Australasian and Russian Hydrographic Societies

Australasian Hydrographic Society 

Passing of rear admiral Sir David Haslam KBE, CB
The AHS would like to express their sadness at the passing of Davis Haslam who served as the hydrographer of the RAN, from December 1965 to December 1967. It was during his tenure that the RAN Hydrographic Service established its first Tides Section, resulting in the first Australian National Tide Tables being published for the year 1968. It was also during his tenure that the post of assistant hydrographer (oceanography) was established in the RAN Hydrographic Office and that planning started for the first RAN, purpose-built, oceanographic ship, HMAS Cook. In addition, planning started for the acquisition of the first RAN purpose-built, coastal hydrographic survey ship, HMAS Flinders, to the same design as Atyimba, which was donated by Australia to the Philippines Bureau of Coast & Geodetic Survey in 1969.

Education Award 2009

The AHS is now accepting applications for the 2009 AHS Education Award: please see the Society webpage (81) for the application form and further details. The closing date for entries is 10 December 2009.

West Australia Region

The WAR was very privileged to have Ms Myra Stanbury
(co-curator of the Journeys of Enlightenment - French Exploration of Terres Australes) and Mr Ross Anderson (president of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology) present to members for World Hydrography Day 2009.

Myra conducted a personal tour through the exhibition, which celebrated the dramatic and often tragic journeys of the 18th and early 19th century French hydrographers and scientists. The exhibition charted some extraordinary discoveries along the coast of Western Australia and featured rare maps and charts, books, drawings, lithographs, diaries and letters from significant private collections. This was an excellent and rare opportunity to have an insight into this important exhibition direct from one of the curators.

Ross spoke of his involvement in the Mapping the Coast Database Project, which revolved around the mapping of maritime archaeological sites relating to ‘Mapping the Australian coast'. The database records all types of sites with an archaeological signature, whether ‘purposeful' or ‘accidental' that are related to the mapping of Australia's (and its territories) coastline. Sites include Hartog and de Vlamingh's plates, Cook's HMB Endeavour stranding site on the Great Barrier Reef, shipwrecks such as the HMS Investigator, HMS Pandora and HMC Mermaid, Mawson's Huts and lost anchors of the SY Aurora in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica, and lost anchors of the HMS Beagle of Charles Darwin fame. Ross' interesting lecture discussed the development of the database, a thematic discussion of the types of sites and some of their histories, and presented the results of the research.

Other news - the WAR has recently been privileged to be in a position to accept the kind invitation of the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies (IFHS) to host HYDRO11 in Perth, Western Australia. Final dates are yet to be fixed, but pencil in November 2011 for another opportunity for an antipodean spring experience!

New Zealand Region

Survey graduates Jono Berry and Andrew Sinclair of Eliot Sinclair & Partners Ltd are carrying out close in-shore lake profiling on Lake Dunstan in the South Island of New Zealand in near-zero-degree temperatures. They are navigating with a Trimble TSC2 and recording lake bed levels with real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS while their senior hydrographic surveyor Maurice Perwick sounds the deeper parts in a jet boat. Water levels are also determined by RTK GPS from a transformation using a ‘calibrated site ‘ model in Trimble HydroPro for the area.

Approximately 105 sections were surveyed in four days in mountainous river gorges over a distance of about 40km.

Geodetic control was updated and the new Geoid 05 correction model was incorporated into the site calibration of the area for determining orthometric heights of the lake bed and water levels. These lakes are hydro storage lakes for electricity generation in the South Island of New Zealand. The terrain is mountainous with high flows in some areas of the gorge, which can make for exciting boating let alone hydrographic surveying. Eliot Sinclair & Partners Ltd of Christchurch has carried out this work in the area since 1993.

Hydrographic Society Russia

Graduation of New Hydrographers

Just before World Hydrography Day, on 20 June 2009 a group of young officers graduated from the St Petersburg Naval Institute (SPNI). Among them were hydrographers as well as hydrometeorologists. Two graduates were awarded with an HSR Honourable Diploma. During the graduation ceremony on the quay of the Neva River in front of the SPNI building, HSR president Nikolay Neronov presented the Professor Andrey Belobrov Diploma (specialisation hydrography) to lieutenant Sergey Komarov and the Professor Vladimir Snezhinsky Diploma (specialisation hydrometeorology) to lieutenant Alexander Senko.

Graduate Meeting

Graduates of the SPNI traditionally gather to celebrate their anniversary after 10, 25 years, etc. Hydrographers try to support this tradition in spite of the fact that some of them have been forced by modern life to leave work in the field of hydrography. So, in July, some graduates from the class of 1984 gathered at the SPNI with their wives. Some of them came from distant regions of the continent (Nikolay Kushvid came from Kamchatka, Serguey Rybin and Igor Gusev from Sebastopol Naval Base), and some even came from abroad (Oleg Mikhailov came all the way from Canada).
Their commander, tutor V. Butichenko, also attended.

The graduates had the opportunity to tour the premises and laboratories of the Institute. They then gathered at the Neva River quay, in front of the Ivan Kruzenstern monument, the first Russian seafarer who sailed around the world. The meeting ended with a dinner on board a boat on the Neva River. Iakov Shalimov was thanked for the excellent organisation of this reunion.