The lecture “Little bird of lutruwita: Saving Tasmania’s forty-spotted pardalote” delivered on 19 June 2022 is now available on the RST YouTube channel.

Once found on King Island and the eastern half of Tasmania, the forty-spotted pardalote is one of only ten Australian bird species now extinct from over 90% of its former range. Listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and Federal and State legislation, this tiny woodland specialist is intrinsically linked to one eucalypt type, making it highly vulnerable and often out-competed as more aggressive species continue to spread.

Described as one of the world’s most unique birds by being able to stimulate its own food resource, survival of the forty-spotted pardalote in a rapidly changing climate has never been more precarious.

After graduating from UTAS in 1989, Dr Sally Bryant worked for 18 years as a wildlife scientist for the Tasmanian Government, seven as Manager of the Threatened Species Section. In 2009 she joined the Tasmanian Land Conservancy to develop their science and monitoring program and build their network of private reserves which now span over 30,000 ha.

Sally has travelled widely researching island species especially threatened birds and has authored and co-authored several books, chapters and numerous scientific papers and technical reports on wildlife conservation. In 2020 she became an Honorary Research Fellow with the TLC, Editor of the Journal Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania and is perhaps best known through her popular ABC Radio wildlife talkback program delivered fortnightly since 1999. She is a passionate advocate for Tasmania’s wildlife and Chair of the Forty-spotted Pardalote National Recovery Team.

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a webinar at 5 pm on 7 August 2022 featuring talks by the two RST Doctoral Award winners in 2021, Dr Pratiksha Srivastava (engineer) and Dr Rhondda Waterworth (psychologist and lawyer).

Dr Srivastava is now based in Spain and Dr Waterworth is based in France, so these presentations will be online only.

PLEASE NOTE THE WEBINAR START TIME IS 5 PM.

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

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Dr Pratiksha Srivastava

Dr Pratiksha Srivastava is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain. She completed her PhD at the National Centre for Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics, Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research focus is on microbe-electrode interaction for the development of sustainable technologies. She has made a major contribution to the development of electrode-dependent anaerobic ammonium oxidation in constructed wetlands coupled with microbial electrochemical technology. This research gained considerable attention among scientists. Her sustainability research led to the prestigious Green Talent Award from the German Federal Ministry in 2017. She has also been awarded a Nuffic Fellowship, from the Netherlands, and many other competitive national and international grants. She has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles.

“Electron exchange between living and non-living things for developing sustainability in the environment”

The energy for all life forms comes from the flow of electrons in energetically favourable pairings of oxidation and reduction reactions. Although most living organisms use soluble oxidants and reductants, some microbes can access solid-phase materials as electron-acceptors or donors via extracellular microbial electron transfer. A better understanding of extracellular microbial electron transfer can lead us to further technological applications such as an efficient wastewater treatment, electricity generation, bioelectronics, biochemical production, detoxification of harmful compounds, and biofuels generation for achieving sustainability in the environment.

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Dr Rhondda Waterworth

Dr Rhondda Waterworth is an Australian lawyer and psychologist. She has 14 years’ experience working with families, teenagers and children, in government funded health services, and in private practice. She has spent at least five years working with dangerous offenders. 

Rhondda completed a PhD in the Schools of Psychology and Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania in therapeutic jurisprudence and ways in which the courts and magistrates can be more effective therapeutically within courtrooms to prevent reoffending.

She is the author of several articles on magistrate interventions and the use of health and legal systems to intervene for offending behaviour for those with mental health problems, trauma. She has also published articles on opportunities and techniques for applying therapeutic jurisprudence in criminal courts. One of these has been incorporated into a handbook for magistrates.

Rhondda is currently resident in France and works in private practice as well as lecturing at the Catholic University of Lyon. 

