The AIP VIC branch ran a field trip to the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) on 25 October this year.

This major new facility – the only underground science lab in the southern hemisphere – is located 1km beneath the surface, in the Stawell Gold Mine in regional Victoria. SUPL is designed to host dark matter experiments and other science projects that require an ultra-low radiation environment provided by a deep underground lab.

Twenty AIP members made the journey underground, including students, professors, high school teachers, and physicists in industry.  They saw the new infrastructure and heard commentary from SUPL Facility Manager Kim Mintern-Lane and AIP President (and dark matter physicist!) Prof Nicole Bell.