ISSN 1329-7759 RSWA Proceedings May 2011 ATTENTION LIBRARIANS: This publication should be catalogued under "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia" ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Royal Society of Western Australia (RSWA) and

The Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI)

present

The Kimberley Marine and Coastal Science One Day Symposium*

20th May 2010 Western Australian Maritime Museum

Fremantle.

Registration Essential

This timely Symposium encompasses physical aspects of the Kimberley Marine and Coastal environment, and biological components such as mangroves, invertebrate fauna, seabirds, turtles, and whales, amongst others. A Registration form is enclosed or can be downloaded from www.rswa.org.au or www.wamsi.org.au and emailed to rswa_wamsi@iinet.net.au Registration fees are $120 for individuals and $60 for RSWA members, concession holders and students. Registration includes a copy of the volume of proceedings. See Proceedings page 6. for Symposium Programme.

Royal Society of Western Australia Disclaimer. -The Society works to maintain up-to-date information from reliable sources; however, no liability is accepted for any errors or omissions or the results of any actions based upon this information. Links to other websites - the RSWA does not necessarily endorse the views expressed on these websites, nor does it guarantee the accuracy or of any information presented there. It should also be noted that other sites linked from the Proceedings may use cookies that track visitors. Safety - safety is an important concern in all indoor and outdoor activities. When attending an RSWA function or excursion, the RSWA cannot anticipate the limitations of every participant or alert you to every hazard. As such, you are required to assume responsibility for own safety at all times.

Members, guests and visitors welcome http://www.ecu.edu.au/pa/rswa

This issue of the RSWA Proceedings was edited by Margaret Brocx <rswa@iinet.net.au>

1

Journal of the Royal Societyof Western Australia

EDITOR’S REPORT April 2011 K Meney Email address: < rswa_ed@iinet.net.au> Manuscripts Accepted:

Geological setting, marine geomorphology and oceanic shoals growth history of the Kimberley Region: L B Collins Are Western Australian waters the least productive waters for finfish across two oceans? A review with a focus on the North Coast Bioregion: B W Molony, S J Newman, L Joll & R C J Lenanton New insights into the Kimberley phytoplankton and their ecology: P A Thompson & P Bonham Interesting distribution of green Chelonia mydas and flatback turtles Natator depressus at the Lacepede Islands, Western Australia: D A Waayers, B E Malseed & L Smith Fish-habitat associations in the region offshore from James Price Point – a rapid assessment using Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS): M Cappo, M Stowar, C Syms, C Johansson & T Cooper Contrasting stratigraphic patterns in coastal sediment sequences in the Kimberley region: products of coastal form, oceanographic setting, sedimentary suites, sediment supply, and biogenesis: V Semeniuk Potential effects of Lyngbya majuscula blooms on benthic invertebrate diversity and shorebird foraging ecology of Roebuck Bay, Western Australia: preliminary results: S M Estrella, A W Storey, G Pearson, & T Piersma Mangroves of the Kimberley region: ecological patterns in a tropical ria coast setting: I D Cresswell & V Semeniuk Marine benthic flora and fauna of Gourdon Bay and the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia: J K Keesing, T R Irvine, P Alderslade, G Clapin, J Fromont, A Hosie, J Huisman, Julia Phillips, K M Naughton, L M Marsh, S Slack-Smith, D Thomson and J E Watson Monitoring of humpback whales in the Pender Bay region, Kimberley, Western Australia: S Blake, I Dapson, O Auge, A J Bowles, E Marohn, L Molensky & S Saulnier Macrotidally-dominated, species-rich coral reefs in an enclosed embayment - Talbot Bay, Kimberley, Western Australia: B Wilson, S Blake, D Ryan & J Hacker Kimberley as a hotspot for endangered elasmobranchs: D L Morgan, J M Whitty, N M Phillips, D C Thorburn, J A Chaplin & R McAuley Shorebirds of the Kimberley Coast – Populations, trends and threats: D I Rogers, C J Hassell, A Boyle, K Gosbell, R Clarke, C Minton, K G Rogers

Vale Duncan Merrilees BSc, PhD 1922-2009

Duncan Merrilees was born in Sydney on the 19th January 1922, and passed away on 10th September 2009 in Manjimup, aged 87. He was President of the Royal Society of Western Australia in 1966-1967. Duncan was the first curator of Palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum, working there for two decades from 1960 to 1979. Duncan’s theory that bush-burning by humans precipitated extinction of the Australian megafauna that roamed the landscape tens of thousands of years ago, was a major contribution to the understanding of prehistoric life in Australia. His Royal Society Presidential address in 1967, entitled “Man the destroyer: late Quaternary changes in the Australian marsupial fauna”, summarised the work of his then recently completed PhD and was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia in 1968.

