The Permanent Committee on Tides & Mean Sea Level (PCTMSL) Bureau in Australia has sponsored a tides workshop aimed at raising the level of tidal knowledge of those people involved in marine operations, hydrographic surveying and data collection.

The workshop was conducted at the Tidal Unit, Bureau of Meteorology, Adelaide, and consisted of a mixture of theory and hands-on sessions over three days, from 16 to 18^th May, 2016 with a field trip on the 19th May 2016.

The topics that were covered include; Tidal theory, Storm surges and extreme events, Mean sea level and climate variability, Climate change and sea level rise, Instrumentation, Real time systems and meteorological sensors, Benchmark levelling and datums, Tidal models, Data analysis and quality control, Archiving and quality assurance.

The West Australian Region of the Australasian Hydrographic Society has organised a Technical Presentation held on 09th May 2016 at the “HIVE” CURTIN UNIVERSITY.

The “HIVE” (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch) at Curtin University offers “state of the art” visualisation systems for displaying data more effectively and imaginatively.

Four presenters from the Centre for Marine Science & Technology (CMST) have presented their important research work. Dr Iain Parnum presented an impressive recent research work showing how to use multibeam systems for mapping marine ecosystems. Following that Dr Tim Gourlay demonstrated his research about recent developments in ship hydrodynamics modelling and measurement at CMST.

The role of multibeams and echosounders in fishing industry was highlighted by Dr Miles Parsons in his presentation called “Fishing and pinging: what role can echo-sounders play fisheries management?”  

The HIVE 3D visualization screen impressed all the attendees with 3D Imaging Survey of HMAS Sydney (II) and HSK Kormoran displayed and presented by Dr Andrew Woods.

The “HIVE” (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch) at Curtin University

Left to right: Cory Brooks, Dr Andrew Woods, Dr Miles Parsons, Dr Iain Parnum, Dr Tim Gourlay, Kam Austine

Graham (James) Bond CMDR, RAN Rtd, discoverer of Hydrographers Passage and long-time AMSA employee, passed away on 12 April 2016 aged 70. James was born 4 October 1945 and joined the RAN Hydrographic School in February 1968. Before joining AMSA, James had a long and illustrious naval career. He saw service on ships supporting Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War and also served in HMA Ships PALUMA, MORESBY and FLINDERS (CO 1980-82). He was promoted to Commander in June 1986 and resigned from the RAN in September 1988. He remained on the RAN Reserve List for some time after leaving the permanent forces carrying out a survey of the East Solomon Islands and engaging in work within the RAN Hydrographic Office. James was a hydrographer of some note. He has a place on the Queensland timeline housed within the Stockman’s Hall of Fame at Longreach, Queensland. James is perhaps best known as the Commanding Officer of HMAS FLINDERS and was responsible for surveying and charting what is now known as Hydrographer’s Passage. The passage significantly shortens the shipping route for vessels carrying Australian coal from the Port of Hay Point to Asian markets. This route has had a major impact on the economic viability of Australia’s coal export trade. He joined AMSA in 1993 and over the years worked in the Navigation Safety, International Relations and Ship Safety areas. James strived for the highest levels of navigation safety, through the provision of simple and practical advice for the upkeep of AMSA’s aids to navigation network, establishment of ships’ routing systems and the provision of maritime safety information for navigators. James retired from AMSA in 2013 after two decades of dedicated service.

He was a well-liked and respected man, had many friends and will be sorely missed. James is survived by his partner Robin, daughters Melanie and Sharon and son Jamie. Vale, James

CMDR Bond’s funeral will be held on Friday 29 April 2016 at 10:30 am at the Braidwood Cemetery, NSW. The wake will be at the Braidwood Services Club immediately after.

A recently published paper on combining LIDAR and Mulitbeam by Discovery Marine Ltd.

DML_MBES_Laser_Paper_FINAL_020615_NZIS_090216.pdf

Delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China and PNG and USA attended the 69^thInternational Multibeam Beam Training Course at the Port of Brisbane 23 – 28 Nov 2015.  Instructors and students alike were unanimous in their praise of Port of Brisbane as host venue and grateful to Giles Stimson (Hydrographic Survey Manager) and his team for their hospitality during the week.  For six days participants studied, questioned and debated topics relating to ocean mapping, hydrography and oceanography.  Course convener, Nicole Bergersen (Acoustic Imaging, Hydrographic Programs Manager) was full of praise for the extent to which participants engaged with the subject matter presented and looks forward to bringing the course to our region again in Nov 2018.

It is with great sadness that the Australasian Hydrographic Society wishes to advise members an all hydrographers that Commander Ron Whitmore RAN (Rtd) passed away 11 November 2015. He was a stalwart of the Society who supported and promoted hydrography at every opportunity.

Ron joined the Royal Navy (RN) in 1940 as a 15 year-old and saw service in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans as an Air Artificer. He transferred to the Executive Branch in 1948-49 to initially train as a pilot but then transferred to Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1950 as a Seaman Officer. He transferred to the Hydrographic Survey Branch in 1954 to begin an illustrious career as a hydrographic surveyor.

