Phenomena occurring at the mesoscale, 0.1-10 mu m, e.g. polycrystallinity, crystal defects, grain boundaries, orientation and strain, can play a profound role in the bulk behaviour of materials. These properties have been extremely difficult to measure in the spatially resolved in situ real time mode critical to obtaining true understanding. The microdiffraction fluorescence probe, an end-station facility selected for the Australian synchrotron, will enable these properties to be measured, in 3D at submicron scale, correlated to composition (X-ray fluorescence) as well as local elemental coordination (X-ray absorption spectroscopy). This facility will have wide spread fundamental and applied application across the earth and material science communities. Crown Copyright (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.