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77/1964 THE _;,uSLL .LI.~.N rLT IONAL UNI'/E:1SITY

RESEARCH SCHOOL OF PACIFIC STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

ANNUAL REPORT 1963

Staff

Profes·sor Reader in Geomorphology Reader in Geography Reader in Biogeography Fellow Research Fellow Public Service Fellow Research Assistants

Cartographers

O. H. K. Spate, M.A., Ph.D. J. N. Jennings, M.A. H. C. Brookfield, B.A., Ph.D. D. Walker, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D. G. J. R. Linge, B.Sc.(Econ.), Ph.D. R. G. Robbins, M.Sc., Ph.D. H. G. Quinlan, B.Sc. (from 9.9.63) Mrs G. Wittmann, Ph.D. Mrs R. Dowie, M.A. (from 29.1.63) Mr H. E. Gunther Mr M. Pancino Mrs C. D. Daniell

For a variety of reasons, attempts to fill vacant Research Fellowships in 1963 have not proved successful, and the only changes have been the appoint­ment of Mrs R. Dowie as Research Assistant in January, and of Mr H. G. Quinlan as Public Service Fellow in September.

Students and teaching activities

Four theses were completed and submitted during the year. These were: P.N.D. Pirie, "The geography of population in Western Samoa"; W. D. McTaggart, "Noumea: a study in social geography"; S.H.H. Naqavi, 11A geographical study of railway development in Central Queensland"; J. G. Mosley, "Aspects of the geography of recreation in Tasmania".

Doctorates were awarded to R. L. Heathcote and W. D. McTaggart and examinations are in progress on the other candidates. Four other theses have reached an advanced stage of completion. These are by D.A.M. Lea (native agriculture at Maprik, New Guinea), G. P. Walsh (industrial development in Sydney), A. M. Maude (population and resources in Tonga) and L. Sternstein (evolution of towns in Thailand). Work was continued by K. B. Ryan, J. Whitelaw and C. D. Morley. The department was joined by five new students, Mr T. N. Caine (a study of glacial and periglacial geomorphology of selected mountain areas in Tasmania), Mr I. Douglas (a comparative study of modern denudation in selected small catchments in the Cairns hinterland and the Southern Tablelands), Mr P. G. Holland (Environmental utilization by mallee and savannah woodland vegetation), Mr M. C. Kellman (effects of shifting cultivation on vegetation in selected areas of Mindanao, Philippines) and Mr A. D. Couper (inter-island shipping and trade in the British central Pacific). Mr Holland and Mr Kellman are the first students in Biogeography. The following students undertook fieldwork during the year: Mr Lea (New Guinea), Mr Maude (Tonga), Mr Ryan (New South Wales), Mr Whitelaw (Fiji), Mr Morley (various capital cities), Mr Caine (Tasmania), Mr Douglas (Queensland and New South Wales) and Mr Couper fiji).

Because of staff and student absences on field work a projected sequel to the successful seminar held in 1962 had to be abandoned.

Staff Research Activities

For the most part staff research has continued along established lines, but there has been an important development in that some preliminary steps

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have been taken toward a widening of our interests in East Asia. Dr Brookfield visited the Philippines and Hong Kong in February and March, for a reconnaissance survey in the field of agrarian geography, coupled with some more particular work on highland settlement in Luzon, and later in the year Dr Linge made a brief reconnaissance of industrial and town planning problems in Japan, Hong Kong and Manila while attending the first Far East Conference of the Regional Science Association at Tokyo. A first fruit of these reconnaissance visits is that one of our new students will work in Mindanao, in the Philippines.

Professor Spate 1 s research activities have been curtailed due to his membership of a government appointed Commission (see under 'Other Activities'), and the duties of departmental administration have led to some interruption in the research programmes of Mr Jennings and Dr Brookfield, who have at different times acted as head of department . However in May and June Mr Jennings went to Western Australia to study karst in the Pleistocene dune limestones between Dongara and Cape Leeuwin, and took the opportunity to amplify earlier work on the Nullarbor Plain. During the year he and Mr J . A. Mabbutt of C.S. I .R. O. made arrangements for the writing and publication of a book of essays on Australian geomorphology.

Dr Brookfield has started work on a general geography of the Melanesian territories, with emphasis on problems of land utilization under different environmental, technological and economic conditions, and of development. He visited Fiji and New Caledonia during the year. Late in the year he revisited the Chimbu area in New Guinea, with Dr Paula Brown of the Department of Anthropology, to continue their long-term programme of studying agricultural, economic, social and political change among the Chimbu people. On this occasion an experiment was undertaken in the use of low-level air photography for the recording of change in land-use and settlement pattern.

