The Royal Society of Tasmania

The advancement of knowledge

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What made Tasmania?

A public lecture to celebrate the centenary of the Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania

The Royal Society of Tasmania, Northern Branch, invites you to a public lecture on Sunday 27th June 2021 at 1.15pm by geologist and mineralogist, Ralph Bottrill.

Ralph Bottrill

He will deliver a lecture entitled “What made Tasmania?“.

If you wish to attend the lecture in person ​at the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk, you must register in advance due to COVID rules. You can do so by sending an email to apcachris@gmail.com or by phone on 0417 330 118. Do so early to guarantee a seat.

Alternatively you may view the lecture remotely via ZOOM. In this case you must also register in advance in ZOOM. This has nothing to do with COVID. It simply ensures that you receive an email containing instructions for joining the webinar on the day of the talk. Click here to register for ZOOM.

Click here to view the latest flyer for the event and print if necessary.

To commemorate the inaugural meeting of the Northern Branch on 27 June 1921 delivered by the Government Geologist, Loftus-Hills, this lecture will revisit the subject of geology but with the focus on developments in Tasmanian geology.

The geology of Tasmania is very ancient, complex, highly mineralised and controversial, and most of the west was poorly understood, until in recent decades the mapping, dating and information compilation coordinated by the Tasmanian Geological Survey (Mineral Resources Tasmania) has enabled us to get much greater understanding, and produce detailed maps of most of it, despite the largely difficult terrain and complexity.

Ralph Bottrill has an MSc in geology, and is a geologist and mineralogist, living near Hobart. He has worked for 36 years at Mineral Resources Tasmania where he manages the labs and rock collections and studies various Tasmanian mineral deposits, rocks and minerals. He is also an associate curator for minerals with the Tasmanian Museum and the Queen Victoria Museum.

Generously supported by  

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Impact of Plastics on Marine Wildlife

The Royal Society of Tasmania, Northern Branch, invites you to a public lecture on Sunday 23 May 2021 at 1.30pm by Dr Jennifer Lavers.

Dr Jennifer Lavers

She will deliver a lecture on “Impact of Plastics on Marine Wildlife“.

If you wish to attend the lecture in person you must register in advance due to COVID rules. You can do so by sending an email to apcachris@gmail.com or by phone on 0417 330 118. Do so early to guarantee a seat.

Alternatively you may view the lecture remotely via ZOOM. In this case you must also register in advance in ZOOM. This has nothing to do with COVID. It simply ensures that you receive an email containing instructions for joining the webinar on the day of the talk. Click here to register for ZOOM.

Click here to view the latest flyer for the event and print if necessary.

Plastic has only been mass produced since approximately the 1950s, yet debris is now ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial environments, from the Arctic to the Antarctic and from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Remarkably, the impact all this debris is having on species, habitats, and the ecosystem as a whole is poorly understood. Much of what we do know has been documented for seabirds and remote islands.

The presentation will highlight Australia’s contributions to this emerging and important field of research.

Dr Lavers is a Lecturer in Marine Science at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania. Her research focuses on understanding how remote islands and seabirds can act as bio-indicators of ocean health, particularly in relation to plastic pollution. She teaches a number of ecology-focused courses and coordinates Adrift Lab, a team of scientists who mentor graduate students through the research process.

Generously supported by  

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The Messiness of Colonial Exploration and Cartography

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to attend this lecture by Dr Imogen Wegman on Sunday 2nd May 2021 at 3 pm.

Dr Imogen Wegman

The lecture will be presented in person at the RST Lecture Room in TMAG (Hobart) and as a Zoom webinar. This lecture is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania.  Non-members are welcome to attend and donations are appreciated through our website or at the door. Suggested donation $6; $4 for students and Friends of TMAG.

Attendance in person: Attendance in person is limited by current pandemic restrictions to 20. Please register for the in-person lecture using this link. The password is “RST”. Eventbrite registrations close at midday on Saturday 1st May.

Attendance via ZOOM: Follow this link to register for the Zoom webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Abstract

Two years after the British established the colony of Van Diemen’s Land, the government surveyor George Prideaux Harris begged his brother to send “all the paper you can muster”. Harris was charged with recording the details of a fledgling colony, but paper was “very scarce and dear”. This was life on the colonial front-line. In order to understand the visual records of exploration, we must also consider the circumstances of their creation: the constraints, expectations, and purposes of the surviving maps. This talk focuses on the messiness of exploration, as captured in the messiness of written forms. Inadequate equipment was translated into corrections, unruly labourers became inaccurate boundary lines, and vegetation froze into simple sketches. These charts were a mechanism of indigenous alienation, but they also captured the landscape before it was usurped by European ideas. With careful analysis it is possible to unpick some of the story.

Biography

Having grown up in Hobart, Imogen has a strong connection to her island home. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Tasmania, before moving to the UK to join the University of East Anglia’s Landscape History MA program. Her dissertation examined the creation of ‘isolated’ parish churches – those that stand in the middle of a field, far from their village. She returned to Tasmania to complete a PhD in History at UTAS, examining the differences between land grants given to convicts and free settlers. Her research continues to examine the practicalities of life in the early years of a colony, using digital tools such as GIS (mapping) to understand the historic landscape and extract its stories. Imogen is now a Lecturer in History at UTAS, teaching into the Diploma of Family History and the Bachelor of Arts. She continues to nerd out about maps with her students, teaching them how to find and interpret them for their own research.

RST Medal presentation and Governor’s Lecture, Government House

Royal Society of Tasmania


Medal presentation and lecture delivered by
Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC Governor of Tasmania


Government House Hobart

On Tuesday 16 March 2021, members of the Royal Society of Tasmania met at Government House as guests of Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mr Richard Warner AM.

The evening was devoted to RST medal presentations and a lecture by Her Excellency. President Mary Koolhof summarised the history and intentions of the two medals to be awarded, the Clive Lord Medal and the MR Banks Medal.

The Clive Lord Medal is awarded to a scholar distinguished for research in Tasmanian science or Tasmanian history. Clive Lord was an acclaimed naturalist, a stalwart of the Royal Society of Tasmania and a director of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The 2019 winner is Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick AM, Distinguished Professor in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania. Professor Kirkpatrick’s career has been devoted to helping students learn about nature, researching its characteristics and conservation, and engaging with wider society on issues of conservation reserves and the natural environment. His Clive Lord Lecture “Cyclic dynamics in Tasmanian high mountain treeless vegetation” can be viewed on the RST YouTube channel.

The Clive Lord Medal being presented to Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick AM by Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC.
Note: Contactless COVID-compliant medal presentation!

The MR Banks Medal is awarded to an outstanding mid-career researcher in any field. It is named in honour of past Society President and tireless supporter, the late Dr Max Banks. In 2019 for the first time in the medal’s history, there were two MR Banks medallists: Associate Professor Arko Lucieer and Dr Eloise Foo.

Professor Lucieer leads the TerraLuma research group at the University of Tasmania, focusing on the development and application of drones, sensor integration, and image processing techniques for environmental, agricultural, and high-precision aerial mapping applications. His MR Banks Medal lecture, “From Surface to Satellites – how remote sensing from drones advances our understanding of plant biodiversity” is available for viewing on the RST YouTube channel .  

Dr Eloise Foo established a new research area at the University of Tasmania examining the role of plant hormones in plant-microbe symbioses. Her research contributes to an Australia-wide effort seeking to harness the power of plants for improving agricultural and ecological outcomes. Her MR Banks Lecture, “Dating in the dark – The underground world of beneficial plant-microbe relationships” is also available for viewing on the RST YouTube channel.

The Clive Lord Medal winner, Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick (left), RST President Mary Koolhof, and MR Banks Medal winners, Associate Professor Arko Lucieer (beside Mary) and Dr Eloise Foo (inset).

Following the medal presentations, Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania, delivered a lecture entitled “Improving literacy and education standards in Tasmania”. The lecture was based largely on Her Excellency’s involvement with the Basics project, the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment, Connect42, 26Ten and Child and Family Centres around the state since becoming Governor. The full text of the lecture is available here .

RST President Mary Koolhof thanking Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC for her lecture and for hosting the Royal Society of Tasmania.

Telling the stories of kanamaluka

The Royal Society of Tasmania, Northern Branch, invites you to a public lecture on Sunday 25 April 2021 at 1.30pm by Dr Christine Hansen.

She will deliver a lecture on “Telling the stories of kanamaluka, the Tamar River“.

To view remotely via ZOOM: Register in advance by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

To attend the lecture in person: Due to COVID restrictions, registration will be required – by phone 0417 330 118
or email to apcachris@gmail.com

Click here to view the latest flyer for the event and print if necessary.

kanamaluka/Tamar River (estuary) is a fascinating water way: a complex ecosystem, a unique hydrological phenomenon and a major factor in the founding of Launceston. It is also a magnet for passionate debate and strong opinion. While discussion about its future rages in public, behind the scenes QVMAG is preparing a new gallery that celebrates life above and below the water.

Dr Christine Hansen is the current Manager of Knowledge and Content at QVMAG.  She arrived in Launceston from Sweden where she was a scholar in the Centre for Environmental Humanities at Gothenburg University and worked for the Swedish National Museum of World Cultures.  She has a PhD in History from the Australian National University and these days proudly calls herself a ‘Tasmanian.’

Generously supported by  

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