“The therapeutic potential of magistrates and court systems”

The complex interface between health and legal systems is constantly on display in courtrooms. Magistrate behaviour and courtroom interactions have the potential to significantly affect outcomes for offenders and the wider community. This influence is especially strong for offenders experiencing mental illness, social disadvantage, drug addiction, or other endemic social problems. Insightful courtcraft can transform magistrate roles so they become drivers for therapeutic change. This approach requires identifying desirable magistrate behaviours and incorporating those behaviours in magistrate training.

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RST members and guests are invited to this joint event organised by the Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) and Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE).

Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay
7 to 9 pm, Thursday 7 July

Complimentary refreshments will be served in the foyer from 6 pm. Please note that for in-person attendees, the wearing of masks is encouraged and temperature screening is mandatory.

Both in-person attendees and those wishing to participate by livestream are required to register using this link.

Australia’s marine territory is vast, pristine and protected. It harbours the next generation of environmentally responsible resources and products – think bioplastics made from kelp, complementary medicines made from seaweed, beauty products extracted from fish roe. The Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Centre (MBCRC) and Australian biotechnology company Marinova are dedicated to growing marine resources, developing new processes that utilise those resources and creating new marine bioproducts that are market-ready.

The event will feature four short presentations followed by a panel discussion and question-and-answer session. 

• John Gunn FTSE (ATSE Chair Tasmanian Division): Introduction and global context for marine bioproducts
• Dr Justin Coombs (CEO Marine Bioproducts CRC): Scope and vision for Marine Bioproducts CRC
• Prof Catriona Macleod (Interim Executive Director IMAS): The Tasmanian context – opportunities for and from Tasmania
• Paul Garrott (Managing Director Marinova): The Marinova story: manufacturing sustainable biotechnologies

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The Royal Society of Tasmania
Mid-Winter Dinner and Lecture
14 July 2022
Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania

Mid-Winter Dinner

RST members and guests are invited to the 2022 Mid-Winter Dinner. Please arrive at 5:30 pm to enjoy a welcoming drink and to be seated at a dining table by 5:50 pm for your dinner order to be taken.

Follow this link to the Acceptance Form. Note that bookings close on Thursday 7 July.

Lecture: “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”

Art historian Dr Anita Hansen and Royal Society researcher Marley Large will talk about their three years exploring the Royal Society of Tasmania Art Collection.

Researching an art collection is full of adventure and excitement: a previously undiscovered document is found hiding in the archives; the thrill of seeing an artwork for the first time – but it is also about countless hours spent trawling through old documents, minutes, letters, books, notes and receipts.

There are nearly one thousand artworks in the Society’s collection – mostly colonial works on paper and each one has its own story and what stories they can tell:

• The fascination of newly encountered fauna and flora
• The consequences of colonisation
• The extraordinary landscapes
• Convict days
• The early settlers

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Dr Anita Hansen

Anita Hansen (Honorary Curator, the Royal Society of Tasmania Art Collection) has been an artist all her life, working in Tasmania, interstate and overseas. She holds a PhD (UTAS) Nineteenth Century Natural History Art and Belonging in Tasmania, a MFA (UTAS) The Illustrations and Work of William Archer, a Graduate Diploma in Plant and Wildlife Illustration (University of Newcastle) and a BFA (UTAS). Anita co-edited The Royal Society of Tasmania’s book The Library at the End of the World: Natural Science and Its Illustrators and Poles Apart, and has published a number of journal articles. Anita has been a committee member of the Plimsoll Gallery and has curated exhibitions in Tasmania and interstate. Anita continues to serve on the Society’s Art Committee.

Marley Large

Marley Large (Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Tasmania), has completed research projects for the Royal Society including an investigation of their records to support their Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal People and a major project investigating records relating to the RST artworks. Marley, along with Dr Anita Hansen, was a member of the Joint RST-TMAG Artworks Committee, researching the provenance of the Society’s Art Collection. Marley and Anita were fortunate to examine each of over nine hundred items in the Collection during their research. Through the years of research, they were able to connect most of the artworks to records about them held in the Society’s Library at the Special and Rare Collection at UTAS. Marley’s interest in art developed when studying for a history degree; she was exposed to and came to understand some of the many subtleties, sensitivities, crude statements and areas in between, in the relationship between art and history. Marley continues to serve on the Society’s Art Committee.

