Trip Manager:  Ralph Carlisle    Mobile  0435 460 667

Topic Overview: This two-day road trip will be an exploration of the Upper Brisbane River and Stanley River areas.   Themes will include geology, physical geography, aborigines, early European explorers and settlers, pastoral and agricultural activities, forestry, mining and quarrying, the former rail line, flooding and water management, weather prediction.

The general route will be as follows:

• Day 1: Lowood – Wivenhoe Dam – Esk - Somerset Dam – Toogoolawah – Moore - Linville
• Day 2: Linville - Mt Stanley - East Branch Rd - return to Linville – Moore - D’Aguilar Highway – Benarkin State Forest - D’Aguilar Highway – Kilcoy – Peachester – Crohamhurst – Mary Cairncross Park - return to Brisbane

It will be a self-drive, tag-along, ‘through’ trip of about 300 km from Lowood to Mary Cairncross Park with an overnight at Linville.  Roads are sealed throughout except for unsealed but good roads along the East Branch Road (8 km return unsealed with concrete causeway river crossings) and in Benarkin Forest (4 km return).

It may be cold at night so bring your winter woollies!

Accommodation:

• Lowood (start of trip 8.00 am Thursday 5 August at Lowood Showgrounds, Station St) -  There are three options:
• • Make an early start from Brisbane that morning or
  • Drive from Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon 4 August and:
  • • Camp overnight at Lowood Showgrounds, or
    • Stay overnight at the Lowood Club Hotel-Motel (50 Railway St, about 100 metres from the Showground) or other accommodation
• Linville (overnight Thursday 5 August) – Two options:
• • Stay overnight at the Linville Hotel (on the road through Linville) or
  • Camp overnight at the Somerset Regional Council camping reserve over the road from the hotel (free, large area, two powered sites, toilets, showers at hotel, no bookings)

Tentative block accommodation bookings have been made at Lowood Showgrounds (0455 187 201 – Annette and Scott, caretakers) and Linville Hotel (5424 7780) but remain the participant’s responsibility to finalise and pay for.  If making a booking, please mention that you are part of the RGSQ group.

Meals and refreshments will be participant’s responsibility and own expense.

Event Requirements:  This event will be conducted in keeping with Health Department Covid-19 directions regarding social distancing, good hygiene practices and group size in force for the venue at the time of the event.

Costs for the two days:  RGSQ Members $30       Non-members $50.         This covers RGSQ administration costs and daily information handout sheets.  If you wish to attend for one day only that is OK although the cost will remain as above.

Limit:  20 participants.  Registration on the RGSQ Website required.

Google map of Station Street, Lowood.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Lowood+Showgrounds/@-27.4622335,152.5805333,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x6b96bb2c1b51b4c1:0x38746c4b2c5f44c7!8m2!3d-27.4622335!4d152.582722

MILNE BAY MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE – LECTURE AND DISPLAY

When:  10 am to 12:30 pm Tuesday 17 August 2021 (Lunch available afterwards)

Location:  Chermside Historical Precinct. 61, Kittyhawk Drive Chermside

Spaces available:  30

Parking: .Kedron–Wavell Services club carpark about 200 m South of the precinct. (21, Kittyhawk Drive). A pickup from the carpark can be arranged if required.

Registration and morning tea: Members $7, Non members $12 (also donation box at Centre door)

Organiser:  Bob Reid Phone 0412625944.

We will meet at the Centre at 10 am for morning tea and afterwards volunteers from the Library will give us a presentation on the battle lasting about an hour. This will be followed by a video including scenes from the field. We will then have an opportunity to look at the resources of the Centre. There will be plenty of opportunities for questions after the presentation and video, and while we are having a look around.

Lunch will be at the Kedron–Wavell Services Club at own expense.

The World War II battle for Milne Bay took place between 25 August and 7 September 1942 and its conclusion marked the first defeat of Japanese forces on land.

Milne Bay dominates the south-eastern extremity of Papua New Guinea and was strategically significant to both the Allies and the Japanese. It was a potential air base to give Allied support to sea lanes between Australia and Port Moresby and to allow aircraft to be deployed to the north and north-east. For the Japanese, an air base at Milne Bay would have allowed them to bomb Port Moresby and northern Australia and harass allied shipping.

Google Maps Link:

https://goo.gl/maps/rwwViJo2DoHZ23DV9

Please note: If you have registered for the Zoom live stream the lecture link will be emailed to you closer to the lecture date. Also, please make sure your microphone and camera are turned off when you join the meeting. The lecture may be recorded as well.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

RGSQ premises: Level 1, 28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill, Qld, 4000

When: 9 and 10 September with optional walk on 8 September.

An exciting trip covering many geographical and historical aspects of Warwick and surrounds. Much of this event will be a tag along tour with participants asked to minimize the number of vehicles involved.

Participants: Limit of 24

Cost: $37 Members, $42 Non-members, excluding accommodation and meals.

Itinerary: The formal start for this event will be at 8:30 am at the Freedom Holiday Park (formerly Big 4) on the New England Highway towards Stanthorpe (address given as 98 Wallace Street) on Thursday 9 September.

