East Australia Region
On 9th May 2006, EAR enjoyed a General Meeting kindly and generously hosted by Newcastle Port Authority. The minutes of the meeting held in Wollongong on 7th February generated more than a modicum of discussion before the meeting settled down to discussing a major issue, namely the tasks and volunteers to undertake them for the forthcoming Hydro 2007. This is to be held in Cairns, Queensland, in November 2007. Good headway was made thanks to a prepared paper outlining requirements and how and when they should be tackled.



A significant matter was raised during this agendum. Namely, that even in the old days of The Hydrographic Society, when the symposia Hydro XXXX were held only biennially on odd-numbered years, it was considered that worldwide there was too great a proliferation of major hydrographic conferences, symposia et cetera. This, it was felt, resulted in a dilution of attendance, especially for countries east of Suez. Despite this, IFHS is now authorising Hydro XXXXs on an annual basis and there has even been suggestion in some quarters that they should occur biannually. At the EAR meeting it was generally considered that we should return to the biennial Hydro XXXXs. But that less energetic Regions and Chapters should follow the lead of those showing greater enthusiasm, with at least one two-day Annual Seminar or significant workshop open to all-comers but aimed mainly at own members. In Australasia this would mean EAR getting in step with WAR and NZR!



The matter of the definition of 'Hydrography' as it applied and was to be used by the Australasian Hydrographic Society arose yet again. As in the mi-nutes of the previous GM, a result of some comments by IHO on AHS definition, there was a note stating that "further discussions with IHO would follow". The present meeting could not understand why further discussions were needed when the chosen definition had been accepted by a legally representative number of AHS members at their AGM, and past and current IHO definitions did not cover the hydrographic and associated activities of AHS members. It was reiterated that the AHS definition catered for the very comprehensive membership of AHS. This embraces persons practising all the Essential Subjects and Optional Units as mentioned in the IHO/FIG Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors, Pub M-5, Pages XVIII to XXI, and FIG/IHO/ICA Standards of Competence for Nautical Cartographers Pub M-8. It also, very importantly, caters for our equipment designers and suppliers and anyone interested in the subjects mentioned above.
There were two outcomes to this discussion. Firstly, EAR chairman was directed to vigorously pursue inclusion of our AHS AGM-approved definition in our Constitution, Business Plan and Policy Directives. Secondly, EAR membership would not entertain any amendment to the definition that specifically mentioned any single, hydrographic specialism, activity or purpose. This last did not preclude future consideration of an international or IFHS unifying definition that reflected the technology of the day and was succinct and comprehensively embracing of all specialisms, activities and purposes of Hydrography in both the marine and freshwater environments.



The evening ended with many of us going on to dinner at a nearby restaurant, where we settled the remainder of the world's problems! Finally, those who had to travel a considerable distance home, some 150 miles, fulfilled the old, hydrographers' maxim, "The paling of the dawn in the eastern sky warns the prudent surveyor to get some rest before commencing the labours of the following day"!



Australasian Hydrographic Society
World Hydrography Day was dealt with in Australia with great enthusiasm. It opened with Vice-Admiral Russ Shalders AO, CSC, in his capacity as Head of the National Charting Authority, launching the Day at noon from Defence Headquarters, Canberra. Here he briefed a significant range of industry representatives on what Hydrography was and what it meant to this part of the globe, now and into the future. In the evening, six hundred guests attended the AHS Explorers’ Ball and Awards Dinner, held in the National Museum, Canberra and said to be the largest function ever held in that building. Hydrographers were joined by guests including ambassadors and other diplomatic staff, upper levels of past and present naval commands and members of parliament, all of whom enjoyed a lavish, four-course dinner and the best of Australian and New Zealand wines. They were meanwhile entertained by a thirty-strong Royal Australian Navy band, plus choir, under the flags of the twenty nations re-presented by the AHS.



Awards were made, with an additional award for Career Achievement to Commodore Geoffrey Geraghty RAN, late Hydrog-rapher of Australia, now Commander Australian Navy Systems Command. Commodore Geraghty, in command of more than five thousand personnel, is noted as a hydrographer who has gone on to break through many ‘glass ceilings’ in the broader naval sphere. This evening was made possible through the generosity of 22 major sponsors, embassies and supporting agencies.



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