Conference 2008

54th Scientific and Annual General Meetings of the
Australian Mammal Society

Darwin
29 September – 1 October 2008

The 54th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society will be held in Darwin, September 29 – October 1, 2008. Conference Registration and a welcoming reception/ice-breaker will be at Mindil Beach Markets (not at the conference venue) on the evening of Sunday, 28 September. Please note that the dates for the conference are within the tourist season for the Top End and accommodation away from the venue may be difficult to book. Flights will also be filling up fast. Most cheap flights arrive and leave in the middle of the night. Please book early! At this time of year we are at the end of the Dry Season and
temperatures will be warming up, with temperatures in the low 30s every day.

Venue
The conference will be held in the auditorium at Kormilda College, Berrimah Rd, Berrimah. This is a secondary school college about 11 km from Darwin City, just off the Stuart Hwy. It is on the edge of Australian Mammal Society Inc – April Newsletter Darwin proper, but not out as far as the satellite city of Palmerston, or the Darwin rural area (Humpty Doo). Please note that the auditorium at Kormilda College is up one flight of stairs.

Meals
Lunches, morning and afternoon teas are included in the conference registration fees. Please advise us of any special dietary needs via the space on the registration form.

Scientific program
Papers and posters on any aspect of mammalogy are invited. We especially encourage presentations on mammalogy in northern and remote Australia. A special time will be set aside for viewing posters. The AGM will be held at the end of the first day’s sessions, i.e. on Monday, 29 September. There will be a trip organised (at extra cost – see registration form) to the Territory Wildlife Park on the afternoon and evening of Tuesday 30 September, including a BBQ dinner and behind-the-scenes.

The Organising Committee
The organising committee for the conference comprises: Simon Ward, Robyn Delaney, Tony Griffiths, Brooke Rankmore, Brydie Hill, Kirsty Mines and Craig Ward. All enquiries for the Conference should be made to the secretariat: Phone 08 8946 7724 or email kirsty.mines@cdu.edu.au

Abstracts (Abstract Submission Form)
Abstracts for all presentations, both spoken papers and posters, must be submitted to the secretariat by COB Friday, 1 August, 2008. Please submit abstracts using the Abstract Submission Form by email to kirsty.mines@cdu.edu.au, and please include the abstract both as an attachment and in the body of the email.

Abstracts should be between 200 and 250 words and should follow the standard format of abstracts reported in recent editions of the Australian Mammal Society Newsletter. Abstracts should address the following: Context of the problem, aims, brief statement of material and methods, results and conclusion. Abstracts should also include: Title of the presentation; names and addresses of all authors (the name of the presenting author of co-authored presentations should be underlined); References, where necessary, should be in short form (without titles). The organising committee will review all abstracts for scientific merit. If we are over- subscribed with abstracts for spoken presentations some authors will be asked to present their paper as a poster.

Preference will be given to papers that present results over those from the early stages of projects or reporting on new techniques. Spoken papers will each be allocated 10 minutes + 5 minutes of question time. Facilities will be available for presenting PC-based PowerPoint presentations (computer and data projector). If other facilities are required (e.g. slide or overhead projector), please contact the organising committee ASAP. If you prepare your presentation on a Macintosh computer, it is your responsibility to ensure that it will display the way you want it to from a PC computer. Posters will each be allocated a space of 1.2 m high by 1 m wide. Please include a photograph of the presenter on the poster. Authors will be asked to put their poster up on the first morning, and are expected to attend their poster during the poster session.

Student Prizes
The Bolliger and Lyne Awards recognise excellence in student Research, as presented at the meeting in the form of a spoken paper or a poster. Winners will be announced at the end of the meeting. Current students and those who have submitted theses since July 2007, and are members of the Australian Mammal Society, are eligible for the prizes and should indicate their eligibility on the registration form. A Student Travel Awards Scheme is run by the Society to assist eligible students to get to and from its Scientific meetings. Eligibility rules are given below: if you fit the criteria you are invited to apply! Eligible students should send with their application (note requirements below) to the President of the Australian Mammal Society, Prof Fritz Geiser fgeiser@une.edu.au.

