities around the world.”
Mr Broad said he was grateful that Ms Nash accepted his invitation to take a look at the Stawell Gold Mines site and learn more about the underground physics laboratory.
“Having the minister come in and look around verifies in the government’s minds that what I was advocating for was a great use of taxpayers’ money,” Mr Broad said,.
“It also creates that high level of trust that when I advocate for projects such as this, the ministers understand their value to communities like Stawell.
“There is also that level of certainty in their minds now that there will be a need for more funding for the underground physics laboratory in the future.”
Northern Grampians Shire Mayor Cr Murray Emerson has advocated strongly on behalf of council and the community for the underground physics laboratory to receive support from both the state and federal governments.
Cr Emerson also hopes the underground physics laboratory will inspire a generation of local students to pursue a career in the sciences.
He is so enthusiastic that he has visited year seven students at the Stawell Secondary College to talk about the benefits of finishing school and the opportunities a career in science can present. With international partners including the Universities of Rome, Milan and Princeton, as well as the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics, it's an easy sell.
Physicists have long wondered if there are seasonal differences in the amount of dark matter that reaches Earth.
Due to be completed in 2017, the Stawell laboratory is the best candidate to settle this dark matter dilemma because it is the only laboratory in the southern hemisphere.
If experiments conducted in December and June deliver the same result as the Italian experiments conducted in the same months, it will confirm that the amount of dark matter reaching Earth is not seasonal.