SESL Australia was established in 1983 as Sydney Environmental & Soil Laboratory by Simon Leake. SESL provides independent laboratory testing and advisory services to landscape, horticulture, sport and leisure turf, civil construction, environment, government, mining and the waste industry. It offers sample collection, monitoring, analysis and interpretation of soil, water, plant tissue and wastes. SESL also offers training courses on a range of earth science topics mainly focused on

urban horticulture Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in atten ...

, sport and leisure turf, and environmental water.

History

SESL was founded in 1983 by Simon Leake, a soil science graduate of the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Services

NATA-accredited laboratory analyses (soil, water, plant tissue, wastes), site analyses (soil, water), soil specifications, plant pest and disease identification, training.

Projects

SESL has been involved from the planning stage in various major infrastructure projects in

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

, notably the

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

redevelopment, the

Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...

redevelopment at

Homebush Bay Homebush Bay is a bay on the south bank of the Parramatta River, in the west of Sydney, Australia. The name is also sometimes used to refer to an area to the west and south of the bay itself, which was formerly an official suburb of Sydney, a ...

, Central Park on the site of the old Carlton & United Breweries plant in Chippendale and the

Barangaroo Barangaroo ( – ) was an Aboriginal Australian woman best known for her interactions with the British colony of New South Wales during the first years of the European colonisation of Australia. A member of the Cammeraygal clan, she was the wi ...

redevelopment on

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

Philanthropy

SESL sponsored a prize in oral presentation and prizes for best fourth year thesis, best laboratory practical and best student at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Sydney from the late 1990s until 2009.

Advocacy

Simon Leake has appeared on ABC's

Gardening Australia ''Gardening Australia'' is an Australian lifestyle television program which suggests and promotes organic and environmentally friendly ways of gardening. It is created by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and airs on ABC TV, in an ho ...

and

Burke's Backyard ''Burke's Backyard'' was an Australian gardening and lifestyle series presented by horticulturist Don Burke, broadcast on both radio and television. On television, it was a regular weekly series on the Nine Network from 12 September 1987 to 26 ...

. SESL Australia contributes to the environmental and soil industries through its monthly Fertile Mind's blog which updates the community on current projects and industry events. In 2014 Simon published Soils for Landscape Development: Selection, Specification and Validation under CSIRO publishing, co-authored by landscape architect and consulting arborist Elke Haege.

Professional memberships

From 1997 until 2011, Simon Leake served as a Member of the

Standards Australia Standards Australia is a standards organisation established in 1922 and is recognised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian government as the primary non-government standards development body in Australia. It is a co ...

CS/37 committee, which developed and maintains the Australian standards AS 3743 Potting Mixes, AS 4454 Composts, Soil Conditioners and Mulches, and AS 4419 Soils for Landscaping and Garden Use. Simon Leake is a member of the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust Gardens Committee, a voluntary expert reference panel assisting the Trust in the design, technical specification and implementation of planning at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Mount Annan Botanic Garden and Mount Tomah Botanic Garden.

References

{{authority control Soil and crop science organizations Companies based in Sydney Service companies of Australia