Long Term Landscape Evolution of the Western Australian Shield

Joe Jennings: Father of modern Australian geomorphology BRAD PILLANS Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia ([email protected]) Joe Jennings was appointed to the Geography Department at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1953, and over the next three decades he had a profound and lasting effect on Australian geomorphology. Although best remembered as a karst geomorphologist, Joe had wide-ranging research interests and boundless enthusiasm for the entire discipline of geomorphology. Nowhere is this better evidenced than in the graduate students he supervised (with year of completion in brackets), including Eric Bird (1959), Nel Caine (1966), Ian Douglas (1966), Martin Williams (1969), Jim Bowler (1970), Bud Frank (1972), John Chappell (1973), Colin Pain (1973), Ross Coventry (1973), Chris Whitaker (1976), Joyce Lundberg (1976) and David Gillieson (1982). As a PhD student of John Chappell, and therefore an academic grandson of Joe, I was privileged to know him in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s at ANU. In this paper I have constructed a “family tree” of Joe’s academic descendents. Introduction Joseph Newell Jennings (1916-1984), or Joe to everyone who knew him (Fig. 1), was appointed to the fledgling Geography Department at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1953, and over the next three decades he had a profound and lasting effect on Australian geomorphology. Joe is best remembered as a karst geomorphologist, but in fact he had wide-ranging research interests and boundless enthusiasm for the entire discipline of geomorphology - see obituary and publication list in Spate & Spate (1985). Indeed, his first published paper on Australian geomorphology was not on karst, but rather on Lake George (Jennings 1954), the enigmatic lake near Canberra that later was to be the research topic of one of his PhD students, Ross Coventry. It is not my intention to detail, here, the career of Joe Jennings. For further information the reader is directed to obituaries by Spate & Gillieson (1984), Spate & Spate (1985) and Bowler (1985), as well as the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online (Spate 2006). Rather, I wish to demonstrate Joe’s remarkable legacy through construction of his academic family tree, modeled on the family trees which genealogists produce to depict family lineages. In the case of the academic family tree, graduate students are represented as “children” of their supervisor. Fig 1. Joe Jennings in the field at Cooleman Plain (Photo courtesy of Andy Spate). 1 Twelve disciples and the academic family tree Joe supervised twelve graduate students to completion at ANU (with year of completion in brackets), including Eric Bird (1959), Nel Caine (1966), Ian Douglas (1966), Martin Williams (1969), Jim Bowler (1970), Bud Frank (1972), John Chappell (1973), Colin Pain (1973), Ross Coventry (1973), Chris Whitaker (1976), Joyce Lundberg (1976) and David Gillieson (1982). A thirteenth student, Albert Goede, began a PhD in the 1960s, but did not complete. Thesis topics for each student are listed in Table 1 and well illustrate the breadth of Joe’s interests. Table 1. Graduate students supervised by Joe Jennings, their thesis titles and year of completion. All theses completed at ANU, except David Gillieson (University of Queensland). Student Year Thesis title BIRD, Eric Charles 1959 The Gippsland Lakes, Victoria: a geomorphological Frederick study CAINE, Nelson 1966 The blockfields and associated features of northeastern Tasmania WILLIAMS, Martin 1969 Rates of slopewash and soil creep in parts of northern Anthony Joseph and southeastern Australia: a comparative study BOWLER, James 1970 Late Quaternary environments: a study of lakes and Maurice associated sediments in south-eastern Australia FRANK, Ruben 1972 Sedimentological and morphological study of selected Milton (Bud) cave systems in Eastern New South Wales, Australia CHAPPELL, John 1973 Geology of coral terraces on Huon Peninsula, New Michael Arthur Guinea COVENTRY, Ross 1973 Abandoned shorelines and the late Quaternary history James of Lake George, New South Wales PAIN, Colin 1973 The late Quaternary geomorphic history of the Kaugel Frederick Valley, Papua New Guinea LUNDBERG, Joyce 1976 The geomorphology of Chillagoe Limestones: variations with lithology (MSc) WHITAKER, 1976 Pediment form and evolution in the East Kimberleys: Christopher Robert granite, basalt, and sandstone case-studies GILLIESON, David 1982 Geomorphology of limestone caves in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea An interesting statistic concerning Joe’s twelve graduate students is that only one, Ross Coventry, was an ANU undergraduate. At that time, in stark contrast to today, undergraduate students were actively encouraged to pursue postgraduate study at other institutions. Indeed, the ANU Geology Department, where Ross Coventry completed his BSc(Hons) in 1967, had an in-house policy of not accepting it’s own undergraduate students for postgraduate study, a policy which was still in place when I completed my own BSc(Hons) degree in 1974. However, the newly created Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology, in the Research School of Pacific Studies at ANU, was considered sufficiently distant (several hundred metres) and sufficiently isolated (there was little interaction between the undergraduate teaching departments and the research schools of ANU at the time) for Ross to be allowed to undertake his PhD under Joe’s supervision. Similarly, I was permitted to undertake PhD study in the ANU Geography Department (Faculty of Arts) under the supervision of John Chappell. 