The Northern Branch of The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to our next public lecture by Mrs Rachelle Hawkins on 23 March 2025, in the Meeting Room, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) at Inveresk, Launceston.

All RST members, their guests, and the public are welcome.

Admission is free for RST members. Admission is $6 for the general public, admission is $4 for students, QVMAG or TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society.

When: 1:30 pm Sunday 23 March 2025, following the AGM being held at 1:15 pm.

Where: Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk.

---

From humble beginnings in an empty warehouse on a wharf, Seahorse Australia began as a controversial pilot project, aiming to commercialise the pioneering research carried out at Launceston’s Key Centre for Aquaculture. 27 years later, the business has grown to become not only a respected supplier of seahorses, but also a popular tourist attraction. The jewel in the crown, however, is the exciting work being conducted in partnership with CSIRO and UTAS to breed and research the critically endangered handfish and release them into the wild.

Rachelle Hawkins grew up in rural NSW where she completed a BSc at Newcastle University before getting married. Rachelle and Craig moved to Launceston where Rachelle studied a graduate diploma in Aquaculture. On graduating, she was fortunate to become the first senior biologist at the new seahorse farm under the tutelage of Em Prof Nigel Forteath when the farm opened in 1998. Rachelle and Craig purchased the seahorse farm when it came up for sale in 2002, and purchased Seahorse World in 2010.

---

Generously supported by

The Tasmanian Branch of the Geological Society of Australia and the Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania invite you to a public lecture at 1.30 pm on Sunday 14 August 2022 by Dr Peter McGoldrick, 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 and the Geological Society of Australia. 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.

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.

---