The NSW Government could face legal action for breaching contracts worth millions if it closes Australia's biggest subtropical crop research station.
These include a 20-year agreement, signed eight years ago with CSIRO and the Queensland Government, to protect the world's only ''genetic library'' of wild macadamia species, the Australian Macadamia Society said yesterday.
Closure of the NSW Centre for Tropical Horticulture at Alstonville, near Ballina on the North Coast, threatens the future of the unique 2ha collection of genetic material, used by growers worldwide to breed commercial macadamia varieties.
Society chief executive Jolyon Burnett said, ''The collection is supposed to be protected as a vital scientific asset but, if the site is sold for housing developments, those trees will almost certainly be bulldozed. They could not be moved to another site it would be prohibitively expensive and how would you protect such a collection in the middle of a housing subdivision?''
A field trial of 180 trees, planted only weeks ago to test the commercial viability of a new macadamia variety, is protected under a 10-year contract signed last month by CSIRO and the NSW Government.
''We understand budget pressures,'' Mr Burnett said, ''but the evidence suggests this decision wasn't given detailed consideration. Our industry is committed to fighting it. We are not going to just roll over and take it.''
A spokesman for the NSW Department of Primary Industries refused to comment on the fate of the collection or whether the terms of the contract with CSIRO and other agencies would be breached.
''There are a number of current research contracts under way at Alstonville. We will be working with the relevant project partners to negotiate the future of this research,'' he said.
Federal Nationals leader Warren Truss travelled to the region yesterday to meet members of 13 farmers groups including coffee, blueberries, bananas, macadamias and stonefruit affected by the closure.
But he was left stranded at the research station's gate after the NSW Primary Industries Department ignored requests by research staff for Mr Truss to gain permission to visit the facility.
Sources told The Canberra Times at least three requests were made to the department and its minister, Ian Macdonald. A spokesman for the department denied that Mr Truss had been refused access, saying, ''We are not preventing any communication taking place.''
Mr Truss warned Australia would become ''a scientific desert'', falling behind the rest of the world in food security and farm technology, if governments continued to close agricultural research stations.
''Farmers need the advice and support ... given by these stations if they are to remain internationally competitive and meet the challenges of climate change,'' he said.
The Centre for Tropical Horticulture at Alstonville was among eight agriculture research stations ear-marked for closure in the NSW Government's recent mini-budget.
Mr Burnett said the NSW Government had given ''every indication'' it was ending more than 20 years of macadamia research at Alstonville, and had no plans to move the research to other sites.
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