Journal articles on the topic 'Geology Victoria Ballarat Region'

AbstractThe discourse of sustainability is promoted internationally, with the United Nations declaring 2005-2014 as a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. There is discussion concerning the nature, status and significance of Education for Sustainability and its relationship with the somewhat established discourse of environmental education. This debate requires continuing theorising and one approach is to reflect critically on specific examples of sustainability within specific communities. This article seeks to promote further discussion about sustainability, and to contribute to ongoing theorisation about Education for Sustainability, by considering a particular instance – that of environmental sustainability in the Ballarat region of Victoria. The case study suggests that implementation of this local environmental sustainability strategy was dominated by technocratic and individualistic ideologies.

AbstractNeogene volcanism is widespread in northern Victoria Land, and is part of the McMurdo Volcanic Group. It is characterized by multiple coalesced shield volcanoes but includes a few relatively small stratovolcanoes. Two volcanic provinces are defined (Hallett and Melbourne), with nine constituent volcanic fields. Multitudes of tiny monogenetic volcanic centres (mainly scoria cones) are also scattered across the region and are called the Northern Local Suite. The volcanism extends in age between middle Miocene (c.15 Ma) and present but most is <10 Ma. Two centres may still be active (Mount Melbourne and Mount Rittmann). It is alkaline, varying between basalt (basanite) and trachyte/rhyolite. There are also associated, geographically restricted, alkaline gabbro to granite plutons and dykes (Meander Intrusive Group) with mainly Eocene–Oligocene ages (52–18 Ma). The isotopic compositions of the plutons have been used to infer overall cooling of climate during the Eocene–Oligocene. The volcanic sequences are overwhelmingly glaciovolcanic and are dominated by ‘a‘ā lava-fed deltas, the first to be described anywhere. They have been a major source of information on Mio-Pliocene glacial conditions and were used to establish that the thermal regime during glacial periods was polythermal, thus necessitating a change in the prevailing paradigm for ice-sheet evolution.

The Darwin Glacier region is located between the Carlyon and Darwin glaciers in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica (Fig. 1). Previous work on Ross Orogeny granitoids of the Darwin Glacier region is mutually conflicting. Haskell et al. (1965) mapped three plutons, the Carlyon Granodiorite, Mount Rich Granite and Hope Granite, Felder & Faure (1990) did not recognise the Hope Granite, and Encarnación & Grunow (1996) interpreted the entire area as underlain by a single intrusion, the Brown Hills pluton. Fieldwork during the 2000 field season and subsequent geochemical and geochronological analysis described here indicates the presence of three distinctive granitic suites, emplaced during Cambrian times. These include the Foggy Dog Granite (FDG) suite, the Darwin calcic suite and the Cooper Granodiorite.

Victoria is emerging as the region where members of the Ordovician graptolite subfamily Kinnegraptinae, revised herein, reached its highest diversity, with 16 or 17 species present, grouped in the four genera Paradelograptus Erdtmann et al. (1987), Lignigraptus n. gen., Wuninograptus Ni, 1981 and Psenograptus n. gen. The biostratigraphic range of the subfamily extends over much of the Early and Middle Ordovician, from the late Tremadocian Aorograptus victoriae Biozone to the late Darriwilian Archiclimacograptus riddellensis Biozone. Species described are Paradelograptus antiquus (T.S. Hall, 1899a), P. pritchardi (T.S. Hall, 1899a), P. bulmani (Thomas, 1973), P. maletzi n. sp., P. orthae n. sp., P. cayleyi n. sp., Lignigraptus chapmani (Keble & Harris, 1934), L. sedecimus (Harris & Thomas, 1938a), L. ramulosus (Harris & Thomas, 1938a), L. erdtmanni (Rickards & Chapman, 1991), L. gnomus n. sp., L. absidatus n. sp., L. daangean n. sp., L. diabolus n. sp., Wuninograptus quadribrachiatus Ni, 1981, Psenograptus costermansin. sp., Psenograptus sp. A and Psenograptus sp. B. The term glossa is proposed for the elongate apparatuses that adorn thecal apertures of Kinnegraptus, Lignigraptus and Wuninograptus.

A new species of Leptostylochus Bock, 1925 (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida), Leptostylochus victoriensis sp. nov., is described from an intertidal region in western Victoria, Australia. The new species is distinguished from congeners primarily by the morphology of the penis and penis pocket and by the anterior extension of the proximal vagina.

Granitoid gneisses intercalated with Koettlitz Group metasediments in the upper Ferrar, Taylor and Wright valleys of South Victoria Land comprise various hornblende+biotite orthogneisses and biotite orthogneisses, including the km-scale Dun and Calkin plutons. K-feldspar megacryst inclusion textures and discordant cross-cutting relationships with enclosing metasediments are interpreted as firm evidence of an intrusive origin for hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneiss. The scale of several concordant orthogneiss bodies (including the Dun and Calkin plutons), the presence of mafic enclaves, and relict flow differentiation in hornblende+biotite orthogneiss are also compatible with a plutonic origin. Orthogneisses were emplaced prior to deformation that produced macroscopic upright, tight, folds about NW-trending axes. Petrography and geochemistry indicate I-type affinities for hornblende+biotite orthogneisses and the Dun Pluton. Hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneisses (with the exception of the Dun Pluton) are part of a single petrogenetic suite, together with younger Bonney, Valhalla, and Hedley plutons. Emplacement of a continuum of I-type intrusives is envisaged which spanned Koettlitz Group deformation, and possibly caused much of the deformation. Hornblende+biotite and biotite orthogneisses are deformed precursors to the younger Bonney, Valhalla, and Hedley plutons. The Dun Pluton contains Fe-rich salitic clinopyroxene relicts and exhibits a unique geochemistry. It is rich in Sr, Al2O3, Na2O, and poor in FeO, K2O, Rb, Y, V. Chemical and petrographic features indicate an evolved body, possibly derived from a primitive source distinct from other orthogneisses and granitoids.

As part of the Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP) the coastal meroplankton community is being studied along the coast of Victoria Land, in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. In this preliminary analysis the meroplankton community from Cape Hallett (72°S) is compared to that from two previously sampled sites in the south-western Ross Sea; at Cape Roberts and in McMurdo Sound (c. 77°S). Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), a hierarchical cluster analysis and permutational MANOVA in combination show that the meroplankton composition differs significantly between the three sites. Although this preliminary analysis includes only one northern Ross Sea site, the results suggest that there are differences in meroplankton composition along the Victoria Land coast. Several larval types, including annelid trochophores, unidentified annelid larva, echinospira, barnacle nauplius, asteroid, echinoid, and ophiuroid larvae were absent or rare in the south-western Ross Sea but found abundantly at Cape Hallett. Detailed analysis of the meroplankton community at Cape Hallett and further examination of changes in the meroplankton community along the Victoria Land coast will continue in future years of the LGP.

Abstract Recurring progression from S- to I- to A-type granites has been proposed for a subset of granitic rocks in eastern Australia. The wider applicability and the validity of this idea is explored using the Cape Granite Suite (CGS) of South Africa and the granitic and silicic volcanic rocks of central Victoria, in southeastern Australia. Within the CGS there is presently little justification for the notion that there is a clear temporal progression from early S-type, through I-type to late A-type magmatism. The I- and S-type rocks are certainly spatially separated. However, apart from a single slightly older pluton (the Hoedjiespunt Granite) there is no indication that the S- and I-type granites are temporally distinct. One dated A-type granitic sample and a syenite have poorly constrained dates that overlap with those of the youngest S-type granites. In central Victoria, the granitic magma types display neither a spatial separation nor a temporal progression from one type to another. All magma varieties are present together and were emplaced within a far narrower time window than in the CGS. Thus, a progression may or may not exist in a particular region, and the occurrence of such a progression does not hold true even in a part of southeastern Australia, which afforded the type example. Thus, the idea that, globally, there should be a progression from S- to I- to A-type magmatism is unjustified. The critical factor in determining the temporal relationship between granitic magmas of different types is probably the compositional structure of the deep crust in a particular region, a reflection of how the individual orogen was assembled. In turn, this must reflect significant differences in the tectonic settings.

