Luo Yufeng

Hohai University, China
Exchange to CSIRO Land and Water, Australia

With the assistance of the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellowship, I was financially able to undertake postdoctoral research at CSIRO Land and Water Griffith Laboratory for 6 months from August 2008 to February 2009.

Griffith is the "oasis" of the Riverina and called “the heart of Wine and Food Country”. The beautiful city was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, who also designed Canberra – I had a very nice time there. Many times my wife and I went to Sir Dudley Lookout to enjoy the bird’s-eye view of Griffith after sunset. Sometimes we sat in our car and looked at the lights of all of Griffith when it was getting dark. We always tried to find our lab from there, but it was difficult for us. Many times we went to see the kangaroos on the golf course, or should I say that we went there to be seen by the kangaroos?

During the Christmas holiday, we visited friends in Queensland. After some work with a previous colleague at the University of Southern Queensland, we visited many places such as Toowoomba, Brisbane, Noosa Head, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie. It was a really long drive for me. The most unforgettable experiences were those going through the Logan Toll gate on the incorrect lane and the dazzling zigzags in the mountainous and foggy Cottan-Bimbang National Park.

During this programme, I developed a framework for estimating regional groundwater evapotranspiration in irrigation areas, compared water use in Liuyuankou Irrigation System, China and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA), and extended the previous MIA groundwater model. One of our joint papers won the 2008 Best Paper Award of Irrigation and Drainage. I also developed a close linkage with CSIRO, UNESCO IHP, Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Charles Sturt University and the University of Southern Queensland. We are now arranging a Hohai PhD student to visit the Canberra Laboratory of CSIRO Land and Water. As Confucius said more than 2000 years ago, it’s not good if I always come but you never go. 2 CSIRO/CSU colleagues visited my university, and I look forward to seeing more friends from Australia.

I would like to thank Cheung Kong and the Australian Government for the financial support. My thanks are also extended to the Endeavour Support Team, my supervisors Professor Shahbaz Khan and Dr Tariq Rana, and many other friends for their support. Without them, I could not have conducted my research successfully.

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