Challenge
The Gulbali Research Institute at Charles Sturt University (Australia’s largest regional tertiary institution) is a large organisation spanning six campuses across New South Wales. The Institute focuses on agricultural, environmental and water research projects that directly impact communities and land and water resources across the Murray Darling Basin and the world.
With over 350 researchers and associates, there are many, many stories to tell, from announcing research and attracting collaborators to promoting the impact of research results and providing evidence for important management and policy decisions.
It is a complex communication environment.
Approach
Since July 2025, The Comms Doctor has provided advice on strategic communication for the Institute that is better adapted to their intended audiences, as well as delivering day-to-day communication content. This has been in close collaboration with other communication professionals and units within CSU.
Audio is one communication mode that is now being used in communicate Gulbali stories. In many instances, this better suit the needs and situations of people in rural and remote communities across Australia who drive long distances, sit in tractors for long hours, or have poor Internet access around their homes.
Outcomes
- Development of a podcast ‘station’ for the Gulbali Institute launched in late January 2026 on the SoundCloud platform for storing and promoting audio stories from Gulbali researchers;
- Extension of stories from SoundCloud to other popular podcast platforms such as Apple iTunes, Spotify and YouTube;
- Establishment of playlists including The Gulbali Report for new and completed research and opinion stories based on evidence;
- Promotion of new audio stories via relevant social media including LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Use of this platform will be updated as this channel matures.