Pollen- analytical work under the direction of Dr Walker has concentrated on the collection and preparation of pollen types from living plants, and the collection now contains more than 1,150 slides. A study of the pollen morphology of the many species of Nothofagus sect . brassii is almost complete, and con­siderable progress has been made with other sections. The examination of Quaternary mud and Tertiary brown coal specimens obtained at Sirunki and Laiagam in the New Guinea highlands in 1962 has begun. Both deposits are rich in pollen grains and are already producing results of great interest. In the ecological field, the analysis of data obtained by Dr Walker in New Guinea in 1962 is progressing. Dr Robbins has carried out field work in New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, Malaya and Thailand, and is now preparing a critical analysis of forest structure in the Malaya-Pacific region. The abstracting of the literature on tropical hydrosere ecology has been completed, and a report, based on this and on Dr Walker's field work in Queensland, has been submitted to the Water Research Foundation of Australia, Ltd.

Dr Linge has continued work on manufacturing in Australia, and has written large sectioLs of a book on the industrial geography of the continent. He has also prepared reports on the distribution of secoLdary and tertiary industry in Australia for the Committee of Economic Inquiry.

Mr H. G. Quinlan (Public Service Fellow) is conducting research on Australian air transport, with a view to preparation of a Ph.D . thesis.

Other Activities

The most significant activity under this head has been Professor Spate's membership of a Commission appointed by the Minister for Territories to report on the future of higher education in Papua-New Guinea and related matters. This Commission, under the Chairmanship of Sir George Currie, has been at work since April, and has twice visited New Guinea.

Several members of the department have collaborated to offer a course on Problems of Urban Geography to students in the Department of Geography at

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~ Sohoal of Ganoral Studies. Professor Spate, Dr Linge, Dr Bookfield and Mrs Dowie among staff members, and Mr Morley, Mr Sternstein, Mr Walsh, Mr Whitelaw and Mr Ryan among students, have given lectures in this course, which has continued through most of the year. In addition Mr Jennings has lectured in the same department on geomorphology during the first term; Mr Caine and Mr Douglas contributed to a short course in Applied Physiography.

Dr Walker took part, by invitation, in the UNESCO symposium on the vegetation of the humid tropics, held in Sarawak and Brunei in July. At the same time he visited and lectured at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Linge gave a paper at the First Far East Conference of the RegiollB.l Science Association in Tokyo . Dr Brookfield gave a paper at a conference of the Institute of Australian Geographers in Armidale; this conference was attended by Professor Spate and Dr Linge. In September Mr Jennings and Dr Walker participated in the National Symposium on Water Resources, Use and Management organized by the Academy of Science, which Mr I. Douglas also attended as an observer.

Dr Linge has continued to act as Honorary Business Manager of Australian Geographical Studies, published by the Institute of Australian Geographers. The first issue appeared in March.

The cartographical section has been actively employed in preparing maps and diagrams not only for members of this Department but also for other departments in the University. Including b~th maps and diagrams, a total of 207 drawings were prepared during the year, of which 139 were for this Department and 68 for members of other departments.

Visitors to the department during the year have included Professors A. Gui.lcher and P. Berthois (Paris), Dr R. Moreau (Oxford), Dr P. J. Grubb (Cambridge), Dr J. Connell (Harvard) and Ho Coy Choke (Kuala Lumpur). Professor Guilcher gave a well-attended lecture on 1 Coral Reefs of New Caledonial.

General

A trend •f some significance is making itself felt in the work of the department. This is the rapidly increasing volume of data organization r equired in our research work . In Biogeography, the growing size of the collection of pollen types has led to some reorganization of laboratory procedures during the year, while the collection of specimens and the formation of a survey of abstracts of the literature on Cainozoic plant remains in Australia are creating problems both of space and technical labour. Work in Geomorphology is turning increasingly toward laboratory methods. Dr Brookfield has collected together a mass of climatic data on all the Melanesian territories, and Dr Linge is amassing a rapidly growing body of census and sub-census data on industry and employment . Mr Jennings, Dr Brookfield and Dr Walker alike are making large and growing use of air photography in their research, and the work of several students also demands use of this tool. Where the desired air cover is unavailable, consideration is being given to the possibilities of the field-worker taking his own. The result of all this is an increasing emphasis on laboratory facilities, technical aids, and research assistance which is likely to become more marked in the not distant future.

In the last Annual Report reference was made to the felt need for outlets for monograph publication in this Department. During the year there has been some diseussion of this subject in the School, and the Department has taken the view that a School Monograph Series is the desirable form, perhaps divisible into departmental sub-series. We feel strongly that such developments should be put on a formal and general basis, and remain keenly interested in any means that might be developed to enable the Department and the School to sponsor publications of monograph length.

Publications

BAUER, F.H.**

BROOKFIELD, H.C.

