We are pleased to announce that the 2026 J P Thomson Medal will be awarded to Emeritus Professor Peter Kershaw. The J P Thomson Medal is the most prestigious award given by The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland. It was established in 1900 to honour Dr James Park Thomson, the Society’s founder. The award recognises Peter's high qualities of scholarship and his contribution to the discipline of geography.
Following the medal presentation, Peter will deliver the Thomson Oration - Changes in Australia’s wet tropics over the last 200,000 years: key contributions of the pollen record from Lynch’s Crater to the history and controverses
The origin of modern pollen analysis, focused on the reconstruction and interpretation of past vegetation from pollen and associated micro-plant remains preserved mainly in swamp and lake sediments, was initiated in NW Europe where numerous swamps and lakes resulting from glacial and periglacial processes were ideal for recording the subsequent history of landscape development, climate conditions and human activity. The analysis of one of these sites for production of a minor thesis in northern England was my introduction to the research area that was continued within the Australasian/ Southeast Asian region with a project on the Wet Tropics of NE Queensland in which I am still involved, to some extent, almost 60 years later.
The British study, although providing very valuable background and a career path, was limited in what it could provide to a project that extended way beyond the last glacial period and included one site, Lynch’s Crater, that revealed a continuous record through some 2 glacial-interglacial cycles but of greatest interest has been the cause of the decline of a drier rainforest around 40,000 years ago that does not appear to relate to a time of significant climate change. The postulation of Aboriginal burning rather than natural climate change as the cause of this vegetation change received some support from the intriguing idea of ‘firestick farming” in northern Australia and by similarly and remarkably old dates for human skeletons from Lake Mungo. However, debate continues and this presentation will conclude with an assessment of most recent ideas or controversies on the extent, causation, and degree of validity of the “Lynch’s Crater” 40ka event in Australia involving patterns and timing of human migration, megafaunal extinction and a geomagnetic reversal.
Brief Biography
Peter Kershaw was appointed Emeritus Professor in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment after working for nearly 40 years at Monash as a Lecturer, Reader and Professor, mainly in The School of Geography and Environmental Science. His research, and that of his research students and post-doctoral fellows, has focused on the reconstruction of past natural and human-modified landscapes in the Australasian-SE Asian region, largely through the analysis of fossil pollen but with a significant palaeolimnological component, and applications to the understanding of present-day environments and predictions of future environmental change.
Qualifications
- PhD Vegetation History, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1973
- MSc Ecology, University of Durham, UK, 1967
- BSc Geography, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth 1966.
- University appointments
- Professor Emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, 2014-
- Professor Emeritus, School of Geography and Environmental Science, 2010-2014
- Professor of Physical Geography 1994-2010
- Director, Centre for Palynology and Palaeoecology, 1990-2014
- Reader in Geography and Environmental Science, 1990-1994
- Senior Lecturer in Geography, 1980-89
- Lecturer in Geography, 1973-1978
- Research Assistant, Dept. of Geography, subsequently Dept. of Biogeography and Geomorphology, Australian National University. November 1967-April 1970
Notable other positions
- Editor-in-Chief, Elsevier Journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2005-2013 and periods as editorial board member of 3 other journals.
- President. Australasian Association of Palynology and Palaeobotany, 1988-1992
- Secretary then Vice President, International Quaternary Association, 2003-2011.
- Life Member, International Quaternary Association - from 2011.
- Life Member, Australasian Quaternary Association - from 2014.
- Member, Scientific Steering Committee of IGBP (International Geological Biological Program) -Pages (Past Global Changes), 2004-2009, and Fellow from 2024
Please note: If you registered to attend the lecture via Zoom, the meeting link will be emailed to you closer to the lecture date. This lecture may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.
