TAG 166 - Geological Society of Australia

Ian Percival spoke on protecting and preserving Australia’s fossilheritage. Australia has a rich and diverse fossil heritage of criticalimportance to paleontology — some sites remain under threat fromvandalism, theft and over-collecting. Federal law only protects fossilspecimens, rather than the localities in which they occur. (Victoriacurrently has no legislation that specifically mentions fossils or theprotection of paleontological sites.)Gresley Wakelin-King spoke on the National Heritage potential inAustralian desert landscapes. A study has been undertaken to assess theheritage values of desert landforms through literature review andspecialist consultation, and using the Earth Sciences Comparative Matrix(ESCoM). The drivers of Australian landform evolution were seen toinclude inheritance, previous climates and the development of modernaridity — 29 sites spread across nice geomorphic themes have beenidentified with high potential to pass government heritage criteria.Kathy Meney demonstrated the principle that geodiversity underpinsvegetation biodiversity at all scales. She used a case study from thePilbara region of Western Australia, where vegetation suites largelymirror the major geological units, as the landforms, habitats andgeochemistry of the rocks and soils are distinctive and diagnostic of ageological setting.José Brilha spoke on geoconservation in Brazil, a country that parallelsAustralia in its size and heritage values. Brazil has a small number ofgeologists and there is a focus on mining. José outlined the increasedinterest in geoconservation, with universities offering geosciences,multiple opportunities and ongoing projects to develop geoparks.From the presentations above, it is apparent that conservation ofsites of geoheritage is very much on the agenda of geological societies,government institutions and research institutions and that geoheritagehas become a scientific discipline in its own right. However, while therehas been a groundswell of interest in geoheritage, the institutional andmultidisciplinary framework to deliver the benefits deriving from theresearch, and identification and protection of sites of geoheritagesignificance lags behind.Margaret Brocx, session chair, provided the above summary for theAustralia session.[GSA sponsored the National Convenor for Geoheritage and twointernational delegates to attend the IGC upon special request – Ed].Extra presentationsThe afternoon concluded with two extra presentations, which had beeninserted into the original program.Ian Lewis, newly appointed Director of the Kanawinka Geopark inWestern Victoria and South Australia, discussed his experience inAustralia’s first and so far only geopark.Jonathan Tourtellot of National Geographic Traveller, as an InvitedKeynote Speaker, explored the definition of the term ‘geotourism’.Geotourism and conclusionFriday 10 August — our third and last day, was devoted to geoparks andgeotourism. Patrick McKeever opened the geoparks sessions with hiskeynote address ‘The UNESCO Global Geoparks Network’. Angus Robinsonthen presented some new ideas for exploring new pathways for geoparkdevelopment in Australia. In the early afternoon Ross Dowling beganthe geotourism sessions with his keynote address ‘Geotourism —advancing geological appreciation through tourism’.Friday afternoon concluded with a general discussion led by JoséBrilha on our plans for the future of geoheritage, and possible activitiesat other conferences — see ‘Final discussion and plans for the futurebelow’.Newspaper publicity in AustraliaThe Sydney Morning Herald and its related Melbourne newspaper TheAge published an article in the ‘Traveller’ section on Saturday 11 August2012, quoting Patrick McKeever and Ross Dowling. It discussed geoparks,geotourism and the Kanawinka Geopark of southeastern Australia.On Saturday 25 August, in the same newspapers, a letter fromDavid Branagan of The University of Sydney welcomed the earlier story,but pointed also to the geoheritage discussions in Brisbane at the 34thIGC, with presentations and posters from across the world.[L–R] Alireza Amrikazemi, Geotourism & GeoparkManagement at the Geological Survey of Iran andJosé Brilha, University of Minho, Portugal, Editorin-Chiefof Geoheritage and Co-Convener of theIGC sessions on geoheritage, geoparks andgeotourism. Image courtesy Patricia Erfurt.[L–R] Ross Dowling, Foundation Professor of Tourism atEdith Cowan University, Western Australia and keynotespeaker on Geotourism, and Patrick McKeever, new Chiefof Section at the Global Earth Observation Section andSecretary of the International Geoscience Programme,UNESCO, Paris, and keynote speaker on geoparks. Imagecourtesy Ross Dowling.Patricia Erfurt, James Cook University,Australia, who spoke on ‘Volcanoes andgeotourism’. Image courtesy AlirezaAmrikazemi.40 |TAG March 2013