Photo credit: Paul Hanly - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5929212

Guest speakers, Dr Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes, Climate Change Adaptation, Senior Lecturer of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Griffith School of Engineering and Built Environment, Dr Michelle Maloney, National Convenor with Australian Earth Laws Aliance (AELA), and Clare Silcock, Energy Strategist with the Queensland Conservation Council. Moderated by Dr Keith Treschman.

Climate change action has to be sustainable for the long term and not merely meet short-term targets. It also needs to be resilient over time. It will rely on transformative changes in the way the public and private sectors form policies. Consumers also need to be guided in ways of adopting sustainable behaviours to lower emissions. How can leaders in the climate and environmental science space influence decision makers and educate a new generation of young leaders?

You have 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts on the urban planning codes in regard to sea level change, training of future leaders, environmental laws, and conservation action. 

Enjoy light refreshments and networking before settling in for an informed conversation on a topic of interest to us all.

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: 5:30pm light refreshments – doors open at 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

Pamela Tonkin, Co-Convenor

Moving Maps and Maps for Industry -  Presented by  Alan Mayne of Mayne Maps

Overview:- Alan Mayne started his career as a teacher of science and mathematics.  His first map was produced when he was a teacher to show the school buildings and the relationship with the school grounds.  When the map was used for multiple purposes, he realised the importance and versatility of maps.  Alan started Mayne Maps and developed a methodology using low-cost vector and image software.  His maps are used in property management applications for real estate, agriculture, caravan parks, tourist industry, farm production and emergency applications.  Alan uses basic vector software and satellite imagery to produce an attractive map for property management and display purposes.  His latest application allows the user to orientate position on the property and navigate across the map.  Alan will step us through the process so that we can produce our own maps.

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:- 40.  Registration on the website required.  This presentation is an interactive presentation and will only be available by your attendance.

Coordinator:-  Len Lowry

Dr Javier Leon

Image credit: Drone image looking across Burgess Creek, Sunrise beach. Source: Javier Leon

The capacity of sandy beaches to provide coastal protection varies across time and space. Recent research suggests climate change could result in substantial erosion of most sandy beaches by the end of the century, with significant social and economic impacts. Furthermore, storm and cyclone events generate extreme erosion of sandy beaches which is not fully recovered. Three back-to-back La Nina events occurred between 2020-2023. La Niña is associated with warmer waters in the western Pacific Ocean, which increase storminess off Australia’s east coast. Chances of a higher number of tropical cyclones increase, as do the chances of cyclones travelling further south and further inland, and of more frequent passages of east coast lows. Detailed (3 cm spatial resolution) and frequent (monthly or bimonthly) drone and ground-based volumetric surveys were undertaken during this period along the open beaches between Peregian Beach and Sunshine Beach with the aim of monitoring coastal change along the shoreline and dunes. Results are variable and indicate average shoreline erosion of around 20 m, dune crest retreat of up to 10 m and dune erosion of up to 3 m vertically on some locations. Frequent, high-quality 4D spatial information (3D plus time) across the coastal zone is required to monitor, manage and predict coastal change and its associated hazards. Building an understanding of coastal response to both gradual and extreme events is especially critical in an era of progressively rising sea levels which are likely to exacerbate already existing trends.

About the presenter

Dr Javier Leon is a geographer with broad interests in geomorphology and is particularly interested in the study and management of coastal systems including sandy beaches and coral reefs. He has developed and collaborated in multidisciplinary research projects combining field data, geospatial techniques and modelling in study sites across the Great Barrier Reef and Eastern coast of Australia and Pacific Islands including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. His aim is to answer questions related to links between morphology, ecology and management in the current changing climate and sea-level rise context.

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.

Join us for Professionals Talk: Urban Planning pathways, an evening centered around the experiences, perspectives and recommendations of young professionals working in the field of urban planning and design. Our panel of talented planners will each deliver a short presentation on their career journey from student to professional, followed by a group Q&A session with questions from the audience. There will be plenty of time at the end of the presentations to meet our speakers and your fellow audience to further discuss the opportunities and challenges of working in urban planning.