The Western Australian Museum holds an account of Duncan’s career, handwritten by him in 2007, entitled A Zigzag Career. In this, he details his scientific journey from boy chemist to retired conservation farmer, along the way obtaining degrees, maintaining an interest in, and/or working in the fields of, zoology, geology, botany, palaeontology and archaeology. In A Zigzag Career, Duncan wrote that his life story illustrated the influence of sheer ‘luck’, which was ‘in the lap of the gods’, and the value of ‘a prepared mind’, which he said was ‘to some degree a matter of foresight under conscious control’. In that light, he documented the important events in his life as those he considered happened by sheer luck, and those he considered were because of a prepared mind.

2

Duncan spent his childhood years in Sydney, also going to school in Canberra where he won a scholarship to Sydney University from which he graduated in 1942 with a degree in Chemistry, with Maths, Physics and Geology being subsidiary units in his first year. He said ‘This, initially, was just a geological tail waved by a chemical dog, but soon became a geological dog waving a chemical tail’. He became particularly interested in the chemistry and physics of igneous rocks. By the end of the first year of Duncan’s degree war had broken out and, as the German chemical industry had demonstrated that chemists made a vital contribution to war, and chemists were far and few between in Australia, chemists were required to complete their training and then put their expertise to good use in industry. This he considered good luck, and was to work as a shift chemist in a paper mill in Tasmania. While working there he decided that the best way to support a wife and potential family was as a schoolteacher, and he embarked on a correspondence course of teacher training. At his boarding house in southern Tasmania he met Elizabeth McPhee. They married in 1945. After WWII science became part of everyday life and more extensive than just chemistry and physics. Soon the subject ‘General Science’ was being developed, aimed at spreading ‘scientific literacy’. In 1951 Duncan landed a job in scientific literacy at UWA. He writes of his ‘deficiency in formal biology’ that led him to ‘undertake a three year major in zoology with a supplementary one-year in botany’. In 1960 Duncan was seconded to the Western Australian Museum and appointed curator of palaeontology. His discovery of a human tooth while sifting through marsupial fossils led to years of excavation of Devil’ Lair, part of an extensive cave system near Margaret River. With Charlie Dortch, the museum’s curator of archaeology, Duncan studied the fossilised remains of this prehistoric Aboriginal midden used by people for up to 30,000 years. While at the Museum, Duncan wrote 24 scientific papers, including descriptions of two new

species of an extinct group of large short-faced browsing kangaroos, and produced another six popular articles. Duncan had a ready smile and a laugh with a well-developed sense of humour. He was skeptical of authority and dogma and held liberal, even radical views. As a scientist Duncan was modest and careful, always resisting temptation to over interpret his data. Consequently, much of his work has stood the test of time, As a boy Duncan dreamed of being a farmer, but nearing retirement he realised he was not fully prepared for the ‘burden’ of farming to go it alone and developed the idea of ‘sharing’. From this, several co-operative not-for-profit conservation farming clubs were born. He lived in a rural community for more than 30 years, caring for a breeding herd of cows and a bull and a small flock of sheep. He felt privileged to have shared the lives, to some degree, of these ‘peaceable and peace-loving creatures’. Duncan Merrilees lived a life of deep inquiry and never stopped revising his thinking. He was a man of wide interests, believing in the transforming power of art and music and taking up the violin at 72 years of age. Duncan’s scientific legacy, his work on Devil’s Lair and the idea that landscape burning by people precipitated the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, will live on and inspire generations of scientists to come. Duncan’s wife Elizabeth predeceased him. Two children, four grandchildren and several great-grandchildren survive Duncan. The President of the Royal Society of Western Australia, Dr Lynne Milne, apologises to Duncan Merrilees’ family, friends and colleagues for this obituary not appearing in the RSWA Proceedings earlier. (Material acknowledged from A Zigzag Career, WA Museum, and The West Obituaries; Photograph Duncan Merrilees out in the field. Photographer, Val Ryland © Western Australian Museum)

3

Vale: Dr John Stanley Beard BSc MSc DPhil AM 1916-2011

Celebrating a Life with Plants

The Royal Society of Western Australia and the WA scientific community at large have lost one of its most highly respected members with the death on17th February 2011 of Dr John Beard. The inspiration that John brought to colleagues and the public alike over a lifetime devoted to excellence in scientific research in the areas of botany and vegetation mapping together with his devotion and vision in the establishment of the Kings Park and Botanic Garden has left an outstanding and enduring legacy for future generations.

