AQUA are pleased to be undertaking a joint session with the Australian Archaeological Association, who are hosting their annual conference in Darwin at the same time as the AQUA meeting in December, 2022.

The joint session “Human-Environment Interactions: A Joint Session for the Australian Archaeological Association and Australasian Quaternary Association” will be run simultaneously in Darwin and Adelaide with speakers joining on both ends (and transmitted to the other via Zoom/Teams). The session aims to share knowledge between the archaeological and social sciences and allow archaeologists working in the Quaternary sciences, who attend AAA, to participate with the AQUA conference.

Abstract submission for AAA is now live and AQUA attendees who wish to submit to this session should submit via the AAA webpage by 22 July, 2022.

Please indicate at the end of your abstract text that you are an AQUA attendee. If you have an issues or queries please contact Caroline (caroline.mather@uwa.edu.au). A full description of the joint session theme is provided at the end of the email.

Human-Environment Interactions: A Joint Session for the Australian Archaeological Association and Australasian Quaternary Association

The Australasian region has an expansive history of human occupation and migration over the last 65,000 years. The evolution of climate, environment and landscape over time had the potential to profoundly influence human habitation and social interaction. Notably, there has been extreme climatic and geographic change since the Last Glacial Maximum, after which sea levels rose ~130 m and transformed the landscape. So too, modification of the environment by humans is apparent in many locations, including petroglyphs, evidence of large-scale aquaculture, and charcoal deposits from traditional burning practices. The degree to which human practices may have altered the environment is still being uncovered, although significant changes in land use since European colonisation in Australasia are readily apparent in environmental records. We welcome presentations that discuss the palaeoenvironmental frame of human occupation and activities and highlight the varying interactions between peoples and their environment – including the effects of contact between cultures. This is the first joint session between the Australian Archaeological Association and Australasian Quaternary Association aiming to share knowledge between the archaeological and social sciences with the environmental-focussed Quaternary sciences.

Convenors: Patrick Morrison (AAA) and Caroline Mather (AQUA), The University of Western Australia

Darren Ray, University of Adelaide, has offered to host a hackathon before the AQUA conference on Monday 5^th Dec focussed on palaeo-science data analysis.  It would be based on the emerging Python based palaeo analysis framework, in particular, through Jupyter Notebooks. It would be aimed at those who might have some coding experience in say R or Python, and introduce installing and setting up Python environments, basic data analysis in the framework such as importing, analysing, and visualising .csv based data, including producing maps, introduce GitHub repositories such as LinkedEarth, how netcdf and LiPD files work and how to access them, and introduce using Pyleoclim for analysis such as PCA, wavelets, and power spectrum analysis.

Darren is Principal Climate Change Analyst, Dept of Environment and Water South Australia and PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide.  To express early interest in the hackathon, contact Darren at: darren.ray@adelaide.edu.au

There may be a modest fee to cover costs for salaried and grant-funded participants, but please don’t let this be a barrier to participation.

Calling all Australian and New Zealand Quaternary scientists! We are launching our inaugural AQUA mentoring program!

AQUA (Australasian Quaternary Association) brings together researchers that study the Quaternary climate and landscape changes. The organisation aims to provide a forum for Quaternary researchers to collaborate and share findings with one another.

The goal of our inaugural mentoring program is to support our ECR and MCR researchers in their professional growth and development. Our members have a vast breadth of experience and expertise across a myriad of topics and there is a willingness to share that within the Quaternary community.

We encourage researchers at all stages of their career (student to senior academic) to consider participating in the mentoring program as a mentor and/or mentee.

To join the mentoring program you must be an AQUA member. You can join or renew your membership here. Please note that AQUA renewals run on the Financial Year, and participants should make sure your membership will be valid for the 2022/23 year. Please also note that there are discounted rates for student/concession membership, and for student participants in the mentoring program who are not already AQUA members, if you join now we will extend your membership to mid 2023.

The structure of the mentoring program is outlined here. Participants (both mentors and mentees) are required to read, sign, and return the Code of Conduct and to complete and the sign up questions. Documents should be returned by email to Micha Campbell by COB 29-04-2022.