This event will be held both in-person at 1/28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill and online via Zoom. Light refreshments will be provided. Stay tuned for more information on our speaker line-up soon.

When: Monday 17^th April 6:30 – 8:30pm
Where: 1/28 Fortescue Street, Spring Hill & Zoom
Cost:  Free for members
           $10 for non-members 

Join us on the Caloundra - Eco Explorer Cruise

Departure: 2 Pick up locations

A. Arrive at 7.15 for 7.30 departure from Bus stop 27 Park Av (Clayfield) near Eagle Junction Station.

B. Petrie station 7.50  

Please indicate when booking.

Return: 4 pm

What: Bus and Cruise

The Pumicestone Passage on Caloundra’s doorstep is 35 km long and separates Bribie Island National Park from the mainland. The internationally significant Marine Park with its numerous islands and creeks is home to over 300 species of birds and is an important sanctuary in their migration. It is part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site.

The activity involves a 1.30hr bus trip (there and back) and a 2.30hr cruise (seated) ample opportunity to move around during the cruise. The vessel is boarded at a fixed wharf and has a toilet facility.

Lunch: 12.00 at Pelican Waters Tavern (not included) own expense

Wear: comfortable shoes and sun safe clothing

Bring: a hat, camera, sunglasses, sunscreen and wind jacket. It is recommended to wear a mask on the bus.

Cost: $100 members and $105 non-members

Register and pay by 30 March 2023.

This trip will be limited to 35 people and if full, please join the waitlist if you are interested.  

Do hope you can come.

Trip Manager:  Neville McManimm – Map Group and RGSQ member,  

Trip Overview:  The Base Camp will be a Camping Ground 10 minutes from Canungra township. As things will start about 9am on the Tuesday 9th May, consider if you wish to travel early on the Tuesday morning from Brisbane (2 hours travel) or  arrive in Canungra on the Monday 8th May during the afternoon after a pleasant country drive and time for drinks and nibbles (BYO) on the creek bank before dinner.

The camping ground has good facilities, camp kitchen with large undercover area, hot showers, all on the well-kept banks of Canungra Creek in the Sarabah Valley. Camping fees $15 pp per night, On-site tents have two bedframes with mattress (bring your own sleeping gear) $25 pp per night.

For those who wish other accommodation, try the following - Canungra Hotel and B&B’s in Canungra are very close to the base camping ground.  In Sarabah Valley (5 minute drive from the base camping ground) are the Greenlee Cottages, phone 07-55434021 or check their website. There is no operating motel in Canungra.

There is no need to book the camping ground ahead of time. Neville will do that as you nominate for the outing. B&B’s should be booked as early as possible, that’s your responsibility. Neville will be staying at the camping ground from the Monday afternoon.

Car-pooling will be the order of each day. If we have a few 4wd’s this will add some interest to the outings!

The outing will finish a little after lunch on the Thursday.

Registration Costs:  $65.00 to RGSQ members and $80.00 for non-members which includes one barbeque meal at the campground.  Accommodation costs are additional to the registration costs. If staying at the camping ground, please contact Neville to organise.  Accommodation external to the camping ground to be organised privately.

Registration on the website required.  Further information will be provided to the registrants closer to the event.

Trip Manager:  Neville McManimm    Email: nevmcm@onthenet.com.au

Photo credit: Artist impression Diverging Diamond Interchange. Supplied by TMR

Guest speakers, Professor Ian Lowe, Sustainable Population Australia, Ms Deborah Tabart OAM, Australian Koala Foundation, and Cr Joe Natoli, Councillor representing Division 4, Alexandra Headland, Buddina, Maroochydore, Minyama, Mooloolaba, Parrearra and Warana as part of the Sunshine Coast Council. Moderated by Stella and Graeme Rush.

