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I · THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPAR'IMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

ANNUAL REPORT 1975

63/ 19 76

General Comments: The Department offers a broad range of semester-length courses, following an introductory First Year unit, and continues . to pursue research interests in climatology, geomorphology, biogeography, manufacturing location, social and urban geography, and in geographical aspects of development in South and Southeast Asia.

Courses: .several changes were made in existing courses and teaching methods . during 1975 and other changes were decided upon for imple~entatfon in 1976 and 1977. A new half-year course dealing with "Envirqnmental Hazards" ·was introduced by Dr N. McDonal.d and Mr W.P. Packard,. . who .also jointly led the course's field excursion to northern .New Sou~h Wale~ _ ~o examine community., response to flood .pr.oblems. In Geography I, one of the two lectures each week was replaced by "workshops" related .to t}?.e lecture topics, but taught by different staff members and with more opportunity for student participation than in the traditional lecture class, Student response to this experiment was mos.t encouraging and it will be continued~ In 1976 a second First Year course will be · introduced, concerned with changing physical .environments over the past 40,000 years and appealing, we hope, to a wide r~nge 6f students with interdisciplinary i~terests. Another impending development is a proposed N.A. program by coursework and dissertation, as an alternative to'the traditional M.A. by thesis only: this program was approved by the Faculty and Board, for probable introduction in 1977.

Enrolments and Examination Resu l ts: (see appendix) The slight slackening of enrolments in Geography I, noted in last year's report, became more marked in 1975. It -no doubt reflects the wider choice of new courses available to students, as · well as the recent slow growth of student '· numbers in the Faculty of Arts as a whole. The overall reduction of enrolments in Geography I by nearly 18 per cent in two years (1973-75 ) is now affecting enrolments in later-year courses. On the other hand, the markedly lower ~ailure rates and wastage rates in Geography I in 1975 suggest that soine weaker students enrolled elsewhere. At the other end of the examination spectrum, the Department was delighted by the success of its first three full-time ?h.D students: Ian Eliot, a West Australian, George Pich and Ian Halkett (both Canadians). ·

Student participation: The Department has a long-established reputation for informality and for the ease of communication between its students and staff in lectures and tutorials, a·t casual meetings in the depart-mental centre and on field work. Departmental Liaison Committees have been in existence since about 1969, but in 1975 the more formal arrangements for student representation were introduced, as requested by the Board. The Departmental Committee now has SO per cent of its members elected by students ranging from first year to postgraduates, and many most useful comments and suggestions have come from the student member$. rn· individual courses it is now common practice for assessment procedures

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to be decided jointly by· studeni:s and·- the staff ·membeii- concerned. ~rhaps surprisingly, many students want the end-of-course examination to be retained, but one noticeable consequence of s tudent participation in deciding t:he forms of assessment is the . burgeoning of alternative assessment options.

Work of graduate studencs: Ph.D theses on rural-u rban migration in ~·~t Java, .on coas.tal ,geomorphology in New Guinea and on o.ffice location fn·- ·--:-:· CElntra1 areas o~ Melbourne and Sydney are now nearing comp letion . Others in pro.grass ar.e concerned with the provision and ut:ilization of schoo;l .-.... facilities in Sydney, tQe topography of emerged coral terraces in the Huon Peninsula (~ew Guinea), quantitative modelling of landscape evolution (based on ·field measurements in Ner,y Zealand) and labour migration frqm ._. .. the East .. S,ep:ik Provi.nc.e, N.ew Guinea. E r Richard Curtain is wurking ori .. U1.e· . last ·mentj;one.d study: . he was .seconded t-0 the ANU /UPNG Migration ProJ ect . .. for • nine months in 1974~7 5 to help supervise the large-scale r01;al sury.ey r: of areas .of high out-migratioI.J. in Papua New Gui.nea and has now re.sum~d; : '"i. his ·ANU Ph.D Scho l arr.hip . . . , ... _ ., ..... )

List of Staff:

Professor ~ Head ... Reader -

"! ·.:

B.1.c: Johnson, H .A. (Binn),' Ph.D (Lond) E:.·c. Chapman, i·~ .A., Dip;· .Ed. · (Syd)

