Around 30 members of The Probus Club of Rockhampton enjoyed their monthly outing at CQUniversity Rockhampton Campus.

The club, who celebrated their 25 year anniversary recently, started their tour at the Centre for Plant and Water Science, hosted by researchers Kylie Hopkins and Graham Fox.

The tour provided a great opportunity for the centre to show off some of its current research projects, whilst allowing some of the research students an opportunity to talk to and answer questions from a captive and interested audience.

The 30-strong group was provided an overview by Deepa Rijal about the research on Agave Tequilana, commonly known as the ‘tequila plant'. The plant is one of the most water efficient plants in the world, producing up to 50 tonnes of ethanol feedstock per hectare per year.

Gavin Chirgwin also spoke to them about his macadamia plant research describing the effects of water deprivation on the plants.

The simple efficiency of the worm farms generated lots of interest and questions, as did the stevia plants, which are used as a natural artificial sweetener for Sanitarium products. Some of the guests took the opportunity to sample the sweet leaves.

The group was also shown the strawberry field which unfortunately was currently without fruit.

While the group broke for a much needed morning tea break, they were joined by research student Vatsal Naik, who talked about his research on endangered plant species that have been found around some of the local mine sites including the Callide mine.

The concluding tour of the residential facility, Capricornia College, was conducted by student Residential Advisors, (RAs), who gave the visitors an insight into student life.

The Probus group, which includes retirees from a range of professions including a former CQUniversity lecturer and parents/ grandparents of our students and alumni, were delighted to have been invited to tour the campus by Vice-Chancellor Professor Scott Bowman when speaking at a recent Probus meeting.  

One of the visitors advised having lived in Rockhampton for 30 years, while it was the first time he had visited the campus.

The visit provided the university with a great opportunity to show off a small amount of the great research that takes place at CQUniversity and provided some of the students an opportunity to talk about their work.  

To complete the student experience the group delighted in sampling the buffet in the Capricornia College dining hall, many amazed by the quality and amount of choices available for the students.

Probus Club is an association of active retirees, which caters for interests of retired or semi-retired professional or business people.  Probus is a community service activity of Rotary Clubs, addressing the needs of a growing senior (60 years +) population.

Its purpose is to provide members with regular opportunities to keep their minds active, expand their interests, stay healthy through activities, benefit from training programs, network between like-minded people and to enjoy the fellowship of new friends.

CQUniversity's Office of Development and Graduate Relations looks forward to welcoming our community on to campus, and regularly organises campus tours for community groups that have an interest in the university.

For more information please phone (07) 4923 2875.