Earth Sciences History Group (ASpecialist Group of the Geological Society of AustraliaInc.)
Email Bulletin No. 48 July 19 2015
Affiliation with International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO)
The INHIGEO Board has now considered the application of the Earth Sciences History Group for INHIGEO Affiliated Association status and has approved it unanimously. Our successful nomination was to be announced in the INHIGEO Circular for June 2015 and finalised at the INHIGEO Business Meeting to be held in Beijing later in the month.
Following the Business Meeting (assume date of 1 July), the following conditions of affiliation apply.
The Secretary or nominee of Affiliated Associations shall receive all routine communications from INHIGEO with the expectation that similar information will be provided in exchange to either the INHIGEO Secretary General or INHIGEO Editor or both.
Asummary annual report of anAffiliate shall, where possible, be published in the INHIGEO Annual Record together with a list of all INHIGEO Affiliated Associations. Your first report will be due on 31 March 2016
Affiliates are encouraged to report on INHIGEO activities as well as to advertise and promote INHIGEO, its conferences and publications, via their communication channels.
Individual members ofAffiliates shall receive no additional privileges from INHIGEO.
Affiliated Associations will be permitted to state formally in their publications and official correspondence that they are: “Affiliated with the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO)”.
The status of “INHIGEO AffiliationAssociation” is ongoing unless terminated by the INHIGEO Board on recommendation from the Secretary General or by the Affiliate itself.
ItemsofInterest
INHIGEO Annual Record
The International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO) Annual Record No. 47 covering activities generally in 2014 was issued in June 2015. The annual record includes information on the commission’s activities, national reports, book reviews, interviews and occasional historical articles. The latest edition was compiled and edited by Wolf Mayer (INHIGEO Editor) and can be downloaded from the INHIGEO website at http://www.inhigeo.org/newsletters
New release by Hesperian Press
A New Zealand Gold Seeker’s Adventure in Australia 1886-1901 by J.W. Swift.
Off to the Kimberley rush and its vicissitudes, Swift details his adventures in making a living in the bush, disasters of going blind and blown up in a mining accident, and generally a hard life. We normally only hear of successful men but most just struggle through.
ISBN 978-0-85905-429-2, (N, 2015), A5, 53 pages, 90 grams, $15.00 + POST
Upcoming seminar:
Harsh Oil:
Efforts and feats of endurance to find petroleum in Western Australia in early 20th Century.
By Francesco Gerali, Visiting Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia An Energy History Seminar by the centre for Western Australia History and the Energy and Minerals Institute.
Date: Thursday July 30, 2015
Time: 4:40–5:45pm
Location: WEBB lecture Theatre G21, geography and Geology Building, UWA RSVP Francesco Gerali (francesco.gerali@uwa.edu.au) by July 27, 2015 (see separate attachment for more details)
AESC 2016
The website for AESC in Adelaide (26–30 June 2016) www.aesc2016.gsa.org.au is live and a flier is appended to the end of this newsletter. The email address in the flier: aesc2016@aomevents.com is the official convention email address managed by All Occasions Events and is also live
In the last Email Bulletin, it was proposed that ESHG convene a session on the war records of Australian geologists and their contributions to geology before, during or after the war. The feedback on this suggestion was positive and it was submitted to the organising committee of the AESC, Ian Clark, and has been accepted The session entitled Australian Geologists in The Great War will be part of the Geoscience and Society: Education, Integration and Translation of Earth Science for Societal Benefit theme. The following details were provided for inclusion in the printed call for abstracts, which will appear in the September issue of TAG:
In recognition of the ongoing remembrances marking the centenary of World War 1, this session will highlight the records of Australian geologists who served in that conflict and their contributions to geology before or after their service. Papers are therefore invited on such geologists, although papers of a more general nature such the geology of particular battlefields and its effects on the course of the war will be considered. It is anticipated that Edgeworth-David’s service as a geologist on the Western Front will be a keynote address. Other papers already confirmed are on: Leslie Blake, who mapped Macquarie Island as part of Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition, and who as an Artillery officer, received a Military Cross for applying his surveying skills in mapping the British Lines while under fire during the battle of The Somme; and Walter Heywood Bryan, later Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Queensland, who also received a Military Cross for service in the Artillery in France.
Appropriate papers from these sessions and field trips will be published in the ESHG Newsletter as was done so successfully after the AESC Canberra meeting of 2010, and also for the 34th IGC Brisbane 2012. Therefore, keep this in mind when preparing your abstract and presentations or posters for the AESC
Some geologists that could be discussed include members of the Australian Tunnelling Companies who gave their occupation on enlistment as geologists. Apart from Edgeworth David (who actually gave his occupation as “teacher’, they were:
Captain Stanley Burrill Hunter (mining geologist and boring engineer)
2nd Lt Leonard Langdale Wrathall (geologist)
2nd Lt Carl Sidney Honman (geologist)
Lt Loftus Hills (mining engineer and geologist)
David, Hills and Hunter had the opportunity to apply their technical skills while on active service, but both Wrathall and Honman had significant geological careers before and after the war. Loftus Hills appears to have been an interesting character and his story is worth retelling
Other hints to get started are consulting the Annual Reports of the State Geological Surveys which will list those of their members on active service.
Grave of Captain Leslie Blake MC at Tincourt New British Cemetery, The Somme, with those of some of his comrades killed in early October 1918 Blake did geological mapping on Macquarie Island while stationed there as part of Mawson's 1911 Australian Antarctic Expedition He was on leave from the Geological Survey of Queensland to which he returned before joining the AIF as an artillery officer (photo by Ian Withnall, April 2015)
The Geotourism and Geological Heritage Standing Committees will also be convening sessions under the Geoscience and Society: Education, Integration and Translation of Earth Science for Societal Benefit theme, and members of ESHG will be welcome to submit papers or posters on topics that cross over into their sessions
Call for contributions for the ESHG Newsletter
No articles have yet been received for the ESHG Newsletter, so we are continuing to call on members to submit suitable articles. Please submit your articles to the Newsletter Editor, Mr John Draper at jdraper@hn.ozemail.com.au as soon as possible
As mentioned in previous Email Bulletins, the committee is considering a change of name from Newsletter to a more suitable term. It has been pointed out that the name is confusing (considering that this emailed Bulletin could more appropriately be referred to as a ‘newsletter’, and that ‘Bulletin’ might have been a more appropriate term for the ESHG Newsletter. Therefore the committee continues to be open to suggestions for a suitable name.
INHIGEO appears to have had a similar problem, and renamed its annual publication from Newsletter to Annual Record in 2014, so what do members think of using a similar term, such as Records of Australian Earth Science History?
Books for sale
Dean Ward is trying to sell, at nominal cost, his father’s collection of geology books that range from academic through to populist publications. A collection of antique microscopes is also available, several of museum quality. Contact him if you would like further information. A copy of the catalogue will be sent as a separate attachment with this newsletter
Dean Ward, Floreat, Western Australia email: jdjw786@hotmail.com
If postage is required, this will be at cost.
ESHG Committee:
Chair Ian Withnall
Secretary John Jell
Treasurer Paul Blake
Newsletter Editor John Draper
Assistant Editor Cec Murray
WA representative John Blockley
NSW representative David Branagan
Victorian representative Roger Pierson
Tasmanian representative Carol Bacon
SA representative Jim Jago