AbstractMeltwater habitats in the Darwin Glacier region, Victoria Land (80°S), were sampled in December 2007 and January 2009 to characterize their microbial and metazoan ecology, nutrient status and geochemistry. Targeted areas included terrestrial ponds of the Grant Valley, Lake Wellman, Tentacle Ridge and Diamond Hill, and supraglacial ponds and cryoconite holes of the lower Darwin Glacier. Geochemistry ranged from Na-Cl dominated terrestrial ponds to Na-HCO3dominated, dilute supraglacial ponds and cryoconites. All showed the nitrate enrichment typical of inland ponds of Victoria Land (up to 13 g.l-1NO3-N), with some precipitating nitratine (NaNO3) salt. Elevated pH indicated ongoing photosynthetic processes. Benthic microbial mats were thin and poorly developed, dominated by oscillatoriacean cyanobacteria. Nitrogen-fixing genera were generally absent and diatoms were rare. A large (20 μm long)Cyanothecespecies was the most abundant cyanobacterium in the water and in sediments of the cryoconites. DNA finger-printing identified distinct differences in cyanobacterial and bacterial community structure between the cryoconites, terrestrial ponds and ponds on glacial margins. Eleven metazoan species were identified, with rotifers being the most abundant. Pond substrate (terrestrial rock, ice-cored moraine or supraglacial ice) proved to be a more significant influence on biogeochemistry than other aspects of geography or climatic conditions.

At Terra Cotta Mountain, in the Taylor Glacier region of south Victoria Land, a 237 m thick Ferrar Dolerite sill is intruded along the unconformity between basement granitoids and overlying Beacon Supergroup sedimentary rocks. Numerous Ferrar Dolerite dykes intrude the Beacon Supergroup and represent later phases of intrusion. Major and trace element data indicate variation both within and between the separate intrusions. Crystal fractionation accounts for much of the geochemical variation between the intrusive events. However, poor correlations between many trace elements require the additional involvement of open system processes. Chromium is decoupled from highly incompatible elements consistent with behaviour predicted for a periodically replenished, tapped and fractionating magma chamber. Large ion lithophile element-enrichment and depletion in Nb, Sr, P and Ti suggests the addition of a crustal component or an enriched mantle source. The trace element characteristics of the Dolerites from Terra Cotta Mountain are similar to those of other Ferrar Group rocks from the central Transantarctic Mountains and north Victoria Land, as well as with the Tasmanian Dolerites. This supports current ideas that the trace element signature of the Ferrar Group is inherited from a uniformly enriched mantle source region.

Detailed geological mapping and geochemical analysis of early Palaeozoic granitoid plutons and dykes from the Taylor Valley and Ferrar Glacier region in south Victoria Land reveal two distinct suites. This suite subdivision-approach is a departure from previous lithology-based schemes and can be applied elsewhere in south Victoria Land. The older calc-alkaline Dry Valleys 1 suite is dominated by the compositionally variable Bonney Pluton, a flow-foliated concordant pluton with an inferred length of over 100 km. Plutons of this suite are elongate in a NW-SE direction and appear to have been subjected to major structural control during their emplacement. The younger alkali-calcic Dry Valleys 2 suite comprises discordant plutons and numerous dyke swarms with complex age relationships. Field characteristics of this suite indicate that it was passively emplaced into fractures at higher levels in the crust than the Dry Valleys 1 suite. Whole-rock geochemistry confirms this suite subdivision based on field relationships and indicates that the two suites were derived from different parent magmas by fractional crystallization. The Dry Valleys 1 suite resembles Cordilleran I-type granitoids and is inferred to be derived from partial melting of the upper mantle and/or lower crust above an ancient subduction zone. The Dry Valleys 2 suite resembles Caledonian I-type granitoids and may have resulted from a later episode of crustal extension.

The question of how stable the climate in Antarctica has been during the last few million years compared to the rest of the planet is still controversial. This study attempts to add new information to the discussion by reconstructing the timing and spatial extent of glacial advances in northern Victoria Land over tens of thousands to millions of years. In Terra Nova Bay region, surface exposure ages and erosion rates of glacially rounded bedrock and glacial erratics have been determined using the cosmogenic nuclides 3He, 10Be and 21Ne. Three morphological units have been analysed. They yield minimum ages of 11 to 34 ka, 309 ka, and 2.6 Ma, respectively. Erosion rates were as low as 20 cm Ma−1 since middle Pliocene time. Taking erosion into account, the oldest surface is 5.3 Ma old. Pleistocene glacier advances had considerable extent, reaching up to 780 m above modern ice levels, but have been restricted to the valleys since at least mid-Pliocene. The existence of landscapes of mid-Pliocene age in northern Victoria Land implies that the climatic stability of the McMurdo Dry Valleys is not unique within the Transantarctic Mountains, but rather the expression of a constantly cold and hyperarid climate regime in entire Victoria Land.

Subalpine grasslands in the Mt Hotham area, Victoria, are a common feature of cold-air drainage valleys at elevations of 1260–1660 m. Here, the pooling of cold air prevents trees from establishing and results in a distinct grassland community, composed of tussock grasses and a wide variety of intertussock species. Despite their common occurrence in the region, such grasslands have yet to be fully described. This study focused on identifying the floristic composition of subalpine grasslands across 51 sites in the vicinity of Mt Cope, Dinner Plain and Mt Hotham. The vegetation was sampled from 172, 20-m2 quadrats which were analysed by multivariate ordination techniques. Environmental variables were quantified (i.e. soil depth, pH, aspect, slope, biomass, grazing intensity, altitude). Analysis revealed that the grassland sites varied greatly in their composition and richness. There was a gradual rather than abrupt change in species composition across grassland sites, thought to be related to both the geographic proximity of the sites and environmental factors such as geology. The following five grassland types were identified from the entire data set and defined primarily by the dominant species: Poa hiemata, Poa costiniana, Poa sieberiana, Poa labillardierei and Themeda triandra. Vector-fitting revealed significant correlations between the location of the quadrats in ordination space and altitude, biomass, pH and soil depth. Both increasing altitude and biomass were associated with the P. costiniana grasslands and some of the P. hiemata grasslands. The P. hiemata grasslands were widely distibuted across altitudes and geology (i.e. basalt and metamorphic). The lower-altitude grasslands (P. labillardierei, P. sieberiana, T. triandra) were associated with increasing pH and increasing soil depth. These grasslands were of limited extent and usually occupied small areas within larger grasslands dominated by P. hiemata or P. costiniana. The floristic composition of the Hotham grasslands (1260–1630 m a.s.l.), when compared with previously published data from the higher-elevation subalpine grasslands of both the Dargo High Plains (1450–1680 m a.s.l.) and Bogong High Plains (>1700 m a.s.l.), showed that there was no distinct differentiation between grasslands of these areas. However, there was a suggestion of gradual floristic change across this geographic range. This study highlights the need for ongoing conservation of grasslands in the Hotham area, particularly those at lower altitudes (1260–1450 m a.s.l.), which represent the upper limits of many temperate grassland species.

AbstractBiological soil crusts are associations of lichens, mosses, algae, cyanobacteria, microfungi and bacteria in different proportions forming a thin veneer within the top centimetres of soil surfaces. They occur in all biomes, but particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, even in the most extreme climates. They carry out crucial ecosystem functions, such as soil stabilization, influencing water and nutrient cycles, and contribute to the formation of microniches for heterotrophic life. In continental Antarctica especially, these roles are essential because no higher plants provide such ecosystem services. We provide a detailed description of biological soil crusts from Garwood Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys region (78°S) and Diamond Hill (80°S) in the Darwin Mountains region. The coverage was low at 3.3% and 0.8% of the soil surface. At Garwood Valley the crusts were composed of green algal lichens, cyanobacteria, several species of green algae and the mossHennediella heimii(Hedw.) R.H. Zander. Diamond Hill crusts appear to be unique in not having any species of cyanobacteria. Major parts are embedded in the soil, and their thickness correlates with higher chlorophyll contents, higher soil organic carbon and nitrogen, which are fundamental components of this species poor cold desert zone.

