Volume 24 | Number 2 | July 2007 Quaternary AUSTRALASIA • MICROFOSSILS IN THE FLINDERS RANGES • NEW ZEALAND GLACIATION • AUSTRALIAN-CHINESE QUATERNARY CONNECTIONS • CARBON ISOTOPE VARIABILITY IN AUSTRALIAN GRASSES Volume 24 | Number 2 | July 2007 | ISSN 0811–0433 Quaternary AUSTRALASIA 1 Editorial, President’s Pen Feature Article 2 Professor Liu Tungsheng: Australian-Chinese Quaternary connections JIM BOWLER, WITH INTRODUCTION BY DONALD WALKER Research Articles 11 A reconnaissance study of glaciation on the Owen Massif, northwest Nelson, New Zealand OLIVIA HYATT, JAMES SHULMEISTER, CHRIS SMART 19 Late Pleistocene environments in the Flinders Ranges, Australia: Preliminary evidence from microfossils and stable isotopes PETER GLASBY, MARTIN WILLIAMS, DAVID MCKIRDY, REX SYMONDS, ALLAN CHIVAS 29 Carbon isotope discrimination by C3 pasture grasses along a rainfall gradient in South Australia: Implications for palaeoecological studies DONALD PATE, EVELYN KRULL Meeting Reports 34 Southern Connection Conference, Adelaide PETER KERSHAW COVER The cover photograph shows late 37 ANZGG Rivers Workshop, Canberra and Kioloa KATHRYN AMOS, RACHEL NANSON Pleistocene fine deposits unconformably overlying Proterozoic Rocks of the Brachina 40 International Young Scientists’ Global Change Conference and Earth System formation in the Flinders Ranges. This Science Partnership’s Open Science Conference, Beijing, China JOËLLE GERGIS section forms the basis for microfossil and 43 Plant Macrofossil Workshop, Adelaide JOHN TIBBY stable isotope studies discussed in the research paper by Peter Glasby and others in Book Reviews this issue. (Photo: David Haberlah) 44 John Merrick et al.: Evolution and biogeography of Australasian vertebrates BELOW Oblique aerial view of the coarse- REVIEWED BY RICHARD GILLESPIE grained sand beach ridges at Cowley Beach, 44 Chris Johnson: Australia’s mammal extinctions 100km south of Cairns. Numerical cyclone Thesis Abstracts surge and wave modelling by Jon Nott combined with OSL dating by Ed Rhodes 46 Contributors: MANU BLACK, ELLYN COOK, ROSALIND JAMES, ROBYN JENKINS, suggests that these ridges are cyclone-built NICHOLAS PORCH, GRESLEY WAKELIN-KING features extending back to about 5.5ka. (Photo: David Hopley) 49 Recent publications Editorial President’s Pen Dear Fellow Quaternarists, Dear Friends of the Quaternary, I would like to introduce myself Hopefully this will be a highlight as the new Editor of Quaternary year for AQUA. The INQUA 2007 Australasia. AQUA recently handed conference is upon us, at the exciting the baton to me from Kale Sniderman, location of Cairns in Queensland. and also charged Peter Almond with the position of Vice I remember how as a youngish Dutch student I attended President (taking over from Brent Alloway). It is a daun- INQUA in Beijing in 1991. As a PhD student in Quat- ting task to live up to Kale’s standards, and even more ernary science, INQUA was a huge attraction to present daunting still to be producing a special issue in time for what I thought was pretty cutting edge science (which it the INQUA conference in Cairns. probably wasn’t). It turned out to be one of the best In honour of the upcoming INQUA conference, we have moves I made. The pre-conference fieldtrip was a tour prepared a bumper issue, showcasing the varied and from Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet. We had terrible active Quaternary research taking place across Austral- delays in getting out of Tibet and Cheodu, but still made asia. The feature article in this issue is an interview it to the conference. The most important experience between Professor Jim Bowler of Australia and Professor from this trip and conference was to meet excellent Liu Tungsheng of China. In addition to providing a scientists from different backgrounds. I met up with fascinating insight into the development of Quaternary my future Australian colleagues in the lobby of the hotel science in China throughout the country’s tumultuous in Beijing, which turned into the local watering hole. history, Professor Tungsheng celebrates the strong Only later did I realise that I had spent more time with scientific connections between China and Australia, Australian scientists than with my colleagues from the which began with the visit of the Australian Quaternary Netherlands. At subsequent INQUA conferences we delegation to China in 1975. From there began numerous were always happy to meet up and chat about our exchanges and collaborations which further highlight the research. I have used this initial international network- Australasian Quaternary community’s involvement in ing throughout my career. international scientific endeavours. As a Dutch student I also used the British Quaternary This issue also includes several research papers, covering