GEMOC ARC National Key Centre

Director's Preface

This is our first report and covers the first six months of GEMOC. Therefore it is not a conventional Annual Report, but rather provides an overview of the rationale, framework and goals of GEMOC as baseline information as well as the progress in the first 6 months of establishment.

The GEMOC National Key Centre started with the announcement by the Minister of Employment, Education and Training in late June 1995, with a starting time of July 1 instead of January 1996, as we expected if we were successful. Many of the senior participants had immoveable commitments for the last half of 1995, including overseas fieldwork, workshops and meetings. Therefore there was little tangible progress in formally setting up GEMOC's structure before November 1995, although most of the existing commitments were used to assist GEMOC's setup (for example, being able to put in place collaborative projects with international researchers and industry partners). But we have now hit the ground running with lots of enthusiasm, as evidenced in two large planning meetings where staff from different nodes came together and became better acquainted with each others' research and teaching ideas. New research and teaching plans have been formulated, new industry collaborations have started and strategies for new technology facilities and development to fulfil GEMOC's goals are in place. Hiring of new staff is underway, starting with a GIS-related lecturer at Macquarie and postdoctoral Fellows at each node to fulfil some of GEMOC's strategic goals of strengthening geophysics teaching and research, the implementation of a GIS approach in teaching and research and a broadening of our metallogeny research. The Macquarie node has survived the inevitable disruption of the extensive refurbishing promised by the University to provide more suitable, modern and contiguous space for much of the Centre's activities. We have a great view of the future and with the obviously enhanced collaboration between nodes, we are already progressing toward GEMOC's goals.

Suzanne Y. O'Reilly

[Back to top]