Application criteria – Student Travel Awards
All Applicants must:

• Be a student currently enrolled at a recognised university/institution (or have submitted a thesis since July 2007).
• Be a current (financial!) member of the Society
• Be officially registered at the conference
• Have had an abstract for a presentation accepted by the conference organising committee, and the abstract should be included in the travel award application
• Provide a projected travel budget, including any other contributions made by the applicant’s department or supervisor
• Be able to provide a receipt/ticket/boarding pass as proof of travel
• Provide contact details of her/his supervisor and departmental head

Social Programme
All conference participants are invited to attend an Ice-breaker/drinks function at Mindil Beach Markets (northern end) on Sunday, 28 September from 6pm (the markets are open from 4pm). There are plenty of options for eating at the Markets. A conference registration desk will be open between 6 and 9 pm and we will also issue room numbers and keys for those who have booked accommodation at Kormilda College. There will be buses to take delegates from the function to Kormilda College at 9 pm (close of markets).

The Australian Mammal Society Conference Dinner will be held on Wednesday, 1 October at Hanuman’s Restaurant, Mitchell St. Darwin. This is after the end of the conference, but there are no flights out of Darwin between 2pm and about midnight. This timing will allow all presenters at the conference to be considered for the prestigious Scruffy Award.

A student dinner is planned for after the AGM on Monday 29 September. This will probably be held at Stokes Hill Wharf (open tables on the wharf; cost of meals about $15).

There will be a gathering of the old … members of the society on the Monday evening too. On Tuesday afternoon and evening there will be a tour (at extra cost – see registration form) to the Territory Wildlife Park. This provides the best opportunities to see mammals from the Top End. There will be a BBQ and extra activities at the park in the evening.

Transport
Delegates are responsible for their own travel arrangements. Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Blue and Tiger Air all fly to Darwin but most flights arrive and depart at very unsociable hours of the night and early morning. Book early – September is still tourist season in Darwin. There is also the Ghan train that runs from Adelaide and Alice Springs, but fares are not cheap.

Accommodation (Updated 16th August 2008)
Accommodation is available at the conference venue, Kormilda College (a private secondary college).

Facilities are clean and adequate, but not luxurious. Single and twin rooms are now all sold out, however the dormitories (4, 5 or 6 beds) still have some vacancies.  The nightly costs include bed and breakfast, and are far cheaper than other accommodation (including backpackers) in Darwin. If you are happy to share twin share (with 2 single beds) or dorm, please indicate on the registration form with whom you would like to share (and please talk to them about it first!). There are many other options for accommodation in Darwin, but most are in the city area or at the airport (a good option for late night arrivals). Lots of information is available via the internet – you could start looking at http://www.tourismtopend.com.au/. Book early!

Tours
There is a myriad of tour operations out of Darwin (bus tours, 4WD camping tours, fishing tours, cultural tours), and information on all of it is available via the internet. Closest and easiest are trips to Litchfield National Park (1.5 hours drive south of Darwin) and Kakadu National Park (2.5 hours east). One or other can be visited in a day, but it’s a long day to Kakadu. Nitmiluk NP (Katherine Gorge) is 3 hours south and requires more than a day.

Consider getting a group of people together, bring some camping gear and pre-
arrange hire of a 4WD for the rest of the week (or more). Again book early especially for hiring cars.

There are also various wilderness lodges across the Top End – most require fly-in, fly-out and are geared towards fishing. They are very expensive, but take you to spectacular places. Also, the Kimberley is only a day’s drive away (a long day!). Seeing mammals in the Top End can be difficult. You will see agile wallabies, and there is a good chance you’ll see buffalo, short-eared rock-wallabies, dingos, pigs, and maybe antilopine wallaroos if you spend time looking in the right times/places, but most of the small mammals are thin on the ground. Spotlighting can be a very disappointing occupation in the Top End, except at the Territory Wildlife Park.

Further information and registration
The registration form is included at the end of the newsletter and is available by selecting the link. Registration Form . Only current 2008 financial members  are eligible for the AMS members price.

Registrations should be sent to kirsty.mines@cdu.edu.au

Conference Organising Committee:
Simon Ward - simon.ward@nt.gov.au

Robyn Delaney - robyn.delaney@nt.gov.au

Tony Griffiths - tony.griffiths@nt.gov.au

Brooke Rankmore - brooke@tipperarygroup.com.au

Brydie Hill - Brydie.hill@nt.gov.au

Kirsty Mines - Kirsty.mines@cdu.edu.au

Craig Ward - Craig.ward@nt.gov.au