Doherty Institute lead scientist Julian Druce, who was there with Dr Catton at the moment of discovery, described it as a significant development in the global understanding of the virus, and for the response to it.
"This will be a game changer for other labs within Australia," Dr Druce said.
Growing the virus will also help experts understand more about how coronavirus behaves.
The Doherty Institute is the second lab in the world to copy the disease. A lab in China was the first, but did not share its discovery with the WHO.
However, the same lab released images of the genetic sequence of the disease, which helped scientists at the Doherty Institute copy it.
Dr Druce said scientists at the institute had been working hard to understand more about the illness, which has already claimed at least 106 lives in China and infected another 4,200 people worldwide.
"It's been 10-12 hour days, 2:00am finishes; so it's been pretty full on," he said.
"We've designed and planned for an exercise like this for many years. This is what the Doherty Institute was built for.
"And that's really why we're able to get an answer from Friday to [Wednesday of] diagnosis, detection, sequencing, and isolation."