Microscopy, DNA sequencing, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were used to examine variation within Nostoc commune from collections between 72 and 78°S in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Although there is considerable bias of collected material towards southern latitudes, and this material varies greatly in age (collected between 1984 and 2004), an important new phylogeographic pattern was found. DNA sequencing of the tRNAleu(UAA) region, used recently to define form species N. commune, revealed little variation between collections. AFLP analysis, however, split the collected material according to habitat (irrigated soil communities versus ponds), rather than latitude. These results suggest that environmental factors linked to latitude are not the greatest drivers of genetic variation in Victoria Land. These may operate at a lower level but would require intensive sampling within narrowly defined habitat types at a range of latitudes to uncover. We advocate extensive sampling across local environmental gradients based on water availability, comparative culturing, and development of sequence characterised amplified regions (SCARs) across a range of latitudes in future seasons of the Latitudinal Gradient Project.

Data from six sites in Victoria Land (72–77°S) investigating co-variation in soil communities (microbial and invertebrate) with biogeochemical properties showthe influence of soil properties on habitat suitability varied among local landscapes as well as across climate gradients. Species richness of metazoan invertebrates (Nematoda, Tardigrada and Rotifera) was similar to previous descriptions in this region, though identification of three cryptic nematode species of Eudorylaimus through DNA analysis contributed to the understanding of controls over habitat preferences for individual species. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis profiles revealed unexpectedly high diversity of bacteria. Distribution of distinct bacterial communities was associated with specific sites in northern and southern Victoria Land, as was the distribution of nematode and tardigrade species. Variation in soil metazoan communities was related to differences in soil organic matter, while bacterial diversity and community structure were not strongly correlated with any single soil property. There were no apparent correlations between metazoan and bacterial diversity, suggesting that controls over distribution and habitat suitability are different for bacterial and metazoan communities. Our results imply that top-down controls over bacterial diversity mediated by their metazoan consumers are not significant determinants of bacterial community structure and biomass in these ecosystems.

Polar subglacial hydrologic systems have garnered much interest since the recognition of Lake Vostok in 1996. In Antarctica, these environments are hydrologically diverse, including isolated lakes of different sizes, river–lake flow-through systems, “swamps” and groundwater (Siegert 2016). The refreezing of subglacial meltwater is also an important process beneath a large portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (Bell et al. 2011). As subglacial water refreezes it exsolves salts, potentially leaving behind saline and hypersaline brines. Brines thought to derive from this cryoconcentration process have been observed in the northern polar permafrost regions and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) region of Antarctica. Additionally, sediments in the Victoria Land Basin have diagenetic signatures produced by brine movement dating from 3–11 m.y.a, suggesting hypersaline brines have existed in the McMurdo region since at least this time (Staudigel et al. 2018).

The workshop was held in Wellington on September 19 and 20, 1988. It was preceded by a field trip on September 18 to look at the evidence of recent movements on the Wairarapa Fault, and followed by a similar trip to sites on the Wellington Fault on September 25. It was attended by 33 scientists and engineers interested in earthquakes, earth deformation and seismic hazard from Geophysics Division, NZ Geological Survey, Division of Land and Soil Science, Division of Water Sciences, and Physics and Engineering Laboratory of DSIR, Works and Development Corporation, and the Research School of Earth Sciences of Victoria University of Wellington. The purpose of the workshop was to determine the extent of existing data on the subject and then identify what new, feasible projects could fill gaps in the knowledge with an ultimate objective, among others, of enabling a refined estimate of seismic hazard in the region to be made. Those making presentations at the workshop were asked to provide in advance an abstract of their material that was as quantitative as possible, both to stimulate discussion and act as a permanent record of the workshop. It was judged that many of those attending would have been unable to provide full papers, and these were not sought. A good deal of the material has in fact been previously published, but it was felt that the consolidated Abstracts represented a very useful document for those interested in or working on the Wellington Region.

CCl3F (or CFC-11) and CCl2F2 (or CFC-12) were determined in air samples collected, during subsequent summer Antarctic campaigns, in different sampling sites in the Ross Sea Region. The samples were analysed by GC-ECD after enrichment. Data obtained since 1988–89 were plotted to observe the trend of CFCs atmospheric concentration levels. A decrease in the rate of increase of CFC-12 concentration was observed, whilst the concentration of CFC-11 was actually seen to be decreasing.

Abstract Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) is one of the established metrics for benchmarking management of Nitrogen (N) in various systems. Numerous approaches to calculate NUE exist, making it difficult to compare the performances of systems depending on the methodology used. This study adopted the conceptualized framework by European Union Nitrogen Expert Panel (EUNEP) to calculate NUE values for cereal crops to determine future trends for the first time in the Lake Victoria region. Data were collected through in-person interviews among maize and rice smallholder farmers within the Lake Victoria region. A total of 293 observations were recorded. Collected data on yield and N fertilizer were used to make projections on the changes of NUE based on scientific and policy recommendations for Sub-Saharan Africa for 2020 (base year), 2025, 2030, and 2050. Significant differences in maize grain yield for both fertilized and unfertilized farms were observed with very low yields of 2.4 t ha−1 (fertilized) and 1.4 t ha−1 (unfertilized). The graphical representation of NUE of both maize and rice showed that most farmers were in the zone of soil N mining. Projected results showed that most maize farmers within Lake Victoria region will continue to experience NUE values >90%, low N inputs <50 kg N ha−1) and less than 5 t ha−1 maize crop yield over the years. For rice farmers, Nyando and Nzoia catchments had surpassed the set target of both yield (6 t ha−1) and N input (50 kg N ha−1). However, NUE values remain higher than the optimal ranges of 50%–90% (127.14%−267.57%), indicating risks of depleting soil N status. The unbalanced N fertilization also showed a trend below the linear neutrality option and the average N output for good N management for both crops. Therefore, farmers need to explore various crop management options that could increase N use efficiencies. This should be coupled with policies that promote farmers to access more N input and advocate for optimal management of N and improved quality of the cereals.

AbstractWe examined mitochondrial DNA (COI) variability and distribution of Stereotydeus spp. in Victoria Land and the Transantarctic Mountains, and constructed Neighbour Joining (NJ) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees using all publicly available COI sequences for the three Stereotydeus species present (S. belli, S. mollis and S. shoupi). We also included new COI sequences from Miers, Marshall and Garwood valleys in southern Victoria Land (78°S), as well as from the Darwin (79°S) and Beardmore Glacier (83°S) regions. Both NJ and ML methods produced trees which were similar in topology differing only in the placement of the single available S. belli sequence from Cape Hallett (72°S) and a S. mollis haplotype from Miers Valley. Pairwise sequence divergences among species ranged from 9.5–18.1%. NJ and ML grouped S. shoupi from the Beardmore Glacier region as sister to those from the Darwin with pairwise divergences of 8%. These individuals formed a monophyletic clade with high bootstrap support basal to S. mollis and S. belli. Based on these new data, we suggest that the distributional range of S. shoupi extends northward to Darwin Glacier and that a barrier to dispersal for Stereotydeus, and possibly other arthropods, exists immediately to the north of this area.

AbstractThe degree and nature of association between trace metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Ag, & Cd) and cyanobacterial mats, phytoplankton and sediments has been assessed in the Lake Vanda region of the Wright Valley, Victoria Land. Trace metal:Fe ratios and SEM imaging confirmed that apparent trace metal enrichment in cyanobacterial mats, relative to the sediment beneath, was due to incorporation of fine (sub-micron) sediment particles in the muciligenous matrix of the mat. In suspended particulate material (SPM) filtered from the oxic water of Lake Vanda and the Onyx River, the degree of trace metal binding to the SPM did not appear to correlate with phytoplankton content. Instead a positive correlation was observed between Fe and trace metal content. The SPM at the top of the lake water column, where only the finest sediment remains suspended, had the highest trace metal concentrations. It is concluded that the trace metal content of cyanobacterial mats and phytoplankton samples is primarily due to incorporation of fine sediment particles of high surface area which therefore enhance trace metal adsorption capacity. This reinforces the existing hypothesis that trace metal solubility in this environment is primarily controlled by abiotic processes.

