Social Program > Social Program

Social program

Locations of social events are shown on the map.

• Morning and afternoon teas will be provided in the Union building at ANU on each day of the conference.
• There will be a welcome reception at ANU on the evening of Wednesday 27th January.
• The conference dinner will be held at the National Museum of Australia (http://www.nma.gov.au) on Thursday 28th January. Note: Due to the large number of registrations, spaces for the dinner are now full. Any person who is not yet registered but wishes to go to the dinner will now be placed on a reserve list.
  

Proposed excursion to Lake George/Weereewa near Canberra ($45 pp), Saturday 30th January

Lake George, located some 50 km from Canberra, is a vast depression bound by a geological fault that runs close to the Federal Highway (see map). Movement along that fault over ~5 million years permitted a vast depression to form in which sediments accumulated over long periods of time.

Reconstruction of past vegetation in the catchment of the lake as well as fluctuations of lake levels and water salinities has provided us with a large amount of information on past climates for the region. A fire history is also recorded in the lake sediments through the presence of charcoal particles that allow us to postulate the effects of anthropologic activities in the region over the last 50,000 years, but this is still disputed.

We propose to run an excursion to Lake George, and possibly the wind farms installation nearby, as well as visit one vineyard towards the end of the field trip. Discussions will be provided about the local meteorological conditions that favour the location of the vineyard. The trip is to last 4 hours and will be run by bus to and from the ANU. The use of private vehicles will be discouraged. During the excursion, participants will hear much about the significant historical record of lake levels, as well as the geological history of the lake which is considered to be a gigantic rain gauge in geological terms. Participation will be limited to 50 people.

The excursion will be led by Professor Patrick De Deckker from the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU.