Guest speakers, Dr Geoff Heard, Science Advisor for the Threatened Species Index (TSX) at the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). The TSX integrates long-term monitoring data for Australia’s threatened species to estimate abundance trends. A key focus of Geoff’s role is assisting to get the hard-won data of Australia’s ecologists into the TSX, including working with data providers to generate reliable time-series of abundance or occurrence rate from their data. Two endangered species projects will be covered. Sheena Gillman, BirdLife Australia Honorary Life Member, on the Eastern Bristlebird. Once common, this shy, ground-dwelling bird is now critically endangered and on the top 20 list of Australia’s most endangered bird species and David Harper, Principal Conservation Officer with the QLD Department of Environment and Science, Threatened Species Operations. Dave has been working to help conserve and recover the hairy-nosed wombat since 2006.

Eastern Bristlebird; photo taken by Rosie Booth, supplied by Sheena Gullman. Northern hairy-nosed wombat - https://www.australianwildlife.org/wildlife/northern-hairy-nosed-wombat/

Each speaker will have 8-10 minutes to spotlight their work.

During the Q&A forum the audience will have 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts on their projects.

Date: Tuesday 26 September 2023

Members registering please post your questions on notice to the GIC forum: https://rgqs.org.au/geographyinconversation/ 

OR non-members Email questionsonnotice@gmail.com

Time 5.30pm light refreshments – doors open @ 5.15pm

Q&A Forum 6.00 – 7.30pm. Mingling 7.30 – 8.00.

Address: Gregory Place, Level 1, 28 Fortescue St. Spring Hill

Cost: $5.00 for refreshments, included in registration.

Cost: $5.00 Members

$10.00 Non-Members

$5.00 Students 

John Tasker, A/Manager of the State Imagery & Elevation team within Spatial Information (SI) in the Queensland Government and RGSQ President

How do you map more than 1.9 million square kilometres?

This is the challenge faced by the State Imagery & Elevation (SI&E) Team in the Queensland Government. In 2023, the acquisition of more than 400,000 sqkm of new aerial imagery and LiDAR data has been coordinated by SI&E on behalf of >70 stakeholders across the Queensland Government, Local Government Authorities (LGAs), and Government Owned Corporations (GOCs). This lecture will provide an overview of the growing acquisition program, the opportunities of improved data specifications, and guidance to access this new data for yourself.

Bio: John Tasker is the A/Manager of the State Imagery & Elevation team within Spatial Information (SI). Since joining SI as a Graduate in 2018, John has led key modernisation initiatives of storage and database systems. He has also coordinated the sharing and open release of government spatial datasets, including drone imagery for multiple sites across Queensland. John is passionate about innovation and empowering the team to effectively coordinate, manage, and deliver imagery and elevation data on behalf of the Queensland Government.

Outside of work, John has been President of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland since 2021. He supports the work of several committees, including the Young Geographers and Australian Geography Competition. In 2018, he completed a BSc (Hons) at the University of Queensland and received the RGSQ Keith Smith Prize.

Please note: If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom, the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date. This lecture may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

With A/Prof Emilie Ens and Ishara Sahama

A/Prof Emilie Ens is a Cross-cultural Ecologist based in the School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University. Emilie has been mentored by and collaborated with many knowledgeable and generous Elders and Rangers. Over the last 15 years she has continued to build these relationships, and has developed new cross-cultural approaches to better understand and manage Country and environmental impacts and change. She, and her vibrant Cross-Cultural Ecology Lab group, work with multi-generational and multilingual groups on site specific projects in Arnhem Land, northern NSW and the Sydney region, as well as large scale regional and national collaborative projects. Her team work on a range of topics from invasive species, to fire, climate change, wetlands, coasts, biodiversity, language and cultural knowledge documentation, and Higher Education transformation. Her work combines Western ecology tools with knowledge, techniques and priorities of her Aboriginal colleagues in attempt to produce ethical and socio-ecologically just approaches to conservation. She is passionate about documenting this work, and similar work of others, and advocating for increased awareness and uptake of multidisciplinary methods and mutual benefits in research.

Photo: A/Prof Emilie Ens (left) with Yolŋu miyalk (woman) and Wänga Wataŋu (Traditional Owner) of Gurrumuru Homeland, Djuna Wunuŋmurra. Photo supplied by Emilie Ens.

Emilie will be interviewed by Ishama Sahara, a Human Geographer who focuses on systemic change through community engagement, social justice advocacy and holistic impact measurement. Ishara is passionate about co-designing experiences, programs or systems that leave a positive & lasting impact on communities and the environment. She works in an environment with researchers skilled at transforming human emotions and socio-cultural motivations into tangible outcomes that can be easily evaluated for its impact.

In this talk Emilie will describe some of the advances being made around Australia whereby Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are working together to share knowledge and create uniquely Australian ways of managing Country. This reconciliation in conservation practice has been quietly gaining pace from the most remote regions to our urban centres. Science, governments and the academy are now catching up with the groundswell of practical and rapidly evolving cross-cultural approaches in ecology and environmental management. It is timely to celebrate these achievements and continue to build on them to develop new strategies and renewed energy to abate the contemporary crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. In addition to this I will draw attention to the concurrent losses of culture and language that are occurring alongside Earth’s biological crises. I will argue that new linked approaches to biological and cultural, or biocultural, conservation and restoration may allow us to harness the increasing interest in cross-cultural approaches and the Indigenous caring for Country movement to address what Ricardo Rozzi described as the wicked problem of the Anthropocene, Biocultural Homogenisation.

When: 10 October 2023

Time: 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM AEST

Location: Zoom Only

Please note: the Zoom link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the event date. This event may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

Join us on a Grantham and Awassi Cheesery Tour - a story of Resilience and Industry

Time: Please indicate when booking

A  Arrive 7.50 for 8.00 departure Bus stop 27 Park Av (Clayfield) near EJ station

B   Arrive  8.20 for 8.30 departure Brittain Park (near 172 Troughton Rd.) Coopers Plains Car Parking available

What: 10.30 – 1.30 pm See a boutique sheep farm and dairy in the Grantham hills owned by Di and David Piggott. They have created a lactose and gluten free range of premium cheeses and ice cream from a historically rare breed of sheep.

Tea and Coffee on arrival

Light Lunch in Avocado grove included - 3 courses: A Cheese Platter, Quiche and salad, and sheep milk ice cream. (There is the opportunity to purchase products so bring a small Esky)

Afternoon 1.40 Hopefully Jamie Simmonds (Author of the book “Rising from the Flood”) or Narelle Poole who was also involved with relocating Grantham, will accompany us.

On 10 January 2011 a 3 metre wall of water swept out of the Lockyer Creek. This town was severely damaged in the huge flash flood, 12 people died and a large number of houses and other buildings were destroyed.

See and hear how a town was relocated. It is a story of resilience.

Arrive home Stop B 4pm Stop A 4.30

Participants please note: The outing involves sitting on a bus for 90mins there and back. Some standing during the dairy talk (15 mins). Wear closed shoes, sun safe clothing, hat and bring camera.

Cost: Members $81 and non-members $91

Register and pay by Fri 29 September 2023

Limit 30 participants. A waitlist will operate.

Coordinator: Jeanette Lamont

From Spring Hollow to Spring Hill...

Presenter:  Spring Hill Community Group  

From the Colonial to the uncertainty of Metropolitan Regionalism: A Quirky Review of What Was and What is Spring Hill.

When 'country' becomes land, ownership becomes power and laws are written in legislation then what follows are suburbs founded on the European Tradition - and they develop in a certain way.

The local economy, planning laws, sub divisional practices, surveying and transport needs transform a 'place' that has houses, house lots, fences, streets, footpaths and social connections into what we call a suburb.

Our story charts some of the features of the suburb, now called Spring Hill, from 'then to now', using a cultural historical activity theory approach as a way to frame the plot!

Cost:- $3.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required.

Coordinator:-  Neville McManimm

2023 Annual General Meeting of The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Ltd will be held on premises and via ZOOM.

A link to the Zoom AGM will be emailed closer to the event day.

Documents for the upcoming AGM can be accessed under this Members only page.

We look forward to your participation on the night.

