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• Murray River Cruise - Extended Expression of Interest

  • Start
    Tuesday, January 20, 2026
  • End
    Tuesday, March 03, 2026
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    South Australia, Adelaide & Murray River
  • Spaces left
    0

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  RGSQ Traveller

  If you have an interest in this trip we encourge you to join the waitlist in case of cancellations. (There is no obligation on your part in joining the wait list.)

  Murray River Cruise and Royal Geographical Society of SA
  1-8 May 2026

  

  
  

  Join us for a Geotour cruise on the Murray River and a hosted visit to our sister Society, the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia in Adelaide.

  
  

  Twin Share from $4075.00 pp; Single rate from $5830.00 pp
  

  * On receipt of an offer, an Initial deposit of $1,000pp (partly refundable) to secure cabins & flights.

  Cost includes:
  

  • Return flights Brisbane to Adelaide in Economy class
  • 2 nights hotel accommodation in Adelaide with breakfasts
  • Dinner at The Guardsmen Restaurant Adelaide
    
  • Day Trip to Victor Harbour, Goolwa and Hindmarch Island with Royal Geographic Society South Australia Members
    
  • Transfers Adelaide airport to Adelaide hotel
  • Return transfers Adelaide to Murray Bridge
  • 5 nights Murray River Cruise on the Proud Mary with all meals, all outside cabins with ensuite and river views

  Itinerary includes:
  

  • Friday 1 May visit RGSSA’s library & hear about RGSSA programs, dinner with RGSSA & RGSQ members
  • Saturday 2 May local day trip organised by RGSSA
  • Sunday 3 May-8 May on board the Proud Mary

  
  This Geotour will include guided shore excursions covering geographical, ecological, historical, economic and cultural aspects of this part of the Murray River:

  • Mannum town historical tour
  • Walker Flat nocturnal bird and wildlife ecological tour
  • Swan Reach lagoons, museum and organic almond farm
  • Blanchtown lock #1 and weir
  • Sugar Shack river flood plains and ecological walk
  • Big Bend cliffs & lagoons, small boat ecological tour
  • Guided Aboriginal rock art site at Ngaut Ngaut
  • Mypolonga primary school, orchards and apricot farm
  • Return to Murray Bridge

  
  Enquiries:
  RGSQ office +61 7 3368 2066 or email info@rgsq.org.au

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• The Agayrr Bamangay Milbi Project and ancient cultural heritage investigations

  • When
    Tuesday, February 24, 2026
  •  
    5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Gregory Place, 1/28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill Qld 4000
  • Spaces left
    50

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  Geography in Conversation

  Northern Australia hosts some of the oldest and most spectacular bodies of rock art in Australia, and the world. Recent investigations, including the Agayrr Bamangay Milbi project at Cape York, have uncovered art and artifacts that document the life-ways of generations of First Nations people, from their original settlement, through major environmental changes, to the impact of European invasion. Indigenous archaeology not only brings this art to the public view but increasingly drives engagement with indigenous cultural heritage and incorporates indigenous knowledge systems to improve our understanding of the past. Our panel of distinguished Australian archaelogists will present on their work and discuss the rich indigenous history these investigations have uncovered.

  Speakers

  Professor Lynley Wallis of Griffith University is an Australian archaeologist with more than twenty-five years' experience in remote area fieldwork. Her major research achievements represent a highly significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge in Australian and global archaeology. With colleagues she presented new models for the colonisation of both offshore islands and desert regions which challenged fundamental notions about the timing and nature of colonisation of Australia, resulting in paradigm shifts. Lynley also played a key role in the recent re-excavation and analysis of Australia’s oldest evidence for human occupation, the oft-cited 65,000 year old site of Madjedbebe in northern Australia, and is now a leading researcher in the Agayrr Bamangay Milbi project.

  Professor Bryce Barker is a professor in archaeology at the University of Southern Queensland.  He has worked extensively with First Nations Traditional Owners on archaeological projects on the central Queensland coast, northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. His research has been widely published in local, national and international journals and is the author or co-author of several books relating to his research.  Current projects include the UniSQ Australian Research Council  (ARC) funded Discovery grant project, ‘Pathways Through Sahul’ examining the evidence for the early movement of people into northern Australia and the Griffith University led ARC Linkage funded Agayrr Bamangay Milbi project which in partnership with several First Nations communities is recording cultural heritage places on Cape York Peninsula to provide a framework for sustainable management for future generations.

  Dr Jillian Huntley  leads the Safeguarding Heritage theme in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and is the convenor of Indigenous Studies major within the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. Her research centres on the resilience of Indigenous cultures through adaptation to sweeping environmental and social changes across the human history of Australasia. She investigates cultural reisilience through the materiality of rock art and mineral pigments. A field archaeologist with 25 years' experience across industry and academia, Jillian strives to work collaboratively with Indigenous custodians and other key stakeholders to co-design and conduct accountable archaeological/conservation research. Her work has taken place on Indigenous lands and waterways across the rugged sandstone escarpments of southeastern Cape York Peninsula, the northwest Kimberley, Sydney Basin and western Arnhem Land; the BIF gorges of the central Pilbara; the limestone caves of Island Southeast Asia; and the remote volcanic islands of Eastern Torres Strait.

