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ISSN 1329-7759 RSWA Proceedings ATTENTION LIBRARIANS: This publication should be catalogued under "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia"

Followed by

7.00 pm, 16th July, 2012 Webb Lecture Theatre, University of WA

(map on back page)

The Wreck of the Zuytdorp - 1712 Dr Phillip Playford

2012 Annual General Meeting and presentation of Student Medals by Prof Lyn Beazley AO

AGM AGENDA 7:00 pm Drinks 7:30 pm Apologies

Minutes of RSWA 2011 AGM Presentation of the Annual Report Presentation of the Treasurer’s Annual Report

7.50 pm Presentation of RSWA University Student Medals by Prof Lyn Beazley OA, Chief Scientist of WA

8.00 pm Address by Dr Phillip Playford 9:00 pm Supper

In 1927, a stockman working on Murchison House Station, Tom Pepper, found wooden wreckage at the foot of a line of steep cliffs about 60 km north of Kalbarri. In 1954 Dr Phillip Playford relocated this wreckage and soon afterwards organized two expeditions to the site. Through correspondence with museums and archives in the Netherlands, Cape Town, and Jakarta, he was able to prove that this wreck was that of the Zuytdorp, wrecked in 1712.

There are two major unsolved mysteries relating to the Zuytdorp: the fate of the survivors and the whereabouts of the looted coinage. Major commemorative events to mark its 300th anniversary were held on 1 June 2012 in Kalbarri and Middleburg (capital of the province of Zeeland in The Netherlands, from where the vessel departed in 1711). Full abstract on Page 2

July 2012

Enquiries: secretary@royalsocietyofwa.com or Lynne Milne 0414 400 219

Members, Guests and the Public All Welcome

This issue of the RSWA Proceedings was edited by Lynne Milne

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The Wreck of the Zuytdorp - 1712 Phillip Playford

In 1927, a stockman working on Murchison House Station, Tom Pepper, found wooden wreckage at the foot of a line of steep cliffs about 60 km north of Kalbarri. In 1954 I relocated this wreckage, following directions from Tom Pepper, and soon afterwards organised two expeditions to the site. Many silver coins were found there, including schellingen and double stuivers bearing the name Zeeland and the date 1711. Through correspondence with museums and archives in the Netherlands, Cape Town, and Jakarta, I was able to prove that this wreck was that of the Zuytdorp, a great ship of the Dutch East India Company that had disappeared after leaving the Cape of Good Hope, bound for Batavia (Jakarta), in April 1712. This was the first Dutch wreck to be found and identified on the coast of Western Australia. I formally gave the name Zuytdorp Cliffs to the line of precipitous cliffs that extend north from Kalbarri to Steep Point, a distance of some 200 km. These cliffs form the eroded scarp of the Zuytdorp Fault, perhaps the most prominent Quaternary fault-line scarp in Australia. Clear evidence was found at the wrecksite that many people survived the wreck. They climbed to the top of the cliff, lighting a huge fire and indulging in a drinking spree. They left many broken gin bottles and various other items. Three survivors’ camp sites were identified inland from the wreck, and there is good evidence that some people may have reached a large spring frequented by Aboriginal people of the Malgana Tribe, 50 km north of the wreck. The Zuytdorp was carrying 250,000 guilders in cash, to be used for trade in Asia. This coinage was kept in chests stored in the captain’s cabin, and it is clear from wreckage on the seafloor that the chests went straight to the bottom after the wreck came to rest in front of the cliff. When divers first examined the site, on one of the very few days each year that it is

