CSIRO’s research in the arid zone was initiated after World War 2 when a strong push to develop the sparsely populated and isolated region of northern Australia was promoted as being in the national interest. This impetus had social and political origins but implementation depended on scientific insights into regional ‘potential’, which was couched at the time in terms of agronomic and pastoral use. Ray Perry was a key figure in early land resource surveys of the region and later a key motivator for, and supporter of, research in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of Australia. His commitment was fundamental to the establishment of CSIRO’s Central Australian Laboratory. Pastoral land use and improving the land for that purpose were the primary concerns when CSIRO’s presence in Alice Springs was established in 1953. From an initial focus on ‘making the desert bloom’, in particular making the vast spinifex grasslands more ‘useful’, the focus of research shifted to maintaining the productivity of country preferred by cattle and establishing methods for monitoring its health. It was not until the 1970s that Aboriginal and conservation land management appeared in the laboratory’s research agenda, somewhat intermittently, in response to important social and political changes in the wider Australian community.

CSIRO 在干旱区的研究是在第二次世界大战后开始的，当时大力推动开发澳大利亚北部人口稀少和偏远的地区被宣传为符合国家利益。这种推动力有社会和政治根源，但实施取决于对区域“潜力”的科学洞察力，这在当时是在农艺和牧业用途方面表达的。Ray Perry 是该地区早期土地资源调查的关键人物，后来成为澳大利亚干旱和半干旱牧场研究的主要推动者和支持者。他的承诺对于建立 CSIRO 的澳大利亚中部实验室至关重要。当 CSIRO 于 1953 年在爱丽斯泉成立时，牧区土地利用和为此目的改善土地是主要关注点。从最初专注于“让沙漠开花”，特别是让广阔的刺棘草草原更“有用”，研究重点转移到保持牛首选国家的生产力和建立监测其健康的方法。直到 1970 年代，为了应对更广泛的澳大利亚社区的重要社会和政治变化，土著和保护性土地管理才间歇性地出现在实验室的研究议程中。