The Australasian Quaternary Association biennial meeting will be held over three days (from the 6^th-8^th December) in Adelaide. There will be an informal ice breaker on Monday (5th of December) evening with the conference starting on the Tuesday. The meeting will be our first face-to-face meeting in four years and we are very excited to be hosting it.

Our approach to the conference has been guided by discussions with the AQUA membership over the last few years. This includes the formal diversity survey undertaken before the one-day online meeting last year and recent survey in relation to this conference.

There will be traditional oral and poster sessions as well as the possibility of lightning presentations to enable a greater number of people to speak (depending on interest). Conference registration will cover the cost of lunches, morning and afternoon teas, snacks at the Monday night icebreaker and the poster session and light refreshments for the quiz night on Thursday.  Conference registration costs have been set in line with those from the last meeting accounting for inflation.  There is a new “Grant funded” registration category. This category is for those who have funds (e.g. from the ARC, CABAH or other sources) to support conference attendance. This option is purely based on your own assessment of whether you have grants that can support attendance at the meeting.

There are a small number of special sessions.  Please consider these when submitting your abstract submission. Volunteers to chair sessions are welcome at any time.

Along with the meeting, there are field trips planned to the Coorong and lower River Murray lakes on the Friday 9^th December and Kangaroo Island on the Monday 5^th December.  The lower lakes and Coorong trip will arrive back in Adelaide by 6 pm in time for late evening departures.  There is also a possibility of a multi-day trip to the Naracoorte Caves and surrounding region.

Tim Barrows will host his quiz night on the final night of the conference. I hope that those who are familiar with this will be looking forward to it and that first timers enjoy it. There will also be a conference dinner (not included in the cost of registration), an icebreaker on the first night and a variety of other activities. In these events there will be some complimentary alcohol.  However, this will be limited to reduce the amount of cross subsidisation of alcohol consumption. This is for two reasons, firstly as an equity issue and also because it has been a wish expressed by members of the AQUA community.

The conference dinner will be held at the Belgian Beer Café (oostende.com.au) in Adelaide’s East End on Wednesday, 7 December. Dinner will consist of a three course meal with two complimentary drinks included (limited selection of alcoholic and unlimited selection non-alcoholic beverages). For those wishing to partake further in the excellent range of beer, wine, and spirits at the Belgian you are welcome to do so at your own expense. Dinner fees are not included in registration and are $75/person for students and $95/person for others.

We have organised 10% discounts at IBIS Adelaide, Grenfell Street, and the Majestic Roof Garden Hotel, which are both in walking distance to the conference venue and the city:

Please use this link for discounted booking at the Majestic Roof Garden Hotel.

Please use this link for discounted booking at IBIS Adelaide, Grenfell Street. Please select “IBIS Adelaide, Grenfell Street” and provide the following information: Company name: EARTH SCIENCE DEPARTMENT UOA; Company code: SCP4096486; Access code: EA522AU482. You can also call in and request discounted booking by quoting the company code.

There is also a 15% discount for students for the Adelaide Caravan Park, which is located within a 20 minute walk of the venue, and a 25 minute walk to the city.  Cabins can be shared by 4 (3 rooms, separate beds for everyone, but can accommodate up to 6). The cabins can be booked directly with the Adelaide Caravan park. We will also explore the need for a group booking if there is sufficient interest. Please contact Alex Francke (alexander.francke@adelaide.edu.au) if you want to participate in a group booking or for any questions regarding the hotel and caravan bookings. Please book early, we could not reserve a set number of rooms or cabins, the rooms are subject to availability.

Adelaide is a beautiful city for those of who haven’t visited, and at this time of year is particularly lovely. We encourage you to stay on for the weekend and enjoy what Adelaide has to offer and, of course, we can recommend a wide variety of activities.

There has been a relatively large committee of volunteers (dominated by students and ECRs) and I’d like to thank them, at this stage, for all of the work in putting the conference together. It’s very much been a joint effort.

John Tibby (on behalf of the fabulous organising committee)

Registration is now open! Please follow the link here.