Congratulations to the Royal Society of Tasmania’s Honorary Editor, Council member, and renowned Wildlife Scientist and Conservationist Dr Sally Bryant, on being made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 Australia Day Awards, for “significant service to wildlife and land conservation in Tasmania”.

Sally has worked as a wildlife scientist for over 30 years, initially with the Tasmanian Government, managing threatened species programs, and then as manager for science and planning for the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) until 2019, involving her in the protection of 11 permanent wildlife reserves across Tasmania.

In 1991, Sally authored the Forty-Spotted Pardalote National Recovery Plan for the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water, which aimed to secure major colonies of the forty-spotted pardalote on private land, maintain or increase the amount of potential habitat available to the species and maintain or increase the populations at or above those recorded in 1991.

Sally has authored and co-authored numerous books, chapters, journal papers, technical reports and popular articles on conservation issues, including those for the Royal Society of Tasmania. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at UTas, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Ecological Management & Restoration, and has recently lectured for the Society of the plight of the Forty-Spotted Pardalote.

Sally is probably best known for her popular ABC Radio wildlife talkback programs, which have been running since 1999.

The RST Doctoral Award is intended to recognise recent PhD graduates who have made significant advances in the course of their doctoral research. The value of the award is $1,000 (AUD).

Dr Zhen Zhou has been selected as the winner of the 2022 RST Doctoral Award. Dr Zhou is a medical scientist and completed her PhD at the Menzies Institute of Medical Research, University of Tasmania in 2021. The focus of her PhD research was primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and the use of lipid-lowering medications (known as statins) for elderly people.

Cardiovascular disease is the top killer at the state, national and global levels. Tasmania has scored poorly in heart health, and the risk factors for developing heart problems are among the highest in Australia.

Dr Zhou’s PhD results supported widespread use of statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in older adults, given that this treatment is relatively safe and widely tolerated. However, statin use does not have a mortality benefit and many questions remain. Large, randomised trials over several years are required to fully understand the role of statins. In the meantime, Dr Zhou’s research will inform clinicians making judgments on the appropriateness of prescribing statins to their older patients.

Since graduating, Dr Zhou has taken up a National Heart Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Menzies Institute of Medical Research.

Successful Community Heritage Grants – RST Art Collection

The Royal Society of Tasmania has been successful in gaining funding through the National Library of Australia Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program. The CHG program is an Australia-wide plan helping community organisations preserve locally owned, but nationally significant, Australian cultural heritage collections. The application involved a significant amount of work from the RST Art Fundraising Committee, Honorary Curator and Art Committee.

Gaining a grant from the CHG of $6500 represents an acknowledgement that our collection is of national significance. The grant will be specifically used for a significance assessment, preservation needs assessment, and the purchase of cataloguing software, to help in the management of the collection.

The services of qualified experts in the fields of significance assessment and art conservation have so far been successfully secured, and we look forward to pursuing further opportunities to advance the preservation of the collection using the CHG grant.

The Art Fundraising Committee has also been successful in gaining a $2000 grant from the Community Underwriting Small Grants Program, a yearly initiative of Community Underwriting, an Australian insurance provider for not-for-profit organisations. The grant will provide further contribution to the restoration of the RST Art Collection. Honorary Curator Dr Anita Hansen will work alongside the recently appointed Art Conservator, Amy Bartlett, to identify appropriate works for restoration. Warm appreciation is expressed to both the CHG program and Community Underwriting for their support.

The bulk of the Royal Society of Tasmania Art Collection was assembled from the 1890s, through donation, purchase and exchange, in a deliberate effort by the Society to acquire important Tasmanian cultural items. A recent valuation confirmed the unique nature and importance of many works in the collection. Learn more about the collection here.

See below an example of an artwork needing conservation assessment. At some time, the card mount was pasted to the artwork. Click on the image to see more detail.

Congratulations to long-standing Royal Society of Tasmania member, Professor Trevor McDougall AC, on winning the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, 2022, for his research into the ocean’s role in climate and climate change. This prize recognises outstanding achievements in scientific research and is awarded annually by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The Prime Minister’s Prize for Science is regarded as the most prestigious national award for the advancement of knowledge through science.

Professor McDougall, a global leader in oceanography, is recognised for his discoveries of new ocean mixing processes and his work to redefine the thermodynamic definition of seawater. He has developed a specific temperature variable to track heat transference that has now been adopted internationally, by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, as the new standard for representing heat in marine science.

Professor McDougall has been a Scientia Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW in Sydney since 2012. His undergraduate degree at the University of Adelaide was followed by a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He held an appointment as a physical oceanographer with CSIRO in Hobart for almost thirty years before joining UNSW in 2012. During that period in Hobart, Professor McDougall became a member of the Royal Society of Tasmania. He has previously been awarded both the MR Banks Medal (1998), being an outstanding mid-career researcher, and the Royal Society of Tasmania Medal (2013), being an outstanding scholar who was also an active member of the Society.

