Four years on from the 2022 floods, Southern Cross University is not just rebuilding, it is expanding, investing and reimagining its place in Lismore.

Speaking on the latest episode of Talking Lismore, Professor Tyrone Carlin, Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University, reflected on steering the university through COVID, flood disaster and now into a period of renewed confidence and growth.

“I’ve had the privilege of being an academic for more than 30 years,” Professor Carlin said, outlining a career that took him through major Sydney institutions before arriving in the Northern Rivers in 2018. He stepped into the Vice-Chancellor role in 2020, right in the middle of COVID”.

The pandemic forced the university to “completely retool” its operations within days, including navigating the surreal reality of a hard border running along its Gold Coast campus.

“We had about seven days to flip the model,” he said. “But what it demonstrated to me was one of the great benefits of being a relatively smaller institution bound together by strong relationships. There was a lot of trust, and that became critically important.”

If COVID tested systems, the 2022 floods tested spirit.

Sitting in the same room that became the university’s emergency command centre, Professor Carlin recalled the “complete confusion and fog” of those first days as rain continued to fall.

“We developed a sense of clarity about our stance,” he said. “We were going to do everything we possibly could to make this a little bit easier, a little bit more livable, for anyone we could help.”

The campus became home to emergency services, evacuation operations and two displaced schools. Normal university business was effectively suspended in favour of community need.

“That’s really informed a lot of the decisions we’ve made since,” he said.

One of those decisions has been to open the campus more deliberately to the community. With Trinity Catholic College and Living School now based on site, alongside health services and ambulance crews, the campus has taken on new energy.

“There’s a vibrancy to it, there’s a joy to it,” he said. “People don’t feel there’s something different about the university. They feel they can touch it, they can be part of it, and that’s a great thing for our town.”

That same forward-thinking approach is behind the launch of the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (Honours), which begins next week in Lismore.

“There’s only seven places in Australia where you can study veterinary medicine… we will be the eighth,” Professor Carlin said. “And we’re doing that right here in Lismore.”

The program has been years in the making, shaped by repeated conversations with local farmers and practitioners concerned about regional vet shortages.

“There’s such a shortage of veterinarians in our region,” he said. “You’d hear from practitioners about how stressed they are and about succession… who’s going to come after me?”

Southern Cross has invested $15 million internally to establish the program, with strong support from local vet practices and DPI Wollongbar for placements and training.

In coming years, between veterinary medicine and veterinary technology, up to 500 to 600 students could be studying on campus.

“I think that will benefit not just the university, but this region,” he said.

Sport is another area of growth. A $3.6 million NSW Government grant announced last year will fund an Olympic-standard athletics track and field facility at the Lismore campus, with construction expected this year and community access planned for next year.

Olympic-standard athletics facilities to be available at the Lismore campus (image supplied).

“There’s not another one between Tamworth and the northern end of the Gold Coast,” Professor Carlin said. “It will draw in schools and community athletics groups and add to that vibrancy on campus.”

With Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, he sees the facility, alongside the university’s Olympic-standard water polo pool, as part of Lismore’s broader sporting opportunity.

Accommodation is also returning, with 60 beds reopening under the Sirius College development, already fully booked.

“It’s about confidence,” he said. “We really believe in what we do here, and we’re prepared to invest against that.”

Looking ahead five to ten years, Professor Carlin says success will be measured not just in enrolments or rankings, but in community connection.

“This university is now ranked within the top 300 institutions globally for research, and we’re only 31 years old,” he said. “Lismore deserves a world-standard institution. We’re confident about where we are now, but we’ve got enormous ambition for where we go next.”

To hear the full conversation with Professor Tyrone Carlin, including his reflections on leadership, research breakthroughs and what the next decade could hold for Lismore, listen to the latest episode of Talking Lismore on the Lismore App or via the website.