2 In constructing Joe’s academic family tree (Appendix 1), I have contacted most of his former graduate students, and many of their students. Their inputs are gratefully acknowledged. I have not attempted to extend the tree any further back than Joe himself, because my prime focus here is Joe’s legacy, through his students, to Australian geomorphology and related disciplines. Note that, although the focus here is on graduate students, the role of undergraduate teaching should not be overlooked in stimulating and encouraging very able students to move into postgraduate research. Some personal recollections of Joe Anyone who met Joe could not fail to have strong recollections of his geomorphic enthusiasm. A number of his caving friends recorded their memories of Joe in the journal of the Australian Speleological Federation, Australian Caver, in 2004 (Spate 2004). Indeed, the bond was so strong between Joe and one of his early PhD students, Ian Douglas, that Joe was “father of the bride” at Ian’s wedding (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Joe Jennings at the wedding of Ian and Maureen Douglas in Canberra in 1963. From left to right: Jim Whitelaw, Ian Douglas, Maureen Douglas and Joe Jennings. (Photo courtesy Ian Douglas). As a PhD student at ANU during the 1970s, and later as a staff member, I came into regular contact with Joe. It wasn’t quite day-to-day contact because Joe was based in the Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology in the Research School of Pacific Studies, whereas I was based in The Geography Department, in the Faculty of Arts, on the other side of the campus. Nevertheless, there was sufficient interaction to provide some unforgettable experiences. I, and many others, well recall typical telephone conversations with Joe, during which it was possible (necessary, actually) to place the receiver on the desk and still hear Joe’s loud voice quite clearly! In 1977, John Chappell went on study leave, and installed me as coordinator of his second-year geomorphology class. I was not required to give any lectures, just act as conductor to the orchestra of luminary guest lecturers that John had organized – Jim Bowler, Bruce Thom and Joe, to name a few. I well remember one particular lecture of Joe’s, on the history of geomorphology. He launched into the topic with his usual enthusiasm, his booming voice echoing around the lecture room, but after an 3 hour or so he stopped and surveyed the audience, most of whom were exhibiting tell- tale signs of boredom. “I can tell that you probably don’t want me to go on” said Joe, but then he added rather hopefully, almost pleadingly, “Or do you?” Dead silence! A few days later, Joe led a class field trip to London Bridge, a natural arch in limestone not far from Canberra. The combination of Joe’s passion, a fine sunny afternoon and the interesting field setting finally won them over. In an interview with Robyn Williams on the ABC Science Show in 2003, Jim Bowler recalled how he began his PhD on Lake Mungo. According to Jim it was a chance remark by Joe that, on a flight from Broken Hill to Sydney, he had seen what looked like evidence of former lakes in the arid landscape of Western New South Wales. Subsequent examination of aerial photographs confirmed Joe’s sighting and sent Jim into the field where exciting geomorphological and archeological discoveries awaited (c.f. Bowler et al. 1970, 2003). A paper of Joe’s published in 1986, two years after his death, is particularly revealing of the man. The paper (Jennings 1986) is the introductory chapter to Volume 1 (The Natural Environment) of Denis Jean’s two-volume book “Australia – A Geography”. At the outset, Joe warns the reader not to expect a traditional introduction of synthesis and historical reflection. Rather, his stated goal was to present some “quintessential impressions” that the character of the Australian landscape had made on him. What follows (Jennings 1986, p.1-2) is a wonderful mix of science and anecdotes, written in a style that has all but disappeared from modern scientific writing: ‘Within weeks of arriving in Australia I had tasted with appreciation a certain South Australian ale with the yeasts still fermenting in the bottle – an honest brew. Yet it was a year or two before I consciously recognized how outstanding this drink was amongst the scores of fizzypops pumped hard with carbon dioxide from the gasworks; it dawned on me that my thirst had been so great that anything cold and wet had tasted like an elixir.

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