The Lamington National Park Environment – Binna Burra Caves Walk

When: Saturday 10 June 2023

Where: This event commences at 9:15 am at the Binna Burra Teahouse. On getting together, we will arrange a car shuffle, leaving walkers at the Teahouse, taking cars down to the Information Centre and bringing drivers back up in one car before we start. By 10 am, we will commence walking down the Caves Track to the Information Centre. We will drive back to the teahouse for lunch before all returning to the Information Centre for a good look around. Departure will be at leisure from the Information Centre.

We will look at some carpooling from Canungra if that suits people and some may like to stay overnight at Binna Burra before or after the event.

The Event: The Caves Walk in the Binna Burra section of the Lamington National Park is usually done as a circuit from the Lodge and Teahouse area, walking down the track to the Information Centre and then walking back up the steep road to the Lodge site and Teahouse. We will only walk the first half.

Our walk is about 3.5 km and is predominantly downhill, with the start at about 770 m elevation and the finish at about 660 m. Nevertheless, there are some short uphill sections. We will be walking on a formed track with the National Parks information on this grade of track saying ‘May have short steep hill sections, a rough surface and many steps. Reasonable level of fitness and some bushwalking experience recommended.’ There are a number of steps, mostly going down, but no long stepped sections. The steps are unlikely to have handrails. The two hours allowed should mean we have plenty of time.

The walk offers great views across and up and down the Coomera River valley to the cliffs on the western side. The geology and vegetation are interesting. We will start on the Hobwee Basalt before descending into the Binna Burra Rhyolite. We should see rhyolite lavas and ash-fall tuffs, predominantly rhyolitic. Also, we will pass through a deposit of perlite, a glassy mineral that forms when rhyolitic lavas cool quickly.

We will be accompanied on our walk by Barry Davies, President of the Lamington Natural History Association and of Gondwana Guides (some may know Barry from his time as Activities Coordinator at the Lodge in the 1980s).

The Information Center has a substantial collection of material on the history and natural resources of the Lamington National Park, particularly the Binna Burra section and will be manned by Lamington Natural History Association Members.

Numbers: 15 walkers. Note this is a more challenging walk than Tullawallal because of grades and steps.

Times:  Some members may like to arrange accommodation at Binna Burra

• Gather at tea-house 9:15 (Non-drivers will have plenty of time for coffee, drivers may have time for a quick cup)
• Car Shuffle to Information Centre
• Walkers depart tea-house by 10 am
• Arrive Information Center noon to 12:15 pm
• Lunch at Teahouse about 12:45 pm at own cost
• About 2:00 pm, Drive back to Information Centre for guided visit

Cost: Member $10, Non-Member $20. This includes a donation to the Natural History Association but does not include morning tea or Lunch.

If this event gets fully booked, please join the waitlist. If there is enough interest the event can be repeated in the future.

Bob Reid Coordinator

Dr Karen Joyce

Photo supplied by Karen Joyce

For the inaugural Geography Matters event we are proud to present Dr Karen Joyce, Associate Professor - Remote Sensing and Spatial Science, James Cook University presenting on her topic and interviewed by John Tasker, Remote Sensing Specialist and RGSQ President.

Dr Karen Joyce is a biographer for Mother Earth, using satellites and drones as her scientific illustrators. She shares her experiences drawn from more than 20 years as a geospatial scientist in academia, military, industry, and small business to help people discover science beyond lab coats and test tubes. But she has an ulterior motive. Karen is passionate about how we can use drones and geospatial technology to watch over our environment and its changes. So the more people she can inspire to join her, the faster we can put plans in place to help keep our environment healthy into the future.

Karen has a diverse history having worked in academia since the late 1990’s. After finishing her PhD at the University of Queensland in mapping live coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef, she made a career change and became a Geomatic Engineering Officer in the Australian Army. This allowed her to apply her mapping skills to new problems, and broaden her horizons.

Then Karen moved to New Zealand to travel the country mapping recreation opportunities with the Conservation Estate with the Department of Conservation. From phenomenal beauty to hazards, Karen turned her focus to earthquakes, landslides, floods, and volcanoes, at GNS Science using her mapping skills to better understand and inform authorities on disaster management.

Karen is now a Senior Lecturer at James Cook University in Cairns, and still works on the Great Barrier Reef and in the other surrounding ecosystems that far North Queensland has to offer.