A volcanic event, represented by both coarse ash and a prominent sulphate peak, has been detected at a depth of 85.82 m in a 90 m ice core drilled at Talos Dome, northern Victoria Land. Accurate dating of the core, based on counting annual sulphate and nitrate fluctuations and on comparison with records of major known volcanic eruptions, indicates that the event occurred in 1254 ± 2 AD. The source volcano is most likely to be located within the Ross Sea region. In particular, the glass shards have a trachytic composition similar to rocks from The Pleiades and Mount Rittmann (Melbourne volcanic province), about 200 km from Talos Dome. Sulphate concentration is comparable with that of violent extra-Antarctic explosive events recorded in the same core, but atmospheric perturbation was short-lived and localized, suggesting a negligible impact on regional climate. It is suggested that this eruption may represent the most important volcanic explosion in the Melbourne province during the last eight centuries; thus this event may also represent a valuable chrono-stratigraphical marker on the East Antarctic plateau and in adjoining areas.

AbstractThe Triassic Lashly Formation occurs to the east of Mount Brooke at Coombs Hills. Previously established informal members B, C, and D of the Lashly Formation are now identified at Coombs Hills. Lashly Formation member D passes up into a poorly exposed interval of silicic shard-bearing fine-grained sandstone and tuff, which is correlated with the Jurassic Shafer Peak Formation of north Victoria Land and Hanson Formation of the Beardmore Glacier region. Lashly Formation members C and D are intruded by three phreatic explosion pipes, resulting from emplacement of Ferrar Dolerite intrusions at depth and associated explosive steam generation. These pipes, ranging up to 180 m in horizontal dimension, comprise sedimentary clasts in a sand matrix, most of which was locally derived. Pipe margins are mainly ill defined and adjacent country rock is commonly disaggregated or shattered, although retaining stratigraphic order. Locally, thin basalt intrusions have interacted with coal beds.

North central Victoria has experienced significant natural climate change over the past 20 000 years. At the height of the last ice age, the region was colder by 5°C or more with uplands and slopes under subalpine vegetation. Modern vegetation patterns were not established until the early Holocene. The first half of the Holocene was wetter than today, while the second half was affected by a less stable climate influenced by a strengthening El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Climate immediately prior to European occupation may have been wetter than during the historical period. Thus the pre-European climate and land surface influences on regional water balance may have been different to that which is generally assumed. Climate during the historical period was statistically homogenous, but with drier and wetter periods. Modest warming began in the mid 20th century, by about 0.4°C per century from 1950 to 1996. From 1997, maximum temperature has undergone a significant upward step change (p>0.01) of 0.9°C. Rainfall has decreased by 19%, with May–October rainfall undergoing a significant (p=0.05) downward step change from 2000. Maximum temperature is now non-stationary with respect to rainfall and is experiencing an upward trend consistent with climate model projections. These changes are equal to or greater than those projected for 2030, and are significantly affecting agriculture and forestry, ecosystems, fire risk and water resources. Evidence from pre-historic, historic and model projections of future climate for this region suggest that climate change can often be abrupt, with ‘stable’ periods showing considerable decadal variability. Prudent risk management would treat the post 1996 climate as the new baseline and plan for further changes.

Abstract In Australia, the onset of human occupation (≥65 ka?) and dispersion across the continent are the subjects of intense debate and are critical to understanding global human migration routes. New-generation multi-collector mass spectrometers capable of high-precision 40Ar/39Ar dating of young (&lt;500 ka) samples provide unprecedented opportunities to improve temporal constraints of archaeological events. In southeastern Australia, a novel approach to improving understanding of occupation involves dating key volcanic eruptions in the region, referenced to stone artifacts and Aboriginal oral traditions. The current study focuses on two monogenetic volcanoes in the Newer Volcanic Province of southeastern Australia: Budj Bim (previously Mount Eccles) and Tower Hill. Budj Bim and its surrounding lava landforms are of great cultural significance and feature prominently in the oral traditions of the Gunditjmara people. Tower Hill is of archaeological significance due to the occurrence of a stone tool beneath tephra. 40Ar/39Ar eruption ages of 36.9 ± 3.1 ka (95% confidence interval) and 36.8 ± 3.8 ka (2σ) were determined for the Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanic complexes, respectively. The Tower Hill eruption age is a minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria, consistent with published optically stimulated luminescence and 14C age constraints for the earliest known occupation sites in Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia. If aspects of oral traditions pertaining to Budj Bim or its surrounding lava landforms reflect volcanic activity, this could be interpreted as evidence for these being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence.

Wind fields derived from ERS-1 scatterometer data, acquired over the open water present in the western Ross Sea during the summer season, are used to study the patterns of mesoscale atmospheric flow connected with surges of katabatic air from the Terra Nova Bay convergence zone, located in the coastal region of Victoria Land. These katabatic winds may turn northward but also southward, or divide into separate northward- and southward-turning components; the latter situation is illustrated by a detailed case study. Analysis of concurrent AWS data, suggests that the most likely mechanism for the observed southward turning is the existence of a highly-localised low pressure centre south of Terra Nova Bay. Comparison of multitemporal ERS-1 scatterometer wind fields with AWS wind measurements demonstrate that the satellite data are: (i) able to correctly portray changes in mesoscale circulation patterns, and (ii) suitable for the routine monitoring of winds over open water around the Antarctic coastline, despite a less than ideal temporal coverage.

AbstractThick successions of turbidites are widespread in the Ross–Delamerian and Lachlan orogens and are now dispersed through Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. U-Pb detrital zircon age patterns for latest Precambrian, Cambrian and Ordovician metagreywackes show a closely related provenance. The latest Neoproterozoic–early Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks have major components, at c. 525, 550, and 595 Ma, i.e. about 40–80 million years older than deposition. Zircons in these components increase from the Neoproterozoic to Ordovician. Late Mesoproterozoic age components, 1030 and 1070 Ma, probably originate from igneous/metamorphic rocks in the Gondwanaland hinterland whose exact locations are unknown. Although small, the youngest zircon age components are coincident with estimated depositional ages suggesting that they reflect contemporaneous and minor, volcanic sources. Overall, the detrital zircon provenance patterns reflect the development of plutonic/metamorphic complexes of the Ross–Delamerian Orogen in the Transantarctic Mountains and southern Australia that, upon exhumation, supplied sediment to regional scale basin(s) at the Gondwana margin. Tasmanian detrital zircon age patterns differ from those seen in intra-Ross Orogen sandstones of northern Victoria Land and from the oldest metasediments in the Transantarctic Mountains. A comparison with rocks from the latter supports an allochthonous western Tasmania model and amalgamation with Australia in late Cambrian time.

Seabee Hook is a low lying gravel spit adjacent to Cape Hallett, northern Victoria Land, in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica and hosts an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookery. Dipwells were inserted to monitor changes in depth to, and volume of, groundwater and tracer tests were conducted to estimate aquifer hydraulic conductivity and groundwater velocity. During summer (November–February), meltwater forms a shallow, unconfined, aquifer perched on impermeable ice cemented soil. Groundwater extent and volume depends on the amount of snowfall as meltwater is primarily sourced from melting snow drifts. Groundwater velocity through the permeable gravel and sand was up to 7.8 m day−1, and hydraulic conductivities of 4.7 × 10−4 m s−1 to 3.7 × 10−5 m s−1 were measured. The presence of the penguin rookery, and the proximity of the sea, affects groundwater chemistry with elevated concentrations of salts (1205 mg L−1 sodium, 332 mg L−1 potassium) and nutrients (193 mg L−1 nitrate, 833 mg L−1 ammonia, 10 mg L−1 total phosphorus) compared with groundwater sourced away from the rookery, and with other terrestrial waters in Antarctica.

It is almost four years since the Lorna Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989. Since those ten seconds of shaking many lessons have been learned by all those affected. The objective of this symposium was to share these lessons and experiences so that the impact of future earthquakes on other communities might be minimised. Before reporting on the symposium content it may be recalled that the Lorna Prieta earthquake was Richter magnitude 7.1 with the epicentral region located 100km. from the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. Excluding localised site effects, typical felt intensities, in these areas were about MM 7, similar to the expected intensity of a thirty year return period event in the central region of New Zealand. The Lorna Prieta earthquake, at least as experienced by two large cities was not a major earthquake. Details of the earthquake and its effects have been published extensively, including a report by the NZNSEE reconnaissance team in this Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 1990. The following six topics were reasonably equally discussed during the symposium: - geotechnical, buildings, emergency preparedness and response, lifelines, bridges and recovery, mitigation and planning. All plenary session papers will be published in due course and copies will be placed in the New Zealand Earthquake and War Damage Commission and Victoria University libraries. Those issues raised at the Symposium and thought to be of special relevance to the New Zealand scene are discussed under headings from each of the above topics.

This paper reports on the remapping of a carefully documented vegetation plot at Cape Hallett (72°19′S 170°16′E) to provide an assessment of the rates of vegetation change over decadal time scales. E.D. Rudolph, in 1962, mapped in detail the vegetation of a site approximately 28 m by 120 m at Cape Hallett, Victoria Land, Antarctica. This site was relocated and remapped in January 2004 and changes were assessed using GIS techniques. This appears to be the longest available time period for assessing vegetation change in Antarctica. The analysis indicated that considerable change had occurred in moss and algae distribution patterns and this seems to have been caused by increased water supply, particularly in wetter areas. There was also evidence of some change in lichen distribution. The extent of the change indicates that vegetation cover can be used for monitoring change in areas as extreme as the Ross Sea region. For this analysis to be successful it was important that the mapping techniques used were totally explicit and could easily be replicated. Fortunately, Rudolph had defined his cover classes and the site was also clearly marked. The application of GIS mapping techniques allows the mapping to be more explicitly defined and easily replicated.

Detailed mapping based on the high-resolution grids, such as GEBCO, ETOPO1, GlobSed, EGM-2008 is crucial for various domains of Earth sciences: geophysics, glaciology, Quaternary, sedimentology, geology, environmental science, geomorphology, etc. The study presented a GMT-based scripting techniques of the cartographic data processing aimed at the comparative analysis of the bathymetry, sediment thickness, geologic objects and geophysical settings in the study area based on various datasets. The study area is located in the Ross Sea, Antarctic. The highest values of the sediment thickness over 7,500 m are dominating in the southwest segment of the Ross Sea closer to the Victoria Land, followed by the region over the Ross Ice Shelf with values between 5,500 to 7,000 m (170°-175°W). The increased sediment thickness (2,500 to 3,000 m) was also mapped seen in the region NE off the Sulzberger Bay (70-75°S to 140-155°W), caused by the closeness of the Marie Bird Land ice coasts. A remarkable correlation between the gravity and the topography of the sea-land border in the Marie Bird Land area is well reflected in the coastal line and a set of the higher values in the free-air gravity. On the contrary, negative values (–60 to -80 mGal) are notable along the submarine toughs stretching parallel in the western part of the basin: e.g. the trough stretching in NW-SE direction in the 170°W-175°E, 65°S-68°S, between the 167°W-175°W, 70°S-72°S. Such correlations are clearly visible on the map, indicating geological lineaments and bathymetric depressions correlating with gravity grids. The paper contributes to the regional studies of the Ross Sea, the Antarctic and Polar region, and development of the cartographic technical methodologies by presenting an application of the GMT for thematic mapping.

ABSTRACTIn summer 1911—1912, during Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition (1910–1913) a field party of four men led by the geologist Griffith Taylor surveyed the coast and hinterland of Victoria Land, Antarctica. During their stay at Cape Geology (77°00'S, 162°35'E), Granite Harbour, the members of the ‘western geological party’ built Granite House, a rock shelter used as a kitchen. The field party finished its work in the Granite Harbour region in the second week of January 1912, but heavy sea ice prevented Terra Nova from reaching the prearranged meeting point at the entrance to the bay. Faced with the possibility of being trapped for the winter, the party left Granite Harbour and travelled overland back toward the winter quarters on Ross Island. One month later the party was picked up by Terra Nova and was returned safely to Cape Evans. During an expedition to Granite Harbour in January-February 1992, the authors discovered an 80-year-old note left by the field party in a cigarette tin in the vicinity of Granite House. Dated 14 January 1912, the note was written by Taylor to Lieutenant H.L.L. Pennell, the skipper of Terra Nova, to let him know that the party had left for Cape Roberts. Granite House is a significant relic of the ‘heroic era’ and merits protection.

A mathematical model was used to simulate interannual patterns of biomass accumulation within benthic microbial mats of two Antarctic lakes. Lakes Hoare and Vanda are in the Dry Valley region of Southern Victoria Land, and are both perennially ice covered. The model combines experimentally derived observations of light/photosynthesis relationships and rates of respiration of mats from a range of depths in these lakes, with data on incident radiation and the optical properties of the ice and water column. The model was used to estimate daily and annual production and, using measured carbon content, the potential vertical accumulation of the mats over a year. An annual pattern of photosynthesis was predicted for both lakes, with net production from October to February and net respiration at other times. Predicted rates and patterns of net photosynthesis were remarkably similar in the two lakes, despite differences in light climate: the ice of Lake Hoare transmits 1–4% incident radiation, whereas that of Lake Vanda transmits up to 20%. Maximum daily rates of 15–20 μg carbon cm−2 were predicted to occur at approximately 10 m depth in both lakes. Maximum annual rates of carbon fixation (at 10–12 m depth) in both lakes were c. 1.2 mg carbon cm−2 equating to approximately 0.1–4 mm vertical accumulation of mat each year. Experimental studies of microbial mats in the lakes revealed horizontal laminations of similar thickness to model estimates, supporting the hypothesis that these were annual layers. Differences between model estimates and observations were found in deeper water in Lake Vanda, where considerably more material accumulated than was predicted.

AbstractThe Wilkes Land Gravity Anomaly, first reported in 1959–60, is located in northern Victoria Land in the Pacific Ocean sector of East Antarctica, 1400 km west of the Ross Sea and centred at 70°00'S-140°00'E. Initially described on the basis of ground-based seismic and gravity survey, and estimated at the time to have a diameter of 243 km, the original data are now supplemented by data from airborne radiosound survey, airborne gravity survey, airborne magnetic survey and satellite remote sensing. These new data enable us to expand upon the original data, and reveal that the structure has a diameter of some 510 km, is accompanied by ice streams and a chaotically disturbed region of the continental ice sheet, has a subglacial topographical relief of ≥1500 m, and exhibits a negative free air gravity anomaly associated with a larger central positive free air gravity anomaly. The feature has been described as a volcanic structure, an igneous intrusion, an ancient igneous diapir, a subglacial sedimentary basin, a glacially eroded subglacial valley, a tectonic feature and a meteorite impact crater. We re-examine the feature on the basis of these collective data, with emphasis on the free air gravity anomaly signs, magnitudes and patterns, magnetic signature magnitudes and patterns, and the size, shape, dimensions and morphology of the structure. This enhanced view adds substantially to the original description provided at the time of discovery, and suggests several explanations for the origin of the Wilkes Land Anomaly. However, the importance of this feature lies not only in determining its origin but by the fact that this part of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin is one of the most prominent regional negative geoid and associated gravity anomalies of the Antarctic continent.

Abstract. We propose, test and apply a methodology integrating 1D magnetotelluric (MT) and magnetic data inversion, with a focus on the characterisation of the cover–basement interface. It consists of a cooperative inversion workflow relying on standalone inversion codes. Probabilistic information about the presence of rock units is derived from MT and passed on to magnetic inversion through constraints combining structural constraints with petrophysical prior information. First, we perform the 1D probabilistic inversion of MT data for all sites and recover the respective probabilities of observing the cover–basement interface, which we interpolate to the rest of the study area. We then calculate the probabilities of observing the different rock units and partition the model into domains defined by combinations of rock units with non-zero probabilities. Third, we combine these domains with petrophysical information to apply spatially varying, disjoint interval bound constraints (DIBC) to least-squares magnetic data inversion using the alternating direction method of multipliers (or ADMM). We demonstrate the proof-of-concept using a realistic synthetic model reproducing features from the Mansfield area (Victoria, Australia) using a series of uncertainty indicators. We then apply the workflow to field data from the prospective mining region of Cloncurry (Queensland, Australia). Results indicate that our integration methodology efficiently leverages the complementarity between separate MT and magnetic data modelling approaches and can improve our capability to image the cover–basement interface. In the field application case, our findings also suggest that the proposed workflow may be useful to refine existing geological interpretations and to infer lateral variations within the basement.