The Royal Society of Tasmania owns a large and valuable Art Collection of over 900 artworks. The majority of the collection was acquired by the Society at the end of the nineteenth century in a campaign to collect items reflecting Tasmanian cultural identity. The collection includes works from many famous convict and colonial artists such as Simpkinson de Wesselow, John Skinner Prout, Benjamin Duterrau, Owen Stanley, W.C. Pigeunit and Louisa Anne Meredith. The RST Art Collection is currently housed in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. This collection is of national cultural significance, containing many rare and unique works.

This short video presents an interview with Prof Ross Large, Chair of the RST Art Committee. We extend very warm thanks to film maker Anthos Simon for producing this video.

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More information about the RST Art Collection and its significance is available here.

The Royal Society of Tasmania is proud of its role as the custodian of one of the most significant collections of colonial works on paper in Australia. It is also our responsibility to make sure that these works are repaired, conserved and finally exhibited, and this requires considerable funding. The Gala Fundraising event at Government House on Tuesday 6 September – our most significant fundraiser yet – drew much interest from a large group of those who appreciate the quality of the collection and are supportive of our efforts. A feature of the evening was a commissioned work “Echoes of Van Diemen’s Land” from composer Thomas Rimes which was written as a direct response to a selection of exceptional Tasmanian landscape paintings by Francis Simpkinson de Wesselow – 1819-1906.

We are pleased to provide a short film recording of the event and express our gratitude to film maker Anthos Simon for capturing the evening for us to enjoy and share more widely. Click below to start the video.

A Book Review for The Royal Society of Tasmania by John Williamson

Patrick G. Quilty, 2021 The Dawning of Antarctica: Through Exploration to Occupation, Hobart: Dr Eva Meidl, pp. 474

This splendid, comprehensive, compendium of every aspect of Antarctic history is a very welcome addition for all scholars of the southern continent. Professor Patrick Quilty AM was Chief Scientist for the Australian Antarctic Division for 18 years and devoted much of his later years to writing this vast and authoritative book on the human history of the Antarctic continent.

Quilty states that his aim for the book is to “summarise … the human history of the exploration of the Antarctic prior to the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957—1958”, and indeed he is able to accomplish this in minute, complex detail. He explains for us the early perceptions of what and where Antarctica was. He examines the role of James Cook through a thorough and authoritative assessment of his second voyage and the circumnavigation of Antarctica. The author is at pains to explain the various claims and counter claims of early Antarctic explorers and his in-depth analysis of logs and journals is impressive as he places those claims as accurately as is possible onto modern maps. For example, the way Quilty analyses von Bellingshausen’s interpretations of the coast, and compares them with a modern map of the South Sandwich Islands, clarifies, for modern readers and researchers, how early explorers charted the coastline they saw – or thought they saw – and to which parts of Antarctica these actually refer. This requires very good understanding of the original logs and journals of 19^th century explorers. Sir Guy Green, in his fine Foreword to this book, notes how thoroughly and successfully Professor Quilty locates, interprets and utilises these primary sources.

Quilty deals in a balanced way with a wide range of issues: the quality and immensity of Thaddeus von Bellingshausen’s voyage in the Southern Ocean; the “Hollow Earth” theories of the early 19^th century and the realities of islands and land that were thought (incorrectly) to exist. His writing on the three major national expeditions during the middle of the 19^th century (US, French and British), is clear about the challenges they faced and the success they nevertheless achieved. Quilty’s maps of the journeys of these three significant expeditions, are immensely satisfying as they are clear, accurate and they point out locational problem areas and suggest solutions to geographical issues that have arisen. This is analytical history at its best and it is a reflection of Quilty’s vast store of knowledge gleaned over many decades of research.

The organisation of this book signposts themes with appropriate headings, with images and maps set in the text to which they refer. His decision to divide the so-called “heroic era” into sub-sections is well advised. This allows Quilty to provide correct weighting not only to the much-referenced expeditions of Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen and Mawson, but also to those whose journeys are often ignored: Charcot, Bruce, Nordenskjöld and Wilkins. The early 20^th century years of exploration are the key moments of this volume. Told with verve and rigour, these voyages become even more fascinating as Quilty examines the complexity of the individuals involved as well as providing an assessment of their scientific and geographical achievements. While managing to avoid controversy over issues such as Scott’s management in a crisis or Amundsen’s actions in going south instead of to the north, Quilty nonetheless makes his views clear and is not afraid of examining the behaviour and leadership of these explorers. His summation of the differing styles of leadership (pp. 234–235) is masterly. There are, throughout the book, excellent biographies of principal characters such as Scott, Shackleton, Wilkins, Byrd et al. and these are generous and fair but show that the author is not blind to the flaws in each personality. These chapters are supported by accurate maps, diagrams and reproductions of paintings which add to the intellectual complexity of this substantial monograph.

The concluding chapters, which discuss the years of World War II and the decades leading up to, and including, the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY), are particularly thoughtful, because this is the era with which Quilty had the closest association. He refines our focus on the major scientific drivers of change of that period examining the great importance of the IGY and this provides a strong basis for his general discussion of internationally co-ordinated research in Antarctica. Of course, Professor Quilty’s own research endeavours on the southern continent provide substance to his analysis. It would be hasty to say that it is a pity the book does not develop the story past 1958; but that is merely disappointment on our part that we do not have Professor Quilty’s version of recent events.