The lecture “Geology, landscape and European settlement: small things meant a lot” is now available on the RST YouTube channel.

Historical accounts of the first European responses to Australian landscapes rarely mention the ways that their decisions were influenced by the terrain. This talk is about the role that geology and landscape played in the places chosen for permanent European settlements in Australia, and in the earliest land-use choices made as they adapted to their new environments. The most historically significant sites of first European settlement are now occupied by the modern central business districts of Australia’s largest cities and are now intensely urbanised and modified landscapes. Using examples from Hobart, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, it will be shown that despite the intensity of two centuries of urban development and landscape modification, the geology and pre-European landscapes of these places had a profound influence on their early development. It will also be shown that the effects of the original landforms remain deeply embedded in the modern urban landscapes.

Tony is a Hobart-based consulting geologist working with GeoDiscovery Group Ltd. He has spent over 30 years in the mining industry, academia and government, working in and around several historically significant base metal and gold mines, including Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie, Zeehan, Mount Farrell, and Rosebery (Hercules). Tony started his career as an underground mine geologist on the Golden Mile (Fimiston) but has since worked in a variety of roles, including mining heritage, environmental regulation and research roles in Tasmania and Queensland. Tony has particular skills in structural geology, historic data compilation and analysis, and the geological interpretation of complex mineralised systems.

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites all members and supporters to a lecture on Sunday 19 June 2022, at 3 pm by Dr Sally Bryant. The lecture will be presented at the Royal Society of Tasmania Lecture Room in TMAG (entrance off Dunn Place, Hobart) and as a Zoom webinar.

If you wish to attend in person: Register using Eventbrite before 4 pm Saturday 18 June using this link.

Attendance is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. Non-members are welcome to attend and donations are appreciated at the door or through our website . Suggested donation $6; $4 for students and Friends of TMAG.

If you wish to attend 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.

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Once found on King Island and the eastern half of Tasmania, the forty-spotted pardalote is one of only ten Australian bird species now extinct from over 90% of its former range. Listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and Federal and State legislation, this tiny woodland specialist is intrinsically linked to one eucalypt type, making it highly vulnerable and often out-competed as more aggressive species continue to spread.

Described as one of the world’s most unique birds by being able to stimulate its own food resource, survival of the forty-spotted pardalote in a rapidly changing climate has never been more precarious.

After graduating from UTAS in 1989, Dr Sally Bryant worked for 18 years as a wildlife scientist for the Tasmanian Government, seven as Manager of the Threatened Species Section. In 2009 she joined the Tasmanian Land Conservancy to develop their science and monitoring program and build their network of private reserves which now span over 30,000 ha.

Sally has travelled widely researching island species especially threatened birds and has authored and co-authored several books, chapters and numerous scientific papers and technical reports on wildlife conservation. In 2020 she became an Honorary Research Fellow with the TLC, Editor of the Journal Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania and is perhaps best known through her popular ABC Radio wildlife talkback program delivered fortnightly since 1999. She is a passionate advocate for Tasmania’s wildlife and Chair of the Forty-spotted Pardalote National Recovery Team.

The lecture “Understanding Early Earth Environments” is now available on the RST YouTube channel.

The transition of a simple cell into a complex one, billions of years ago, is the reason we share the planet with millions of species today. Indrani Mukherjee’s research focuses on “what drove that biological transition?” The approach involves a nuanced understanding of ancient marine environments, via novel and cutting-edge geochemical techniques.

Indrani earned her BSc Honours and Masters in Geology at the University of Delhi where she was also awarded the university gold medal for securing the highest marks in MSc. She completed her PhD at UTas in 2018 where she is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher in Earth Sciences, and was awarded the 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Award.