Abstract
In December 2020, the Australian Research Council (ARC), in collaboration with UniSC, UWA, UoA, UNSW and JCU, funded a foundational network of five Australian Critical Zone Observatories. The Critical Zone is the thin surface zone of the Earth's crust from the bedrock to the top of the vegetation canopy, encompassing the near surface lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere and where 90% of all terrestrial life occurs. UniSC's Petrie CZO is part of this founding network, examining the ecosystems fluxes in a sub-tropical Eucalypt woodland, on a Quaternary / Tertiary remnant alluvial sequence overlying Jurassic sandstone. Presented here are the various above and below ground infrastructure and instrumentation installations as well as a summary of current and future research opportunities for the site, including carbon fluxes and potential strategies for climate change mitigation.