Community
10 April, 2024
Environmental scientist to speak at AGM
GOANNA famously sang about ‘Solid Rock’, but Warrnambool environmental scientist Dr John Sherwood will be talking about the not-so-solid land in Timboon later this month.
At the Heytesbury District Landcare (HDLN) annual general meeting, at the Timboon Senior Citizens Club on Tuesday, April 30, Dr Sherwood will present `The Not So Solid Land We Live On’.
Dr Sherwood said residents were aware of small changes in the local landscape but not necessarily the cumulative effects of these changes over geological time scales.
“Over millions of years, south west Victoria has been submerged beneath the ocean, had mountain ranges built and eroded and been the site of one of the world's great volcanic fields,” he said.
“Our coastline has migrated back and forth as sea level has risen and fallen. Strange, now-extinct creatures walked our land. Evidence of all this can still be found in our region.”
While the illustrated talk will explore some of the south west’s past, Dr Sherwood said the changes will keep happening.
Dr Sherwood, who started at Deakin University in 1979 and retains an honorary position, said the talk would help people understand the enormous change in the Western District right up to present times.
“It’s mind-blowing when you put it together over tens to hundreds of millions of years,” he said.
“What we see now as we look around is nothing like some of the views we would have had in the past.
“As recently as 12,000 years ago, the Western District coast would have been about 80 kilometres further south and if you go back 10 million years, the coast was at Hamilton. In Warrnambool you would be sitting under 50 metres of sea water.
“That’s just the last 10 million years. The coast is anything but a permanent feature of the landscape.”
Dr Sherwood said local people should be thankful they live in the middle of a big crustal plate away from the crunching and grinding that happens on edges in places like New Zealand or the west coast of the USA.
But we shouldn’t rest too easily.
“We do have volcanic history,” Dr Sherwood said.
“Western Victoria is a bit like Hawaii that is also sitting in the centre of a plate and is a hot spot for volcanic activity. This is not an extinct volcanic field. No geologist I have spoken to will say this is extinct.
“There has been an eruption every 10,000 years on average for four million years and it would be very strange if it all stopped because Captain Cook arrived.”
Landcare co-ordinator Michelle Leech said HDLN was looking forward to welcoming the community to the AGM to acknowledge the great work in local Landcare in the past year.
“We are particularly excited to hear Dr Sherwood’s presentation on the local geology of our region,” she said.
“We’ll all look at the landscape a little differently after we learn more about how the land that we stand on was once submerged below the ocean and was the site of a significant volcanic field.”
The AGM starts at 7pm on April 30 at Timboon Senior Citizens Club, Snake Track Road. RSVPs for catering purposes to 5598 3755, Facebook or admin@heytesburylandcare.org.au.