In Canberra, a $90 million state-of-the-art facility is now safeguarding more than 13 million irreplaceable biodiversity specimens – from rare orchids to cryo-frozen bird tissues – ensuring that the story of Australia’s natural world is preserved for future generations while accelerating scientific discovery.
The new National Research Collections Australia building, aptly named Diversity, brings together the Australian National Wildlife Collection and the Australian National Insect Collection, whose specimens have been gathered over 150 years.
Robust, temperature-controlled vaults, resistant to bushfire and pests, protect everything from insects to wildlife, while cutting-edge laboratories open fresh possibilities for research and collaboration.
CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Doug Hilton said the collections have “quietly underpinned Australian science, policy, agriculture, biosecurity, and biodiversity conservation” for over a century. He described them as:
“a hidden powerhouse, supporting everything from tracking pest incursions to discovering new species and understanding the genetic diversity of Australia’s native ecosystems.”
This work, he noted, “contributes directly to the national interest,” informing biosecurity, climate resilience, and land management strategies while addressing “one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we protect biodiversity in a changing world?”
With new genomics laboratories and digitisation facilities, Diversity will allow scientists to extract and share more information than ever before, linking physical collections to digital platforms that range from DNA sequences to high-resolution imagery.
For CSIRO Director for National Collections and Marine Infrastructure Toni Moate, the building represents a leap forward. “Our research teams here keep finding new ways to use our biological collections to create a better future for Australians – from using spider wasp venoms to source new pharmaceuticals, all the way through to using historic reptile collections to track how animals respond to climate change,” she said.
“This new facility will only accelerate this incredible work and enable us to move into new areas of research.”
Dr Clare Holleley, Director of the Australian National Wildlife Collection, emphasised the urgency of the mission. “Nature is declining globally at a rate unprecedented in human history and these biodiversity collections serve as a library of life on Earth and a resource for caring for the environment,” she said.
The potential of these collections, she explained, lies in their ability to reveal long-term environmental trends and prepare species for future challenges. “In this new building, we’re solving the problems that nature presents to us in real time,” she said.
“Our researchers are often the very first people in the world to see a particular specimen, sequence a gene or put together pieces of the puzzle in a way never been done before – it’s incredibly rewarding.”
Designed by architecture firm Hassell in close consultation with researchers and engineers, the facility was built over just two years, with the relocation of the specimens taking another year.
The building is not open to the public, but its vaults house treasures such as 55,000 birds representing 99 per cent of Australian species, 17,000 orchids preserved in ethanol, and the world’s largest collection of Australian insects – more than 12 million in total.
Scientists and collaborators from around the globe will now have access to these specimens, making Diversity not just a guardian of the past, but a catalyst for future breakthroughs.
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