Animal Biology Facilities

Marine Science Facilities

There are marine science facilities located on campus as well as off campus at the Waterman's Field Station.

On campus:

• 40 30L aquaria and 20 150L tanks in a closed recirculation system
• Eight 150L tanks and two 1600L tanks located in an outdoor environment

Off campus:

Waterman's Field Station has an algae lab, an invertebrates lab, a constant temperature room, and a photoperiod room, as well as numerous aquaria.  The field station is located on the ocean approximately 20 minutes north of campus.

There are also two research boats (6.7m and 4.6m) available for use.

Animal Enclosures

In addition to standard animal enclosures, the School also has:

• Four 12m x 10m enclosures for large lizards
• Three 1m x 7m bat holding and flight cages
• Ten 6m x 5m enclosures for small marsupials, with native vegetation
• Two insectories with a soundproof room for studying insect calls

Large Animal Facility

The Large Animal Facility is a state-of-the-art $3 million, 1400 square metre facility opened in 1998, designed to house animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, emus etc. that need to be maintained under controlled environments or studied intensively over a limited period.

Field Station

The Shenton Park Field Station, located only 7km or 20 minutes from the main campus, covers 67 hectares and has a wide variety of facilities for various areas of study which include:

Aquaculture

UWA has Australia's largest recirculating aquaculture research facility with a total volume of 3 million litres.  The facility has:

• 30 fibreglass tanks (20,000L each)
• Nine aquaplate tanks (5,400 litres each)
• 10 poly troughs (3,000 litres each)
• 145 aquaria (100 litres each)

The system is totally recirculating, with a 67,000 litre biofilter.  The facility also has considerable laboratory space with microscopes, spectrometers, and sampling equipment.

Other Field Station Facilities

• 30 15m x 15m small animal enclosures
• 20 large animal pens up to 30m x 40m in size
• Six paddocks up to 50m x 100m in size
• Twelve 4m x 4m fully enclosed pens
• 20 2m x 1m aviaries
• Sheep milking shed allowing for 12 animals to be milked simultaneously

Allandale Farm

The School has 700 hectares of space at Allandale Farm, an hour's drive from campus.  This is available for running large, long-term experiments, such as genetic selection projects, large scale behaviour experiments, and for grazing and feeding experiments including fresh and conserved pastures and crops. 

There are over 50 paddocks, several sheds and general farm equipment plus accommodation for overnight or longer stays.

Other Animal Biology Facilities

The School also houses the following facilities:

• Anaerobic room
• Constant temperature rooms (12)
• Dairy lab
• Molecular biology facilities
• Radioimmunoassay lab
• Wool scouring and metrology labs