Education

B.A (Hons) Manchester University1961

M.A.Manchester University1963

Ph.DJames Cook University1970

Work History

1963 - 1965 Tutor, Dept. of Geography, University of New England

1965 - 1970 Lecturer, Dept. of Geography, University College of Townsville

1970 – 1975 Senior Lecturer, Dept. of geography, James Cook University,

1975 – 1985 Associate Professor, Dept. of geography, James cook University

1985 – 1996 Director, Sir George Fisher Centre for Tropical Marine Studies, James Cook University

1992 – 1996 Professor – award of personal chair

1996 - current Director, Coastal and Marine Consultancies

Research Interests

My research over a 45 year period as an academic has centred on coastal geomorphology and especially Holocene sea level change.After coming to Townsville in 1965 research was initially focused on the mainland, including the Burdekin Delta but progressed seawards, initially to the high islands and their reefs (the Palm Group) and, after the University obtained the R.V. James Kirby, to the outer Great Barrier Reef.The Holocene evolution of the GBR has subsequently been the main area of attention though drilling and dating studies, establishing a rapid growth history from around 9000 yrs. B.P. to the time Holocene sea level stabilised about 6000yrs. B.P.Various projects have established regional variation in reef top ages effected mainly by hydroisostatic warping of the shelf, the influence of the Pleistocene reefal substrate, the extent of shelf edge submerged reefs and dynamics of reefs and cays. In more recent years this work has been applied to management problems both in Australia and overseas, including the geomorphological responses to global climate change.

Awards

1984 Royal Geographical Society of Australasia J.P. Thomson silver medal awarded by H.R.H the Duke of Kent

1994 PACON (Pacific Congress of Marine Science and Technology) Service Award and Life Membership

Selected publications

1971 The origin and significance of North Queensland island spits.Zeits F. Geomorph. N.F.,15,371-389.

1974 Coastal changes produced by tropical cyclone Althea in Queensland

Dec. 1971.Austr. Geogr.12,445-456.

1977 The age of the outer ribbon reef surface, Great Barrier Reef, Australia : implications for hydroisostatic models.Proc. Third Inter. Coral Reef Symp. 2,23-28.

1978(with D.R. Stoddart and R.F. McLean).Sea level change on the Great Barrier Reef : an introduction.Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, London, A, 291,159-166.

1982 Sediment movement around a coral cay, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.Pacific Geology,15,17-57.

*1982 Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef:Quaternary Development of Coral Reefs.John Wiley - Interscience, New York. 453pp.

1983 Deformation of the North Queensland continental shelf in the late Quaternary.In Smith, D.E., and Dawson, A.G. (eds) Shorelines and Isostasy, IBG Spec. Publ., 16, 347-366.

1983 (with PJ Davies)Growth fabrics and growth rates of Holocene reefs in the Great Barrier Reef.BMR J of Austr Geol and Geophys8:237-251.

1984 (with FJ Muir and CR Grant)Pleistocene foundations and Holocene growth of Redbill Reef, south central Great Barrier Reef.Search15:288-289.l

1986 Corals and coral reefs as indicators of Palaeo sea levels with special references to the Great Barrier Reef.In: O van de Plassche (ed) Sea Level Research:A Manual for the Collection and Evaluation of Data, UNESCO, pp.157-173

1987 Holocene sea level changes in Australasia and the southern Pacific.In: Devoy RJN (ed) Sea Surface Studies:A Global View, Croom Helm, London, pp.375-408.

1988 Anthropogenic influences on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.Australian Geographer19(1):26-45.

*1989 The Great Barrier Reef: Ecology and Management, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 54 pp.

1991 (with D.W. Kinsey) The significance of coral reefs as global carbon sinks - response to Greenhouse.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (Global and Planetary Change Section).89:1-15

1992 Global change and the coastline: assessment and mitigation planning. J. Southeast Asian Earth Science 7(1):5-15 (Proceedings of CCOP Global Change Meeting, Chiangmai, Thailand, July 1990).

1993 (with R van Woesik, DCJD Hoyal, C Rasmussen and ADL Steven)Sedimentation resulting from road development, Cape Tribulation area.Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Technical Memorandum, TM-24, 70pp.

1994 Continental shelf reef systems.Coastal Evolution: Late Quaternary Shoreline Dynamics.(eds. Carter, RWG and Woodroffe, C.D.) Cambridge, pp.303-340.

1997 Coral Reefs and Global Climate Change.World Wildlife Fund Climatic Campaign, Commissioned rept.46pp.

1997 Geology of reef islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.In Vacher, H.L. and Quinn, M. (Eds)Geology and Hydrogeology of Carbonate Islands.Developments in Sedimentology 54, Elsevier, 835-866.

1998 (with Gagan, M.K., Ayliffe, L.K., Cali, J.A., Mortimer, G.E., Chappell, J., McCulloch, M.T. and Head, M.J.).Temperature and surface ocean water balance of the mid-Holocene tropical western Pacific.Science,279, 1014-1018.

2000 with Suharsono.The Status of Coral Reefs in Eastern Indonesia. GCRMN/AIMS114pp.(see especially chs 7 – legislation, 8- capacity for Management and 9 – Constraints).

2000 Woodroffe, C.D., Kennedy, D.M., HOPLEY, D., Rasmussen, C.E., and Smithers S.G..Holocene reef growth in Torres Strait.Marine Geology.170, 331-346

2006 Coral reef growth on the shelf margin of the Great Barrier Reef with special reference to the Pompey Complex.J. Coastal Res.22,150-158.

*2007 with Smithers, S.G. and Parnell, K.E.The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef : Development, Diversity and Change.CUP532pp.

Other

Project Director for Schools -UNESCO Marine Science Curriculum Materials for South Pacific Schools -6 books and 3 teacher’s manuals. (1990-1995).

Supervision-21 completed post graduate degrees.

Consultancies- Coastal erosion (Townsville area, Torres Strait, Maldives)

tropical coastal and coral reef management training projects (Indonesia, Thailand, India, Maldives, Mauritius)

Conference Organisation

1973 2nd International Coral Reef Symposium field trip organiser

1986IGCP 200 Sea Level changes and applications conference, Qindao, China.

19886th International Coral Reef Symposium field trip co-ordinator

1994PACON 94 Townsville, chair of organising committee

20009th International Coral Reef Symposium, chair of scientific programme committee