Charles Sturt University today unveiled the Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, Water and Environment on the Table Top Road side of the Thurgoona campus.

Vice-Chancellor professor Renee Leon said the Institute was emblematic of the university's commitment to research with impact for the regions and the nation.

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"Here we're doing really important applied research in fish stock, in river management, in water quality," she said.

"All matters that are really important for the Albury region and for the whole Murray Darling Basin, and we all know how important that is for our nation.

"So this really exemplifies that partnership we have between research, community and industry to make a difference with the work we do at Charles Sturt."

Professor Leon said the university was hoping to double its PhD students through the institute.

The Gulbali Institute, with its name derived from the Aboriginal word meaning to understand country, consists of a shed full of different sized fish tanks and other aquatic equipment.

Next to the shed is a shipping container chilled to the temperature of the Snowy Mountains to simulate the environment of the endangered Stocky Galaxia, an endangered native species the subject of a breeding program.

On the outside of the shed is a mural of the Stocky Galaxia, painted by artist Tracie MacVean.

It is hoped the mural will help engage the community with conservation work and the Institute.

"My dream is to be able to use art to gain awareness of the loss of our native specifies and their native habitat," the artist said.

"It's all well and good to paint this and hope it will sell, but I ask myself what is this achieving, do people get it suddenly?

"I believe it's the connections to environmental organisations like this that are key."

Interim executive director of the Gulbali Institute Professor Lee Baumgartner said it had opened up a whole range of possibilities for research.

"We're doing threatened species recovery post bushfire, there's been some wonderful work being done to recover some fish species that aren't found anywhere else in the world," he said.

"We're doing work to recover native fish that are being entrained into irrigation systems, so we're helping industry to build solutions to those, we've got teams that are working in south east Asia that are building fish ladders to restore fish migrations in the Mekong River, we've got people building nest boxes to help native animals survive, so there's so many wonderful things that are happening here at the Albury campus."

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