Abstract. Ground temperature, pressure and wind speed monthly averages in the area of the Italian Station at Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica, were analyzed for the period 1987–1991 by means of a network of nine AWS (automatic weather stations). Spatial configurations of temperature show a well-defined, relatively warm island in the area of Terra Nova Bay, between Drygalsky and Campbell ice tongues, throughout the year. A second warm island is present to the north along the coast, between Aviator and Mariner ice tongues, for most of the year. From February to March a rapid drop in temperature is observed at all stations. A strong thermal gradient develops during February, March, April and October, November, December, between the coastal region and inner highlands. The baric configuration follows the elevation of the area. Annual average pressure and temperature as functions of stations altitude show linear trends. Severe katabatic wind episodes are recorded at all stations, with wind speed exceeding 25 m s–1 and direction following the orographic features of the inner areas. Co-occurrences of these episodes were observed for stations located along stream lines of cold air drainage. The autocorrelation function of maximum wind speed time series shows wind persistence of 2–3 days and wind periodicity of about one week.

AbstractAfter a decade of research, New Zealand’s Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP) now includes primary sites from Cape Hallett (72°S) to the Darwin Glacier (80°S), while additional observations extend the latitudinal transect from 84°S to sub-Antarctic regions. The LGP has been structured around a hypothesis that, in a frigid continent, ice dynamics is the key ecosystem variable. For terrestrial environments, two aspects of ice dynamics appear to underlie much of the observed variability. Firstly, the aridity of the region makes the transition from ice to water a key ecological factor, and secondly, the legacy of ice dynamics dating as far back as the Pliocene is imprinted on biogeography. These factors operate at difference temporal and spatial scales and neither is monotonically related to latitude. Both are also complicated by meso-scale cross gradients of altitude and distance from the sea and micro-scale local variability. Whilst climate does vary on a broad-scale, differences within the northern and central parts of Victoria Land that the LGP has so far examined are insufficient to impose any overarching effect that can overwhelm these more local effects. The result is a multiple-scale patchwork of habitats and communities, more or less replicated across the transect, in which variability at any given latitude generally exceeds variability between latitudes. A lesser quantum of research has been directed at marine ecosystems, but here there is a similar picture of local variability dominating within the Ross Sea, with significant latitude-scale effects only emerging when transects are extended into maritime- and sub-Antarctic regions. It is implicit, but not specifically recognized in the LGP context, that a further confounding effect on the interpretation of ‘transect’ information is the multiple stressor concept that requires a simultaneous analysis of interacting (synergistic or antagonistic) factors and environmental responses. As the LGP continues to extend further south, climate is expected to become more extreme, and water availability may change sufficiently for loss of habitat and species diversity to occur. Here we discuss options for refining the LGP approach to optimize its potential for understanding variability, and the factors underpinning this, in the Ross Sea Sector.

Health and ecological risks associated with the use of mercury in gold mining are well known, with much recent attention focussed on contemporary small-scale artisanal mining. Legacy tailings from historical gold mining may also present ongoing risks, as the industry used large quantities of mercury with minimal environmental regulation to limit its discharge. This occurred in both alluvial (placer) mining and in processing auriferous ores. Analysis of historical data on mercury use in the mining industry in Victoria, Australia, indicates that at least 131 tonnes of elemental mercury were discharged into the environment as mine tailings between 1868–1888, with the total amount lost over the historic mining period likely to be much higher. The processing of pyritic ores also concentrated mercury losses in a small number of mining centres, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Clunes, Maldon and Walhalla. This analysis provides a basis for further research needed to support improved management of legacy mine tailings.

AbstractMantle xenoliths from southern Victoria Land have been collected and extensively studied for over a century. In this chapter, chemical and petrological data are, for the first time, comprehensively collated, and petrogenetic models for the regional mantle are reviewed and assessed. The most common lithologies are spinel lherzolite and harzburgite; plagioclase lherzolite also occurs, and pyroxenite xenoliths found across the province comprise <20% of all mantle xenoliths. The lithospheric mantle in the region has Paleoproterozoic stabilization ages, although pockets of younger mantle may exist. This peridotite mantle comprises a HIMU (high 238U/204Pb = high μ)-component sensu stricto, has been variably carbonated and has undergone multiple melt-depletion events. Regional variations in a sedimentary (EMI: Enriched Mantle I) component to the west, and iron-rich components to the east, reflect a complex history of refertilization and metasomatism. The sources of these fluids are likely to have been oceanic crust subducted during c. 0.5 Ga and older events. Peridotites have been cross-cut by pyroxenite veins, probably in multiple episodes, with the geochemistry of some samples reflecting the involvement of an upper continental crust (EMII: Enriched Mantle II) component. Future research directions should apply advanced isotopic, noble gas and volatile techniques to better understand the upper mantle below this dynamic rifting environment.

Abstract The macroalgae of the Balleny Islands (66°15′S–67°35′S and 162°30′E–165°00′E) have been infrequently collected and the flora remains poorly known. This chain of islands is located on the edge of the Antarctic Circle in the northern Ross Sea, ~250 km north of the coast of northern Victoria Land, and it represents the most northerly land in the Ross Sea region. As well as being very remote, access to these islands is difficult given the highly variable prevailing ice conditions. We summarize the macroalgal floras of the Balleny Islands and the Ross Sea, including reporting new records, extending the known distribution of other taxa and highlighting the need for further taxonomic research on some of the most common and widespread species. Many of the taxa reported have been collected on few occasions and, as a consequence, there is insufficient material available, including reproductively mature samples, for some species to be fully documented. While these collections are providing intriguing insights into the relationships between the macroalgae found around the Antarctic continent, the full biodiversity of the Balleny Islands remains to be investigated, and further collections are required to enable detailed comparisons with other parts of the Antarctic region.

Abstract This is the first detailed study of the distribution of mosses and lichens at Alexandra Mountains and Rockefeller Mountains, Edward VII Peninsula, Antarctica. A total of 418 samples was collected on 21 nunataks in the summer of 1987–1988. Lichens included 44 taxa, bringing the total known from Edward VII Peninsula to 50. Ten lichen species were new records for the Continental Antarctic zone, whilst only six were endemic to that zone. There were six species and one variety of moss, bringing the total known from Edward VII Peninsula to seven species and one variety. These included the first record of a species of Orthotrichum in Continental Antarctica. Two other species and a variety were new records for Edward VII Peninsula. Overall, the flora was species rich for a Continental Antarctic region and was comparable with the species-rich sites of Botany Bay and Kar Plateau, which are at approximately the same latitude (77°S) in southern Victoria Land. This rich flora was probably supported by a reliable summer water supply from melting snowfall and snowdrift and by the range of microenvironments at nunataks with different degrees of nutrient enrichment from nesting birds.

