[Aqualist] ARC Linkage projects

[Simon Haberle]

Dear colleagues,

Please find below a list of recent awardees in the latest round of ARC Linkage Project. Thee projects are related to Quaternary research including archaeology. Congratulations to all.

The Australian National University
Morphy, Prof Howard; Nugent, Dr Maria; Bolton, Dr Lissant; Sculthorpe, Dr Gaye; Coates, Dr Ian; Trinca, Dr Mathew
This project, being conducted in collaboration with Indigenous communities and regional museums in Australia and the United Kingdom, aims to develop and to pilot approaches that facilitate Indigenous people's access to and engagement with museum collections and objects. Reconnecting Indigenous Australian communities with ethnographic collections is central to contemporary museum practice. Yet, the historical dispersal of objects across museums, nationally and internationally, makes relationship and reconnection a challenge to communities and museums alike. The project seeks to address this and to contribute to new museum practice and museum development in Australia.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA; BRITISH MUSEUM; WAGGA WAGGA CITY COUNCIL
$699,310.00

The University of Western Australia
Professor Peter Veth
This project aims to examine the role that art has played in managing social and environmental change over the past 50 000 years. The project seeks to carry out the first systematic comparative analysis of different rock art repertoires and associated archaeology from the Kimberley and Arnhem Land. It is intended that identifying continuities and changes in this archaeological signature will provide direct evidence of how people adapted and signalled their identity. Intended outcomes are new understanding to contribute to inter-regional rock art studies and inform Indigenous and government heritage management practices.
KIMBERLEY FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA; DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND WILDLIFE/DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION; DUNKELD PASTORAL CO. PTY. LTD./DUNKELD PASTORAL CO PTY LTD
$865,905

The University of Melbourne
Professor David Karoly
This interdisciplinary project plans to assemble a world-class team of hydrologists, climate scientists and water managers to investigate the history and future risk of decadal to multidecadal droughts (megadroughts). Despite Australia's vulnerability to water scarcity, the likelihood of persistent megadroughts has not been assessed in Australia. This has resulted in inadequate capacity to prepare for and adapt to megadrought under future climate change. For the first time, palaeoclimate reconstructions and climate change projections will be used to constrain future hydroclimatic variability, advancing the decision-making capacity of Australian water resource managers.
MELBOURNE WATER CORPORATION/MELBOURNE WATER; DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND PRIMARY INDUSTRIES/DEPARTMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT; BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY
$387,041

The University of New South Wale
Professor Andrew Baker
This project aims to determine how non-conventional lithium and silicon isotopes can be used to understand groundwater processes using an innovative source-to-target approach. The project aims to apply these isotope tracers to trace the water cycle within a well constrained system: an island aquifer with a dense borefield which has been analysed using traditional isotopic techniques. Supporting hydrochemical data will be used to determine the relationship of the isotopes with environmental processes. The project impact will be the development of new methods to help understand our groundwater resource. The improved process understanding will be translated to groundwater management in general.  The projects' focus on carbonate aquifer systems typical of coastal regions of southern, eastern and western Australia will have relevance to groundwater management in urban areas such as Perth and in rural areas for tourism and viticulture, and for management of natural resources in National Parks.
AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION; ROTTNEST ISLAND AUTHORITY; DEPARTMENT OF WATER
$138,091

Griffith University
Professor David Lambert
A number of studies of human migration suggest that after initial colonisation of Australia around 45,000 years ago, these people remained largely isolated until the arrival of Europeans. In contrast recent studies have suggested that a wave of migration from India into Australia occurred approximately 4,230 years ago. However, a major drawback of these recent studies is that sequence data used was from modern indigenous Australians who were potentially admixed with Europeans. To address this issue we will sequence complete genomes from sub-fossil bones of ancient Indian and Indigenous Australian people and directly investigate this possible India-Australia connection.
CENTRE FOR GEOGENETICS, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF DENMARK; NOVOGENE BIOINFORMATICS TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD
$570,000