The Waite

Waite

A social and scientific history of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute

by Lynette D. Zeitz

$44.00 | 2014 | Hardback | 978-1-922064-61-5 | 456 pp 

DOI:

The Waite Campus is one of the world’s leading agricultural research and teaching precincts. It is fitting for this updated history to be published in 2014, the 140 years anniversary of the ³ÉÈË´óƬ.

It is 100 years since Peter Waite formally bequested his Urrbrae property to the University in 1914, and 90 years since the University established the Waite Agricultural Research Institute in 1924.

Former University Registrar V. A. Edgeloe published The First Fifty Years 1924-1974 in 1984. Since then the Waite Campus has added several large new research institutes and has strengthened its reputation.

Lynette Zeitz has completed this detailed but engaging history to bring the story of the Waite Campus up to date. Her approach of focusing on the people – their personalities as well as their commitment to science – creates a lively and definitive work.

About the author

is a History graduate of the ³ÉÈË´óƬ and has been Manager of the Urrbrae House Historic Precinct at the Waite since 2008. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow with the University’s School of History and Politics. During a career at the ³ÉÈË´óƬ spanning more than two decades, she has held various academic and professional positions. She has also worked at Flinders University and as a consultant historian with the South Australian Government’s Child in State Care Commission of Inquiry.

Reviews

'Just in from the Barr Smith Press, an imprint of The ³ÉÈË´óƬ Press, is this lavishly produced history of an outstanding agricultural scientific institution. Complementing V.A. Edgeloe’s history of the Waite’s first fifty years, Zeitz succinctly reappraises these early years and then wisely focuses on the period since 1974, one of rapidly shifting horizons where institutional priorities mirror social and scientific change.'

, 26 (1), July/August/September 2014, p. 29.

'It is a fine piece of work, documenting the extraordinary achievements of the Waite as well as the people and the personalities behind the institute. I encourage everyone here today to get themselves a copy and read of the remarkable history of the Waite Institute.'

Hon David Ridgway MLC, 'Motion: Mr Peter Waite', delivered in Legislative Council 6 August 2014