The Royal Society of Tasmania – 2015 Launceston Lecture Series

Professor Ross Large
Distinguished Professor of Geology, UTAS

will present

Variations of Nutrient Trace Elements in the Past Oceans Provides a New Explanation for Major Extinction Events

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk
2.00 pm Sunday 26th April 2015
Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum and Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 23rd April 2015:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

Availability of nutrients in the ocean is a major factor affecting marine life, burial of carbon and release of oxygen. However, the nutrient trace element (TE) composition of the paleo-ocean cannot be measured directly and is therefore poorly understood. In this talk I present a comprehensive global dataset on the TE content of marine sedimentary pyrite in black shales, dating back 700 million years. The data demonstrate that variations in continental uplift and erosion created a series of nutrient cycles that controlled evolution in the oceans and oxygen in the atmosphere. The cyclic patterns reveal periods of nutrient-rich oceans of 30 to 60 million years duration, followed by nutrient-poor oceans of 10 to 40 million years duration that account for several major mass extinction events.

Professor Ross Large is a Distinguished Professor of Geology at the University of Tasmania. He gained his BSc (Hons) from the University of Tasmania in 1969 and PhD from University of New England in
1973. For ten years Ross worked in mineral exploration in Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania. In 1984 he joined the University of Tasmania, and five years later established the Centre for Ore
Deposit and Exploration Science (CODES). Under his leadership CODES has grown to become recognized as one of the top industry collaborative ore deposit research centres in the world. Ross has over
100 publications in international journals and has gained a number of international awards for his research. His current research interests are sediment-hosted gold deposits and evolution of the chemistry
of the oceans.

Paul Brunton OAM, FAHA  Emeritus Curator, State Library of NSW, Honorary Associate of the School of Philosophy and Historical Inquiry,
University of Sydney  will present  The Portraits of Captain James Cook  in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk 2.00pm Sunday 22nd March 2015

Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum and Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 19th March 2015:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

There are only six authentic extant portraits of Captain James Cook (1728-1779) in the world, of which three are by the same artist, John Webber (1751-1793). Webber was the official artist on Cook’s third and last voyage. Three of these six portraits were unknown until after 1960 including both the portraits in Australia which are the first and last portraits of Cook to be painted. The stories of these contemporary portraits and the images of the great explorer made after his death give an insight into the man and the making of his legend. They helped create the legend of a man who selflessly died so that others might live, a great British hero but one of science not of war.

Paul Brunton, OAM, FAHA, is Emeritus Curator of the State Library of New South Wales, and Honorary Associate of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney. He was Senior
Curator, Mitchell Library, from 2002 to 2012 and Curator of Manuscripts from 1986 to 2000. He has a special interest in the European discoveries in the Pacific and was responsible for the acquisition of
a number of significant manuscripts and printed books on this subject for the Mitchell Library. His publications include Matthew Flinders: personal letters from an extraordinary life (2002).

The Royal Society of Tasmania – 2015 Launceston Lecture Series

Solomon Walker-Bowd BA (Hons), UTAS  will present  The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 1853-1953   in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk 2.00 pm Sunday 22nd February 2015
Admission: $6 General Public, $4 Friends of the Museum and Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 19th February 2015:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

The Royal Society for the Advancement of Science, formed by royal charter in 1662, was the pre-eminent scientific body of the British Empire. The first branch to be founded outside Britain was formed in Hobart in 1843 and has been the subject of considerable scholarship. However, little has been written about the two incarnations of the Royal Society that were formed in Launceston. A “Northern Branch” was first attempted in 1853, yet this body was defunct by 1860. The Branch was later re-formed in 1921 and continues to the present day. This presentation will examine the first century of the Northern Branch, from 1853 to 1953. It will be argued that the re-formed Northern Branch in particular served as a focal point for Launceston’s progressively-minded and intellectual classes to congregate and discuss scientific and historical matters, as well as coordinate the social and intellectual uplift of the city. In this way, the Northern Branch has served as both a barometer of Launceston’s intellectual growth and a facilitator of future development.

Solomon Walker-Bowd is a postgraduate student at the University of Tasmania, currently completing a Masters of Teaching. He was a co-winner of the Malcolm McRae Honours Scholarship for History in 2012, and
graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2013 with First Class Honours in History. Solomon’s Honours thesis focused on the first century of the Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania, unearthing
considerable information about the Branch – now Chapter – previously overlooked by historians. The wealth of available material leaves potential for him to consider a PhD thesis sometime in the future.

The Royal Society of Tasmania – 2014 Launceston Lecture Series

Andrew Parsons will present The Royal Society of Tasmania Library, 1845-  in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk at 2.00pm Sunday 23rd November 2014

Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 20th November 2014:
Email bookings@qvmag.tas.gov.au or telephone 6323 3798

Andrew Parsons served as Honorary Librarian to the Royal Society of Tasmania from 2010 to 2013. Drawing on material from The Society’s new publication, The Library at the End of the World, he will take listeners through the history of the Library, from its earliest days as a fledgling colonial library right up to the digital age. He will draw on his own experiences, as well as the knowledge of others intimately involved with the library and The Society’s latest publication. Andrew will look at all aspects of The Society’s library operations and collections, including rare books, journals, and digital content.

Andrew Parsons worked at the AMC and UTAS libraries, Launceston and Hobart, from 1996 through to early 2013. From 2010 to 2013, he managed UTAS Library’s special and rare collections; as part of
this role he served as Hon. Librarian to the Society. During his time in this role, he oversaw the continuation of digitising of the Society’s archives and ‘Papers & Proceedings’, as well as the completion of
the cataloguing and reorganisation of the Society’s serials collection.
In February 2013, he took up the position of Library Coordinator at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, where he revived the Society’s Northern library collection. Andrew served on the Society’s Council from 2010-13, and is presently a member of the Management Committee of the Northern Chapter (2013-)