  Each speaker will have 8 minutes to spotlight their work. During the Q&A forum the audience will have up to 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts on their research.

  Light refreshments are served on arrival. This is a chance to network with colleagues and friends interested in this topic.

  
  

  Date: Tuesday 24 February

  Time:  5:30 pm light refreshments – doors open @ 5:15 

               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 

  Cost: $5.00 for refreshments, included in registration. 

  Cost: $5.00 Members 

            $10.00 Non-Members 

            Free Students 

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• Clean Up Australia Day

  • When
    Sunday, March 01, 2026
  •  
    9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
  • Location
    28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill to Spring Hill Common, Victoria Park
  • Spaces left
    39

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  Join the RGSQ community to clean up our local streets and parklands in Spring Hill

  Everyone is welcome, the more the merrier. This is a great opportunity for us all to make new friends in our broader community and show some appreciation for our local places. 

  We'll meet outside the RGSQ signboard at 28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill for an introduction, volunteer registration and safety briefing. The clean up will start in Fortescue St, working our way up the hill and surrounding streets towards the Spring Hill Common in Victoria Park/Barrambin. Once we've finished our clean-up we'll sort through and record the rubbish we've collected to provide records to the Clean Up Australia Day crew and enjoy a well earned Zooper Dooper and a chat in the park. Looking forward to seeing you there!

  Location: Meet outside RGSQ at 28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill

  Time: 9 - 11am, Sunday 1st March 2026

  What to bring: enclosed footwear, gloves and protective clothing (e.g. hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and long sleeves), water bottle, whatever else you'd like. We'll provide the Clean Up Australia Day bags to collect rubbish in, spare gloves, hand sanitiser and the icy cold Zooper Doopers.

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• Brisbane 2032: Green Legacy or Greenwashed Spectacle?

  • When
    Tuesday, March 03, 2026
  •  
    7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Location
    Gregory Place, 1/28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill and via Zoom
  • Spaces left
    40

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  RGSQ Lecture Series

  Professor Marcus Foth

  School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

  Brisbane’s successful bid for the 2032 Olympic Games was globally promoted as the world’s first “climate-positive” Olympics. The host organisers used the media to signal this as a supposed turning point in mega-event sustainability. Yet this contractual commitment was later quietly removed from the Olympic Host Contract, replaced by weaker aspirational language with no enforcement mechanisms. Drawing on comparative research with colleagues at Politecnico di Torino and recent developments in Brisbane, this talk examines how sustainability rhetoric, visual spectacle, and governance practices intersect in contemporary Olympic planning.

  Using stadium renderings and public communication campaigns as case studies, the presentation introduces the concepts of “engagement theatre” and “bedazzlement” to analyse how political legitimacy is manufactured through imagery and promise-making rather than participatory decision-making. The talk also presents emerging grassroots responses, including how community groups are experimenting with generative AI tools to visualise alternative futures, counter official narratives, and mobilise public resistance.

  By situating Brisbane 2032 within a longer lineage of Olympic governance failures and sustainability backtracking, the presentation reflects on what these dynamics reveal about the limits of mega-event-led urban transformation and the urgent need for more accountable, transparent, and genuinely regenerative planning models.

  Bio: Marcus Foth (/foːt/) is a Professor in Strategic Design in the School of Design and a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. For more than two decades, Marcus has led ubiquitous computing and interaction design research into interactive digital media, screen, mobile and smart city applications. Marcus founded the Urban Informatics Research Lab in 2006. He is a founding member of the QUT More-than-Human Futures research group. Marcus has published more than 300 peer-reviewed publications. He served on Australia’s national College of Experts (2021 – 2025). He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Distinguished Member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

  Photo: To scale overlay showing the actual size of Perth’s Optus Stadium against the Crisafulli Government’s artist’s impression of a stadium in Victoria Park. Used with permission. Source: https://www.savevictoriapark.com/new-stadium-analysis

  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.

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• Map Projections

  • When
    Wednesday, March 11, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Gregory Place, Level 1/28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill, Qld
  • Spaces left
    10

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  Map Group Presentation
  

  Presenter: Keith Treschman, Map Group and RGSQ Member

  
  It is impossible to transfer a spherical globe to a 2-dimensional surface without some distortion. The choice of a projection depends on what the map maker wants in terms of accuracy of area, shape, distance, or direction. Some major projections are covered along with their advantages and disadvantages.

  AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

  Keith has taught Science for over 40 years in Queensland secondary schools. He holds a PhD in Astronomy, an area in which he is passionate. He has lectured on this topic onboard Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth.

  He has visited the 7 continents and enjoys geographical places, for example, Hawaii, Great Rift Valley of Africa, Galápagos Islands, Jordan River and Antarctica.

  His previous presentations to the Map Group were: Mapping the Night Sky, Areography (Geography of Mars), Life on Europa? An Application of Geography, Struve Geodetic Arc, Plate Tectonics, Seabed 2030 and How the USA States Got Their Shapes.

  Register and pay via the website.

  Coordinator: Kay Rees

  Photographs and videos may be taken during RGSQ events for use in promotional materials including, but not limited to, the RGSQ website, social media channels, newsletters and other publications. By attending an RGSQ event, you consent to the use of your likeness for these purposes, unless you inform the event organizer or photographer otherwise.

  
  

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• Springbrook Daytrip

  • When
    Friday, March 20, 2026
  •  
    7:30 AM - 4:30 PM
  • Location
    Springbrook
  • Spaces left
    0

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  RGSQ Traveller

  Springbrook Daytrip

  To start RGSQ trips program for 2026, we have organised a daytrip to Springbrook on 20th March. Among other points of interest, we will visit Purling Brook Falls and Best-of-All Lookout.

  Travel by comfortable coach for a tour of these locations. Pick up will be at Eagle Junction and Coopers Plains.

  The geology of the plateaus of Springbrook, Lamington and Mt Tamborine is formed from lava flows emanating from Wollumbin (Mt Warning), now a volcanic plug in the Tweed Valley which we will see from Best-of-All Lookout.

  Significant as a UNESCO World Heritage Area, the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia comprise the major remaining areas of sub-tropical rainforest in southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. The Springbrook National Park is part of the World Heritage Area in Queensland.

  The coach will leave Eagle Junction (Bus Stop 27, Park Av, between Sydney St and Junction Rd) at 7.30 am, with a second pick-up at Coopers Plains (Brittain Park, Troughton Rd, opposite Sherrington St) at 8.00 am. Parking is available at both locations, either on-street or off-street (Brittain Park). The first pick-up is close to Eagle Junction rail station.

  After the second pick-up, the coach will go directly to Springbrook (Purling Brook Falls) and then to other points of interest.

  The return journey will drop off at both pick-up locations. Expect to return to Eagle Junction by mid-afternoon.

  There will be stops at picnic areas for BYO morning tea and lunch, so remember to bring your own! Also, bring a water bottle, hat, camera, sunglasses, sunscreen and wind jacket.

  Numbers: The trip is limited to 20 people.

  Cost: $60 per person (members), $70 per person (non-members)

  Registration: When registering, please indicate whether you want to be picked up at Eagle Junction or Coopers Plains.

  
  

  Enquiries contact the RSGQ office +61 7 3368 2066 or email info@rgsq.org.au

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• Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens – African plant safari

  • When
    Wednesday, July 15, 2026
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
  • Location
    Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
  • Spaces left
    5

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  RGSQ Traveller

  Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens – African plant safari

  9.30-10.30 Introductory presentation and BYO morning tea
  10.30am - 12.30 pm guided walk.

  Join us for an “African Plant Safari” at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha, one of the best collections of African plants in Australia. The walk will be initially downhill from the lookout, zigzag through the African zone, proceed via the Tropical Dome and finish in the Arid Zone and Cactus House. The visit will mostly be devoted to plants from southern Africa, together with a few species from Namibia, East & West Africa, the horn of Africa, Egypt and one offshore island, depending on time constraints. The visit will be guided by RGSQ member Charles Naylor, a trained volunteer guide at the Gardens, who has been leading this walk since 2022, based on his experiences while a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in 1983-85 and a member of the Tree Society of Zimbabwe.

  $5.00 members; $15.00 non-members
  Max 20 persons

  • Meet by 9.30am at the large picnic shelter Lookout located on the ring road within the Gardens (see map attached),
  • Wear sunhats and stout walking shoes and bring walking sticks or poles if desired.

  Over morning tea there will be:

  • an introductory presentation covering a brief history and layout of the Mt Coot-tha Gardens,
  • a small display of African wooden and other artefacts,
  • an overview of the African collections at Mt Coot-tha – and a little botany!

  Parking: The 3-hour visit involves self-drive to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. On weekdays the Gardens are less crowded and participants can drive onto the ring road within the Gardens to park in one of the two areas adjacent to the Lookout, or near the National Freedom Wall (see map attached – the Freedom Wall is a 5-minute walk from the Lookout).

  Walk rating: The walk is along sealed paths. Distances up to 2 km, gentle slopes, some stairs, some uneven surfaces and 5-minute standing periods for guide explanations.

  Enquiries contact the RSGQ office +61 7 3368 2066 or email info@rgsq.org.au

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