QA_Vol 24_No 1_July 2007 - Australasian Quaternary Association

EditorialPresident’s PenDear Fellow Quaternarists,I would like to introduce myselfas the new Editor of QuaternaryAustralasia. AQUA recently handedthe baton to me from Kale Sniderman,and also charged Peter Almond with the position of VicePresident (taking over from Brent Alloway). It is a dauntingtask to live up to Kale’s standards, and even moredaunting still to be producing a special issue in time forthe INQUA conference in Cairns.In honour of the upcoming INQUA conference, we haveprepared a bumper issue, showcasing the varied andactive Quaternary research taking place across Australasia.The feature article in this issue is an interviewbetween Professor Jim Bowler of Australia and ProfessorLiu Tungsheng of China. In addition to providing afascinating insight into the development of Quaternaryscience in China throughout the country’s tumultuoushistory, Professor Tungsheng celebrates the strongscientific connections between China and Australia,which began with the visit of the Australian Quaternarydelegation to China in 1975. From there began numerousexchanges and collaborations which further highlight theAustralasian Quaternary community’s involvement ininternational scientific endeavours.This issue also includes several research papers, coveringtopics as diverse as Peter Glasby and colleagues’ studiesof microfossils in late Pleistocene wetlands of the currentlysemi-arid Flinders Ranges, and Donald Pate andEvelyn Krull’s work on carbon isotope discriminationby pasture grasses in southern Australia. New ZealandersOlivia Hyatt and colleagues reconnoitre previouslyglaciated karst on the South Island, investigating locallydistinctive glacial landforms and processes. Thanksmust go to the reviewers who managed to complete theirreviews in the limited time available.Australasian Quaternarists have also been busy debatingtheir respective sub-disciplines at meetings, andmaking use of the networks provided by such meetings.This issue contains reports on the Southern ConnectionConference (which brought together scientists fromacross the Southern Hemisphere), the Australian andNew Zealand Geomorphology Group Rivers Workshop,the International Young Scientists’ Global ChangeConference in Beijing (which a young Australian palaeoclimatologist,Joëlle Gergis, attended) and a Plant MacrofossilWorkshop held in Adelaide. Richard Gillespie alsoprovides an insightful review of Chris Johnson’s newbook on Australia’s mammal extinctions.Dear Friends of the Quaternary,Hopefully this will be a highlightyear for AQUA. The INQUA 2007conference is upon us, at the excitinglocation of Cairns in Queensland.I remember how as a youngish Dutch student I attendedINQUA in Beijing in 1991. As a PhD student in Quaternaryscience, INQUA was a huge attraction to presentwhat I thought was pretty cutting edge science (which itprobably wasn’t). It turned out to be one of the bestmoves I made. The pre-conference fieldtrip was a tourfrom Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet. We had terribledelays in getting out of Tibet and Cheodu, but still madeit to the conference. The most important experiencefrom this trip and conference was to meet excellentscientists from different backgrounds. I met up withmy future Australian colleagues in the lobby of the hotelin Beijing, which turned into the local watering hole.Only later did I realise that I had spent more time withAustralian scientists than with my colleagues from theNetherlands. At subsequent INQUA conferences wewere always happy to meet up and chat about ourresearch. I have used this initial international networkingthroughout my career.As a Dutch student I also used the British QuaternaryAssociation to get in contact with scientists for samplesto be tested for my thesis. No wonder the first thing Idid when landing in Sydney on St Patrick’s Day in 1993was to join AQUA. It was a good move, as it brought meinto contact with other Quaternarists in this region.Hopefully the next generation of young Quaternarists inAustralasia will also see the INQUA conference in Cairnsas an opportunity for international networking. Thiswas the most important reason for AQUA to support fivePhD students to attend INQUA.This bumper issue of Quaternary Australasia shows thatQuaternary science is alive and kicking down under.Congratulations to our new editor Kathryn Fitzsimmonsfor putting this excellent issue together. Last but notleast, the AQUA Executive is planning the Biannualconference for early 2008, where we can all chat aboutthe good times we had in Cairns.See you in Cairns!!!!!!Henk HeijnisPresident of AQUAI sincerely hope that you will enjoy this special issue ofQuaternary Australasia. Please feel free to contact me ifyou wish to contribute to future issues.Kind regards,Kathryn Fitzsimmons1 | Quaternary AUSTRALASIA 24 (2)