possible to dive there, they found that much of this coinage was preserved as a ‘carpet of silver’ on the seafloor. This consisted of hundreds of thousands of silver coins polished by sand and wave action. Several thousand coins have since been recovered by divers of the WA Maritime Museum, but the major part of the Carpet of Silver has been taken by looters. There are two major unsolved mysteries relating to the Zuytdorp: the fate of the survivors and the whereabouts of the looted coinage. It is certain that no survivors ever returned to civilization, and they must eventually have died in Western Australia. There is an intriguing possibility that some may have joined and interbred with Aborigines of the area, a question that may eventually be solved through DNA research. In relation to the looted coinage, there is evidence of the identity of at least one person who was involved in this. The ship is thought to have been wrecked in June 1712, so this year marks the 300th anniversary of the wreck. Commemorative functions were held during June of this year in Kalbarri, to commemorate the wreck and dedicate a memorial to its survivors. They may have been the first European ‘boat people’ to live in Australia. Biosketch: Dr Phillip Playford was born in Perth, and holds BSc. (Honours) and Honorary DSc degrees in geology from the University of Western Australia, and a PhD from Stanford University. He is a former Director of the Geological Survey of Western Australia and is well known as both a geologist and a historian. He was rewarded by the WA Government as a primary discoverer of the Zuytdorp wreck, the first Dutch wreck to be found and identified in Western Australia. His book “Carpet of Silver; the wreck of the Zuytdorp” received a Premier’s prize for literature, and another, “Voyage of discovery to Terra Australis by Willem de Vlamingh in 1696-97”, was short listed for a Premier’s award. He has received many honours and awards, including the Medal of the Royal Society of WA, and a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for his contributions to the geology and history of Australia.

Small coins from the Zuytdorp

Zuytdorp wreck site looking south

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Tidal flats and stromatolites in the Shark Bay World Heritage area: past evolution and future

change Lindsay Collins, Dept of Applied Geology, Curtin

University There was standing room only at the talk given by Prof Lindsay Collins at the general meeting on Monday 18th June, at Kings Park Administration Centre. The following is a summary of his talk. Acknowledgement: Both the recent RSWA talk and this summary were based on information published as Jahnert and Collins, 2012. Introduction

The western Australian coast spreads across a latitudinal gradient from the tropical macrotidal north to the temperate microtidal south, and has a biotic transition separating the Northern Australian Tropical Province from the Southern Temperate Province across a transition zone. It is one of the few coasts in the world with two World Heritage areas; Ningaloo Reef and Shark Bay. The Shark Bay World Heritage area fulfils both the biological and geological criteria for listing due to its specialised salinity setting and environments.

Initial studies of Shark Bay in the 1960s to 70s on hypersaline stromatolites, microbial tidal flats, and seagrass banks led to establishment of the World Heritage precinct with high conservation status, an important asset for all with an interest in specialised marine environments. Ongoing research has included studies by astrobiologists, ecologists, geologists and many others. Geoscientific research has centred on a number of studies, notably by Logan et al 1974, Playford, 1976, 1979, 1990; Burne, & Moore, 1987; Kennard & James, 1986; Awramik & Riding, 1988; Reid et al 2003, Jahnert and Collins 2011, 2012, and several others.

The recognition of the significance of coquinas and microbialites in ancient systems has renewed geoscientific interest in Shark Bay, with the development of current and new research themes of management significance including:

• Microbial mat systems, environments, chemistry, organic composition and microbial communities,

• Subtidal microbial structures: origin, occurrence, distribution and growth history.

• Coquina ridge morphology, genesis, structures, chronologic record and evolution.

Microbialites through time

The morphological features of the modern microbialites resemble those of fossilized assemblages thereby providing extensive modern analogues for ancient systems, which include some of the earliest life on Earth. The best studied example of the likely oldest evidence of life on Earth is in the Pilbara district of Western Australia, in stromatolitic rocks aged 3.47 billion years which separate from the stromatolites include fossilized thread-like and globular bacteria (Schopf, 1993; Walter, 1999; Allwood et al., 2006; Van Kranendonk et al., 2008).

FIGURE 1 Hamelin Pool, L'Haridon Bight and Henri Freycinet embayment at Shark Bay, WA. (from Jahnert & Collins 2012)

Late Holocene Sea Level history

The microbial carbonate system in Hamelin Pool has developed in response to a slow progressive change in environmental conditions transforming a near open marine system into a restricted embayment landlocked to the east, south and west and semi-closed to the north by a barrier bank (Faure Bank, see Fig. 1), with abnormal salinity, high alkalinity and high evaporation (Logan et. al., 1974). Microbial sediment started depositing at about 2000 years ago long after the Holocene maximum flooding of the sea level at about 6,800 U/Th years ago (see discussion in Collins et al., 2006). This was in response to a relative sea level fall of about 2.5 metres, as a minor variation within the Holocene stratigraphic highstand system tract (Jahnert and Collins, 2011). High stress conditions in an intertidal-subtidal environment have supported the development of a prolific microbial benthic domain which has produced organo-sedimentary deposits (mats, domical or columnar structures) mainly by

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trapping, binding and biologically promoted carbonate precipitation where processes of accretion exceed erosion.

