Nth Branch Lectures Archive

The peril of naming things

The Northern Branch of Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a public lecture by Dr Eric Ratcliff OAM at 1.30 pm on Sunday 26 February 2023 in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Launceston, or via Zoom webinar.

Admission is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. General admission – $6, Students, QVMAG and TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society – $4. Full COVID vaccination and the wearing of face masks are highly desirable.

Please register for the Zoom webinar using this link.

Naming things, an ancient human activity that enables us to make sense of our surroundings, carries a risk of distorting our perceptions of them. The success of the Linnaean system influenced attempts to label other phenomena, both natural and man-made. Some effects of this are illustrated through the speaker’s interests in nosology and architectural history.

Dr Ratcliff is a senior consultant psychiatrist and a recognised authority on the social and stylistic history of architecture in Tasmania during the extended nineteenth century. He first delivered this lecture at Government House in 2022 after being presented with the Royal Society Medal by Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, Governor of Tasmania.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Allison Trimble – September 2022

How much legal knowledge do school principals have, and how accurate is it? This presentation is based on a PhD study conducted in Tasmania concerning the impact of legal issues on school principals and their schools. It examines the legal literacy of Tasmanian government, Catholic and Independent school principals and asks whether they should really become lawyers.

Allison is a researcher in the School of Education at the University of Tasmania, based in Launceston. She has qualified in both Law and Education and combines those professional interests in her research on Education Law. In 2018 Allison was awarded the Australia and New Zealand Education Law Association Anne Shorten Prize for her PhD thesis, Education Law, Schools and School Principals.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Mike Pook – October 2022

The location of Tasmania exposes the island to climate influences from the tropics and subtropics to the north and the Southern Ocean and Antarctica to the south. This presentation will identify the dominant climate drivers in the region and interpret how their interactions contribute to climate variability in Tasmania on seasonal, interannual and longer timescales. The distinction between climate and weather will be discussed.

Mike Pook is an Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere. He worked as a meteorologist in Australia and Papua New Guinea before becoming a senior forecaster in Hobart and spent a summer at Casey in Antarctica. After completing a PhD at the University of Tasmania he became an academic, science communicator and administrator at the Antarctic CRC until taking up a research scientist position with CSIRO. Mike was ABC Tasmania’s TV weather presenter for approximately 18 years from 1985 to the end of 2002.

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery: a catalyst for cultural activation

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a public lecture at 1.30 pm on Sunday 27 November 2022 by Shane Fitzgerald, City of Launceston General Manager Creative Arts and Cultural Services, in the Meeting Room of QVMAG (Inveresk). Full COVID vaccination and the wearing of face masks are highly desirable.

Admission is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The charge is $4 for students, QVMAG Friends, TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society. For all others, admission is $6.

You may if you wish view the lecture remotely via ZOOM. In this case you must register in advance to ensure 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.

How can QVMAG become a sustainable, dynamic and accessible cultural and economic driver for Launceston, the northern region and the state? Join Shane Fitzgerald as he discusses the recently released QVMAG Futures Plan and shares insight into this imaginative and bold vision for one of Launceston’s most treasured institutions.

Mr Fitzgerald holds a Masters in Visual Arts and several qualifications in Museum Studies. He has held leadership roles in museums and art galleries in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, most recently as head of Production at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. He is a strong advocate for making culture accessible to all audiences.

Generously supported by

View a recording of the lecture by northern PhD candidates – August 2022

Rhys Tanton has been investigating the drying processes of Tasmanian Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon (R.Br). His research has found correlation between environmental factors and discoloration; he aims to identify causes, and methods to minimize process induced discoloration.

Rhys is a second year PhD researcher at UTas with Dr Mark Dewsbury and Dr Kyra Wood. Prior to undertaking RHD studies Rhys had worked within town planning and computational Geographic information mapping within Australia and the United Kingdom. Rhys is following his passion to improve the recovery rates and sustainable us of plantation timber.

Freya Su investigates climate data and its current relevance for hygrothermal simulation. In the new climate era with more intense storms and longer periods of rainy weather, wind-driven rain is becoming more common. However, rain data is not currently included in most Australian hygrothermal analyses; ignoring it is no longer an option.

Freya is a PhD student in Mark Dewsbury’s architectural science lab at the University of Tasmania. Before embarking on her current studies, she assisted Mark in his lab and co-authored publications about condensation. In 2015, Freya founded Snug House Tasmania, conducting airtightness testing and energy efficiency assessments in a multi-disciplinary building design studio.

Jack Tan’s research explores retrofitting to improve existing Australian dwellings towards near net-zero goals, focusing on local and international Indoor Environmental Qualities standards and green rating tools. The research goal is to inform energy efficiency and health and wellbeing impacts on Tasmania’s pre-2004 timber housing.

