General Science Library
At the time of drafting this post (April 2025), there seems to be no end of distressing news about loss of scientific knowledge, disbandment of scientific institutions and abandonment of knowledge-generating projects. So QSN has decided to open a page to accommodate some benchmark writings on the subject.
Two landmark documents in this field were published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland in volume 124 of 2020:
Creating and then abolishing bodies of scientific knowledge, expertise and analytical capability: An Australian political malaise, by the late David Marlow, a member of the Royal Society of Queensland at the time.
Processes and institutions for scientific independence – Reflections on Land & Water Australia, by Jason Alexandra, highlighting the appalling decision to destroy one of the few national bodies aiming to reach across disciplinary boundaries to produce integrated analysis.
Society member Dr Geoff Edwards has written a few articles on the importance of knowledge in the series of opinion pieces Prevention or Patch-up? as contributions to a project by the Royal Societies of Australia on preventative health. Look especially for the first article on 28 February 2024; and the article “Prevention or patch-up? Data, information, and knowledge are not ‘wisdom’”on 8 May 2024; and on 1 May 2025 a critique of the political platform that would see large numbers cut from the Australian Public Service.
An opinion piece was published in the Times Higher Education on 24 April by Rhodri Davies and Dorrit Jacob:
“Earth science is critical to national resilience – so why is it being gutted? Australia must fund its universities in ways that reflect their mission – not just their margins”.
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As access to the Internet has evolved from the specialised to the routine, so have students and researchers become less likely to consult works that appear only in print. Numerous scientific reports earlier than about 2000, when digitisation became mainstream, are no longer readily accessible because the entire scholarly and research community has adapted to finding resources online.
On this page we will re-publish scanned works that come our way.
A leaflet published for the dedication ceremony for the University of Queensland in 1909.
The Australian Flora by John Shirley, a leaflet on behalf of the Education Department. Other works by John Shirley are listed in the State Library’s catalogue with dates of about 1890s -1917.
Works such as F. Manson Bailey‘s Descriptive Catalogue of Queensland’s Grasses, 1899. Yes, his taxonomy has been superseded by botanists in subsequent decades, but his observations on the ability of the pastoral country to take rapid advantage of rain has completely contemporary salience.
The late Ray Specht delivered the Romeo Lahey lecture in 1978 on behalf of the National Parks Association of Queensland. Titled In Wildness is the Preservation of the World, it offers a clear insight into Prof Specht’s scholarship as well as some thoroughly modern lessons about the value of wild places.
First Studies of Insect Life in Australasia dates from 1904.
Principles of Botany for Queensland Farmers, C.T. White Government Botanist, 1938, published by the Department of Agriculture and Stock. (79 MB).
Notes on Collecting and Mounting Insects by A.N. Burns, Curator of Insects at the National Museum, Melbourne, 1964.
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This page accesses a cache of historical documents authored by seismologists from the University of Queensland. Drs J.P. Webb, J.M. Rynn and Mr R.C. Cuthbertson were staff members of QUAKES or ESSC, a SRC unit within the Department of Geology & Mineralogy (now SEES). These documents include material that explains why the Queensland Government began monitoring for earthquakes around their dams and infrastructure. QSN is indebted to Michael Turnbull, Adjunct Research Fellow, CQU, for scanning these materials and Col Lynam, QSN Coordinator, for facilitating.
All files have been rendered searchable. To reduce the size of the files and downloading time, some have been “optimised” which causes a reduction in visual quality. However, every optimised file is accompanied by an original.
Wivenhoe Dam Seismic Surveillance
Discussion Paper 1981 (31.4MB)
Interim Status Report 1983 (5.0MB)
Reports to the Queensland Government WDSSP from 1 of 1977- to 7 of 1984:
WDSSP-1 (27.8MB) WDSSP-2 (21.6MB) WDSSP-3 (63.6MB) WDSSP-4 (12.2MB) WDSSP-5 (11.0MB) WDSSP-6 (7.6MB) WDSSP-7 (23.9MB)
Accelerograph recommendations 1984 (optimised, 5.3MB) Accelerograph recommendations 1984 (original, 14.7MB)
Burdekin Falls and Other Dams
Monitoring of Proposed Burdekin Dam 1982 (optimised, 4.8MB) Monitoring of Proposed Burdekin Dam 1982 (original, 11.8MB)
Burdekin Preliminary 1988 (optimised, 1.6MB) and Burdekin Preliminary 1988 (original, 4.2MB)
Burdekin Proposed 1989 (optimised, 2.3MB) and Burdekin Proposed 1989 (original, 6.5MB)
Awoonga Report 1994 (optimised, 1.4MB) Awoonga Report 1994 (original, 3.5MB)
Seismic Surveillance of Dams 1994 (original, 6.5MB)
Seismic Risk
Seismic Risk Study:
QSRS-1 1985 (optimised, 3.1MB) QSRS-1 (original, 7.9MB) QSRS-2 1986 (optimised, 2.6MB) QSRS-2 (original, 6.1MB)
Seismic Risk Estimates 1989 (22.3MB)
Earthquake Activity
Regional Seismic Network 1994-5 (4.3MB)
Earthquake activity to 1994 (18.7MB)
Seismograph records, 1866-2007
See also a series of annual reports originating in Central Queensland University.