Microbial deposits and substrate morphology, Hamelin Pool

The delicate balance between tidal energy, waves, exposure time and water depth results in sediment accretion or erosion in Shark Bay (Logan et al. 1974). Low water energy associated with high evaporation, sediment supply and topography are key elements for sediment accretion. The gross morphology of microbial deposits is related to interaction of these factors with the embayment coastal morphology and its related substrate gradient. The general coastal morphology of Hamelin Pool can be classified into three different types: headlands, bights and embayment tidal flats (Fig.2; Logan et al., 1974; Hoffman, 1976).

FIGURE 2 Microbial deposit morphologies and types according to the substrate gradient. Headlands have steep gradients with growing heads while embayments have low gradients and are colonized by widespread mats. (from Jahnert & Collins 2012)

• Headlands are characterised by steep gradients (Fig. 2) of 4 m/100 m, where the substrate favours growth of submerged microbial deposits (1.5 metres high) as columnar, domical, conical and club shaped morphologies. Intense activity of waves and tidal currents is responsible for erosional effects on the microbial structures, which often exhibit basal thin necks, tunnels, and other evidence of erosion. The high energy of currents also supplies coarse carbonate grains and bioclasts that become trapped by microbial activity. Water depth controls the living microbial communities which respond with distinct communities, internal fabrics, external colours (pigmentation) and growth styles.

• Bights are subtle re-entrances with gradients about 2 m/km with microbial deposits forming mats or elongate structures and tabular Microbial Pavement in subtidal regions. The structures (about 50 cm height) have their long axes perpendicular to the shoreline and tidal current direction.

• Embayments occur in re-entrances of the coast, normally protected by the presence of coquina barrier ridges. The tidal flats have low gradients of about 30-50 cm/km and produce extensive deposits of microbial mats. Because of sea level fall during the last thousand years the microbial system is adjusting its position to seaward, so that landward areas are now exposed and under erosion producing brecciated microbial deposits, often expressed as breccia pavements.

Fluctuating tidal and wave energy controls the amount of carbonate particles available to be deposited and trapped by microbes which, depending on micro-habitat, construct laminar or non-laminar fabrics (Fig. 2). High energy water near Smooth and Colloform domains is rich in fine carbonate particles that, after storms, are slowly deposited supplying microbial communities with enough material to produce laminar fabrics. Deeper waters are depleted in fine carbonate particles and microbial communities stabilize sediment by inducing carbonate precipitation and trapping fine grains. Coarse particles such as bivalve shells and fragments, bioclasts and ooids are widely available and are supplied mainly during storms.

Hamelin Pool has an extensive sublittoral platform with a gently sloping top (0.5-3m/km) and a more steeply sloping margin (>4m/km), this platform extends basinward to water depths as deep as 6 metres.

Habitats and Microbial Distribution

Submarine videos, photos, samples and bottom substrate profiles have provided substantial material which was used to identify, map and classify the morphology of microbial structures and their distribution in the subtidal areas, supporting the construction of georeferenced organo-sedimentary maps of Hamelin Pool and supplying accurate substrate elevations for each group of microbial structure type (Fig. 3).

The organo-sedimentary substrate deposits of Hamelin Pool were mapped (Fig. 3) and classified according to their hinterland, supratidal, intertidal and subtidal domains.

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FIGURE 3 Schematic depositional model for microbial deposits in Hamelin Pool highlighting the distribution, characteristics and morphologies according to the tidal zones. Photos from Jahnert & Collins 2012.

