CRES was established to undertake high quality policy-oriented applied research in the fields of natural resources and the environment, and to provide a master's degree program in these fields. After my appointment as Director on 14 May, 1973, I set out to recruit four senior colleagues to fill tenured positions: in resource economics, urban ecology, applied systems analysis and as a coordinator for the projected master's degree course. After the inevitable delays that occur in the early stages of a new activity, four excellent appointments were made: Professor Stuart Harris (February 1975), Dr Stephen Boyden (January 1976), Dr Peter Young (January 1975) and Mr D. Ingle Smith (January 1976). I delayed making appointments of research fellows until these men had settled in and defined their requirements; unfortunately by this time (mid-1975) the financial situation had deteriorated greatly and funds were available for only four such posts. Fortunately, action by the Heads of Schools Committee enabled a further three research fellowships to be filled by early 1977. Since then the position has remained static, except for posts funded from outside grants. The latter source has been important in providing support for some senior long-term visiting fellows (Dr H. C. Coombs and Dr A. B. Costin) and similar appointments have been made at the research fellow level (Dr M. Brandl) and one is in the course of advertisement.

The academic staff is supported by a total of 16 research assistantships (seven on part time appointment), seven of which are supported on outside funds, an excellent secretarial staff, a programmer and a librarian. In my view the tenured staff of CRES is adequate, for the time being, but the support staff (both research fellows and research assistants) should be increased if the incoming Director is to be able to make the contribution to university, national and international affairs that CRES should make over the next decade.

Philosophy of Research.

The opinion was expressed by the Review Committee that most of the staff of CRES should be employed for most of their time in a succession of ‘major projects’, each lasting two or three (never more than five) years. I disagree with this view. I believe that the prime task of CRES is to carry out good research in the resources/environment field, directed mainly to matters of public policy. There are three components in this task; to do good multidisciplinary work on relevant topics, to develop new ideas and concepts, and to build up a strong base of knowledge and information in the fields in which CRES works. Nevertheless, I believe that most of the staff of CRES are now ready to devote part of their time to work on a common program, and the incoming Director should be provided with at least two research fellowships to assist him in launching such a program

The Performance of CRES

In the research schools one can judge performance, to a large extent, by the quality and volume of output of published articles and books as judged by the appropriate international peer group. CRES research has to satisfy this criterion, but has an additional need to devote a large part of its effort to problems of national importance, including advice to government on policy matters.

Considering that project work did not start seriously until 1976 and was not fully developed (with the available staff) until 1977, I believe that CRES has performed very creditably. Over the period of three and a half years during which CRES has been operating at anything like full strength, 163 article in journals or chapters in books have been produced, 99 internal CRES Reports and 19 books. A further nine books are in preparation.

	Articles and chapters	Books	CRES reports
Resources	49	7	37
Applied systems Hydrology	25	2	33
Land use	28	2	4
Environmental management	13	5	0
Human ecology	48	8	20

Teaching

Besides PhD students, CRES provides a Master's degree by coursework. Dingle Smith has done splendid work as the Coordinator of this course, which is now on its second run. CRES has provided a focus for Australian interest in such courses and initiated a meeting of Australian Course Coordinators in 1976, followed up by a UNESCO-sponsored course (jointly with the Centre for Environmental Studies of the University of Melbourne) in September 1979.

Accommodation

Present accommodation is adequate for the present staff and could accommodate a few more, but if an incoming Director is as successful in attracting visitors and students as I would expect, additional accommodation will be required before his term expires. From the point of view of providing more suitable accommodation than that presently available for the Hancock Library, and to accommodate CRES, a strong case can be made to extend the first two floors of the Library to the South, for the use of the Library, and allow CRES to occupy the whole of Floor Level Three.

Affiliation

It is highly desirable that CRES should be included in the information-exchange system of the university; the best method to achieve this would be to invite the Director to all meetings of the Heads of Schools Committee.

Outside Funding

If it were necessary to do so, an enterprising Director could raise large sums of money for consultant work by CRES. I have eschewed such action, nevertheless the funds that have been obtained for the support of work that is academically desirable and are within the research programs of CRES have been very important in enabling project work to proceed.