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Introduction
Independent researcher
Additional affiliations
January 2003 - July 2014
January 1988 - May 2002
Forest Practices Board, Tasmania
Position
- Senior Geomorphologist
Publications
Publications (194)
The very real need to decarbonise the global economy is increasingly being dishonestly used as an excuse by some proponents seeking to promote, as being essential to the energy transition, some environmentally destructive developments that would otherwise not be countenanced. This article illustrates the point by reference to proposals to rebuild a...
Nature conservation advances in Tasmania have not been the product of government initiatives but instead required strenuous efforts by determined individuals and organisations who have almost invariably had to work against strong opposition by government and industry. This situation is illustrated using as an exemplar the progressive establishment...
Increasing recognition of the need to decarbonise is providing an opportunity for some development proponents to falsely promote environmentally damaging projects under the guise of their being essential for the energy transition
The geo-ecological significance and vulnerability of forest karst dolines is commonly under-recognised, particularly when industrial forest operations see economic returns as the principal imperative. This can result in unsatisfactory management outcomes.
Pleistocene periglacial activity in eastern Australia was widespread and has been predicted to have extended along much of the east coast. This paper describes block deposits in the New England Tablelands, Australia, as far north as 30°S. These deposits are characterized by openwork blocks on slopes below the angle of repose. The deposits are posit...
Many protected natural areas worldwide have been set aside to facilitate their recovery from a previously degraded condition. That recovery can be compromised if the fact that they are not pristine is interpreted as giving licence to allow further increments of degradation to facilitate developmental activities, or if their management is otherwise...
Humanitarian concerns generally predominate when the harmful effects of armed conflict are considered. However, armed conflict also typically implies considerable damage also being inflicted upon the environment. When the biology and physical landscapes around theatres of war are damaged, not only does that degrade natural environmental values, but...
Variations in the character of lakes along a west-east transect across the Tasmanian Central Plateau and into the Midlands graben reflect a combination of forcing processes over time, including the effects of altitude, climate and tectonics working on the local lithology and landscape. The higher altitude and precipitation in the west facilitated e...
Integrating geodiversity into the international laws of war
This commentary reviews progress in establishing nature conservation reserves in the southern hemisphere mid latitudes and the implications of increasing mass tourism for the retention of their wilderness values.
TASMANIA, the last Australian state to establish a national
park, has since revoked more square kilometres of national
parklands than have all other Australian states combined —
almost invariably to allow logging.
This book traces the troubled history of the Mount Field
National Park and the adjoining Florentine Valley. In doing so
it charts the b...
The highly scenic natural Lake Pedder in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is commonly interpreted as having been impounded behind a natural barrage of glacio-fluvial sediment shed from the adjacent Frankland Range during the Last Glaciation (LGM). However, recent mapping and dating of moraines on the range flanks indicates that only ver...
This paper interprets a stone-banked lobe on the upper western face of Mt Rufus, at an altitude of 1380 m in western Tasmania, Australia. The morphology of the deposit resembles that of a solifluction lobe. Field observations show vertical and downslope movement of pebbles, cobbles and small boulders over a single winter season. The movement is lar...
Submission to government in connectiion with management of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area
This paper provides a reconnaissance-level geomorphological overview of the visually spectacular but poorly-documented karst and caves along the Nam (River) Ou in northern Laos. It has been compiled as a contribution towards development of the environmental understanding and data base that will be essential if environmentally sustainable developmen...
This paper summarises the distribution of patterned ground phenomena in Tasmania. It presents observations of low altitude sorted stone circles forming on glacial and alluvial deposits in the vicinity of Queenstown, Western Tasmania. Evidence suggests that freeze-thaw derived patterned ground could develop in most inland valleys in Tasmania where c...
The natural environments amid which human societies
have evolved have influenced the development of spiritual
and religious belief systems. Nature, including natural
landforms, continues to figure prominently in traditional and
polytheistic faiths and residually in monotheistic faiths. This
prominence has resulted in numerous landforms, including
s...
Despite high geodiversity and biodiversity conservation values, scenic landscapes and parts of the Nam Ou Valley being perceived by western visitors as wilderness, there has been limited progress towards securing long-term protection of some of these attributes in nature conservation reserves. Higher priority has been given to economic development,...
Proxy conflicts involving local revolutionaries and external forces during the Cold War years caused major damage to the physical landscapes and soils of South East Asia. Using a series of small case studies, this paper assesses some of these impacts of war on the geodiversity of the Lao PDR, and upon some other environmental values and ecosystem s...
While the role that some places have played during war has made them foci for legitimate commemoration of historical events, acquisition of this cultural heritage dimension has often occurred at considerable cost to natural heritage values that previously existed. Research is required to address the current deficiency in understanding of the impact...
A very low level of social and economic development in the Nam Ou karst is in part the result of its remoteness and rugged terrain. The karst poses both opportunities and challenges for environmentally sustainable land use beneficial to the small communities scattered through the area. Negative legacies of past human activity include soil erosion a...