The Supratidal Zone

Influenced by storms and abnormal tides and thus exposed to erosional processes most of the time. Here microbes survive in topographic lows and local depressions as detached sites of ephemeral mats receiving only sporadic wetting. The microbes are adapted to survive in high substrate temperatures and grow in blister, tuft or pinnacle forms. The supratidal zone in Hamelin Pool occupies nearly 80 km2, and contains two organo-sedimentary units which are exposed and prograding seaward, as described below:

• Hamelin Coquina is the upper unit of the Holocene system that refers to a supratidal beach ridge system which overlies thin Pleistocene units. It is composed predominantly of bivalve skeletons, deposited as shore-parallel ridges above the normal spring high tide level. The Hamelin Coquina is prograding toward the embayment center over Holocene supratidal microbial deposits as a consequence of sea level fall

• Bioclastic-oolitic/quartz sand and breccia occupy extensive areas between the coquina deposits and the area reached by normal tides. Breccia pavements occur as lithified crusts that are developing over older microbial pavements and heads, generated by processes that include desiccation, cementation and disruption by gypsum crystallization Bioclastic/oolitic sands are composed of skeletons of bivalves, micro-gastropods, serpulids and foraminifera and spherical to sub-spherical well sorted, fine to

medium white ooids, brown peloids and gypsum crystals. Supratidal areas are the domain of film and blister microbial mats.

Intertidal organo-sediments

These occupy a relatively small area (22 km2) but are important because they accommodate extensive microbial mats and heads in shallow waters. The intertidal zone is a domain of Pustular and Tufted microbial deposits.

Pustular mat spreads as brown dark sheets of small colonies, inhabiting the upper intertidal to the upper subtidal zone and depending on the substrate gradient develops mats, ridge-rill or sub-spherical structures. Tufted mat occurs in the upper intertidal zone, growing in scallops that accumulate water and sediment within the created relief. Tufted mat normally develops over shallow muddy substrate able to sustain sediment moisture, normally landward of pustular deposits.

Subtidal microbial deposits

These are extensive, occupying approximately 300 km2 of the total Holocene 1400 km2 area of the Hamelin Pool Marine Reserve. Subtidal microbial deposits that grow as structures cover 54 km2. Subtidal deposits were classified according to their actual microbial superficial dominance, however many structures were partially constructed in different conditions of sea level presenting internally different fabrics. Hamelin Pool areas lacking microbial carbonates are dominated by seagrass and related bioclastic and quartz sand, particularly near the Faure bank to the north of the embayment. Mobile sheets of bioclastic and quartz sand occur in areas affected by strong tidal currents, such as parts of the sublittoral platform and over the Faure bank. The “Embayment Plain” comprises bivalve coquina, serpulids and algae with a superficial veneer of organic rich material. . The bio-sedimentary subtidal deposits (see Jahnert and Collins 2011) are summarised as follows (Fig 4.)

• Laminated microbial Smooth stromatolites have beige flat surfaces, and occur as stratiform sheets and as build-ups. Internal fabrics are composed of flat sub-horizontal millimetric laminae made of fine grained carbonate sediment interbedded with laminae of microbial organic matter that become lithified as micrite laminae.

• Laminated microbial Colloform stromatolites construct build-ups of brown/yellow colors with small (1-5 cm) hemispherical globular shapes rich in fine grained peloids. Internal layers are composed of ooids/peloids that

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alternate with thin laminae of lithified micrite generating a coarse laminoid wavy internal fabric with sub-horizontal elongate to arcuate voids.

• Non-laminated cryptomicrobial Cerebroid structures are the deepest subtidal build-ups growing as domical, ridge-like or prismatic elongate morphologies of white to cream colors. Cerebroid structures contain superficial cavities that receive coarse grains/fragments and are commonly bored by bivalves. Patches of micrite are sparse in a bioclastic/oolitic sediment rich in bivalve shells, serpulids and colonized by algae.

• Cryptomicrobial Tabular Pavement occurs as flat substrates which are being lithified as bioclastic grainstone that contains Fragum bivalves, serpulids, micro-gastropods, foraminifera and algae.

• Cryptomicrobial Blocky Pavement is similar to the facies described above but is disrupted/reworked producing partially to wholly disconnected blocks, rich in Fragum bivalve shells and colonized by serpulids that occupy voids and protected spaces, often growing at the base of the microbial carbonate blocks.

