6 days 5 nights - Saturday 11 August to Thursday 16 August 2012
Starts: Broken Hill
Finishes: Mildura

Numbers limited to 30

Cost:

Land: $2480 per person share twin/double  
Single supplement: $825    Air: $750

Scenic Lake Mungo is in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. The study of the regolith has also revealed a fascinating history of landform evolution and climate change. Initially a freshwater lake, water levels gradually receded and prevailing westerly winds shaped an extensive lunette on its eastern shore, which has since been eroded to form the spectacular ‘Walls of China’. Aboriginal occupation of the area is believed to extend back at least 40 000 years. Fossils of extinct megafauna have also been found.

Indigenous history, fossils, Willandra National Park

Mr Roger Cameron

Special notes:

Specific joining instructions apply to this field trip and will be provided upon receipt and confirmation of trip booking.  

6 days 5 nights - Saturday 11 August to Thursday 16 August 2012
Starts: Brisbane Finishes: Sydney
Numbers limited to 30

The Macquarie Arc has a rich mineral endowment consisting of world-class porphyry copper–gold deposits as well as other deposit styles. Examine the nature and geneses of some key deposits (Cadia, Northparkes, Cowal among others) within the tectonic framework of the evolution and then accretion of the arc. The Macquarie Arc system records ~50 million years of subduction-related development along the boundary between east Gondwana and the paleo-Pacific plate.

Copper-gold mines, central New South Wales

Associate Professor David Cooke, Dr Dick Glen and Dr Cam Quinn

6 days 5 nights - Saturday 11 August to Thursday 16 August 2012
Starts: Canberra
Finishes: Sydney

Numbers limited to 20

Land: $1795 per person share twin/double   
Single supplement: $400   Air: $230

This field trip will focus on two contrasting, classic batholiths in the Lachlan Orogen, the I-type Bega and S-type Murrumbidgee batholith of southeast Australia. Examine incremental growth and differentiation processes in plutons, including depositional features such as load casts, cross-beds, graded beds, collapsed rafts of roof and wall-rocks, magma mixing zones, syn-plutonic composite dykes, mafic enclave swarms in the making, and complex but spectacular migmatites plus a classic metamorphic complex.

Exquisite and rugged coastal and mountainous scenery of the southern New South Wales coast and highlands, passing through Canberra

Professor Bill Collins, University of Newcastle and Dr Simon Richards, James Cook University

7 days 6 nights - Monday 30 July to Sunday 5 August 2012
Starts: Sydney
Finishes: Brisbane

Numbers limited to 20

Cost:

View the geology and geohistory of four distinct regions, the Hunter Valley, the Blue Mountains, the Central West and the Canberra – Wee Jasper areas. See how the region’s geology underpins its ecology, local history, industry and agriculture, as well as every other aspect of life in those areas today. Travel into the Paleozoic Lachlan Orogen with its extensive copper-gold deposits and famous Late Devonian Canowindra Fish Fossils. Participants can dig for fish fossils at a nearby quarry and enjoy the prizewinning wines of this region.

Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains, fish fossils, mines, local wines and Canberra

Ms Monica Yeung, Gondwana Dreaming Pty Ltd, Dr Alex Ritchie, Australian Museum, and Mr Andrew Wooldridge

4 days 3 nights - Saturday 11 August to Tuesday 14 August 2012
Starts: Brisbane Finishes: Sydney

Numbers limited to 20

Cost:

$1570 per person share twin/double       
Single supplement:     $270

The southern New England belt, in the area between Brisbane and Sydney, is a Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic subduction-related orogen. The field trip will explore the tectono-magmatic evolution of the orogen and the development of a series of tight oroclines. See the different components of the bent orogen and make observations on the multiple episodes of magmatism and deformation.

Spectacular coastal and mountainous scenery, fascinating geology, world-class wineries

Dr Gideon Rosenbaum, The University of Queensland