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Sea changes and rural festivals at national conference

June 17, 2005

walmsley.thumb.jpgAustralian geographers will discuss topics as diverse as tsunamis and the Parkes Elvis Revival Festival during their annual conference to be held next month at The University of New England.

One of Australia’s leading experts on tsunamis, Professor Ted Bryant, will take part in the plenary session on “tsunamis and sea level change” at the 34th Annual Conference of the Institute of Australian Geographers. The conference, to run from Tuesday 19 to Friday 22 July, will also include a session on rural festivals that will feature studies of the Tamworth Country Music Festival and the Parkes Elvis Festival, among others.

Some of the other sessions at the conference will deal with Indigenous issues, rural communities, urban change, leisure and tourism, physical geography, environmental sustainability, and geographical education.

Professor Bryant, from the University of Wollongong, believes the Pacific Rim has experienced tsunamis for as long as it has existed, including some caused by asteroid impacts. He will be joined in the tsunami session by UNE’s Professor Peter Flood, Dr Robert Baker and Dr Bob Haworth, who will discuss their discovery of compelling evidence that sea levels have changed rapidly in the recent past.

The convener of this year’s meeting, UNE’s Professor Jim Walmsley (pictured here), said the overall theme of the conference changed every year. “The title of the 2005 conference, ‘Geographies for Sustainable Futures’, reflects this year’s theme of sustainable development for urban and rural communities,” he said.

Professor Walmsley said that more than 100 people from all over Australia, as well as visitors from the UK, South Africa and New Zealand, would present papers at the conference. He said the day before the conference, Monday 18 July, would be devoted to a “postgraduate workshop”, in which postgraduate students would discuss (and receive advice on) topics such as ethics issues for researchers and the writing of theses, academic papers and grant applications.

The Institute of Australian Geographers, founded in Adelaide in 1958, promotes and supports Australian geography both in Australia and overseas. Its annual conference was last held at UNE in 1990.


Media contact: Professor Jim Walmsley, School of Human and Environmental Studies, UNE 6773 2863 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 17, 2005 10:07 AM