• Bioclastic/oolitic/peloidal sand occurs in the sublittoral region as a result of longshore currents and storm activity producing sand-floored depressions adjacent to microbial deposits.

• Bivalve coquinas constitute extensive deposits of Fragum bivalve shells, which inhabit the sublittoral platform waters between -1.5 and -6 m. Bivalve shells are super-abundant in Hamelin Pool. Some of the disarticulated shells are swept into deeper portions of the bay, others fill depressions as gravel, and a large amount is transported shorewards by storms and deposited in the supratidal zone as exposed beach ridges.

• Bioclastic sand with variable amount of quartz grains comprises the substrate of seagrass domain in channels, patches or as ridges oriented E-W perpendicular to the tidal action.

• Bioclastic and quartz sand occurs in substrates colonized by seagrass but in disconnected sparse stands and linear transverse ridges such as those found over Faure bank.

Bioclastic and quartz sand also occurs in shallow areas to the north on the Faure Bank where tidal velocity is amplified, constructing channel lags.

FIGURE 4 Photographs of examples of the principal microbial deposits and their external characteristics: (A) Well developed laminar fabric in Smooth mat; (B) Colloform structures, external view (globular appearance; rich in fine carbonate particles); (C) Cerebroid structure; note convoluted external form with cavities, and algal ornamentation; (D) Microbial Pavement; flat, lithified bioclastic carbonate with abundant bivalve shells, serpulids and soft bodied algae. From Jahnert & Collins, 2012.

The Shark Bay Microbial Distribution Model

The existence of stromatolites in Hamelin Pool has been known since the 1950s (Playford et al., 1976). However, apart from the presence of subtidal stromatolite heads at the seaward termination of a limited number of surveyed tidal flat transects, there was little documentation of the nature and extent of subtidal habitat until recently. While sea level fall has stranded stromatolites as partially emergent features around the embayment shores, the importance of the Shark Bay subtidal habitat is only recently appreciated. This is evident from both habitat mapping and coastal reconstructions of microbial distribution.

Shark Bay Futures: The Caring for Our Country Study (Western Australian Marine Science Institution)

A forty year climate drying in southwest Australia and interaction with the cyclone regime which impacts the semi-arid Shark Bay region has raised questions for marine park managers concerning potential future climate trends and their impact on World Heritage assets, and investigations of likely effects on World Heritage assets need to identify a mitigation and risk framework for future management.

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A 5 - component study is investigating likely effects of future climate change on World Heritage assets to identify a mitigation and risk framework for future management. The arid Wooramel delta juxtaposed with the Faure channel-bank complex provides an association of potential significance for increased input of terrigenous sediment and nutrients into seagrass. Stromatolites have developed during stable to slowly falling sea level and within hypersaline environments. The evolutionary history of the Faure Sill holds the key to the onset of hypersalinity in Hamelin Pool, and in addition to the current status of the bank and seagrasss, bank evolution through time is key to understanding the development and stability of the specialised hypersaline system in Hamelin Pool.

References:

A.C. Allwood, M.R. Walter, B.S. Kamber, C.P. Marshall, I.W. Burch, 2006. Stromatolite reef from the Early Archaean era of Australia. Nature, 441, pp. 714–718.

S.M. Awramik, R. Riding, 1988. Role of algal eukaryotes in subtidal columnar stromatolite formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 85 pp. 1327–1329

R.V. Burne, L.S. Moore, 1987. Microbialites: organosedimentary deposits of benthic microbial communities. Palaios, 2, pp. 241–254

L.B. Collins, J.-X. Zhao, H. Freeman, 2006. A high-precision record of mid-late Holocene sea-level events from emergent coral pavements in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, southwest Australia. Quaternary International, 145–146 pp. 78–85

P. Hoffman, 1976. in: M.R. Walter (Ed.), Stromatolite morphogenesis in Shark Bay, Western Australia, Developments in Sedimentology, Stromatolites, 20, Elsevier, pp. 261–272