For the past six years Karen has used her role as co-founder and Education Director of She Maps to actively diversify science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) through drones and geospatial technology. Her programs have been taught more than 300 times to more than 6500 students and teachers. She Maps is a regular feature in the media, has attracted international attention, and we even have programs running in 15 countries around the world. 

Most recently Karen co-founded the online drone data repository GeoNadir where she works with scientists and drone operators around the world to protect our world's most at-risk ecosystems. GeoNadir is based on FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable).

Date: 13 June 2023

Time: 7:30 – 8:30 pm EST

Delivery: ZOOM

Please note: the Zoom the link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the event date. This event may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

Brisbane’s 2^nd Airport, at Archerfield, has had its geographic and historical footprint on S W Brisbane for almost 100 years. Historian Peter Dunn OAM will host a visit to the Airport for RGSQ members and will provide a fascinating account of the establishment of the airport through to its current operations, and including the important, and perhaps not well known role that the airport played in WW II. A conducted tour of the Historical Displays and War Rooms will also feature. Peter’s presentation will be conducted in the Departure Lounge of the airport (seating available). The tour of the display rooms will require standing.

The adjacent God’s Acre Cemetery at the entrance to the Airport, equally has a story to tell, and Robin Barke, who has had a long association with Archerfield, will provide a talk and conduct a walk around the resting places of a number of the early pioneers and settlers of the broader Archerfield district. No seating is available for this segment of the visit.

The Event will commence at 10.00 am, and our time at Archerfield, and the Event will finish at about 12.30 pm.

For participants inclined to add an hour or so the outing, there are a couple of lunch options: 

•  Visit the nearby Oxley Common (about a 5 min drive from the airport) for a (BYO) picnic lunch. There are good facilities (BBQ, covered tables, toilets) and walks along Oxley Creek and into the associated wetlands, all fully recovered from the floods of a year ago. 
• Souths Sports Club (in the Acacia Sports Complex, off Mortimer Road), about a 2 min drive from the airport, for the usual club-style meal, at participants cost.

Cost: $10 per person (member); $20pp (non-member)

Access: By car is the most convenient, and parking in the Airport Car Park (off Beaty Road) is available. Please be aware that the area around the airport is ‘trucking central’, and large road transport units operate everywhere.

BCC bus services operate to the area.

Please register on-line. Participant numbers are limited to 20. A wait list will be operated. Peter Dunn OAM and Robin Barke have agreed to provide a repeat event later in the year if required.

Event Coordinator: Roger Grimley. If you have any questions please email info@rgsq.org.au

Mapping at Cravens Peak

Presenter:  Stuart Watt,  Map Group and RGSQ member

My geology mapping training at University of Queensland in the early 70’s was all compass and pacing (if high accuracy wasn’t needed) or compass and tape (if it was) or plane tabling, but when it came to mapping the geology of the wide-open spaces of Cravens Peak, different techniques were required and I had to take the electronic step up to GPS.  A learning curve, indeed.  This is the story of my bit of Cravens Peak and how participation in this scientific expedition led me eventually to the detailed orienteering mapping I now do.

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required.  If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date.

Coordinator:-  Kay Rees

Credit: Nest architecture for the species Tetragonula Carbonaria/Dr Tim Heard

Guest speakers, Professor Robert Henry, Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Dr Tim Heard, Sugarbag Bees, and Mr Ryan Newis, a member of the 'sustainable agriculture systems theme' in the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security at Griffith University, Nathan. Moderated by John Tasker.

Stingless bees, also known as meliponines, native to Australia are pollinators for some of our valuable horticulture; macadamias, mangos, chokos and lychees. Recent technological advancements in are leading to innovations in horticulture, including the use of stingless bees as pollinators, aiming for increased yields and improved sustainability practices.

You have 60 minutes to ask questions of the experts on the effect and value of native bees in horticulture and innovations in agriculture.

Come along for light refreshments before settling in for an informed conversation on a topic of interest to us all.

Members registering please post your questions on notice to the GIC forum: https://rgsq.org.au/geographyinconversation/

OR non-members

Email: questionsonnotice@gmail.com

Time: 5:30pm light refreshments – doors open at 5:15pm

Q&A Forum 6:00 – 7:30pm. Mingling 7:30 – 8:00.

Address: Gregory Place, Level 1, 28 Fortescue St, Spring Hill.

Cost: $5.00 for refreshments, included in registration

Cost: $5:00 Members

         $10:00 Non-members

         $5.00 Students

Pamela Tonkin, Co-Convenor

The events of the past three years as we have dealt with COVID-19 from the local to the global level have put pandemics at the forefront of society’s collective consciousness. As the effects of COVID-19 on our community start to wane, the obvious question that many are posing is: ‘Are we ready for the next one?’.

In this lecture we will take a journey through past pandemics from Roman times, through the Black Death, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ flu, several ‘hidden’ pandemics and finally up to the current COVID-19 pandemic. We will cover the varying characteristics of the different pathogens involved and the responses of the affected societies to these pandemics. Finally we will look at what we can learn from past pandemics and how this may affect our preparation for future events.

The question of preparedness is complex and we will explore the different factors that will determine just how prepared humanity is, or is able to be for ‘the next one’.

Biography

Dr Gayle Pollard B.Sc. (Hons) Ph.D. Advanced Epidemiologist, Queensland Health

Gayle currently works as an Advanced Epidemiologist in the Metro South Public Health Unit of Metro South Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health. Prior to 2020, her role encompassed such diverse areas of epidemiology as food-borne illness outbreak investigation, childhood immunisation program monitoring, communicable disease monitoring, and reporting on health indicators including hospitalisations, cancer incidence, cancer screening, maternal and child health and chronic disease risk factors.

In February 2020 her life changed when she and her colleagues found themselves at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response, providing data to support contact tracing, following up COVID-19 outbreaks and reporting on local-level COVID-19 statistics.

Gayle’s background is in marine ecology with her Ph.D. studies taking place in part at U.Q’s Heron Island Research Station. Statistics saw her move sideways into epidemiology with Queensland Health. She has spent 27 years working with health data, initially as an analyst and for the past 15 years as an epidemiologist.

Please note: If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom, the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date. This lecture may be recorded. If you have any questions, please email us at info@rgsq.org.au.

Images: Clockwise from top left:

"The Plague" by C. Audran after P. Mignard. US Library of Congress/Corbis; A plague doctor in protective clothing, circa 1656; engraving by Paul Fürst after J. Colombina; Emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, 1918. New Contributed Photographs Collection / otis historical Archives / US National Museum of Health and Medicine; US Food and Drug Administration images; US Centres for Disease Control images; US Food and Drug Administration images.

GEOGRAPHY UNEARTHED: What are the UQ Geographers doing?

This will be an interesting trip learning about the geography programs at the University of Queensland including work of Geographers at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Date: Friday 21 July, starting at 9am and finishing about 3pm.

Venue: Meet at the rear of Steele Building on Campbell Place, off Campbell Road.

The visit includes morning tea and presentations from UQ staff on:

• Physical and Human Geography programs
• Queensland Centre for Population Research
• Atmospheric/climate science
• Remote Sensing Centre and Earth Observation Program
• Great Barrier Reef Habitat Mapping & Coral Reef Atlas
• Demonstration of weather monitoring equipment
• Coastal engineering lab in the Advanced Engineering Building

 Lunch will be on the deck at Nano’s Lakeside café at your own choice and expense. It will also include a short talk on the refurbishment of the lake.

After lunch, there will be a short walk across the new lake walkway for a guided tour of the Alumni Rainforest.

The trip should conclude at about 3pm.

Public Transport is recommended. The tour is not during the semester and therefore there should also be limited parking for $5 along the Brisbane River and at some other areas.

Details of the venue and the transport options will be provided to participants closer to the event.

Cost:  Members $7 Non-members $17

This trip will be limited to 30 people and if full, please join the waitlist if you are interested.  

For further information please contact us at info@rgsq.org.au.

Coordinators: Iraphne Childs/Chris Spriggs

Join us on the Caloundra - Eco Explorer Cruise

Departure: 2 Pick up locations

A. Arrive at 7.15 for 7.30 departure from Bus stop 27 Park Av (Clayfield) near Eagle Junction Station.

B. Petrie station 7.50  

Please indicate when booking.

Return: 4 pm

What: Bus and Cruise

The Pumicestone Passage on Caloundra’s doorstep is 35 km long and separates Bribie Island National Park from the mainland. The internationally significant Marine Park with its numerous islands and creeks is home to over 300 species of birds and is an important sanctuary in their migration. It is part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site.

The activity involves a 1.30hr bus trip (there and back) and a 2.30hr cruise (seated) ample opportunity to move around during the cruise. The vessel is boarded at a fixed wharf and has a toilet facility.