John Beard was born on Feb.15th 1916 at Gerrards Cross in England. After initially studying architecture at University College, London, John graduated in Forestry from Oxford University in 1937. Following his marriage to Pamela Davey in 1940 they travelled together to Trinidad where John worked with the Forestry Division. The aerial photographs and land-use maps he developed during the 1940’s formed the basis of a system of forest classification for Tropical America and described the forests of Trinidad, Tobago and the Lesser Antilles; these descriptions remain standard references on the topics. This work was also the basis for his theses on the natural vegetation of Trinidad and Tobago, submitted first for his BSc at Oxford and later for his doctorate, conferred in 1945. During his time in the West Indies John wrote reports and forest laws, recruited staff, worked to secure forest reservation, developed land-use

and vegetation maps, compiled a herbarium of trees and shrubs and conducted surveys of forest resources that lead to the publication of The Natural Vegetation of the Windward and Leeward Islands. His work on vegetation in the American tropics culminated in the drafting of a physiognomic system of classification of climax communities, which, while now outdated, was considered classic for a time and was outlined in various texts.

After World War II, John moved to South Africa with Pamela and a growing family, having secured an appointment as silviculturist with Natal Tanning Extract Company. His interest in researching the genus Protea was assisted by grants from the South African CSIR and lead to the publishing much later of “The Proteas of Tropical Africa”, illustrated by South African botanical artist Lura Ripley. During this time his involvement with botanic gardens developed. John became President of the Botanic Society of Natal and was responsible for the operation of the Pietermaritzburg Gardens, run by the Society since 1874. This honorary work resulted in the successful refurbishment of the gardens and the acquisition of long-term funding for their rejuvenation.

John applied for and was appointed founding Director for the new botanic garden in Kings Park, Perth in September 1961. The establishment of the Botanic Gardens was hindered by a lack of basic information on native flora of WA – the number of species existing, their phytogeography and specialized habitats required. This prompted his major life’s work of mapping the vegetation of Western Australia. A nursery was established during 1962, six hundred seed lots were sown, the first plantings in the Botanic Garden were made in 1963, and it was officially opened in 1965. John remained director of Kings Park for 9 years before taking up the Directorship of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. When John resigned from Kings Park in 1970, the Board minutes record that “Beard’s special gift had been bringing the park before his people”.

4

Over a period of 17 years John conducted an inventory of plant species and vegetation types for the whole of Western Australia that was to become known as “The Beard Catalogue”. His extensive surveys of Western Australia set standards for understanding regional floristic zones and biogeographical areas for the whole state. He was the main author of the 1974 - 1981 explanatory notes to the mapping project of the Vegetation Survey of Western Australia. This was a mammoth undertaking at a time before the benefit of GPS, Google Earth, satellites, computers and airconditioning in cars. It is estimated to have involved road travel of around 150,000km, collection of over 6870 botanical specimens and taking about 1,000 photographs. The area mapped amounts to the western third of Australia, approximately 2,500,000 km2, surely a world record for an area mapped in this way by one person.

John was awarded the Royal Society of Western Australia Medal “for distinguished work in science” and later became President of the Society during 1986-87. A dedication to John appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society 89(3), September 2006 to celebrate his 90th birthday. In 2003 John Beard was

appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of his services to science.

John continued his interest in plants in the environment, publishing scholarly works consistently with a range of co-authors from across many disciplines including endemism in the flora, geomorphology, the evolution of drainage systems in WA and palaeodrainage. His last paper was published while he was in his 80’s, appearing in the Royal Society Journal in 2005.

On behalf of the Royal Society of Western Australia may we convey sincere condolences to his wife Pamela and three daughters. (Acknowledging contributions from Mark Webb, Steve Hopper and Kingsley Dixon; photograph. John Beard celebrating his 90th birthday in 2006)

_____________________________________________

Forensic Chemistry and Food Provenancing: Winthrop Professor John Watling Centre for Forensic Science The University of Western Australia.

Some 30 Royal Society members and guests enjoyed this very interesting talk held at UWA on the 18th April 2011. However, the write–up of the talk was not received in time to be published in this month’s Proceedings.

This space will be updated each month in order to provide RSWA members and guests with a calendar of up-coming events which will include ordinary monthly meeting, and special events such as Public Forums, Symposia, and excursions. Watch this space!