Earthquake Engineering Workshops
Introduction Nov. 1984 (optimised, 45.2MB) Introduction Nov. 1984 (original, 108.3MB)
Second Workshop Nov. 1987 (optimised, 18.7MB) Second Workshop Nov. 1987 (original, 53.4MB)
Third Workshop Nov. 1989 Volume 1 (optimised, 22.4MB) Third Workshop Volume 1 (original, 53.4MB)
Third Workshop Nov. 1989 Volume 2 (original, 41.1MB)
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This ~225 page proceedings of a symposium held by the Water Research Foundation of Australia (South Australian State Committee) and the Department of Adult Education at the University of Adelaide on 23-25 February 1972 is described as the 40th in a series of publications of the Foundation. Published May 1973.
In an appendix, there is a description of the Constitution of the Foundation, which was established in 1955.
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Two “Final Reports” about this project are available.
The report dated April 2016 commences thus: “The NRM Spatial Hub (the Hub) gives rangeland managers the capability to map, plan, analyse and monitor their properties infrastructure, land resources and ground cover to improve pastoral and natural resource management. The world-first technology underpinning the Hub will contribute significantly to the profitable and sustainable management of Australia’s rangelands. The Hub combines the latest cloud computing and geospatial mapping technologies with world-leading time-series satellite remote sensing, in a way that’s not been available to individual landholders before. For the first time, pastoralists can use and compare their data with government data in a secure, consistent and interactive way.
Users can now analyse and report on seasonal trends in ground cover within a paddock or across their entire property in less than 30 seconds. This is an Australian first and has been acknowledged by members of the global scientific community as a breakthrough in sustainable agriculture.
Due to the rapid development of the Hub infrastructure and the high level of interest shown by the grazing community, comprehensive demonstration of the technology was completed on more than 100 properties by late 2015, and more than 300 properties covering an area of more than 50 million hectares were using the system at the completion of this report in April 2016.”
At April 2025, the Hub’s website had closed down. Funding of one of its auspicing bodies the CRC for Spatial Information ended at 10 June 2018. The CRC’s resources library includes only a flyer about the project. QSN has uncovered a different flyer as well.
The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries produced a different report INNOV-068-SISR-DAFF dated March 2016 authored by Giselle Whish et al.
The Meat and Livestock Australia website reports that after the completion of Stage I, a Stage 2 commenced, on 1 May 2016 and ended on 20 June 2017. The intention was primarily to transition to commercial funding away from government funding:
“This short term project was to continue to develop the NRM Spatial Hub as a service to adequately support existing grazing enterprises, NRM organisations and industry service providers during the term of the project.
Stage 1 of the initiative has been a success (Federal Government development and then ERM.0098).
The challenge is to transition to a delivery model which supplies a self-sustaining business that continues to foster collaboration, and provide long-term opportunities for industry growth and efficiency gains across government and regional bodies.
This Stage 2 project (managed by AWI with funding via MLA, AWI, CRC SI, and Fitzroy Basin NRM ) of the NRM Hub aimed to:
- consolidate the service for 350 properties currently using the Hub; Achieved
- extend the Hub services to new properties and new “champions” in southern grazing systems; Achieved
- The Hub team conducted user training across Qld, NSW, VIC and SA, and a number of webinar sessions for WA and TAS users. Over the last 12 months over 400 producers and extension staff have completed NRM Hub training in the last 12 months, excluding training undertaken by other extension staff.
- embed the Hub in existing extension and research programs; Not fully progressed.
- interact with NRM regional bodies; Achieved NRM Extension staff allocated to properties on request. Over 80 Extension staff are routinely using the Hub in support of programs. Around a third of these are intensive users, who are also training properties owners in the Hub’s use.
- to scope best practice extension and NRM use case development and transition the Hub into a sustainable and on-going business model. Achieved Draft Commercialisation Report delivered.”
In mid-2017 the Hub moved to an “operational platform” and was renamed FarmMap4D.
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This ~200 page report is by the Scientific Committee of the then Northern Rainforest Management Agency based in Cairns. Dated August 1988. The volume was edited by Dr R.A Hynes, later President of The Royal Society of Queensland.
