Also in 1996 the ETC commenced hosting Community-based Workers Orders from the Ministry of Justice 3 days per week to assist in site maintenance and development of the increasing amount of infrastructure and growing landscape.

Up until this point much of the landscape development and maintenance had been done by weekend busy bees on the solstices and equinoxes. As the landscape became larger and more intensive to manage the LEAP program workers became critical participants in site work. With a change in Federal Government the Work for the Dole program was introduced and ETC soon became host to regular contingent of 5 to 15 workers 2 days per week. This program also paid for site supervisors. Thus site maintenance and development moved from a system almost wholly dependent on volunteers to one now based on paid supervisors and unemployed people on an ETC program providing new opportunities.

In December 1997, at the ETC's International Conference on Environmental Technologies for Wastewater Management, the United Nations Environmental Programme's (UNEP) International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) announced that the Murdoch ETC would be recognised as a focal point of activities for the Asia-Pacific region, conditional upon upgrading its facilities to provide the required services.

In 1999 the ETC was selected as a Centre of Excellence for Industry-focussed Research & Development in Environmental Technology by the Government of Western Australia. Consequently, with the associated funding and industry support, it was able to construct state-of-art environmentally sound office and laboratory buildings in 2000/01.

In 2001, with these facilities in place, ETC was confirmed as the UNEP-IETC Cooperation Centre for the Asia-Pacific region.

In January, 2002 the Premier officially announced the support of the Government of Western Australia for the ETC as the UNEP-IETC Cooperation Centre for the Asia-Pacific region.

History of the area prior to establishment of Murdoch University.

As recounted by David Brockway (Veterinary Farm Manager) in an interview by Otti Bajsa, July 2000:
David Brockway has been at Murdoch University since 1976. However, he has been in communication with the people who were on the land before Murdoch University was built. Throughout the years he has found out many facts about the land and its people as it was before.

The land used to belong to the University of Western Australia (UWA) before they endowed it to Murdoch University. On a percentage of the land pine trees (Pinus pinaster) were grown by the former Forestry Department, which is now known as CALM. They used to have fire lookouts that were located where the Kardinya Shopping Centre is found today. The forestry department came and harvested the good quality pine trees for timber, before Murdoch University took the land over. The remaining trees that were left on site were of bad quality, as they were small or bent and had to be purchased by the University. David had tried many times to sell these trees to sawmillers, when they had to be cut down for development. However, it was without much success, as metropolitan pine is regarded as being of inferior quality.

Large pine trees were found on the southern part of the campus in the Banksia woodlands. These grew from seed and were not plantation pines, as they did not have any branches trimmed. There must have been a number of large Jarrah trees (E. marginata) growing in the area. Some remaining stumps of mature trees were discovered. The trees must have been quite large, as there were some traditional tree felling pits found in the area. There are also quite a few coppiced Jarrahs growing on the campus. They are not as strong as the original tree and will break in high winds. Many of the Jarrahs grown subsequently are found to have stunted growth as well. The other main vegetation in the area was found to be Banksias, Nuytsia floribunda (commonly known as Christmas tree) and a type of sheoak (Casuarina sp. - fraseriana, stricta, obesa). Much work has been carried out on the flora and fauna of the region.

A row of pines is growing from the north to the south, as can be seen on the 1975 aerial photograph. These pines are older then any of the other pines on campus. An old raised road is running parallel to these pines. This was the early road to Rockingham according to Wally Croll. A few timber planks were found in the peat swamp. They were possibly used to traverse the swamp with vehicles in winter. Paspalum dilatatum has invaded the area. This plant is known to be quite an aggressive invader.

The land was used for many purposes prior to that. In the Southeast there is a peat swamp that is bounded by Farrington road and Murdoch Drive. This peat is quite acidic. There are some drainage lines that are clearly visible on the 1975 aerial photograph. They were created in the 1930's by the Chinese market gardeners who where living near the swamp. The drainage lines were hand dug. Within the Melaleuca sp. swamp more drainage lines have been located. It is unclear why they had drained this area, unless they had cleared the Melaleucas. They had also dug out small holes around the edge of the swamp from which they were carting water in the traditional Chinese way.

Two dwellings were found in which the Chinese people must have lived. There are rubbish burial places that have been located around this area. They contained broken china bowls and traditional Chinese soupspoons.

The water table in this area is interesting, as it is a perched water table. This means that in winter the rain collects on top of the peat. Underneath the peat one mid water table can be found. Some of this lower water table may also be tidal.

The swamp is made up of a few different soil types. It cannot be used in winter for grazing purposes and has been encroached by reeds for a long time.

The Dixon family lived Northwest of the Melaleuca swamp in the area. This area is now known as paddock O on the farm plan. Some Aboriginal families lived on the eastern side of the swamp. The water that runs off at the south end of the campus is fresh water. It runs towards North Lake. In 1975 a drain was built by the University to improve natural drainage.

Around the time when the Chinese market gardeners were on the land the Dixons and the Crolls and various other people fenced parts of the area off to graze animals on. When the Chinese people moved away (possibly around 70 to 80 years ago) the graziers started to graze the land more heavily, possibly with horses. Some of the fencing posts and wires are still in existence.

North Lake, which is situated Southwest of the campus has been monitored. It was found that eutropification had started to occur. Subsequently, in en effort to maintain the lake in good condition a weir and pump station were built in the 90's at the southern edge of the Melaleuca Swamp. The water is pumped back on campus to a sump, to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus draining into North Lake. The University has also reduced the levels of N/P/K application to their pastures to well below the levels recommended by the Department of Agriculture and is using compost.

North of this area we can see the swamp area which was a natural depression point on campus. This place was called the swamp and has some turtles living in it. The forestry department excavated a sump in the middle of the swamp to use the water harvested from there to fight fires. This water used to be pumped up to bush court, where there was a big tank. There used to be also a few houses on bush court. The people living there might even have used the water for cooking and drinking purposes. The land in those days was much damper, and there are therefore a few remaining Flooded Gum (E. rudis) found in the area.