The expanding population of the Greater Brisbane area, projected to increase by another 1 million people by 2050, presents challenges for planning, livability and the environment. How will transport infrastructure be planned and what is the timeline for it to be delivered? The corridor from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast is one of the fastest growing population centres in Australia. Contests between wildlife corridors versus transport corridors, physical environments versus human settlements and the overall urban livability index are each caught up in the overall transport plan.

You have 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts representing the conflicting sides of this contest. Register early to book your chance to join this conversation.

Enjoy light refreshments before settling in for an informed conversation on a topic of interest to us all.

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: 5:30pm light refreshments – doors open at 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

Pamela Tonkin, Co-Convenor

The Lamington National Park Environment – Binna Burra Caves Walk

When: Saturday 10 June 2023

Where: This event commences at 9:15 am at the Binna Burra Teahouse. On getting together, we will arrange a car shuffle, leaving walkers at the Teahouse, taking cars down to the Information Centre and bringing drivers back up in one car before we start. By 10 am, we will commence walking down the Caves Track to the Information Centre. We will drive back to the teahouse for lunch before all returning to the Information Centre for a good look around. Departure will be at leisure from the Information Centre.

We will look at some carpooling from Canungra if that suits people and some may like to stay overnight at Binna Burra before or after the event.

The Event: The Caves Walk in the Binna Burra section of the Lamington National Park is usually done as a circuit from the Lodge and Teahouse area, walking down the track to the Information Centre and then walking back up the steep road to the Lodge site and Teahouse. We will only walk the first half.

Our walk is about 3.5 km and is predominantly downhill, with the start at about 770 m elevation and the finish at about 660 m. Nevertheless, there are some short uphill sections. We will be walking on a formed track with the National Parks information on this grade of track saying ‘May have short steep hill sections, a rough surface and many steps. Reasonable level of fitness and some bushwalking experience recommended.’ There are a number of steps, mostly going down, but no long stepped sections. The steps are unlikely to have handrails. The two hours allowed should mean we have plenty of time.

The walk offers great views across and up and down the Coomera River valley to the cliffs on the western side. The geology and vegetation are interesting. We will start on the Hobwee Basalt before descending into the Binna Burra Rhyolite. We should see rhyolite lavas and ash-fall tuffs, predominantly rhyolitic. Also, we will pass through a deposit of perlite, a glassy mineral that forms when rhyolitic lavas cool quickly.

We will be accompanied on our walk by Barry Davies, President of the Lamington Natural History Association and of Gondwana Guides (some may know Barry from his time as Activities Coordinator at the Lodge in the 1980s).

The Information Center has a substantial collection of material on the history and natural resources of the Lamington National Park, particularly the Binna Burra section and will be manned by Lamington Natural History Association Members.

Numbers: 15 walkers. Note this is a more challenging walk than Tullawallal because of grades and steps.

Times:  Some members may like to arrange accommodation at Binna Burra

• Gather at tea-house 9:15 (Non-drivers will have plenty of time for coffee, drivers may have time for a quick cup)
• Car Shuffle to Information Centre
• Walkers depart tea-house by 10 am
• Arrive Information Center noon to 12:15 pm
• Lunch at Teahouse about 12:45 pm at own cost
• About 2:00 pm, Drive back to Information Centre for guided visit

Cost: Member $10, Non-Member $20. This includes a donation to the Natural History Association but does not include morning tea or Lunch.

If this event gets fully booked, please join the waitlist. If there is enough interest the event can be repeated in the future.

Bob Reid Coordinator

Brisbane’s 2^nd Airport, at Archerfield, has had its geographic and historical footprint on S W Brisbane for almost 100 years. Historian Peter Dunn OAM will host a visit to the Airport for RGSQ members and will provide a fascinating account of the establishment of the airport through to its current operations, and including the important, and perhaps not well known role that the airport played in WW II. A conducted tour of the Historical Displays and War Rooms will also feature. Peter’s presentation will be conducted in the Departure Lounge of the airport (seating available). The tour of the display rooms will require standing.

