Southern Surveyor: Stories from onboard Australia’s ocean research vessel
Posted: September 23, 2015 Filed under: Home | Tags: Marine National Facility, Michael Veitch, Southern Surveyor, Southern Surveyor book 2 Comments
The ancient Great Barrier Reef!
Posted: September 23, 2015 Filed under: Home | Tags: James Cook University, Marine National Facility, Robin Beaman, Southern Surveyor, Southern Surveyor book Leave a commentOne of Australia’s best non-fiction writers Michael Veitch has interviewed the men and women who worked on board CSIRO’s Marine National Facility research vessel Southern Surveyor, to produce an engaging and sometimes dramatic account of their adventures.
The book includes a chapter on Dr Robin Beaman from James Cook University, a marine geoscientist who discovered vast ancient drowned coral reefs not far from the Great Barrier Reef.
You can purchase the book here: http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7339.htm
Southern Surveyor: Stories from on board Australia’s ocean research vessel
Posted: September 23, 2015 Filed under: Home | Tags: CSIRO Publishing, Marine National Facility, Michael Veitch, Southern Surveyor, Southern Surveyor book Leave a commentTHIS MEDIA RELEASE WAS DISTRIBUTED BY JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY ON WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2015.
Over the course of a year, one of Australia’s best non-fiction writers Michael Veitch, interviewed the men and women who worked onboard CSIRO’s Marine National Facility research vessel Southern Surveyor, to produce an engaging and sometimes dramatic account of their adventures.
For ten years, the Southern Surveyor represented the vanguard of Australian blue water marine science.
On over 100 voyages, this former North Sea fishing trawler with her distinctive blue and white livery carried scientists and technicians across the Southern, Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as the waters off northern Australia.
The book includes a chapter on Dr Robin Beaman from James Cook University, a marine geoscientist who discovered vast ancient drowned coral reefs not far from the Great Barrier Reef.
“My second voyage on board Southern Surveyor was the most significant of my career, which was absolutely amazing with one discovery after another,” Dr Beaman said.
“On board were geologists, robotics people, oceanographers, biologists and a really good geophysical team, and our objective was to map a 1500 km stretch between Cooktown and Mackay, and no sooner had we turned on the sea floor mapping sonar than it began giving some amazing results.”
“We discovered these drowned reefs were everywhere, including one almost continuous chain around 1000 km long. What we had found was really the proto barrier reef, the ancient forefather that was there before the rest of the Great Barrier Reef was created.”
“These were the once-thriving coral reefs which, with the rise of the sea level after the last ice age, gradually fell beyond the reach of sustainable light. Core samples have dated them from between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago.”
“We’re still reaping the benefits of it today. We’ve had millions of dollars of follow-up trips run since, many PhD students, dozens and dozens of papers and we’re still drawing on the data.”
Communiqué – Marine National Facility Steering Committee
Posted: September 22, 2015 Filed under: Home | Tags: Communique, Marine National Facility, Marine National Facility Steering Committee, RV Investigator Leave a commentMeeting #77: Friday 4 September 2015
With the commissioning of Investigator now complete, the MNF Steering Committee discussed a range of strategic issues, such as the development of a new business model to maximise use of Investigator to its full 300 days per year potential, and amendments to the MNF applications process to ensure that all science undertaken through the MNF is done so in the national benefit of Australia.
You can read the overview of these discussions and highlights on the MNF website – just look under the News drop down menu.
Changing the way we do things at the MNF!
Posted: September 21, 2015 Filed under: Home | Tags: Governance, Marine National Facility, Marine National Facility Steering Committee, MNF SAC, MNF SC Leave a commentSome pretty big changes have rolled out over the past few months for the Marine National Facility.
Exciting new opportunity!
We’ve established an exciting new position for an early career scientist to join the MNF Science Advisor Committee (MNF SAC), as part of our commitment to developing the next generation of Australian blue-water marine scientists.
The inaugural scientist to hold this position is Dr Jo Whittaker from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, who will be mentored by Dr Andrew Heap from Geoscience Australia.
New look MNF Science Advisory Committee (MNF SAC)
We need to say a very big thank you to our out going SAC members, Professor Roger Bradbury, Dr Bernadette Sloyan, Dr Kathy Burns and Dr Peter Harris who’ve been working hard on the committee for the past few years.
Replacing them are Dr Neville Smith, Dr Susan Wijffels, Dr Edward Butler and Dr Andrew Heap.
Changes to the governance of the MNF Steering Committee
As part of the outcomes from the Australian Government National Commission of Audit, the Minister has provided direction that the governance of the MNF Steering Committee fall directly under the CSIRO Board, consequently all appointments will be made by the CSIRO Board.
This change came into effect on 1 July 2015.

MNF Steering Committee (l to r) Richard Coleman, Nick Gales, John Gunn, Bob Quarrill, Toni Moate, Ian Poiner, Ron Plaschke.