Lunch: 12.00 at Pelican Waters Tavern (not included) own expense

Wear: comfortable shoes and sun safe clothing

Bring: a hat, camera, sunglasses, sunscreen and wind jacket. It is recommended to wear a mask on the bus.

Cost: $100 members and $105 non-members

Register and pay by 30 March 2023.

This trip will be limited to 35 people and if full, please join the waitlist if you are interested.  

Do hope you can come.

Mapping Binna Burra Tracks

Presenter:   Iraphne Childs, Map Group and RGSQ member

Members familiar with Binna Burra may be interested to know about our mapping of walking trails project.  Under a collaborative arrangement between Binna Burra Lodge and the RGSQ’s Scientific Studies Committee, supported by the School of Earth and Environment Sciences at the University of Queensland, this project re-mapped more accurately  existing and currently disused tracks and assess locations for possible future tracks on Binna Burra land.

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required.  If you have registered to attend the lecture via Zoom the lecture link will be emailed to all registrants closer to the lecture date.

Coordinator:-  Kay Rees

OUR WATER SUPPLY – TUGUN DESALINATION PLANT AND HINZE DAM

Photograph of Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast at full capacity. The original uploader was Triki-wiki at English WikipediaW., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hinze_Dam_-_Gold_Coast.JPG

SEQWater provides drinking water to the South-East Queensland water grid. Sources include the desalination plant at Tugun and numerous surface reservoirs such as the Hinze Dam in the Gold Coast hinterland. (https://www.seqwater.com.au/).

Travel by comfortable coach for a tour of these locations.

The Tugun desalination plant turns seawater into drinking water by the process of reverse osmosis. While it is commonly said the Tugun desalination plant is ‘mothballed’, that is not correct. The plant supplies water to the City of Gold Coast though it operates at reduced capacity.

The Hinze Dam is the main water supply for the Gold Coast region.

Both plants are connected by pipeline to the SEQ water grid (Gold Coast to Noosa and west to the Upper Brisbane Valley), as part of the strategy to ensure water supply in event of prolonged drought.

The coach will leave Eagle Junction (Bus Stop 27, Park Av, between Sydney St and Junction Rd) at 7.30 am, with a second pick-up at Coopers Plains (Brittain Park, Troughton Rd, opposite Sherrington St) at 8.00 am. Parking is available at both locations, either on-street or off-street (Brittain Park). The first pick-up is close to Eagle Junction rail station.

After the second pick-up, the coach will go directly to the desalination plant at Tugun, where we will have a guided tour by staff of SEQwater and Veolia (the operator). Then we go to Hinze Dam where we can tour the dam and there are picnic facilities and a café overlooking the impoundment.

The return journey will drop off at both pick-up locations. Expect to return to Eagle Junction by mid-afternoon.

Health and Safety: Fully enclosed flat-heeled shoes, full-length trousers and long sleeves are needed for the visit to the desalination plant. Hard hats, vests and safety glasses are supplied. A good level of fitness and mobility is required. There may be some steps to negotiate.

Bring: a hat, camera, sunglasses, sunscreen and wind jacket.

Numbers: The trip is limited to 30 people.

Cost (not including lunch): $50 per person (members), $60 per person (non-members)

Registration: When registering, please indicate whether you want to be picked up at Eagle Junction or Coopers Plains.

Registration is open for the RGSQ Burnett Basin trek in early September. Members who expressed an interest will be given priority until 19 June.

The drive-yourself trek will start at Cooyar (4^th September) and go to Nanango, Kingaroy (overnight 5^th September), Cherbourg, Gayndah, Isis (overnight 6^th September), Bundaberg and Bargara (overnight 7^th September).

The registration fee covers entrance fees to places we will visit, namely:

-         The Kingaroy Observatory

-         The Cherbourg Rationshed Museum

-         The Gayndah Historical Museum

-         The Hinkler Hall and Sugar Museum in Bundaberg

-         The Turtle Tales Immersive Experience at the QPWS Turtle Centre at Mon Repos

Registrants will need to make their own accommodation bookings.  Overnights will be at Cooyar, Kingaroy, North Isis and Bargara.  For group socialising, it is hoped that everyone can stay at the same accommodation places. Those places chosen have sites for caravans/campervans and cabins (or hotel nearby). Detailed information about the trek including accommodation places will be emailed directly to registrants by the activity coordinator, Ralph Carlisle.  If you have any questions, please info@rgsq.org.au and we'll forward your request to the activity coordinator. 