Association to get in contact with scientists for samples topics as diverse as Peter Glasby and colleagues’ studies to be tested for my thesis. No wonder the first thing I of microfossils in late Pleistocene wetlands of the cur- did when landing in Sydney on St Patrick’s Day in 1993 rently semi-arid Flinders Ranges, and Donald Pate and was to join AQUA. It was a good move, as it brought me Evelyn Krull’s work on carbon isotope discrimination into contact with other Quaternarists in this region. by pasture grasses in southern Australia. New Zealanders Hopefully the next generation of young Quaternarists in Olivia Hyatt and colleagues reconnoitre previously Australasia will also see the INQUA conference in Cairns glaciated karst on the South Island, investigating locally as an opportunity for international networking. This distinctive glacial landforms and processes. Thanks was the most important reason for AQUA to support five must go to the reviewers who managed to complete their PhD students to attend INQUA. reviews in the limited time available. This bumper issue of Quaternary Australasia shows that Australasian Quaternarists have also been busy debating Quaternary science is alive and kicking down under. their respective sub-disciplines at meetings, and Congratulations to our new editor Kathryn Fitzsimmons making use of the networks provided by such meetings. for putting this excellent issue together. Last but not This issue contains reports on the Southern Connection least, the AQUA Executive is planning the Biannual Conference (which brought together scientists from conference for early 2008, where we can all chat about across the Southern Hemisphere), the Australian and the good times we had in Cairns. New Zealand Geomorphology Group Rivers Workshop, the International Young Scientists’ Global Change See you in Cairns!!!!!! Conference in Beijing (which a young Australian palaeo- Henk Heijnis climatologist, Joëlle Gergis, attended) and a Plant Macro- President of AQUA fossil Workshop held in Adelaide. Richard Gillespie also provides an insightful review of Chris Johnson’s new book on Australia’s mammal extinctions. I sincerely hope that you will enjoy this special issue of Quaternary Australasia. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to contribute to future issues. Kind regards, Kathryn Fitzsimmons 1 | Quaternary AUSTRALASIA 24 (2) Feature Article Professor Liu Tungsheng: Australian-Chinese Quaternary connections An edited interview by Jim Bowler School of Earth Sciences The University of Melbourne Preface Donald Walker Interviewer’s Note Jim Bowler After excursions in both directions beginning in 1975, An early approach to Professor Liu Tungsheng to record the Australian National University (ANU) and the Chinese his reflections of life was greeted by characteristically Academy of Science (CAS, Academia Sinica) formally generous but modest response. The interview was established the ANU – Academia Sinica Quaternary conducted in October, 2004 at the Institute of Geology & Studies Programme in 1980, primarily to explore the Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing. This similarities and differences of the two land masses condensed record of the interview is published with during the Quaternary period. It provided for collabor- Professor Liu’s permission. ative research in both countries, particularly in salt lake The problem of reducing the full interview to half its studies, palynology and palaeo-anthropology. Although original length for publication poses a number of it formally ended about 1988, the joint work which it problems. What to omit without loosing the connecting initiated, and which has diversified and spread far flow? Toward resolution of that problem the following beyond the parent institutions, continues to this day. guiding principles have been adopted. Firstly, as The leader of the party that greeted the first Australian Professor Liu came prepared in the best Socratic or delegation at Beijing airport in 1975 was Professor Liu perhaps Confucius tradition with a large sector Tungsheng, and he remained the prime facilitator of packaged into six stories; these stories, as central to the activities in China throughout the joint programme. dialogue, have been retained almost intact. Secondly, for Without his scientific initiative, experience and ability to reader interest, the following thematic links have been get things done – often on a grand scale – it would have identified: been a far less successful undertaking. Distinguished • Early years, youth and the rise of patriotism though he is in several fields of Chinese geology, it is his • Emerging science: Beijing Man discoveries at pioneering and detailed work on loess which has gained Zhoukoudian most international acclaim. In 1987 he was