R.J. Jahnert, L.B. Collins, 2011. Significance of subtidal microbial deposits in Shark Bay, Australia. Marine Geology, 286. pp. 106–111

R.J. Jahnert, L.B. Collins, 2012. Characteristics, distribution and morphogenesis of subtidal microbial systems in Shark Bay, Australia. Marine Geology. Volumes 303–306, 15 March 2012, Pages 115–136

J.M. Kennard, N.P. James, 1986. Thrombolites and stromatolites: two distinct types of microbial structures. Palaios, 1, pp. 492–503

B.W. Logan, J.F. Read, G.M. Hagan, P. Hoffman, R.G. Brown, P.J. Woods, C.D. Gebelein, 1974. Evolution and diagenesis of quaternary carbonate sequences, Shark Bay, Western Australia AAPG Memoir, 22 (1974) 358 pp.

P.E. Playford, 1979. Environmental Controls on the Morphology of Modern Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, Western Australia. Annual Report (American Museum of Natural History)

P.E. Playford, 1990. Geology of the Shark Bay area, Western Australia. P.F. Berry, S.D. Bradshaw, B.R. Wilson (Eds.), Research in Shark Bay. Report of the France-Australe Bicentenary Expedition Committee, Western Australian Museum, Perth, pp. 13–31.

P.E. Playford, A.E. Cockbain, 1976. in: M.R. Walter (Ed.), Modern algal stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, a hypersaline barred basin in Shark Bay, Western Australia, Developments in Sedimentology, 20, Elsevier, pp. 389–411

P.R. Reid, N.P. James, I.G. Macintyre, C.P. Dupraz, R.V. Burne, 2003. Shark Bay stromatolites: microfabrics and reinterpretation of origins. Facies, 49, pp. 45–53

J.W. Schopf. Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex chert: new evidence of the antiquity of life. Science, 260 (1993), pp. 640–646

Profiling TONY COCKBAIN RSWA Editor–in-Chief

We are indeed fortune that Tony Cockbain agreed to be our Editor-in-Chief. He has a wealth of experience, having been Editor of the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences for the Geological Society of Australia for 17 years. Tony heads the new Editorial Board and is investigating the possibility of RSWA having a formal Publisher who will publish, distribute electronically and in hard copy, and market our Journal nationally and internationally.

Tony Cockbain was born in 1934 in Warrington, when the town was in Lancashire but is now in Cheshire; attended the Boteler Grammar School, which became a comprehensive school and is now a Church of England High School; and read geology at the University of Nottingham, which now has no geology department, where he obtained his BSc and PhD. After this auspicious start he worked with the Cyprus Geological Survey looking at Mesozoic and Cenozoic foraminifera. Wishing to learn more about foraminifera ecology he became a Research Associate at the Institute of Oceanography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he also started a course in Marine Geology. After numerous cruises around the inlets and fjords of British Columbia and many bouts of seasickness he returned to land geology and took up a lectureship in micropalaeontology at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, where for three years he never felt an earthquake.

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Yearning to return to geological survey work he moved to Perth in 1966 as palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of WA, where he stayed until retiring as Assistant Director in 1992, with a brief period working for a firm of consultants exploring for oil and coal during the nickel boom. After retirement he spent one glorious year starting on his memoirs, before spending 17 years editing the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences for the Geological Society of Australia, for which he was given the Society’s W R Browne Medal in 2010. Following a short editing-free break, when he returned to his memoirs, he was invited to be Editor-in-Chief of the RSWA Journal. Most of Tony’s research has been in the fields of palaeontology and basin studies, including Carboniferous corals and brachiopods, Cretaceous to Holocene foraminifera, Devonian stromatoporoids of New Zealand and Western Australia, Devonian reef complexes in the Canning Basin, and geology of the Perth and Bremer Basins. He has a particular interest in mathematical geology although his mathematical expertise is far behind his geological enthusiasm. RSWA CENTENARY – 2014 RSWA received Royal assent to assume the name Royal Society of Western Australia on November 18th 1913. However, the name was not formally adopted until a meeting on 10th March 1914 when a new Constitution was approved. This marked the transition from the former ‘Natural History and Scientific Society’ to the RSWA. We received a letter from Government House on 11th March 1914 informing us that the King (George V) had agreed to become Patron of the RSWA. Our Centenary clearly dates from the meeting on the 10th March 1914. Dr Alex Bevan heads the RSWA Centenary Sub-Committee and has already planned an exciting scientific programme for the year. We expect to have several formal social events around the time of the important dates and to end the year. Ideas and offers of assistance are welcome. Alex can be contacted at Alex.Bevan@museum.wa.gov.au

