The Australian Geologist - Geological Society of Australia

Specialist Group News
Tectonics and Structural
Geology Specialist
Group
SGTSG Web Site
A new SGTSG web site is now live, with
information about the Specialist Group,
forthcoming meetings and SGTSG awards and
bursaries – check it out at
www.sgtsg.gsa.org.au
Royal Park railway cuttings, dating from
1882, are important in the history of local
geology. During the 19th century many
school and university students, as well as
field naturalists and others, made collecting
visits to the area with geologists such as
T S Hall and G B Pritchard. The cuttings
are now listed geological heritage sites.
Details of the area and the cuttings, and
reproductions of several original papers and
old photographs, were included in a manual
which also featured colour geological maps
which includes eight libraries and institutes.
The committee met in Melbourne on 7 May
2003, on 20 April 2006, and again on
1 September 2006, its fifth meeting since
moving to Melbourne. An official business
meeting of the ESHG was held during AESC
2006 in Melbourne, on 3 July, immediately
after the paper presentations, to discuss
activities since the previous convention in
Hobart in February 2004 and to plan for the
future.
Earth Science History
Group
The Earth Sciences History Group has been
located in Melbourne since late in 2002, a
period of four years. Five newsletters have
been published – No 32 in December 2002,
No 33 in September 2003, No 34 in
September 2004, No 35 in April 2005 and
No 36 in June 2006 (see the ESHG website
for further details).
At the Australian Earth Sciences Convention
2006 held in Melbourne, in the History and
Heritage section on Monday 3 July, papers
with historical content were:
■ David Branagan on Alfred Selwyn: The
Post-Victoria Years in Canada 1870–1903
■ Guy Holdgate on Stirling and the coaly
coast: the discovery of black coal in Victoria
■ John Long on Swimming in Stone: the history
and significance of the world famous
Gogo fish fossil sites, north Western Australia’
■ Doug McCann on John Walter Gregory and
his 1906 publication The Dead Heart of
Australia
■ Roger Pierson on The Bacchus Marsh
Council Trench, its geological significance and
recent conservation
■ Dermot Henry on Museum Victoria's geological
collections: a community resource
On Sunday 2 July, the day before the
conference and in cold and rainy conditions,
Bernie Joyce and Doug McCann ran a field
trip on ‘History, heritage and urban geology
of the inner city of Melbourne and its
northern suburb’s (AESC 2006 Field Trip F6).
Royal Park, just north of the city of
Melbourne, is an ideal area to demonstrate
the geology of inner Melbourne. The famous
Roger Pierson discussing the Bacchus Marsh Council Trench (‘Triassic Park’), its geological
significance and recent conservation. Late in the 19th century, the Council Trench quarry reserve
on the slopes of Bald Hill near Bacchus Marsh was found to contain Triassic (aged)-delete plant
fossils. Subsequently it gained fame in geological circles as the only known outcropping of
Triassic aged sedimentary rock in Victoria (see TAG No 130, March 31, 2004, pp 26–27;
http://vic.gsa.org.au/Heritage/Case_Studies/Council_Trench.html).
of the area back to the 1860s (see the ESHG
website for details).
The GSA Council also met on Sunday 2 July
2006 in Melbourne, and ESHG Secretary Guy
Holdgate attended to represent the ESHG
and speak to the Group's detailed report to
the GSA Council, covering the period from
February 2004 at Hobart to July 2006 in
Melbourne (see the ESHG website for the
text of the report and a financial statement
by ESHG Treasurer Roger Pierson).
The ESHG is in a healthy state financially,
and has a current membership of sixty three,
The Earth Sciences History Group Committee,
as elected at the business meeting in July at
AESC 2006, is:
Chair: Bernie Joyce
Secretary: Guy Holdgate
Treasurer: Roger Pierson
Editor: Doug McCann
The ESHG now also has its own web address:
http://vic.gsa.org.au/eshg.htm.
We plan to put details of the Group's
activities on the ESHG website, including
copies of past newsletters, an index to
newsletters, links to related history sites on
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TAG December 2006