The program is planned to include:

• visiting Maryvale and a talk on the township and its now-dismantled railway
• touring Glengallan Homestead and a talk on the early squatting runs on the Darling Downs  
• stopping at a site very close to explorer Alan Cunningham’s camp site at Swanfels and discussing his role in identifying the potential of the Darling Downs for European settlement
• visiting Mount Colliery and nearby Tannymorel to see the site of the former mine that supplied coal to Warwick for many years
• a walk of about 600 m to Queen Mary Falls to talk about the geology, landscape, and the Condamine River as the ‘top’ of the Murray Darling Basin
• a walk around the Warwick town center with the Town Crier who will be giving us some of the background to the town and its older buildings
• inspecting the Warwick Museum and its curated collection of material relevant to the history and development of the area
• a visit to the Southern Downs Railway Precinct to hear about the history and current use of the lines to and from Warwick
• a visit to the large University of Queensland solar farm not far from Warwick

If time permits, we will visit the Elbow Valley Dam site on the Condamine River on Thursday afternoon.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 8 September, there will be a walk of about 1.6 km to the lookout at Cunningham’s Gap and around the Rainforest Circuit to talk about the development of the Darling Downs and coastal landscapes. This stop will be for those interested who are on their way to Warwick to stay on Wednesday night and will start about 3 pm.

It is proposed to finish the program by about 4:30 pm on Friday for travel back to Brisbane.

Participants will need to arrange their own accommodation and meals but morning tea will be provided at the Warwick Museum and there will be an opportunity to purchase tea and coffee and something to eat for morning tea at Maryvale or Glengallan Homestead (most likely).

The Freedom Holiday Park has a range of powered and unpowered sites and cabins available, and there are other caravan parks and numerous motels in Warwick. Please mention RGSQ when booking at the Caravan Park. 

As this is a multi-day event, participants will need to lodge two sealed copies of information on emergency contacts and any relevant medical conditions, one with the Society Office and the other with the activity leader. These will be returned or shredded at the conclusion of the event.

Cost will be $37 for Members and $42 for non-members. This includes entry to Glengallan Homestead, entry to the Warwick Museum with morning tea, and entry to the Railway Precinct.

Maximum numbers will be 24, and I would hope to have no more than six vehicles travelling on Thursday.

Contact: Bob Reid 0412 6259 44

bob_reid@tpg.com.au

Presenter:   Keith Treschman, Map Group and RGSQ Member

Topic Overview: Firstly seen by Galileo in 1610, Europa is one of the moons of Jupiter visible through binoculars. Its interesting surface has been mapped by the spacecrafts Galileo and Juno. The findings will be described.

Magnetometer readings have suggested that Europa has a subsurface ocean of salty liquid water, 3 times that of Earth, even though it is smaller than our Moon. Data have suggested that below this is a source of thermal plumes similar to Earth’s mid-ocean ridges where life exists. Europa Clipper is planned for launch by NASA in 2024 to investigate further whether the conditions on Europa might support life.

Event Requirements:  This event will be conducted in keeping with Health Department Covid-19 directions regarding social distancing, good hygiene practices and group size in force for the venue at the time of the event.

Costs:  $2:00 contribution towards morning tea

Limit: 40.  Registration on the website required.

Coordinator:  Kay Rees

Prof Ian Rutherfurd, University of Melbourne

Please note: If you have registered for the Zoom live stream the lecture link will be emailed to you closer to the lecture date. Also, please make sure your microphone and camera are turned off when you join the meeting. The lecture may be recorded as well.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

RGSQ premises: Level 1, 28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill, Qld, 4000

SCENIC RIM VISIT TO BOONAH AND MT. FRENCH

13 October 2021

This is a reorganised trip from last year, postponed because of COVID restrictions.

Meet at Boonah 9.30, Arthur Clive's Family Bakehouse, 12 High Street, Boonah Morning tea will be on arrival at our own expense where we will meet Wendy Creighton.

Boonah is an interesting country town in the Scenic Rim. We hopefully will be guided through the centre of town by Wendy  who is the editor of local newspapers and author of "Blumbergville to Boonah, the early history of the Boonah Business District". It tells of fires, floods, droughts and the resilience of local people.

There may be time after the guided walk to have another look at the town before meeting at the Dugandan Hotel, 400m south of High Street, for lunch. (See menu on registration form). There is plenty of parking here.

After lunch we will drive up the winding, all bitumen and sometimes steep road to the top of Mt French, a climbers' haven, at 579m. There is a picnic area, camp ground and toilets here, also much information regarding care of Queensland National Parks and the role of Rangers.

There are two tracks to the lookouts.

Track 1: Logans Lookout. 720m return on bitumen.

Track 2: Mee-boo-run Circuit. 850m unsealed with some flattish rocks to walk on in one section to the East Cliff Lookout.

A Boonah map will be sent to those who register nearer the time.

Coordinator Mary Comer.

Cost: Members $30, Guests $35, including lunch.

Catherine E. Lovelock, The University of Queensland

Coastal wetlands are features of coasts around the world. They provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration in soils and vegetation, coastal stabilization, protection from extreme storm events, fisheries and improvements in water quality. They have been degraded and removed by human activities which have resulted in CO₂ emissions, loss of CO₂ sequestration capacity and reduced coastal protection in turn resulting in reduced resilience of coasts to climate change. Conserving and restoring coastal wetlands provides opportunities to enhance both CO₂ sequestration and climate change adaptation, as well as other tangible benefits for local communities. Prof Lovelock will present evidence and case studies to show how mitigation and adaptation can be achieved simultaneously through management of coastal wetlands, with benefits for coastal communities and for the planet.

Bio:  Professor Catherine Lovelock