THE 2012 JOSEPH GENTILLI MEMORIAL LECTURE

Neoliberalism and the Denial of Global Warning

Naomi Oreskes

Professor of History and Science Studies, University of California, - and 2012 UWA Institute of Advanced

Studies Professor-at-Large. (Sourced from UWA advertising flyer)

Scientists have known for over a century that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, for nearly half a century that it is increasing, and therefore we should expect climatic changes to occur. Since the 1990s it has been clear, again based on scientific evidence, that the climate is changing in the manner that scientists predicted. Why should anyone doubt this evidence? Why should scientists have become the target of angry political attacks? The answer, of course, is that climate change is not just a scientific matter, it is an issue with huge economic, social and political consequences. In this lecture, Naomi Oreskes will outline the political and ideological roots of climate change denial, showing the linkages between neo-liberalism – the revival, in the second half of the 20th century, of classical commitments to laissez-faire economics – and the rejection of the scientific evidence of man-made climate change When: Wednesday 8th August, 2012, 6pm Venue: Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, University of

Western Australia Parking: P32 off Hackett Drive RSVP: This lecture is free, however seats are limited

and RSVP is essential to ias@uwa.edu.au by 1st August, 2012.

The Joseph Gentilli Memorial Lecture was established in 2005 to honour the memory and intellectual legacy of this influential and long-serving scholar. Joseph Gentilli (1912-2000) commenced teaching at UWA soon after arriving in Fremantle from Italy in 1939, and continued to be actively involved with the Dept of Geography at UWA until 2000. During his long and distinguished career, Joseph Gentilli helped to bring about a comprehensive understanding of the climates of Australia. In addition to his many other contributions, he wrote about “the selective or ‘greenhouse’ effect of the atmosphere” more than 50 years ago (A Geography of Climate, The University of Western Australia, 1952), and more than 30 years ago was calling for an understanding of how climate patterns were changing (Australian Climate Patterns, Nelson, 1972).

Our new postal address is PO Box 7026 Karawara, WA 6152

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WA plays part in finding 'God particle' (Sourced from thewest.com.au 8th July, 2012)

Geoffrey Taylor likes to joke that "particle" and "physics" are two words that don't normally stir a great deal of excitement. Nor, for that matter, are particle physicists easily driven to excitement.

But as the world listened breathlessly this week to news that particle physicists had probably cracked one of the greatest mysteries of the universe by detecting the Higgs boson, or "God particle", the 57-year-old allowed himself a rare moment of ecstasy. "It is the biggest discovery in physics in the last century," Professor Taylor, from Rockingham, said on Friday.

Geoffrey Taylor. Picture: Nathan Dyer/The West Australian

For 23 years, Professor Taylor has played an important role in efforts to find the elusive Higgs boson, considered the cornerstone to understanding physics. The theory was based on the work of British physicist Peter Higgs, whose landmark concept in 1964 claimed the universe was full of an invisible sticky sea of particles (Higgs bosons) which gave mass to other subatomic particles.

As a particle physicist with the University of Melbourne, Professor Taylor has led a group of scientists in designing a machine capable of detecting such infinitesimal matter. They then had to build it and install it as part of a groundbreaking $10 billion

experiment known as the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. This week's breakthrough is a far cry from Professor's Taylor humble beginnings in "sleepy and idyllic" Rockingham.

Professor Taylor, who went to high school in Kwinana before pursuing a distinguished academic career at the University of WA and overseas, jokes that he was drawn to science by the admonishments of a teacher. "I had no idea what to do after school and I can remember one teacher saying, 'If you do law, I won't speak to you again'," he said. "I thought that was pretty drastic so I thought 'I won't do law'." CONSTITUTION REVIEW

Report of the RSWA Constitution sub-committee.

