The Newcastle Chapter of the Australian Geomechanics Society is pleased to dedicate its themed issue of Australian Geomechanics to the activities of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering (CGSE), which combines three of Australia's leading geotechnical research groups: the Centre for Geotechnical and Materials Modelling at The University of Newcastle, the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at The University of Western Australia, and the Centre for Geotechnics and Railway Engineering at the University of Wollongong. With a forecast investment of over 250 billion dollars in Australia's energy and transport infrastructure over the next five years, there is an unprecedented need to design and build this infrastructure as cheaply and safely as possible. In light of the size of investment involved, even small percentage savings resulting from scientific research will lead to huge returns in absolute dollar terms. Through advanced laboratory testing, physical modelling, full-scale field testing and cutting-edge computational simulations, the CGSE is providing engineers with new science-based tools for designing safer and cheaper energy and transport infrastructure such as roads, railways, port facilities, tunnels, dams, pipelines, mining operations and offshore oil and gas facilities. The CGSE has four geotechnical science themes, each of which is linked to advanced computational modelling, state-of-the-art physical modelling and laboratory testing, and engineering applications: Geomaterial Science, Multiphysics Modelling, Moving Boundary Problems and Georisk. The collection of articles in this issue highlights the complementary skills and facilities brought together from each of the nodes and the innovative research produced by the CGSE. The first of two articles that summarise recent developments in the testing equipment and physical modelling techniques available within the CGSE is the contribution by Cassidy et al. (2014), which describes the new National Geotechnical Centrifuge Facility, a recently established mobile in situ testing laboratory, and the new national facility for the cyclic testing of high-speed rail. The second paper by White et al. (2014) describes the recirculating flumes, or O-tubes, that allow for simulation of ocean-structure-seabed interactions in offshore applications and, in particular, the stability of pipelines on mobile seabeds.
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