“It’s somebody else’s turn,” he said with a smile.

For the past 10 years he has held that position and today will be his last day.

He said his contract was coming to an end but he wasn’t interested in staying on.

“I chose not to renew it. The university would have been happy for me to stay on, but someone else can have go,” Prof Parton said.

Prof Parton is not leaving the university, however.

He will return to his duties within the school of business and his research work with the institute of land, water and society.

He has research projects, including climate change policy and policy developments of the Murray-Darling Basin.

But he looked back on his time as the head of campus with fond memories.

“Ten years ago we were just, more or less, the Orange Agriculture College,” Prof Parton said.

“We have flourished through things since then.

“We were the Faculty of Rural Management of the University of Sydney to begin with.

“Between there and now we have seen many changes.”

Those changes have occurred with both courses offered and in infrastructure developments.

New courses include pharmacy, dental science, physiotherapy and clinical science, together with a reorganisation in the area of agricultural business.

The infrastructure changes have included new student accommodation, the dentistry complex, extensions to the library, classrooms and lecture theatres, sporting facilities and a physiotherapy building under construction.

“The campus has doubled in size. Those have been the massive changes,” he said.

There were approximately 450 students at the campus when Prof Parton began as Head of Campus.

Today there is more than 1000.

“What I really enjoy is going through the campus saying ‘hi’ to people. I can still do that but it’s in a different context,” he said.