Isolated limestone hills and towers near the Gulf of Thailand coast, and granitic monadnocks that extend further inland, protrude through alluvial silts of the Mekong River delta in Vietnam and Cambodia. The form of the granitic monadnocks is guided by bedrock geometry and some exhibit extensive boulder mantles residual from deep weathering within...
The isolated hills that rise above the plains of the Mekong Delta contribute significantly to geodiversity and are fundamental
to the retention of biodiversity and ecosystem services. As the only topographic highpoints on the delta, these hills, together
with caves some hills contain, have long formed a natural focus for human attention and activit...
The last 35 years have seen rapid advances in our knowledge of climate change during the Quaternary Period in Tasmania. Extensive mapping and new dating studies, particularly since the advent of exposure dating, have revealed that maximum ice advance occurred 1 Ma ago and later advances were less extensive. Ice advances occurred several times durin...
Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure ages of 12 boulders from two moraine complexes in the Western Arthur Range of southwest Tasmania, which previously were considered to have been deposited during the Last Glacial Maximum, predate the Last Glacial Cycle. Zero-erosion minimum exposure ages range from 95 ka to 232 ka based on weighted mean 10Be and 26A...
Karst areas in Kampot Province, southwest Cambodia, have suffered relatively recent soil erosion and partial infilling of caves by the eroded sediment. This soil loss is most pronounced in localities that have been a focus of human activity, such as along pedestrian and vehicular access routes and in areas subject to vegetation clearing and agricul...
A Pliocene (2.6–3.5 Ma) age is determined from glacial sediments studied in a 20 m long, 4 m deep trench excavated in Heidemann Valley, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica. The age determination is based on a combined study of amino acid racemization, diatoms, foraminifera, and magnetic polarity, and supports earlier estimates of the age of the sedimen...
A Pliocene (2.6-3.5 Ma) age is determined from glacial sediments studied in a 20m long, 4 m deep trench excavated in Heidemann Valley, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica. The age determination is based on a combined study of amino acid racemization, diatoms, foraminifera, and magnetic polarity, and supports earlier estimates of the age of the sediment...
In situ cosmogenic 10Be exposure dating, radiocarbon determinations, salt and sediment geochemistry, and rock weathering observations indicate that parts of Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica have been subaerially exposed throughout much of the last glacial cycle, with the last glaciation occurring prior to 100 ka bp. Salt-enhanced subaerial weatheri...
The presence of glacial sediments across the Rauer Group indicates that the East Antarctic ice sheet formerly covered the entire archipelago and has since retreated at least 15 km from its maximum extent. The degree of weathering of these glacial sediments suggests that ice retreat from this maximum position occurred sometime during the latter half...
The extensive karst areas of the Lao PDR are poorly documented but are known to include extensive limestone mountain plateaus; isolated ridges including towerkarst; hillslopes that are locally underlain by limestone; and alluvium-covered limestone plains. Palaeokarst phenomena attest to a very long history of karstification while sediments in some...
UDC 911.2:551.435(598) Kevin Kiernan: Distribution and Character of Karst in the Lao PDR %e extensive karst areas of the Lao PDR are poorly docu- mented but are known to include extensive limestone moun- tain plateaus; isolated ridges including towerkarst; hillslopes that are locally underlain by limestone; and alluvium-covered limestone plains. Pa...
The presence of glacial sediments across the Rauer Group indicates that the East Antarctic ice sheet formerly covered the entire archipelago and has since retreated at least 15 km from its maximum extent. The degree of weathering of these glacial sediments suggests that ice retreat from this maximum position occurred sometime during the latter half...
Examination of colluvium mantles and associated alluvial fans along a low altitude transect extending 65 km through western and south-western Tasmania indicates there to have been negligible development of these features inside the ice limits attained during the most recent glacier advance, but that progressively thicker accumulations occur inside...
The Upper Forth Valley was glaciated on at least four occasions during the late Cainozoic. The two most extensive glaciations were no younger than early Pleistocene in age. During the last glaciation the limited ice catchment at the head of the valley nourished only a short valley glacier with separate glaciers forming in the tributary valleys to t...
Part of an extensive ice cap that developed in the Tasmanian Central Highlands during the late Cainozoic discharged southwards into the valley of the Franklin River and its upper tributaries where it merged with smaller glaciers that accumulated behind local snowfences. Glacial landforms and sediments in the now heavily forested valleys indicate th...
Per a qualsevol projecte d'aprofitament dels recursos naturals és fonamental un correcte inven-tari dels possibles perills per al rnedi arnbient. L'aprofitament dels paratges calcaris es complica per la cornplexitat morfolbgica i de drenatge que resulta del substrat geolbgic. De I'establiment d'un inventari correcte i de mesures per la protecció am...