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This booklet (34.1 MB), compiled by the Syllabus Notes Committee of the South Coast Inspectoral District of the Education Department, Brisbane, Queensland and published in 1932, was compiled as a curriculum resource for teachers of the era.
Its Introduction commences:
“Nature Study should be a very popular subject, and by its aid it is intended that children should be trained to see intelligently, to compare and contrast, to record observations, to express themselves precisely and to develop within themselves a love for all that is beautiful.
But the subject has its difficulties, and not least of these is the want of confidence felt by the teachers. These cannot be experts in all branches and it is not easy for them to get from the text-books available just the information needed. Most of the works published deal with the various branches in a world-wide or continent-wide fashion, and the difficulty of selecting from the multiplicity of objects offered just those which may be treated observationally is so great that many become disheartened, cease to be Nature-students, and finally give up the task, or treat it in a half-hearted and disinterested way.
The teachers of the South Coast Inspectoral District, eager to carry out their duties in an efficient manner, have decided to combine for the purpose of pooling the facts available, concerning the birds, plants, and industry insects of their District. To supply the necessary information for this volume each school sent in a list of the birds found in its neighbourhood, and from these the hundred commonest birds was selected, special drawings are made, and descriptions were written up in simple language. It is felt that now every teacher will have sufficient data to enable him or her to deal effectively with this part of Nature Study.”
The curriculum may be very different these days but these sentiments have a modern resonance.
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A “Milestone Report” No. 8, 2018, entitled Assessment of the status and options for recovery of prawns & estuarine biodiversity in the Noosa River by Greg Skilleter (Uni. Qld. & Murdoch Uni.), Dylan Moffitt (Uni. Qld.) and Neil Loneragan (Murdoch Uni.) has come to QSN. This report of data from 1998 to 2018 was auspiced by the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation.
After publication of this report, the ABC ran a story
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-05/river-noosa-biodiversity-decline-dredging/12522984
Marine scientist Dr Ben Diggles, in an email dated 19 August 2020 has cautioned thus:
“I refer you to a recent ABC report on the health of the Noosa River. … The key quote that was brought to my attention for comment was from Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation chair, Rex Halverson, who said “many people had been misled by the A- water quality rating the Noosa River received, which was amongst the best in Queensland”.
This is correct. The reality is one that scientists have known for some time. The healthy waterways rating method is only an overview and does not measure several critical parameters that indicate ecosystem health. In the case of the Noosa River (and most likely other waterways in S.E. QLD), chemical contamination from the catchment and benthic anoxia (oxygen depletion in the sediments) brought about by nutrient and sediment loading/eutrophication are likely to be the main problems driving this decline in small benthic animals. The waterways rating system does not directly measure these parameters and thus tends to underestimate actual declines in ecosystem functioning, as demonstrated by the loss of oyster reefs and the many small animals in the benthic sediments which make up the bottom end of the food chain.
When the bottom of the food chain is declining 60-95%, regardless of your waterways rating, the upper food chain (commercially and recreationally important fish, crabs) must shrink by at least the same amount. There are no free lunches.
Thus the vital importance of active restoration such as the shellfish reef restoration we are trialling in Pumicestone Passage and which we would like to undertake on a wider basis for shellfish reefs throughout Moreton Bay. The fact that University of Sunshine Coast monitoring shows we can generate at least 10 times more fish in the restored trial area compared to baseline in only 3 years demonstrates that if we work to restore the impacted lower end of the food chain, the fish will look after themselves (i.e. the upper food chain will respond).”
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This series of seven scenarios in a hypothetical Department of Crown Lands is pitched at tertiary level students in land, regional planning or environmental management.
Subjects covered include the nature of public service and the public interest, managing conflict within a public authority, the tension between development and environmental protection but in particular between advocates of each.
QSN has uploaded these scenarios in Word format so that lecturers may adapt the notes to suit their own curriculum. However, as we cannot be confident that the Word document will retain its format during uploading or downloading, the PDF is also available.
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The Dasgupta Review was a landmark statement of UK origin of the importance of protecting global biodiversity. The review produced ten “Headline Messages“:
Our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature.
We have collectively failed to engage with Nature sustainably, to the extent that our demands far exceed its capacity to supply us with the goods and services we all rely on.
Our unsustainable engagement with Nature is endangering the prosperity of current and future generations.
At the heart of the problem lies deep-rooted, widespread institutional failure.
The solution starts with understanding and accepting a simple truth: our economies are embedded within Nature, not external to it.
We need to change how we think, act and measure success.
(i) Ensure that our demands on Nature do not exceed its supply, and that we increase Nature’s supply relative to its current level.
(ii) Change our measures of economic success to guide us on a more sustainable path.
(iii) Transform our institutions and systems – in particular our finance and education systems – to enable these changes and sustain them for future generations.
Transformative change is possible – we and our descendants deserve nothing less.