The National Museum of Australia and the Centre for Historical
Research would like to extend an invitation to you to
attend our Boom & Bust Symposium: Bird Stories for a Dry
Country, on Monday 12 November from 10 am - 4.30 pm. This
symposium considers the relationship between fauna, people and the environment,
through stories about the ways individual bird species have responded to
human-induced change. Some populations have boomed, others have busted – and
some work opportunistically with the boom and bust ecology of the land
itself. This is a free event but please register your
attendance with Elise Murphy at the National Museum of Australia ( ) before the symposium
if possible.
FULL PROGRAM: Visions Theatre, National Museum of
Australia (NMA)
9.15 – 10.00 am: Preliminary Coffee & Tea
MORNING SESSION
MC: Dr Libby Robin, Centre for Historical Research,
NMA/ Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University
(ANU))
10.00 am
Welcome and outline the principles of the symposium and the
proposed book
10.05 am
Boom and Bust: The pulse of desert Australia
Dr Mike Smith,
Centre for Historical Research, NMA
10.20 am
Galah
Keynote: Professor Bill Gammage,
Humanities Research Centre, ANU
11.10 am
Morning Tea, Coffee & Biscuits
11.30 am
Night Parrot
Dr Penny Olsen, Botany and
Zoology, ANU
12.00 pm
White-winged Chough
Assoc. Professor Rob
Heinsohn, Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU
12.30 pm
Short presentation on Zebra Finch (from Steve
Morton, CSIRO Alice Springs)
12.40 - 1.30 pm: LUNCH BREAK
AFTERNOON SESSION
MC: Assoc. Prof. Rob Heinsohn, Fenner School, ANU
1.30 pm
Woodswallow
Dr Leo Joseph, Director,
Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO
2.00 pm
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Dr Deborah Rose,
Fenner School, ANU
2.30 pm
Short presentation on Grey Teal (from David
Roshier, Charles Sturt University, Albury)
2.40 - 3.00 pm: Afternoon Tea & Coffee
3.00 pm
Pelican
Julian Reid, Fenner School,
ANU
3.30 pm
Genyornis
Dr Mike Smith, Centre for
Historical Research, NMA
4.00 pm
Emu
Dr Libby Robin, Fenner School ANU/Centre
for Historical Research, NMA
4.20 pm
Concluding remarks (including brief comments on evolutionary
strategies)
Assoc. Prof. Rob Heinsohn, Fenner School, ANU
4.30 pm: FORMAL CLOSE (informal discussion – up to 5 pm)
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