Geodiversity values involve aspects of the abiotic environ- ment that are sometimes the dominant element that imparts scenic and wilderness value, are scientifically important in their own right, and almost invariably form the essential habitat for the biodiver- sity that is often the main target of modern conservation policies. Given this dominanc...
Thick aeolian deposits are uncommon in Tasmania but a 7‐m‐thick aeolian deposit containing two stratigraphic breaks, including one palaeosol, occurs as a gully infill at Cradoc Hill, 5 km east of the lower Huon River floodplain in southern Tasmania. The deposit was sampled at six depths for dating by thermoluminescence (TL) techniques. The entire d...
Moraines on Schnells Ridge, southwest Tasmania, have been dated using in situ 10Be. An age of 19,400 ± 600 yr is indicated for the well-preserved innermost moraine from consistent measurements on four large quartzite boulders. This corresponds closely with exposure ages reported by T.T. Barrows et al. (2002, Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 159–173)...
Geomorphic mapping of the ~30 km Lake Edgar fault scarp in SW Tasmania suggests that three large surface-rupturing events with vertical displacements of 2.4 -3.1 m have occurred in late Quaternary times. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) chronology from a sequence of three periglacial fluvial terraces associated with scarp incision provides c...
Relatively recent recognition of the importance of endogenous lava emplacement mechanisms requires updating of groundwater models for some volcanic terranes because voids produced during lava inflation play a more significant role in their hydrogeology than has generally been recognised. Highly integrated, underground drainage systems in some very...
Historical records, recent observations, and geomorphological evidence indicate that rates of retreat and downwasting of the tidewater Stephenson Glacier, and concurrent expansion of ice-marginal melt-lakes, has increased by an order of magnitude since 1987. Melt-lake expansion is partly the product of greatly accelerated ablation of older, ice-cor...
Antarctic polar deserts can be of considerable scientific interest, but can also exhibit great environmental sensitivity. A variety of factors, including Australia’s legal obligations under the Madrid Protocol, public expectations, certain research opportunities and ethical considerations, demand a very high standard of environmental protection. A...
Accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dating of mumiyo deposited by snow petrels at nesting sites in the Vestfold Hills indicates the colonies were established after 4800 yr BP (uncorrected for marine reservoir effect). Sites on the highest hills were probably established first, but colonisation took place long after initial deglaciation,...
Seaward-facing terraces along the south western coastline of Tasmania are suggestive of late Cainozoic uplift. Dating of speleothems from two caves at New River Lagoon on the south coast appears to constrain coastal uplift since the Last Interglacial to less than 10 m and possibly less than 4 m. Caves and terraces at 70-80 m are unlikely to be less...
Landform evolution around the Mt Field Plateau has been strongly influenced by multiple stages of cold glacial climate. Only small glaciers were present during the late Last Glacial or Global Isotope Stage 2, but degraded moraines and the distribution of erratics indicate that ice cover was more extensive earlier when ice and meltwater invaded neig...
Ice-free ground surfaces in the Australian Antarctic Territory are sensitive to damage by artificial disturbance. Natural processes appear generally inadequate to heal the resulting scars over human time scales and substantial ongoing environmental impacts may accrue where melting of subsurface permafrost is triggered. Studies of some rehabilitatio...
Lake Pedder is important not just for its aesthetic, recreational, wilderness and biological values, but also for the intrinsic and scientific value of its landforms. This facet of the Pedder environment was never taken into account during the decision-making process prior to construction of the dams that inundated the area. The objectives of this...
Heard Island contains a system of lava tube caves in a largely pristine condition which are the best developed bedrock caves known in Antarctic or Subantarctic latitudes. They require special management, because of significant and sometimes fragile attributes associated with cave geomorphology, geology, hydrology, atmospheres, soils, microbiology,...
Cave faunas – which often contain a high representation of spiders – are subject to increasing pressure from the effects of
epigean habitat degradation and recreational caving activities. Hickmania troglodytes is a prominent member of the Tasmanian cave fauna, a spider of phylogenetic, zoogeographic and ecological importance, but about which little...
The geomorphology of Heard Island-McDonald Island is primarily the product of close interplay between volcanism, glaciation, and vigorous marine processes in a stormy sub-Antarctic environment. The dominant landform is the strato-volcano Big Ben (2745m), which is the highest mountain on Australian territory outside Antarctica. Other volcanic landfo...
The easternmost extremity of the ice cap that developed in the Tasmanian Central Highlands during the time of most extensive Late Cainozoic glaciation lay on the doleritecapped Central Plateau east and north-east of Lake St Clair. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the more restricted ice cover included a small discrete ice cap (probably less t...
Azorella Peninsula on Heard Island in the sub-Antarctic comprises basaltic scoria that is overlain by basalt flows. Typical tube-fed pahoehoe flows characteristic of some Hawaiian-type volcanoes occur. The volcanic landforms of the peninsula include highly degraded volcano remnants and undissected scoria cones, pahoehoe flows, lava rises, tumuli, o...