The adjacent God’s Acre Cemetery at the entrance to the Airport, equally has a story to tell, and Robin Barke, who has had a long association with Archerfield, will provide a talk and conduct a walk around the resting places of a number of the early pioneers and settlers of the broader Archerfield district. No seating is available for this segment of the visit.

The Event will commence at 10.00 am, and our time at Archerfield, and the Event will finish at about 12.30 pm.

For participants inclined to add an hour or so the outing, there are a couple of lunch options: 

•  Visit the nearby Oxley Common (about a 5 min drive from the airport) for a (BYO) picnic lunch. There are good facilities (BBQ, covered tables, toilets) and walks along Oxley Creek and into the associated wetlands, all fully recovered from the floods of a year ago. 
• Souths Sports Club (in the Acacia Sports Complex, off Mortimer Road), about a 2 min drive from the airport, for the usual club-style meal, at participants cost.

Cost: $10 per person (member); $20pp (non-member)

Access: By car is the most convenient, and parking in the Airport Car Park (off Beaty Road) is available. Please be aware that the area around the airport is ‘trucking central’, and large road transport units operate everywhere.

BCC bus services operate to the area.

Please register on-line. Participant numbers are limited to 20. A wait list will be operated. Peter Dunn OAM and Robin Barke have agreed to provide a repeat event later in the year if required.

Event Coordinator: Roger Grimley. If you have any questions please email info@rgsq.org.au

Mapping at Cravens Peak

Presenter:  Stuart Watt,  Map Group and RGSQ member

My geology mapping training at University of Queensland in the early 70’s was all compass and pacing (if high accuracy wasn’t needed) or compass and tape (if it was) or plane tabling, but when it came to mapping the geology of the wide-open spaces of Cravens Peak, different techniques were required and I had to take the electronic step up to GPS.  A learning curve, indeed.  This is the story of my bit of Cravens Peak and how participation in this scientific expedition led me eventually to the detailed orienteering mapping I now do.

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required.  If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date.

Coordinator:-  Kay Rees

GEOGRAPHY UNEARTHED: What are the UQ Geographers doing?

This will be an interesting trip learning about the geography programs at the University of Queensland including work of Geographers at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Date: Friday 21 July, starting at 9am and finishing about 3pm.

Venue: Meet at the rear of Steele Building on Campbell Place, off Campbell Road.

The visit includes morning tea and presentations from UQ staff on:

• Physical and Human Geography programs
• Queensland Centre for Population Research
• Atmospheric/climate science
• Remote Sensing Centre and Earth Observation Program
• Great Barrier Reef Habitat Mapping & Coral Reef Atlas
• Demonstration of weather monitoring equipment
• Coastal engineering lab in the Advanced Engineering Building

 Lunch will be on the deck at Nano’s Lakeside café at your own choice and expense. It will also include a short talk on the refurbishment of the lake.

After lunch, there will be a short walk across the new lake walkway for a guided tour of the Alumni Rainforest.

The trip should conclude at about 3pm.

Public Transport is recommended. The tour is not during the semester and therefore there should also be limited parking for $5 along the Brisbane River and at some other areas.

Details of the venue and the transport options will be provided to participants closer to the event.

Cost:  Members $7 Non-members $17

This trip will be limited to 30 people and if full, please join the waitlist if you are interested.  

For further information please contact us at info@rgsq.org.au.

Coordinators: Iraphne Childs/Chris Spriggs

Mapping Binna Burra Tracks

Presenter:   Iraphne Childs, Map Group and RGSQ member

Members familiar with Binna Burra may be interested to know about our mapping of walking trails project.  Under a collaborative arrangement between Binna Burra Lodge and the RGSQ’s Scientific Studies Committee, supported by the School of Earth and Environment Sciences at the University of Queensland, this project re-mapped more accurately  existing and currently disused tracks and assess locations for possible future tracks on Binna Burra land.

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required.  If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date.

Coordinator:-  Kay Rees

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:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required. 

Coordinator:-  Len Lowry