THIS MEDIA RELEASE WAS DISTRIBUTED ON FRIDAY 17 JANUARY 2014 BY CSIRO.

Tasmanian-based Taylor Brothers has beaten a competitive field in the international tender for the construction and supply of four container laboratories, for Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator.

The contract to supply the HAZMAT locker, the Laboratory Clean Container, the Radiation Laboratory Container, and the CTD storage container, has been finalised, and today the CSIRO procurement team will inspect the work already undertaken on these laboratories.

CSIRO Oceanographer, Dr Bernadette Sloyan, was involved with detailing the specifications for the Laboratory Clean Container, which is vital to her research.

“Having a system of interchangeable container laboratories will change the way scientists undertake work onboard the Marine National Facility research vessel,” Dr Sloyan said.

“It will allow specialist equipment, specific to a scientific discipline, to be permanently set up in the container laboratory, which can be stored on the wharf and then added to the ship when it’s needed.”

RV Investigator can accommodate up to 13 container laboratories, and in addition to these there are nine permanent laboratories onboard.

The diversified engineering company, Taylor Brothers, secured the international tender worth over $900,000 in September 2013, and since then they have been undertaking the work to construct the laboratories

One of the Directors of Taylor Brothers, Phillip Taylor, said his family owned company has evolved from a solely ship building business in the 1930s, into today’s diversified engineering company.

“We now employ staff with a broad range of skills, with the expertise to secure competitive international tenders, like this one with CSIRO,” Mr Taylor said.