•·• • .J

Senior Le'cturers

• 1 • •

L. Sternstein, H .A. (Syracuse), Ph.D (ANU) N.S. h cDonald, M.SE. '{N.E.), Ph:D (Wis consin) J .H .A. Chappel'l, M.Sc. (Auck ) , Ph.D (ANU)

Lecturers

Lect~re~ (Half-time) Senior Tutor

K.M. John.son, fvI .E·c. (Qld) ··· P.A. Robins, -M~A . .. J(Cantab) W.P. Packard, M.A. (N.Z.) Margaret P.M. LeH. Scrivenor, B.Sc.(Syd),

Dip. Ed. (He lb)

.· ~

Post used f-0r .part-time staff. ·-: ·-· _ .. :.::..:..:.:.'..:.:. ____ .· .. . Ann M. Coutts~-B.A. (Sydney) ·-· ... · ·-.·.:.'(''.!f::

Tut6'r Research Assistant

Visitors ':'"in cdonjunction with the Departments of Human Geograph'y ·, · · (RSPacS) . and Biogecgraphy and Geomorphology (RSPacS) , the Department~jas h,ost to members of Section 21 (Geographical Sci cnc;es) at the .ANZMS· ... , Congres·s in January. Nr Peter Robins acted a::; Local Secretary f0'{

1tbe meeting, at which ·45 papers were presented in Section 21.' ·'In ·if:'h'e ; se~~ri:d · half of 1975 the Department welcomed Mr Hosei Hotta of the · RachtnohE!' · ;_ Technical College, AO'mori, Japan. Mr Hotta is carrying out re·s·earch on . the mor~hology of large meandering rivers in inland and coa~ta lAtl~trdlia, while based in the Department for five months. '! :. ·

Staff Movetiients: Dr L. Sternstein and Professor B. L . c. Johns~n.~we.ti.e...'-'--- _:_: ::. overseas · dri study leav~ for several months during the year • . Dr St~rnstein " was in tb.e · unlted Ste.ces from '° Jatiuary to Hay at the University of " Pittsbu~gh, as Vi.siting Professor fn · the · Depa rtment of : Geography"and .: Senior Research Associate · in the · 'centre for Urban Studies;' Professor -Johnson left for seven months in Sri Lanka a:nd tndia at :the end of .. ~. · November ·, to study select,ed areas · of recent agricultural change \Yhile " based mainly at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. In June Dr Sternstein also completed a total of four months field-work in Thailand, begun late in 1974 under a ·grant from the Rockefeller-Ford Foundations Program for Population Policy Research. Professor Johnson

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and Mr E.C. Chapman also undertook overseas assignments .for the Australian Development Assistance Agency (ADAA): Mr Chapman spent almo ct three months (January-March, and August) in Thailand as ·advisor to ADAA and the Royal Thai Government on the Thai-Australian Land Development Project; Professor J0hnson ,mrked in India during February, on a review of Australian rural development projects being carried out under the Colombo Plan. Closer ·to home, Dr Chappell made a short visit to New Zealand to supervise Ph.D research and to the Lake Eyre region, and several staff members attended the Institute of Australian Geographers conference at Wollongong in August.

Research: Staff research in the Department covers a wide range of inter-est~> but there is a strong measure of continuity in the main themes from year to ··year. Professor John~on, .Mr Chapman and Dr Sternstein continue to work on different aspects of social and e~onomic change in South Asia (Johnson) and Southea~t ,Asia, particularly Thailand (agricultural developm~nt, Chapman; internal migration and urban growth, Sternstein). Dr Chappell ' s intetest's iri ·geomorphological ·evidence for plate tectonic movements are currently being followed up through studies of tilting near Lake Eyre, with financial assistance from the .·ARGC; he is continuing work on Quaternary sea level changes and coastal dynamics. Mr Ken Johnson is studying : the relocation of offices in Canberra. Mr Peter Robins is nearing the end of his research, begun at Flinders University, on manufacturing location in Adelaide. Dr N.S. McDonald is continuing his work on general synoptic indices of Australian climate, and is also now developing a model indicating the potential of a climate for recreation.

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Academic Publications

CHAPMAN, E.G. "Shifting agriculture in tropical . fore,;t ~reas of

East AE->i,a" -.The use of ecological guideline .:: for

development in tropical forest areas of South East

Int. Union for Consery

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