He served on a number of RAN and RN survey vessels including: HMA Ships WARREGO, BARCOO, WARREEN, PALUMA, BARCOO, WARREGO and MORESBY, and HM Ships OWEN, SHACKLETON and PRESIDENT. During his career, he spent many months surveying around Australia and Papua New Guinea, the east coast of Africa, the west coasts of England and Scotland and around Malaysia. He was promoted to LCDR in 1957.

During his career, he commanded HMA Ships PALUMA, BARCOO and MORESBY; he was also the commissioning Executive Officer of HMAS MORESBY.

In early 1965, he was loaned for two years general service with the Royal Malaysian Navy returning to Australia in early 1967 to join the Hydrographic Office as the Tides Officer. He was promoted to Commander in June 1968 and subsequently became the Australian Hydrographer later that year.

Before his retirement from the RAN in 1975, he served as the Deputy Hydrographer.

Ron always maintained a professional interest in hydrography. He formulated and taught a syllabus in Hydrography and Law of the Sea at the UNSW and for many years was the sole lecturer in these subjects. He consulted and was a great pioneering senior facilitator for meetings in Australia that heralded the use of electronic navigation systems. He was a founding member of the Australian Hydrographic Surveyors Certification Panel (now the Australasian Hydrographic Surveyors Certification Panel) and was a founding member of the Society in which he played a very active role, as well as the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies.

Ron was a dear father, grandfather, friend, boss, colleague and fierce supporter of all he loved and cherished.

The Australasian Hydrographic Society passes on its collective sincerest condolences to Ron’s family.

Vale Ron Whitmore.

The following have been elected unopposed as the East Australian Region Committee:

• David Donohue – EAR Chair
• Alex Cowdrey – EAR Secretary
• Mark Hegarty – EAR Teasurer

The new EAR Committee have considerable industry experience and knowledge. They will use this to provide ongoing support to the East Australia Region, and the AHS generally during their terms of office. The outgoing EAR Committee members, John Maschke, Dave Garforth and Roger Harvey thank the EAR members for their support since 1998. John Maschke remains the SW Pacific Region Chair, Chair AHS Education Panel and member of the AHS Awards Panel.

The following applies to NZ members mostly.

We are circulating this on behalf of Emily Tidey, lecturer at the University of Otago and her students.

To graduate with a BSurv from Otago a student must have had 80 days of surveying related employment. If you have space for a student to join you (even for a day or two) please get in touch with Emily so she can advertise this to students. 

Students are currently studying in their final semester at Otago, with their scheduled holidays:
mid October 2015 - ~end February 2016 (this will vary on an individual basis as it depends on when their final exams end up being scheduled and if they are doing any field camps in Dunedin)

In the past students studying hydrography have had work experience in office based planning and processing, on vessel set-ups and on surveying campaigns ranging from 1 day to several months. All of them have benefited greatly from this (as do you being involved in their education and meeting the students before they start looking for full-time employment). On return to Otago they are able to provide useful anecdotes in class discussions, talk about their experiences with other students and are generally more aware of the range of work a professional hydrographic surveyor does.

Contact Details:

 Emily Tidey

Lecturer – Hydrographic Surveying

School Of Surveying / Te Kura Kairūri

University Of Otago • Po Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand / Aotearoa

T: +64(0)3 479 7587 | W: www.otago.ac.nz/surveying | E: emily.tidey@otago.ac.nz

 

 

 

Dear EAR/AHS Member,

 

We are approaching the date by which we have to give confirmation to provisional bookings for the 19^th June.  We plan a general meeting of the EAR followed by a guided tour of the Australian National Maritime Museum followed by a sit down lunch.  Provisional time table:  Meeting start 10:00, Tour 11:00 to 12:30,   lunch  13:00.  Afternoon return to Museum and/or visit the ships (and submarine) on display.  Should be a worthwhile day!

Accordingly, may I request those still pondering whether they can make it or not to let myself, Roger Harvey or John Maschke (e-mail addresses below) know by close of business Thursday 4^th June.  This does not need to be a firm commitment, cancellations and late bookings have a habit of balancing out. 

For those who’ve already advised affirmatively and those who’ve who have already apologised please accept my apologies for you receiving this e-mail.  Being somewhat busy (or perhaps lazy) it is quicker for me to apologise than to parse the Membership list into to the ‘comings and not comings’ .

I can add for those of us of shall we say considerable life experience,  or being more blunt about it, senior citizens, it will be an opportunity to catch up with  old friends and colleagues. We have people coming from Cairns, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra  as well as those closer to home.

We look forward to hearing from you, yea’s and nay’s, all help to complete the picture.

 

Sincerely,

Dave Garforth

Hon.Sec EAR/AHS

dg@ceehydrosystems.com

 

maschkejw@gmail.com

 

r_harvey@bigpond.com