Date Time Venue Event

May 20th 8:30 am WA Maritime Museum Kimberley Coast Symposium Registration Essential www.rswa.org.au

June 20th 7 pm TBA TBA July 18th 7 pm TBA AGM and Medal presentation August 14-22nd TBA TBA Science Week Event National Science Week

International Year of Chemistry 2011 Event September TBA ECU RSWA Post-graduate Symposium October TBA TBA Blackwood Estuary Symposium November TBA TBA TBA December TBA WA Conservation

Science Centre (DEC). RSWA Christmas function

RSWA Events Calendar 2011

5

Western Australian Marine Science Institution

The Royal Society of Western Australia

Kimberley Marine and Coastal Science Symposium Friday 20th May 2011

The Western Australian Maritime Museum Fremantle - NWS Shipping Theatre Major Sponsors:

TIME SPEAKER TITLE 8.45 Noongar representative Welcome to Country & Introduction to Symposium 9.00 D Woolagoodja The Kimberley Coast – Saltwater Country traditional owner’s perspective (invited

presentation) 9.15 M Brocx & V Semeniuk The global geoheritage significance of the Kimberley Coast 9.30 L B Collins Geological setting, marine geomorphology and oceanic shoals growth history of

the Kimberley Region 9.45 B Wilson & S Blake Notes on origins and biogeomorphology of Montgomery Reef 10.00 L B Collins, V Testa,

J Zhoa & D Qu Quaternary growth history and evolution of the Scott Reef carbonate platform and coral reef

10.15 P Thompson & P Bonham New insights into the Kimberley phytoplankton and their ecology 10.30 MORNING TEA and launch of Line of Sight photographic exhibition

– Animals of the Giant Tides of the Kimberley Coast 11.30 S M Estrella, A W Storey,

G Pearson & T Piersma Potential effects of Lyngbya majuscula blooms on benthic invertebrate diversity and shorebird foraging ecology

11.45 I D Cresswell & V Semeniuk Mangroves of the Kimberley region: Ecological patterns in a tropical ria coast setting

12.00 B Wilson, S Blake, D Ryan & J Hacker

Macrotidally-dominated, species-rich coral reefs in an enclosed embayment – Talbot Bay

12.15 A Sampey & J Fromont Patterns in marine community assemblages on continental margins: a faunal and floral synthesis

12.30 LUNCH and Poster Displays 1.30 J K Keesing, T R Irvine,

P Alderslade, et al Marine benthic flora and fauna of Gourdon Bay and Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region

1.45 M Cappo, M Stowar, C Syms, et al

Fish-habitat associations in the region offshore from James Price Point

2.00 J Pepperell, R K Kopf & B Malseed

Use of historic fisheries data to determine trends in catch rates and sizes of sailfish

2.15 D Morgan, J M Whitty, N M Phillips, et al

Kimberley as a hotspot for endangered elasmobranchs

2.30 D Waayers, B Malseed & B L Smith

Internesting distribution of green Chelonia mydas and flatback turtles Natator depressus at the Lacepede Islands, Western Australia

2.45 B Molony, S Newman, L Joll & R Lenanton

Are Western Australian waters the least productive waters from finfish across two oceans?

3.00 S Blake,I Dapson, O Auge, et. al

Monitoring of humpback whales in the Pender Bay region

3.15 AFTERNOON TEA 3.55 D Rogers, C Hassell,

A Boyle, et. al Shorebirds of the Kimberley Coast – Populations, trends and threats

4.10 R Clarke, M Carter, G Swann & J Thomson

The status of breeding seabirds and herons at Ashmore Reef, off the Kimberley coast

4.25

B McCarthy & D George The Kimberley coast – Saltwater Country – monitoring and management of the coastal and marine zones (invited presentation)

4.40 S Blake & V Semeniuk Closing remarks and thanks 5.00 SUNDOWNER

Name:

Institution:

Email:

Postal address:

Postcode:

20 May 2011Western Australian Maritime Museum, NSW Shipping Theatre, Victoria Quay, Fremantle

Please post registration and payment to:

Margaret Brocx,Sub-editor, Journal of the Royal Society of WA

Co-convenor of the RSWA/WAMSI Kimberley Symposium, C/- WAMSI HQ,

Botany and Biology Building MO95The University of Western Australia

35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009

Royal SocietyWeSteRn auStRalia

The

p r o m o t i n g s c i e n c e

of

Costs (includes copy of Proceedings)

RSWA Members $60Non-RSWA members $120Students $60

Sponsored places may be available on application. Those applying must provide a reason for requesting sponsorship.

If required, RSWA membership forms can be downloaded from The RSWA website www.rswa.org.au, and submitted with your registration.

PaymentsThe complete registration form may be sent by email to rswa_wamsi@iinet.net.au or by post.

1) Make cheques payable to the Western Australian Marine Science Institution

2) Credit card payments

Name on card:

Account Number:

Card type: Expiry date: /

3) Electronic payments

Payments can be made direct to the RSWA account using internet banking

Bank: BankWest: BSB No 306-110; Ac No. 0199535

Please note: When making a direct payment please enter KS2011 for reference.

KimberleyMarine and Coastal Science

S y m p o S i u m

Registration Form