Photo credit: Iraphne Childs

Join us on a Grantham and Awassi Cheesery Tour - a story of Resilience and Industry

Time: Please indicate when booking

A  Arrive 7.50 for 8.00 departure Bus stop 27 Park Av (Clayfield) near EJ station

B   Arr  8.20 for 8.30 departure Brittain Park (near 172 Troughton Rd.) Coopers Plains Car Parking available

What: 10.30 – 1.30 pm See a boutique sheep farm and dairy in the Grantham hills owned by Di and David Piggott. They have created a lactose and gluten free range of premium cheeses and ice cream from a historically rare breed of sheep.

Tea and Coffee on arrival

Light Lunch in Avocado grove included - 3 courses: A Cheese Platter, Quiche and salad, and sheep milk ice cream. (There is the opportunity to purchase products so bring a small Esky)

Afternoon 1.40 Hopefully Jamie Simmonds (Author of the book “Rising from the Flood”) or Narelle Poole who was also involved with relocating Grantham, will accompany us.

On 10 January 2011 a 3 metre wall of water swept out of the Lockyer Creek. This town was severely damaged in the huge flash flood, 12 people died and a large number of houses and other buildings were destroyed.

See and hear how a town was relocated. It is a story of resilience.

Arrive home Stop B 4pm Stop A 4.30

Participants please note: The outing involves sitting on a bus for 90mins there and back. Some standing during the dairy talk (15 mins). Wear closed shoes, sun safe clothing, hat and bring camera.

Cost: Members $81 and non-members $91

Register and pay by Wed 22 August 2023

Limit 30 participants. A waitlist will operate.

Coordinator: Jeanette Lamont

A story behind the Stinson crash

Presenter: Philip Castle, historian and journalist

"Why were seven men so keen to fly to Sydney that fateful afternoon?

Many know the amazing story of the Stinson crash on 19 February 1937 on the Lamington Plateau and local hero Bernard O'Reilly's trek to save two survivors. However not many know the stories behind the seven people who took the flight and why they were so keen to take off even with a threatening severe weather pattern (cyclonic) off the coast. Philip Castle, a historian, has looked closely at the cause of the crash and the motives for those who boarded the fateful flight. The talk will include the most likely sequence which led to the crash and the heroism of the initial three survivors and their rescuers.

Philip Castle is a retired print journalist who has three degrees; history and political science, journalism and research masters on PTSD and journalists. He has over 40 years in the media and most recently was a journalism lecturer at QUT. He regularly talks on a range of historical topics including many on Australia's military and historical events and their impact on our nation. 

Cost:- $2.00 towards morning tea.

Limit:-  35.  Registration on the website required. 

Coordinator:-  Len Lowry

  Cruise in the classic ‘Lady Brisbane’ from Brisbane (Hamilton) to the Gold Coast (Southport), returning by coach

Cost     Includes morning and afternoon teas and BBQ lunch.

            Members: $ 100

            Non-members:  $110

Departing at 9.00 am from the Commercial Pontoon, 449 Kingsford Smith Drive, Hamilton * (150m up-river from Brett’s Wharf City Cat Terminal) on a 6 hour sheltered water excursion, explore the lower reaches of the Brisbane River, turn right and meander past and around the array of islands- large and small-  which populate the sheltered waterways of southern Moreton Bay,  to Southport.  Supported by a comprehensive on-board commentary, and tides and wind permitting- sneaking into spots boaties like to keep secret- experience something of a marine geography which is right on our doorstep. 

Disembark at Southport, and return to Hamilton by coach by around 4.30pm (traffic permitting)

The Lady Brisbane is a relatively large (two (2) level) vessel with seating, covered areas and restrooms. As all sailing is in sheltered waters, sailing is (generally) smooth. The vessel docks at fixed jetties.  Embarking / disembarking requires modest agility, however accessing the upper deck (steep steps) requires a higher level of mobility.  

The RGSQ participants group will share the Lady Brisbane (and the return coach) with other patrons.

Please register your participation on-line.  Subject to availability, registrations will be accepted up to 29^th September 2023.

Minimum number of participants: 15; Maximum 35.

*Ample on-street parking is available in the vicinity of the departure / return point at Hamilton.

There is a regular ferry service from the Apollo Street (Bulimba) City Cat Terminal to the (directly across the river) Brett’s Wharf Terminal, and street parking available near the Apollo Street Terminal. 

Photo credit: Brisbane Cruises

Coordinator: Roger Grimley