News
New Zealand Region
The NZR held its AGM on 19th November 2004, when those present were informed that approval has been given for the Australasian Hydrographic Society to organise Hydro 2007, to be held in Cairns, Queensland, commencing on 17th September 2007. Members from cooler climes note this is the Spring season, the best time to visit Australia's prime, tropical resort area, with a mean maximal daily temperature of 28°C and minimal of 19°C, little rain and gentle 6-knot breezes. The election of officers took place, with the chairman remaining Kevin Smith, and the honorary treasurer Maurice Perwick. Peter Knight, after many years of yeoman service
as Honorary Secretary, has stood down to be replaced by Julian Dukes. The remainder of the executive comprises David Mundy, Cedric Trounson, Gary Chisholm, Neville Ching and Peter Knight.

Australasian Hydrographic Society
The Council of AHS has been pleased to approve an extension of nationalities from which applicants for grants under the AHS Education Award will be accepted. The future list includes nationals and persons with official residential status, whether studying at home or abroad, from the following nations: Australia, New Zealand, East Timor, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The council approved the selection of Michael George Richard Daly, currently about to undertake his honours year in the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales, as the successful applicant for the AHS Educational Award of AUS$2500, for Academic Year 2005. He will be undertaking research into Sensitivity of Coral Reef Islands and Reef Flats to Climate Change, research that will involve the collection and analysis of data of many of the basic hydrographic variables, such as waves, currents, tides and sediment transport, as well as wind strengths and directions. This important research project will be further reported upon in the next issue, as space allows, as political indifference to climate change resulting in reef degradation is a vexatious problem to many countries, especially those dependent upon reefs to provide a level of protection from sea incursion.

Australian Hydrographic Service
The Deployable Geospatial Support Team consisting of a hydrographic officer and hydrographic specialist petty officer and able seaman and a METOC team to facilitate Rapid Environmental Assessment was embarked with the Australian tsunami relief aid to Aceh, Indonesia, in HMAS Kanimbla, now on station in Northern Sumatra. The team has been operating a portable, single-beam echo sounder and side-scan sonar, in conjunction with a field GPS, from a lightweight utility boat. Their purpose is to carry out surveys to ensure the safe access of HMAS Kanimbla to ports and coastal approaches and to facilitate the landing of troops, heavy clearing and construction equipment and vehicles, etc, at required locations. Significant bathymetry changes were encountered. At short notice, the AHO was also required to print on demand some special charts to satisfy the deployment of the Kanimbla.
The Hydrographer of Australia reports the launch on 17th December 2004 by the Hydrographic Service of The Seafarers Handbook. This nautical publication, whilst modelled on the British Admiralty's Mariners Handbook, is a contemporary product that deals specifically with Australian waters. It provides mariners with a description of the Australian maritime, physical and jurisdictional environment. It also combines information from various government agencies under the cover of one official nautical publication, kept up to date by Notices to Mariners. The Seafarers Handbook contains much textual information that cannot be shown on Australian navigational charts. Thirty guests attended the official launch, including the Maritime Commander Australia, Rear-Admiral Rowan Moffitt AM, RAN, and representatives from Federal and State maritime safety agencies and shipping industry representatives.
The Australian Hydrographic Service has recently completed a major project to develop ENC coverage of the entire Inner Great Barrier Reef Shipping Route. This route is more than 1,000 nautical miles in length and stretches from Torres Strait to Bundaberg. This ENC project required by the Australian Department of Transport, wherein more than eighty ENC cells were produced and encrypted over a three-year period, was the first undertaken by the RAN. This will be followed by the production of ENC cells covering Australia's major ports and the main shipping routes in the northern approaches.

Contact
Australasian Hydrographic Society
Att. E.R. Whitmore
4/6 Carrington Street
Wahroonga, New South Wales
2076
Australia
Tel: +61 2 94892091
Fax: +61 2 94892048