A key part of the Conference program is a series of interactive, guided field sessions led by leading geographers, that will connect current geographical scholarship research and practice with place-based sustainability initiatives.
Field Trips depart from Nuspace on Saturday 5 July and places are limited. Please ensure you dress appropriately for the weather – sunscreen, hats (or rain gear); appropriate footwear and a warm jacket. Don’t forget to bring a drink bottle!
Field Trip 1:
Inner Newcastle Working Tour
Departs at 10.00am and returns approximately 1.00pm
Cost: Free
Spaces are limited to 18 people
Come for a walking tour of the of Mulubinba, inner Newcastle including the Hunter St shopping strip, Yohabba (Newcastle Harbour) and Whibayganba (Nobby’s Headland). The tour will discuss aspects of Inner Newcastle’s regeneration and connections between the harbour, the rail line and the port. The tour will involve at least 5kms of walking on mostly flat ground.
Field Trip 2:
Balancing Sand and Values along Newcastle’s Spectacular Coastline
Departs at 9.00am (please be at Nuspace by 8.45am) and returns approximately 2.00pm
Cost: $75 and includes lunch
The journey north along Newcastle’s coastline starts at the famed Merewether National Surfing Reserve, heading up over The Hill – where prestigious houses perch atop the Newcastle Coal Measures, to Fort Scratchley and its commanding views over the city and Port of Newcastle, and finally stepping across the Hunter River to the shifting sands of Stockton Beach. Along that brief tract of geography lies the origins and fortune of an Australian industrial powerhouse, a world-record holding seaport, a recreational wonderland, and evidence and impacts of the accumulating advances of global and local pressures on coastal environments. This field trip explores the diverse and contrasting geomorphology of the Newcastle coastline, connecting the physical geography and deep geological origins to the evolving challenges for communities in dynamic coastal settings, faced with a changing climate and persisting consequences of human interference in coastal systems. Our final stop and picnic lunch at Stockton Beach digs into colliding local, state and national values around one of Australia’s most topical coastal erosion problems, which ironically, lies in full view of one of Australia’s largest natural coastal sand deposits.
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Acknowledgement of Country
The Conference organising committee acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country of the University of Newcastle Nuspace campus, the Awabakal and Worimi peoples. We recognise their continuing care for Country including the lands, waters, skies and communities in this place. We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This place is a meeting place where waters, lands and people have come together and shared knowledge. Our conference seeks to continue practices of knowledge sharing which nurture emergent geographies. We recognise that First Nations sovereignty was never ceded. This place always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. We extend this respect to all First Nations people and Country itself across the continent.
Conference Managers
East Coast Conferences
Amy McIntosh, Jayne Hindle, Jasmine Durbidge
Phone: (61-2) 6650 9800
Mobile: 0408 220 188
Postal: PO Box 848, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450 Australia
amy@eastcoastconferences.com.au
ABN: 56 515 955 798 (East Coast Conferences)