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'Sheep-raising in Northern Australia; a historical review.' In The Sim le Fleece: Studies in the Australian Wool Industry ed. A. Barnard , 457-474, Melbourne University Press in association with the Australian National University, 1962

'Significant factors in the white settlement of Northern Australia.' Australian Geographical Studies, I, i, 1963, 39-48

'Indigenous agriculture in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. r Survey of Indigenous Agriculture and Ancillary Surveys, 1961-1962, Bureau of Statistics, Konedobu, 1963, 1-3

'On training geographers. r Australian Geographical Studies, I, ii, 1963, 100-114

1Berlin West of the wall.' Current Affairs Bulletin, XXXI, v, 1963

1 The Philippines.' Current Affairs Bulletin, XXXII, x, 1963

BROOKFIELD, H.C., BROWN, Paula f Struggle for land: Agriculture and group territories among the Chimbu of the New Guinea highlands. Oxford University Press in Association with The Australian National University. 1963, xiv + 193 pp.

DOUGLAS, I. ~ 'Field methods for hardness determinations of cave and river waters.t Cave Research Group Great Britain Newsletter No. 88, Sept. 1963, 3-6

HEATHCOTE, R.L.** 'Bread or cake? A geographer and a historian on the nineteenth century wheat frontier: a review. 1

Economic Geography, XXXIX, ii, 1963, 176-182

HOWLETT, Diana** 1 The pre-contact society in the Goroka valley.' Proceedings UNESCO Symposium on the Impact of Man on Humid Tropics Vegetation, Goroka, Territory of Papua and New Guinea 1260, 1963, 375-379

JENNINGS, J.N. 'Geomorphology of the Dip Cave, Wee Jasper, New South Wales.' Helictite, I, 1963, 43-58

1Floodplain lakes of the Ka Valley, Australian New Guinea.' Geographical Journal, CXXIX, 1963, 187-190

'Collapse Doline, Australian landform examples No. l.' Australian Geographer, IX, 1963, 120-121

JENNINGS, J.N., SWEETING, M.M.*** 'The limestone ranges of the Fitzroy Basin, Australia. A tropical semi-arid karst. 1 Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen, XXXII, 1963, 60 pp.

LINGE, G.J.R. 'The location of manufacturing in Australia.' In The Economics of Australian Industry (ed. A. Hunter), 18-64, Melbourne University Press, 1963

1The diffusion of manufacturing in Auckland, New Zealand.' Economic Geography, XXXIX, i, 1963, 23-39

t LINGE, G.J .R.

PERRY, T .M. **

QUINLAN, H.G.

ROBBINS, R.G.

SMITH, R.H.T.**

SPATE, O.H. K.

STERNSTEIN, L. y1

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Contributions, I The Economy'; 'Transport and communications 1 , entries under Australia, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1962

Canberra, No. 19 in Longmans Australian Geographies, Melbourne, 1963, 40 pp.

1Australia1s first frontier, The spread of settlement in New South Wales 1788-184.2_. Melbourne University Press in Association with The Australian National University, 1963, 163 pp.

'The changing role of Sydney in Australia's air transport.' Australian Geographical Studies, I, i, 1963, 49-60

'Correlations of plant patterns and population migration into the Australian New Guinea Highlands.' Plants and the Migrations of Pacific Peoples. A Symposium at the lOth Pac. Sc . Congr., Hawaii, 1961, 1963, 45-49

1The anthropogenic grasslands of New Guinea.t Proceedings UNESCO Symposium on the Impact of Man on Humid Tropics Vegetation, Goroka, Terr. Papua & New Guinea, 1960, 1963, 313-329

1Transport competition in Australian border areas -the example of southern New South Wales . 1 Economic Geography, I, i, 1963, 1-13

1Islands and men .1 In Manis Place in the Island Ecosystem: A Symposium (ed. F. R. Fosberg), 253-264, Bishop Museum Press for Tenth Pacific Science Congress, Honolulu, 1963

1 Theory and practice in Soviet Geography.' Australian Geographical Studies, I, i, 1963, 18-30

1The rainfall of Thailand.' Indiana University Foundation Research Division, 1963, 149 pp.

WALKER, D. y1 SIEVEKING, Ann de G.* 1The Palaeolothic industry of Kota Tampan, Perak, Malaya .' Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, XXVIII, 1962, 103-139

WALSH, G.P. 1The geography of manufacturing in Sydney, 1788-1851,1 Business Archives and History, III, i, 1963, 20-52

* Not a member of this University. (For co-authors who have never been at this University.)

** Based on work done while a member of the Department. (For those who have left the University.)

*** Based on work done while a member of this Department. (For co-authors who have left the University.)

Based on work done prior to joining the University.

A member of the Department of Anthropology. (For a co-author in another Department of this University.)

(H. C. BROOKFIELD), Acting Head of Department,

Department of Geography.