Our approach involves a multi-pronged strategy to identify, characterise and use the available variation for crown rot (CR) tolerance in material from pre-breeding projects, advanced breeding lines, germplasm lines and released varieties, to incorporate it into commercially suitable backgrounds. Our preliminary results have shown the presence of useful genetic variation within durum germplasm for resistance (reduced expression of disease symptoms) and tolerance to CR (reduced loss of yield potential in the presence of crown rot), both of which are part of our strategy. Compared with resistance to CR, we consider tolerance to CR a more worthwhile trait to target because it represents all the processes in the plants leading to better yield performance under high disease pressure. Our approach for developing CR tolerance includes establishment of trial sites in CR prone areas in western NSW and also evaluation of advanced lines for tolerance to CR in inoculated yield trials. A permanent CR disease nursery to screen material for resistance to CR is being established. Molecular markers will be used to provide additional data. Whilst progress is expected to be gradual, these strategies should generate high quality data to conduct effective selection for CR tolerance.