Prof. Bill Loneragan, Dr Jane Rosser, Dr Hugo Bekle, Dr Lynne Milne

Based on the advice of the Department of Commerce and the Electoral Commission that the current RSWA Constitution is cumbersome and dated, the RSWA Council has appointed this subcommittee to develop a new Constitution to put to the Members via a postal ballot as stipulated in the rules of the current Constitution.

The committee is currently investigating comparable Society Constitutions that may reflect the RSWA situation and so provide a basis on which to guide and build our new constitution. Current models being used and/or reviewed include the Harmony Constitution (provided as an example by The Dept of Commerce), The Ecological Society of Australia Incorporated Constitution and Model Rules for Incorporated Societies.

The sub-committee has identified particular areas that it believes need revision or inclusion in the new constitution. These include but are not limited to

• Editorial Board responsibilities • Codes of Conduct for Council, Committees,

Editorial Board and Members. • Aspects relating to Membership (item 59 of

the current Constitution). • Aspects relating to the election of Councillors

(items 26 and 27)

The aim of this sub-committee is to have a final version of the revamped RSWA Constitution ready to present to Council for consideration at the 2013 Annual Retreat. Once Council has approved the

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document then the new Constitution shall be presented to the RSWA Membership at an Ordinary Meeting early in 2013, followed by a formal Postal Ballot of Members to determine whether it is accepted by the RSWA Membership.

Journal of the Royal Societyof Western Australia

A journal for science in Western Australia

Contributions should be sent to: Editor-in-Chief

Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 104 Hensman Street

South Perth WA 6151 or (preferably) journal@royalsocietyofwa.com EDITORIAL BOARD The Editorial Board has been further expanded and now has the following Associate Editors H Bekle, Notre Dame University A Bevan, Western Australian Museum R Davis, Edith Cowan University K A Haskard, Data Analysis Australia P Ladd, Murdoch University D Laird, Murdoch University K Trinajstic, Curtin University M van Keulen, Murdoch University K Wright, Curtin University Directions to Webb Lecture Theatre, UWA

The next issue of the Journal will contain the following papers.

Volume 95 Part 2 (July 2012)

Distribution of Westralunio carteri Iredale, 1934 (Bivalvia: Hyriidae) on the south coast of southwestern Australia, including new records of the species: M W Klunzinger, S J Beatty, D L Morgan, A J Lymbery, A M Pinder & D J Cale

Original distribution of Trichosurus vulpecula (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae) in Western Australia, with particular reference to occurrence outside the southwest: I Abbott

Grasstree stem analysis reveals insufficient data for inference of fire history: B P Miller*, T Walshe, N J Enright & B B Lamont

Ichthyoplankton assemblages associated with pink snapper (Pagrus auratus) spawning aggregations in coastal embayments of southwestern Australia: N B Breheny, L E Beckley* & C B Wakefield

Importance of Lake MacLeod, northwestern Australia,

to shorebirds: a review and update: D Bertzeletos*, R A. Davis & P Horwitz.

Directions to Webb Lecture Theatre, UWA

From carpark 20, walk east through bollards, then through the next carpark and through the archway in the Geology/Geography building, then turn right.

Free parking is available in all UWA carparks after 6.00 pm. Carparks 20 and 19 are most suitable for access to the Webb Lecture Theatre.

Access through the front or rear of the Geography building.

An interactive map is available at http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus-map

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Date Time Venue Event July 16th 7.00 pm Webb LT, UWA Dr Philip Playford – The wreck of the Zuytdorp in

1712 Aug. 20th 7.00 pm Curtin University Science Week – A/Prof. Kate Trinajstic:

Palaeontology gets high tech. – new ways of looking at old bones

Sept. 17th 9.30 am TBA Postgraduate Symposium Oct. 15th 7.00 pm TBA TBA* Nov.19th 7.00 pm Kings Park Admin Centre Dr Barry Green: Fusion – a sustainable energy

source for the future Dec. TBA TBA Christmas Party

RSWA Events Calendar 2012