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Stemmerik, L., Sønderholm, M., & Bojesen-Koefoed, J. A. (1997). Palaeo-oil field in a Silurian carbonate buildup, Wulff Land, North Greenland: project ‘Resources of the sedimentary basins of North and East Greenland’. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 176, 24-28. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v176.5056 _______________ The multi-disciplinary research project ‘Resources of the sedimentary basins of North and East Greenland’ was initiated in 1995 with financial support from the Danish Research Councils (Stemmerik et al., 1996). During the 1996 field season, hydrocarbon-related studies within the project were focused on the sedimentary basins of East Greenland (Stemmerik et al., 1997), while field work in the Franklinian Basin of North Greenland from which the observations reported here derive, was limited to two weeks in early August. The project also includes research related to the ore geology of North Greenland, especially focused on the zinc-lead deposit at Citronen Fjord (Fig. 1). This aspect of the project is covered by Langdahl & Elberling (1997) and Kragh et al. (1997). The work on the Franklinian Basin succession was based at Apollo Sø in eastern Wulff Land (Fig. 1), with the main emphasis on sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic studies of carbonates of the Cambrian portion of the Ryder Gletscher Group and the Silurian Washington Land Group. These two carbonate-dominated shelf successions are equivalent in age to the main source rocks for liquid hydrocarbons in the basin, and have been suggested as potential reservoir units in the conceptual reservoir models proposed for the basin (Christiansen, 1989). Earlier investigations in the region have shown that small occurrences of bitumen are widespread in western North Greenland, although typically closely associated with nearby source rocks (Christiansen et al., 1989a). Notable exceptions are the asphalt seepages in southern Warming Land and southern Wulff Land (Fig. 1); in these cases, long distance migration of the order of 75–100 km is envisaged (Christiansen et al., 1989a). During the 1996 field season, a palaeo-oil field was identified in a carbonate buildup in eastern Wulff Land (Victoria Fjord buildup), thus demonstrating for the first time that Silurian buildups have formed large-scale reservoirs for generated hydrocarbons in the geological past.