Guest speakers, Craig Doolan Coordinator Biodiversity & Waterways with the Sunshine Coast Council, Dr Fernando Adame Vivanco Research Fellow working at the Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, who is an expert on the science of carbon sequestration in wetlands and Dr Valerie Hagger, University of Queensland, School of Environment and whose research focusses on coastal ecosystem conservation and restoration.

Each speaker will have 8-10 minutes to spotlight their work.

Photo credits: Craig Doolan and Valerie Hagger

During the Q&A forum the audience will have 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts on their projects.

Members registering please post your questions on notice to the GIC forum: 

https://rgsq.org.au/geographyinconversation  

OR non-members 

Email questionsonnotice@gmail.com

Time:    5.30 pm light refreshments – doors open @ 5.15pm 

             6:00 – 6:30 pm Presentations

             6:30 – 7:30 Q&A Forum

             7:30 – 8:00 Mingling 

Place: Gregory Place, Level 1, 28 Fortescue St. Spring Hill  

A story behind the Stinson crash

Presenter: Philip Castle, historian and journalist

"Why were seven men so keen to fly to Sydney that fateful afternoon?

Many know the amazing story of the Stinson crash on 19 February 1937 on the Lamington Plateau and local hero Bernard O'Reilly's trek to save two survivors. However not many know the stories behind the seven people who took the flight and why they were so keen to take off even with a threatening severe weather pattern (cyclonic) off the coast. Philip Castle, a historian, has looked closely at the cause of the crash and the motives for those who boarded the fateful flight. The talk will include the most likely sequence which led to the crash and the heroism of the initial three survivors and their rescuers.

Philip Castle is a retired print journalist who has three degrees; history and political science, journalism and research masters on PTSD and journalists. He has over 40 years in the media and most recently was a journalism lecturer at QUT. He regularly talks on a range of historical topics including many on Australia's military and historical events and their impact on our nation. 

Cost:- $3.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required. 

Coordinator:-  Len Lowry

  Cruise in the classic ‘Lady Brisbane’ from Brisbane (Hamilton) to the Gold Coast (Southport), returning by coach

Cost     Includes morning and afternoon teas and BBQ lunch.

            Members: $ 100

            Non-members:  $110

Departing at 9.00 am from the Commercial Pontoon, 449 Kingsford Smith Drive, Hamilton * (150m up-river from Brett’s Wharf City Cat Terminal) on a 6 hour sheltered water excursion, explore the lower reaches of the Brisbane River, turn right and meander past and around the array of islands- large and small-  which populate the sheltered waterways of southern Moreton Bay,  to Southport.  Supported by a comprehensive on-board commentary, and tides and wind permitting- sneaking into spots boaties like to keep secret- experience something of a marine geography which is right on our doorstep. 

Disembark at Southport, and return to Hamilton by coach by around 4.30pm (traffic permitting)

The Lady Brisbane is a relatively large (two (2) level) vessel with seating, covered areas and restrooms. As all sailing is in sheltered waters, sailing is (generally) smooth. The vessel docks at fixed jetties.  Embarking / disembarking requires modest agility, however accessing the upper deck (steep steps) requires a higher level of mobility.  

The RGSQ participants group will share the Lady Brisbane (and the return coach) with other patrons.

Please register your participation on-line.  Subject to availability, registrations will be accepted up to 29^th September 2023.

Minimum number of participants: 15; Maximum 35.

*Ample on-street parking is available in the vicinity of the departure / return point at Hamilton.

There is a regular ferry service from the Apollo Street (Bulimba) City Cat Terminal to the (directly across the river) Brett’s Wharf Terminal, and street parking available near the Apollo Street Terminal. 

Photo credit: Brisbane Cruises

Coordinator: Roger Grimley

TAAC welcomes you to the 2023 Christmas party to be held in our premises at Gregory Place, Level1/28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill, on Tuesday 5 December at 7.30pm.

Christmas Cake, tea and coffee and wine/beer/cider/soft drinks will be provided. Please consider bringing a plate to share.

Short presentations, with slides, will be given covering the the Society's  events during 2023.

This is a free event for members and $10 for non-members and guests.

Everyone is very welcome.