McCormick Centre for the Environment

McCormick Centre for the Environment
An Environmental Resource for the Community

The McCormick Centre for the environment is a public facility designed to support environmental education and research, nature based tourism and to serve the community as a unique resource.

The centre contains:

• A fully equipped, 115 seat lecture theatre
• Teaching laboratories suitable for use by school groups
• Research laboratory
• Catering facilities in a commercial standard kitchen
• A visitor reception area that can be used by regional nature-based tourism operators
• Rooms for meetings and offices
• Public education displays to introduce visitors to the ecosystems and natural resource management issues of the Murray-Darling Basin.
• Wetlands and gardens that also serve as teaching aids

Local schools have free use of the Centre, and its facilities are also available for commercial hire at reasonable rates.
Ask a Coordinator how your groups can use the Centre.

The $2 million Centre is the culmination of a shared vision and a decade's effort by the Commonwealth Government, the Renmark Paringa Council and the private philanthropic community of Australia and overseas.

A private donation of $1 million from Brooks McCormick was facilitated by the Australian Landscape Trust and the Chicago Zoological Society.

Grants contributed to the McCormick Centre for the Environment:

• Natural Heritage Trust
• River Murray Catchment Water Board
• Commonwealth Tourism
• The Murray Darling Basin Commission
• Ian Potter Foundation
• Greenhouse Office
• Pratt Water
• The Forest Park Foundation in the United States
• Renmark Paringa Council
• SA Education Department.

The Renmark Paringa Council and the Australian Landscape Trust worked to design a facility that met community needs while minimizing environmental impacts. The result is a Centre that exemplifies the way in which communities, public and private sector organisations can work in partnership to achieve real benefits.

The Centre features:

• Solar power panels
• Evaporative air conditioning
• Design for passive temperature management
• Efficient rain and waste water management systems
• Laminated timber supports (requiring less energy to make than steel supports)
• Low maintenance finishes
• "Exposed design" to reduced construction and building maintenance costs

The McCormick Centre for the Environment is owned by the Renmark Paringa Council and managed by the Australian Landscape Trust.

McCormick Centre for the Environment
Phone 08 8586 4777, Ral Ral Avenue, Renmark SA 5341