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ERIC ROLLS MEMORIAL LECTURE, National Library Theatre, Canberra, Tuesday 17 July, 6pm
Presented by the Watermark Literary Society in association with the National Library of Australia
A Meander Down a River or Two –
How Water Defines Our Continent and Its Future |
Acclaimed environmental scientist, Professor Richard Kingsford, explores the challenges of managing our rivers in the second lecture in honour of author Eric Rolls.
Rivers convey water into some of the most spectacular places on earth or provide nutrients for estuarine and marine systems but we have destroyed much of this, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin. The challenge is to learn from what we have done and not make the same mistakes but also rehabilitate our rivers. There is a headlong pursuit for increased populations in Australia and a drive to make the north “the food bowl of Asia”. The implications for rivers are considerable. This lecture will cover some of these challenges by meandering down some rivers in the Lake Eyre and Murray-Darling Basins.
Professor Richard Kingsford is Director of the Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of NSW. For over 20 years, he has researched the waterbirds, wetlands and rivers of arid Australia, which cover about 70% of the continent. He has identified the significant impacts of water resource development on the rivers and wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin and other parts of the world and he has contributed to policy development and environmental flow management. He is a member of the Australian Government’s Environmental Flows Scientific Committee. He received a Eureka Award in 2001 for his research demonstrating the ecological values of many rivers and impacts of water resource in arid Australia. In 2007, he received the Hoffman Medal for his contribution to global wetland science and the Eureka Award for Promoting Understanding of Science in 2008.
Tuesday 17 July, 6pm
National Library Theatre, free (includes refreshments)
Register with the National Library to attend or phone 02 6262 1271 |
The Camden Haven has been home to three eminent Australian writers, Henry Kendall in the 1870s, Kylie Tennant in the 1940s and Eric Rolls from 1994 until 2007. Eric Rolls continues to be the inspiration for Watermark. He is Perpetual Patron.
(held biennially)
The first Muster was held as the Watermark International Nature Writers' Muster in October 2003 in the Camden Haven area (part of the Greater Port Macquarie region) on the NSW Mid North Coast. With the incorporation of the Watermark Literary Society, which is registered as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR), the Nature Writers' Muster was renamed as the Watermark Literary Muster. Muster 2005, Muster 2007, Muster 2009 and Muster 2011 built on the successful format of Muster 2003, bringing together writers and readers with an interest in the literature of nature and place, and maintaining the intimacy and excitement that are stand-out features of all our Musters.
The Watermark Muster is a unique event that welcomes different perspectives but does not provide a forum for advocacy of environmental or other policies.
Alternate Year Program
The Eric Rolls Lecture
The inaugural Eric Rolls Lecture was given by Bill Gammage on 20 October 2010. It was held in association with the National Library of Australia.
2012 date & lecturer TBA
The Watermark Fellowship
A biennial Watermark Literary Fellowship for an emerging Australian writer of natural history, nature and place that has been offered since 2004.
Virginia Jealous, a poet from Denmark, Western Australia, will spend 3 weeks in the Camden Haven during July as the 2012 Watermark Fellow. She will work under the mentorship of poet and essayist Mark Tredinnick. Mark Tredinnick recently won the Montreal International Poetry Prize, the largest poetry prize in the world. His winning poem was selected from a shortlist of nearly 50 poems by former UK poet laureate Andrew Motion.
A Biennial prize for prose fiction or nonfiction in the genre of nature writing.
The inaugural Eric Rolls Prize for nature writing, introduced in 2010, was won by Stanley and Kaisa Breeden.
Entries for the 2012 Eric Rolls prize are now open.
Closing date: 29th June 2012. Read more details
Eric Rolls
April 1923 - October 2007
PERPETUAL PATRON