Jack is in his second year PhD research at UTAS with Dr Mark Dewsbury and Dr Philippa Watson. He is a registered architect with the Board of Architects Singapore, the Design Director at UVEST architecture studio and a member of Singapore Institute of Architects (SMAP) committee with 25+ years’ experience in the private sectors.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Peter McGoldrick – August 2022

Darwin was puzzled by the paucity of fossils in Precambrian rocks. Twelve years ago, a new occurrence of an enigmatic Precambrian macrofossil (Horodyskia – ‘string of beads’) was described from a quarry near Balfour. The first Horodyskia fossils were found in Montana, and the Tasmanian occurrence is now known to be of similar age. This talk will describe the Tasmanian Horodyskia discovery and geological (and historical) links between Tasmania and Montana. Some results from recent Balfour field work will be presented, emphasising the importance of the site for, perhaps, solving ‘Darwin’s dilemma’.

Peter McGoldrick is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences/CODES at the University of Tasmania. He taught undergraduate earth science and led research teams investigating supergiant sediment-hosted zinc-lead and copper deposits found in Precambrian rocks in Australia and Zambia. He now helps lead the ‘FrOTHies’ research group at UTas.

Living with climate variability – the Tasmanian experience

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania invite you to a public lecture at 1.30 pm on Sunday 23 October 2022 by Dr Mike Pook, in the Meeting Room of QVMAG (Inveresk). Full COVID vaccination and the wearing of face masks are encouraged.

Admission is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The charge is $4 for students, QVMAG Friends, TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society. For all others, admission is $6.

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

Inaugural Elvin Fist Lecture:
School Principals and School Law

The Royal Society of Tasmania, Northern Branch, invites you to a public lecture by Dr Allison Trimble at 1.30 pm on Sunday 25 September 2022 in the Meeting Room of QVMAG (Inveresk). Full COVID vaccination and the wearing of face masks are highly desirable for anyone attending in person.

Admission is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The charge is $4 for students, QVMAG Friends, TMAG Friends, and members of Launceston Historical Society. For all others, admission is $6.

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

Elvin Fist has been associated with the Northern branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania in various roles since the 1960s when he became a regular attendee at meetings along with colleagues from the staff of the Launceston Teachers’ College and later the TCAE/TSIT. Elvin was Chairman of the branch in 1995. He continued to be active into the early years of this century. He was Acting Chair in 2006, moving to Secretary the next year continuing in that role until 2010.

It is appropriate in honouring Elvin Fist to name a lecture about Education after him. Elvin spent his professional life in a variety of settings across the State. The major part of his career was as a teacher-educator involved in leadership roles in the Launceston Teachers’ College and its successors, TCAE and TSIT, which later merged into the new University of Tasmania, Newnham campus.

From Mouldy Houses
to Drying Timber

The Royal Society of Tasmania, Northern Branch, invites you to a public lecture at 1.30 pm on Sunday 28 August 2022 by three current PhD candidates with the Centre for Architectural Science Tasmania (CAST), in the Meeting Room of QVMAG (Inveresk). Full COVID vaccination and the wearing of face masks are highly desirable for anyone attending in person.

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

Dr Mark Dewsbury will briefly introduce the Centre for Architectural Science Tasmania (CAST). This will be followed by presentations by following current PhD candidates.

Mark is passionate about sustainable design of commercial and residential buildings. His research activities have included contract research for CSIRO, Federal and State Government Agencies, Forest & Wood Products Australia and industry collaborators. His research focuses on methods to improve the construction, thermal performance, energy use, IEQ and condensation risk analysis within and for Australian buildings

Rhys Tanton has been investigating the drying processes of Tasmanian Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon (R.Br). His research has found correlation between environmental factors and discoloration; he aims to identify causes, and methods to minimize process induced discoloration.

Jack Tan’s research explores retrofitting to improve existing Australian dwellings towards near net-zero goals, focusing on local and international Indoor Environmental Qualities standards and green rating tools. The research goal is to inform energy efficiency and health and wellbeing impacts on Tasmania’s pre-2004 timber housing.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Charles Connor – June 2022

DNA profiling is currently considered the gold standard in human identification. But just how reliable is DNA profiling, and Forensic Science in general, and should the public have any reason for concern about what is presented in Tasmanian courts? What techniques are used in criminal and coronial cases here in Tasmania? Is it just like what we see on television?

Dr Connor is a senior Forensic Scientist at Forensic Science Service Tasmania, specialising in the examination of crime scenes, biological testing and DNA profiling, and is an Advanced Bloodstain Pattern Analyst. His duties include examining items pertaining to criminal and coronial matters in order to give evidence in Tasmanian courts.

Dr Connor is the immediate past President (and current Vice-President) of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society.