August news items

12th August - Student visit to the Tuckean Swamp

Dr Mark Rosicky and Paul Cheeseman led a visit to the Tuckean Swamp by thirty-one Southern Cross University students today. The visit was the culmination of the Land Degradation and Rehabilitation course conducted by John Grant of the SCU School of Environmental Science and Management. Dr Mark Rosicky has a long professional association with the Tuckean and provided an insightful commentary at Tuckurimba Ridge and Bagotville Barrage as well as demonstrations of MBO effects on water quality at Tucki Drain and a soil core in the backswamp beside Tuckean Island Road. Students were inspired by the visit and appreciated seeing scientists at work in the field. One student commented, " you don't understand it until you see the procedures and the drainage systems in the field". The students also showed a keen interest in the forthcoming 2011 Southern Cross GeoScience Summer School which offers the chance to work on real-life problems with top-class researchers.

14th August - Southern Cross GeoScience well represented at leading geochemistry conference

During August, six members of Southern Cross GeoScience attended the 2011 Goldschmidt conference in Prague and presented research from Southern Cross University. The conference was very well attended (>3000 delegates) and there was a huge diversity of world class researchers speaking on a wide range of geoscience topics. There was a lot of networking, and exchanging of ideas with research groups in Europe and the USA and solid foundations were laid for a variety of future joint collaborations.

22nd August - Southern Cross GeoScience to host National ASS Conference

Southern Cross GeoScience has announced that they will host the 3rd National Acid Sulfate Soil Conference in Melbourne on the 6-7 March, 2012. The conference is set to attract a diverse, national audience with a common interest in acid sulfate soils. The conference organisers have invited federal, state and local government officers, researchers, consultants, developers, contractors, regional NRM boards and landcare groups to participate in the event. The predicted audience for the conference is 120-200 delegates. Registrations are now open, and the call for papers has been announced. For further information visit www.scu.edu.au/nationalassconference

Updated: 06 October 2011