Monash Rock Garden Tour and BBQ

Monash Rock Garden Tour and Barbeque

Date & Time

Thursday 21st March, 2019
From 6pm

Venue

Monash University
9 Rainforest Walk, Monash University, Clayton Campus
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment – Building 28
https://goo.gl/maps/UqKJT3ZC1362 (download map)

The Monash Earth Sciences Garden

The AIG Victorian Branch in collaboration with the Monash Postgraduate student Committee will hold a Rock Garden Tour and Barbeque.

The Earth Sciences Garden at Monash University’s Clayton Campus is the first of its kind in Australia and reputed to be the most comprehensive worldwide.

The 120 by 30 metre garden is modelled on the geology and physical geography of Victoria and comprises nearly 500 rock specimens, weighing up to 14 tons, set amongst native plants representing each geographical region.

The rock specimens represent a variety of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks found in Victoria. Highlights include:

• 125-million-year-old Cretaceous sandstone from the Otway Ranges. where significant dinosaur fossils have been found. These dinosaur and early mammal remains are from creatures that lived near the South Pole in a large, forested river system that developed as Australia and Antarctica began to break apart.
• Large black volcanic ‘bombs’ – approximately 1 metre in diameter – from an 8,000-year-old volcano near Colac. This volcano is located in the Newer Volcanics Province (NVP), which stretches from Melbourne’s CBD to Mount Gambier in South Australia and contains at least 437 volcanoes ranging in age from 8 million years to just 5,000 years, some of which are still considered to be active.
• Basalt columns similar to those located within the Organ Pipes National Park (near Calder Racetrack). These represent lava flows from the NVP volcanoes, which filled in valleys and created western Victoria’s flat landscape.
• 400 million-year-old limestone from Buchan in eastern Victoria, comprising fossils of marine creatures that were building reef systems in tropical seas when Victoria straddled the Equator.
• Folded rocks and quartz veins representing the geology of the Victorian Goldfields.
• A seasonally dry, mud billabong that reflects the semi-dry south-eastern Australian climate.

Landscape Architectural practice Rush Wright Associates designed the Monash Earth Sciences Garden, in consultation with staff of the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash, and artists Open Spatial Workshop. Garden construction was carried out by Australian Native Landscape Constructions (ANLC), who were responsible for procuring and delivering to site over 700 tons of rocks. A wide range of quarries in Victoria supplied the rich variety of rocks for the Monash Earth Sciences Garden.

Art in the Garden: Anthropocite 2015 by Open Spatial Workshop

Anthropocite (2015) explores how the Anthropocene may be evident in rock formations of the future. The work manifests as a new rock type called ‘anthropocite’ and an associated video narrative: http://osw.com.au/anthropocite/.

For more information on the Monash Earth Sciences Garden go to www.monash.edu/earth-garden.

How to RSVP

Please RSVP your attendance.
Cost: Members Free | $10 Non-Members | Faculty and Students Free
To RSVP, please email us at bookings@aig.org.au with “Monash March 2019 RSVP” as your subject line.
Please include your name, email and the number of people attending.
Please RSVP by Tuesday 19th March

More information

Rodney Boucher rodney@linex.com.au
Steven Williamson steve@stevenwilliamson.com.au