IntroductionI work at a regional campus of La Trobe University, Australia. More precisely, I work at the Bendigo campus of La Trobe University. At Bendigo, we are often annoyed when referred to and addressed as ‘regional’ students and staff. Really, we should not be. After all, Bendigo campus is an outpost of La Trobe’s metropolitan base. It is funded, run, and directed from Bundoora (Melbourne). The word ‘regional’ simply describes the situation. A region is an “administrative division of a city or a district [… or …] a country” (Brown 2528). And the Latin etymology of region (regio, regere) includes “direction, line”, and “rule” (Kidd 208, 589). Just as the Bendigo campus of La Trobe is a satellite of the metropolitan campus, the town of Bendigo is an outpost of Melbourne. So, when we are addressed and interpellated (Althusser 48) as regional, it is a reminder of the ongoing fact that Australia is (still) a colony, an outpost of empire, a country organised on the colonial model. From central administrative hubs, spokes of communication, and transportation spread to the outposts. When Bendigo students and staff are addressed as regional, in a way we are also being addressed as colonial.In this article, the terms ‘region’ and ‘regional’ are deployed as inextricably associated with the Australian version of colonialism. In Australia, in the central metropolitan hubs, where the colonial project is at its most comprehensive, it is hard to see what remains, to see what has escaped that project. The aim of this article is to explore how different aspects of the country escape the totalising project of Australian colonialism. This exploration is undertaken primarily through a discussion of the ways in which some places on this continent remain not regional (and thus, not colonial) how they keep the metropolis at bay, and how they, thus, keep Europe at bay. This discussion includes a general overview of the Australian colonial project, particularly as it pertains to First Nations Peoples, their knowledge and philosophies, and the continent’s unique ecologies. Then the article becomes more speculative, imagining different ways of seeing and experiencing time and place in this country, ways of seeing the remains and refuges of pre-1788, not-regional, and not-colonial Australia. In these remains and refuges, there persist the flourishing and radical difference of this continent’s ecologies and, not surprisingly, the radical suitedness of tens of thousands of years of First Nations Peoples’ culture and thinking to that ecology, as Country. In what remains not regional, I argue, are answers to the question: How will we live here in the Anthropocene?A Totalising ProjectSince 1788, in the face of the ongoing presence and resistance of First Nations cultures, and the continent’s radically unique ecologies, the Australian colonial project has been to convert the continent into a region of Europe. As such, the imposed political, administrative, scientific, and economic institutions are largely European. This is also so, to a lesser extent, of social and cultural institutions. While the continent is not Europe geologically, the notion of the Anthropocene suggests that this is changing (Crutzen and Stoermer). This article does not resummarise the vast body of scholarship on the effects of colonisation, from genocide to missionary charity, to the creation of bureaucratic and comprador classes, and so on. Suffice to say that the different valences of colonisation—from outright malevolence to misguided benevolence–produce similar and common effects. As such, what we experience in metropolitan and regional Australia, is chillingly similar to what people experience in London. Chilling, because this experience demonstrates how the effects of the project tend towards the total.To clarify, when I use the name ‘Australia’ I understand it as the continent’s European name. When I use the term ‘Europe’ or ‘European’, I refer to both the European continent and to the reach and scope of the various colonial and imperial projects of European nations. I take this approach because I think it is necessary to recognise their global effects and loads. In Australia, this load has been evident and present for more than two centuries. On one hand, it is evident in the social, cultural, and political institutions that come with colonisation. On another, it is evident in the environmental impacts of colonisation: impacts that are severely compounded in Australia. In relation to this, there is vital, ongoing scholarship that explores the fact that, ecologically, Australia is a radically different place, and which discusses the ways in which European scientific, aesthetic, and agricultural assumptions, and the associated naturalised and generic understandings of ‘nature’, have grounded activities that have radically transformed the continent’s biosphere. To name but a few, Tim Flannery (Eaters, “Ecosystems”) and Stephen Pyne, respectively, examine the radical difference of this continent’s ecology, geology, climate, and fire regimes. Sylvia Hallam, Bill Gammage, and Bruce Pascoe (“Bolt”, Emu) explore the relationships of First Nations Peoples with that ecology, climate, and fire before 1788, and the European blindness to the complexity of these relationships. For instance, William Lines quotes the strikingly contradictory observations of the colonial surveyor, Thomas Mitchell, where the land is simultaneously “populous” and “without inhabitants” and “ready for the immediate reception of civilised man” and European pastoralism (Mitchell qtd. in Lines 71). Flannery (Eaters) and Tim Low (Feral, New) discuss the impacts of introduced agricultural practices, exotic animals, and plants. Tom Griffiths tells the story of ‘Improving’ and ‘Acclimatisation Societies’, whose explicit aims were to convert Australian lands into European lands (32–48). The notion of ‘keeping Europe at bay’ is a response to the colonial assumptions, practices, and impositions highlighted by these writers.The project of converting this continent and hundreds of First Nations Countries into a region of Europe, ‘Australia’, is, in ambition, a totalising one. From the strange flag-plantings, invocations and incantations claiming ownership and dominion, to legalistic conceptions such as terra nullius, the aim has been to speak, to declare, to interpellate the country as European. What is not European, must be made European. What cannot be made European is either (un)seen in a way which diminishes or denies its existence, or must be made not to exist. These are difficult things to do: to not see, to unsee, or to eradicate.One of the first acts of administrative division (direction and rule) in the Port Phillip colony (now known as Victoria) was that of designating four regional Aboriginal Protectorates. Edward Stone Parker was appointed Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the Loddon District, a district which persists today for many state and local government instrumentalities as the Loddon-Mallee region. In the 1840s, Parker experienced the difficulty described above, in attempting to ‘make European’ the Dja Dja Wurrung people. As part of Parker’s goal of Christianising Dja Dja Wurrung people, he sought to learn their language. Bain Attwood records his frustration:[Parker] remarked in July 1842. ‘For physical objects and their attributes, the language readily supplies equivalent terms, but for the metaphysical, so far I have been able to discover scarcely any’. A few years later Parker simply despaired that this work of translation could be undertaken. ‘What can be done’, he complained, ‘with a people whose language knows no such terms as holiness, justice, righteousness, sin, guilt, repentance, redemption, pardon, peace, and c., and to whose minds the ideas conveyed by those words are utterly foreign and inexplicable?’ (Attwood 125)The assumption here is that values and concepts that are ‘untranslatable’ into European understandings mark an absence of such value and concept. Such assumptions are evident in attempts to convince, cajole, or coerce First Nations Peoples into abandoning traditional cultural and custodial relationships with Country in favour of individual private property ownership. The desire to maintain relationships with Country are described by conservative political figures such as Tony Abbott as “lifestyle choices” (Medhora), effectively declaring them non-existent. In addition, processes designed to recognise First Nations relationships to Country are procedurally frustrated. Examples of this are the bizarre decisions made in 2018 and 2019 by Nigel Scullion, the then Indigenous Affairs Minister, to fund objections to land claims from funds designated to alleviate Indigenous disadvantage and to refuse to grant land rights claims even when procedural obstacles have been cleared (Allam). In Australia, given that First Nations social, cultural, and political life is seamlessly interwoven with the environment, ecology, the land–Country, and that the colonial project has always been, and still is, a totalising one, it is a project which aims to sever the connections to place of First Nations Peoples. Concomitantly, when the connections cannot be severed, the people must be either converted, dismissed, or erased.This project, no matter how brutal and relentless, however, has not achieved totality.What Remains Not Regional? If colonisation is a totalising project, and regional Australia stands as evidence of this project’s ongoing push, then what remains not regional, or untouched by the colonial? What escapes the administrative, the institutional, the ecological, the incantatory, and the interpellative reach of the regional? I think that despite this reach, there are such remains. The frustration, the anger, and antipathy of Parker, Abbott, and Scullion bear this out. Their project is unfinished and the resistance to it infuriates. I think that, in Australia, the different ways in which pre-1788 modes of life persist are modes of life which can be said to be ‘keeping Europe at bay’.In Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation, Deborah Bird Rose compares Western/European conceptualisations of time, with those of the people living in the communities around the Victoria River in the Northern Territory. Rose describes Western constructions of time as characterised by disjunction (for example, the ‘birth’ of philosophy, the beginnings of Christianity) and by irreversible sequence (for example, concepts of telos, apocalypse, and progress). These constructions have become so naturalised as to carry a “seemingly commonsensical orientation toward the future” (15). Orientation, in an Australian society “built on destruction, enables regimes of violence to continue their work while claiming the moral ground of making a better future” (15). Such an orientation “enables us to turn our backs on the current social facts of pain, damage, destruction and despair which exist in the present, but which we will only acknowledge as our past” (17).In contrast to this ‘future vision’, Rose describes what she calls the ‘canonical’ time-space conceptualisation of the Victoria River people (55). Here, rather than a temporal extension into an empty future, orientation is towards living, peopled, and grounded origins, with the emphasis on the plural, rather than a single point of origin or disjunction:We here now, meaning we here in a shared present, are distinct from the people of the early days by the fact that they preceded us and made our lives possible. We are the ‘behind mob’—those who come after. The future is the domain of those who come after us. They are referred to as […] those ‘behind us’. (55)By way of illustration, when we walk into a sheep paddock, even if we are going somewhere (even the future), we are also irrevocably walking behind ancestors, predecessor ecologies, previous effects. The paddock, is how it is, after about 65,000 years of occupation, custodianship, and management, after European surveyors, squatters, frontier conflict and violence, the radical transformation of the country, the destruction of the systems that came before. Everything there, as Freya Mathews would put it, is of “the given” (“Becoming” 254, “Old” 127). We are coming up behind. That paddock is the past and present, and what happens next is irrevocably shaped by it. We cannot walk away from it.What remains not regional is there in front of us. Country, language, and knowledge remain in the sheep paddock, coexisting with everyone and everything else that everyone in this country follows (including the colonial and the regional). It is not gone. We have to learn how to see it.By the Fox or the Little EagleFigure 1: A Scatter of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo Feathers at Wehla. Image Credit: Terry Eyssens.As a way of elaborating on this, I will tell you about a small, eight hectare, patch of land in Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Depending on the day, or the season, or your reason, it could take fifteen minutes to walk from one end to the other or it might take four hours, from the time you start walking, to the time when you get back to where you started. At this place, I found a scatter of White Cockatoo feathers (Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo—Cacatua galerita). There was no body, just the feathers, but it was clear that the Cockatoo had died, had been caught by something, for food. The scatter was beautiful. The feathers, their sulphur highlights, were lying on yellow-brown, creamy, dry grass. I dwelled on the scatter. I looked. I looked around. I walked around. I scanned the horizon and squinted at the sky. And I wondered, what happened.This small patch of land in Dja Dja Wurrung Country is in an area now known as Wehla. In the Dja Dja Wurrung and many other Victorian languages, ‘Wehla’ (and variants of this word) is a name for the Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). In the time I spend there/here, I see all kinds of animals. Of these, two are particularly involved in this story. One is the Fox (Vulpes vulpes), which I usually see just the back of, going away. They are never surprised. They know, or seem to know, where everyone is. They have a trot, a purposeful, cocky trot, whether they are going away because of me or whether they are going somewhere for their own good reasons. Another animal I see often is the Little Eagle (Hieraaetus morphnoides). It is a half to two-thirds the size of a Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax). It soars impressively. Sometimes I mistake a Little Eagle for a Wedge-tail, until I get a better look and realise that it is not quite that big. I am not sure where the Little Eagle’s nest is but it must be close by.I wondered about this scatter of White Cockatoo feathers. I wondered, was the scatter of White Cockatoo feathers by the Fox or by the Little Eagle? This could be just a cute thought experiment. But I think the question matters because it provokes thinking about what is regional and what remains not regional. The Fox is absolutely imperial. It is introduced and widespread. Low describes it as among Australia’s “greatest agent[s] of extinction” (124). It is part of the colonisation of this place, down to this small patch of land in Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Where the Fox is, colonisation, and everything that goes with it, remains, and maintains. So, that scatter of feathers could be a colonial, regional happening. Or maybe it is something that remains not regional, not colonial. Maybe the scatter is something that escapes the regional. The Little Eagles and the Cockatoos, who were here before colonisation, and their dance (a dance of death for the Cockatoo, a dance of life for the Little Eagle), is maybe something that remains not regional.But, so what if the scatter of White Cockatoo feathers, this few square metres of wind-blown matter, is not regional? Well, if it is ‘not regional’, then, if Australia is to become something other than a colony, we have to look for these things that are not regional, that are not colonial, that are not imperial. Maybe if we start with a scatter of White Cockatoo feathers that was by the Little Eagle, and then build outwards again, we might start to notice more things that are not regional, that still somehow escape. For example, the persistence of First Nations modes of land custodianship and First Nations understandings of time. Then, taking care not to fetishise First Nations philosophies and cultures, take the time and care to recognise the associations of all of those things with simply, the places themselves, like a patch of land in Dja Dja Wurrung Country, which is now known as Wehla. Instead of understanding that place as something that is just part of the former Aboriginal Protectorate of Loddon or of the Loddon Mallee region of Victoria, it is Wehla.The beginning of decolonisation is deregionalisation. Every time we recognise the not regional (which is hopefully, eventually, articulated in a more positive sense than ‘not regional’), and just say something like ‘Wehla’, we can start to keep Europe at bay. Europe’s done enough.seeing and SeeingChina Miéville’s The City and The City (2009) is set in a place, in which the citizens of two cities live. The cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, occupy the same space, are culturally and politically different. Their relationship to each other is similar to that of border-sharing Cold War states. Citizens of the two cities are forbidden to interact with each other. This prohibition is radically policed. Even though the citizens of Besźel and Ul Qoma live in adjoining buildings, share roads, and walk the same streets, they are forbidden to see each other. The populations of each city grow up learning how to see what is permitted and to not see, or unsee, the forbidden other (14).I think that seeing a scatter of White Cockatoo feathers and wondering if it was by the Fox or by the Little Eagle is akin to the different practices of seeing and not seeing in Besźel and Ul Qoma. The scatter of feathers is regional and colonial and, equally, it is not. Two countries occupy the same space. Australia and a continent with its hundreds of Countries. What remains not regional is what is given and Seen as such. Understanding ourselves as walking behind everything that has gone before us enables this. As such, it is possible to see the scatter of White Cockatoo feathers as by the Fox, as happening in ‘regional Australia’, as thus characterised by around 200 years of carnage, where the success of one species comes at the expense of countless others. On the other hand, it is possible to See the feathers as by the Little Eagles, and as happening on a small patch of land in Dja Dja Wurrung Country, as a dance that has been happening for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. It is a way of keeping Europe at bay.I think these Cockatoo feathers are a form of address. They are capable of interpellating something other than the regional, the colonial, and the imperial. A story of feathers, Foxes, and Little Eagles can remind us of our ‘behindness’, and evoke, and invoke, and exemplify ways of seeing and engaging with where we live that are tens of thousands of years old. This is both an act of the imagination and a practice of Seeing what is really there. 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