Twelve years in the making, this book has been a labour of love, necessity and great scholarship by Professor Quilty. His passion for Antarctic history is obvious.  It is also appropriate that we offer our sincere thanks to those who so carefully edited, after the author’s death, his vast array of text and maps – Margaret Davies, June Pongratz and Eva Meidl. Professor Quilty has left us a fitting legacy and, as Hobart continues to develop its reputation as a major global hub for Antarctic Science, this volume will take its place as one of the most important set of readings on human activity on the ice. Professor Quilty was a world class scientist, and the publication of this book will confirm, in addition, his reputation as an historian of significance.

John Williamson
Hobart, 2022

A Book Review for The Royal Society of Tasmania by John Williamson

Adrian Tinniswood, The Royal Society and the Invention of Modern Science, New York: Basic Books, 2019, pp. 129

This small gem of a book (129 pp.) provides an approachable examination of how the Royal Society came to exist during the 17^th century and what factors allowed it to continue. Tinniswood makes it clear that two factors – the storm of fascination at this time in science and experimentation in Europe and the UK, as well as the patronage of King Charles II – were both vital in the foundation of the Society. The author is both an academic historian and a writer of general and popular history works who has a gift for making clear what, in the hands of others, could become confusing.

The early chapters show how the 1600s were a period during which medieval ideas of science and reality were being overthrown. Developments in Mathematics, Astronomy, Biology and Physics changed the way in which society viewed nature and how new experimental methods challenged earlier concepts and ideas. The Society, Tinniswood explains, grew out of two separate movements – the first was the ‘Great Club’ at Wadham College, Oxford which developed into a haven for ‘experimental philosophy’. A club was set up there that would attract some of the great minds of the age: members from Oxford University included Robert Hooke (microscopist, architect), Christopher Wren (architect, astronomer), Seth Ward (astronomer), Robert Wood (mathematician), and John Wallis.

The second movement that initiated the Society, as outlined by Tinniswood, was a series of informal weekly meetings of academics from both Cambridge and Oxford in the unsettled years before and during the English Civil War. With the revival of monarchy in 1660, these meetings began to take on a more formal structure: held at Gresham College, London, their discussions centred on the newest ideas in science and reviewed the most recent experiments. This revolution in science – ‘advancement through experimentation and ocular inspection’ – was all the more remarkable as most people in Europe at that time, believed in witchcraft and magic. According to Tinniswood, the Royal Society actually created the Scientific Revolution. Although this may be too large a claim, it is true that these scientists were absolutely vital in that 17^th century revolution of ideas.

The author explains that the new King, Charles II, a supporter, provided them with a Royal Charter in 1662. John Evelyn, another early member, provided the now, ‘Royal’, Society’s motto Nullius in verba — ‘Take no-one’s word for it’. This was an indication that the Society’s Fellows were determined to withstand the domination of (ecclesiastical) authority and to ‘verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment’.

What did the Royal Society do? Tinniswood is at pains to answer this. Initially suggestions of possible experiments were made by members, many of which were actually carried out and then they were written up formally and accurately so that they became a permanent record. By 1665 this record had developed into the Philosophical Transactions, the world’s first and longest continuously published scientific journal. Of this in 1870, the English biologist, T.H. Huxley said, “if all the books in the world, except the [Royal Society’s] Philosophical Transactions were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of the physical science would remain unshaken”.

Later chapters describe the changing location of the Royal Society, the problems that the Society encountered in attempting to choose high quality members and Fellows, and the difficulties the Royal Society faced in dealing with critics at Universities and in the Church. But, Tinniswood assures us, “by the end of the 19^th century the Society, after overcoming much opposition and indifference, had realised the aims of its founders, and at last had become an institution for promoting natural science”.

The author objectively outlines the problems faced by the Society over the centuries and how their handling of these issues was not always perfect. There are several references made to the role of foreign members and Fellows, as well as to the women who have been involved in the Society. Although these sections do seem a bit cursory – in a book of this diminutive size this is understandable – they constitute a very affirmative step.

Tinniswood’s explanations of even very complex issues are lucid and enlightening. The end notes for each chapter are accurate and thorough, the index is clear and the bibliography provides an excellent guide to the Scientific Revolution of the 17^th century. This small monograph charts the evolution of one of the world’s great institutions for the advancement of knowledge and the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

Selected References

Tinniswood, A (2019) The Royal Society and the Invention of Modern Science, New York: Basic Books, pp.129

National Museum of Australia, ‘The Royal Society of London’, https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/exploration-and-endeavour/royal-society-london

Wilton, P (2 February, 2010), ‘Oxford and the Royal Society’s Origins’, https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/oxford-and-royal-society%E2%80%99s-origins

John Williamson
February, 2022

These beautifully bound notebooks feature a choice of three cover images from the Society’s rare art and book collection.

Click here to go to the online shop for immediate purchase.