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C H R O N I C L E

Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 2009. Vol. 58. No 3. pp. 220–223.

7th International Conference on Geomorphology (ANZIAG), 
Melbourne, VIC, 6–11 July, 2009

It is a tradition more than a quarter of a century old that the world’s geomorpholo-
gists gather at a wide-scale international congress every four year to present their 
most recent fi ndings to each other. For twenty years now the International Association 
of Geomorphologists (IAG/AIG) coordinates the organization of such events and the 
Association selects the conference venue based on the evaluation of national bids. In 2005, 
at the Zaragoza Conference the decision was made that the Australian and New Zealand 
Geomorphology Group Inc. (ANZGG) would host the next meeting in the second most 
populous city of Australia, the capital of Victoria state, Melbourne, which is – in spite of 
its size – also one of the most habitable cities of the continent.

The Organizing Committ ee, led by Associate Professor Brian Finlayson, and the 
convention bureau Tour Host, responsible for the technical organization, immediately 
started work – as it was made evident by internet news (on the IAG/AIG website www.
geomorph.org), frequent messages and circulars sent. Although many potential participants 
were scared by the long fl ight (24 hours at least from Europe), the organizers have even-
tually managed to recruit a decent number (more than 650) of geomorphologists from 52 
countries, including numerous young scientists at the beginning of their career. Recently, 
they are particularly favoured by IAG/AIG as grants for participation and fi eld training 
courses are available for them aft er selection. Australia proved to be not only a distant but 
an expensive place for a conference. The brand new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition 
Centre (MCEC) was not at all cheap to hire and thus the registration fee was not really ad-
justed to the resources of participants arriving from developing countries. To fi nd aff ordable 
accommodation and meals in the CBD of Melbourne was not easy either. Taken as a whole, 
however, no complaint is due concerning the organization of the event. 

It is true that no one regards the above circumstances crucial for the success of 
the conference, the scientifi c program is more decisive. The att raction of the program 
lay in its diversity, which is also characteristic of Australian geomorphology. Among the 
traditional branches of geomorphology, as it is logical on the driest inhabited continent, 
eolian processes received particular att ention. The plenary lecture by IAG/AIG President 
Andrew Goudie also enumerated the main fi elds of research in arid geomorphology. In 
addition, as matt er of fact, dozens of papers dealt with coasts, rivers, glacial, periglacial, 
tectonic and karst geomorphology as well as mass movements and geomorphological 
mapping and quite of number of oral and poster presentations touched upon biogeomor-
phological, volcanic, weathering and tropical issues. Sessions of special topic included 
techniques in geochronology, the role of fi re in geomorphic evolution, the functioning of 
small catchments, landscape connectivity, planetary geomorphology, the geomorphology 
of Gondwana, laser scanning of topography and tsunamis. The sessions organized by the 



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various Working Groups (their number amounts to 20 at present) were welcome additions 
to the scientifi c program. It was a novel tendency to observe that the geomorphological 
implications of global climate change were excessively studied. Unfortunately, the time span 
of each oral presentation (except for plenary papers) was limited to 15 minutes and this did 
not allow profound discussion. Among the plenary papers (with no discussion planned 
of course) the most successful and best illustrated was presented by Monique Fort (Paris) 
on the environmental problems of the Himalayas. Her satellite images were particularly 
impressive on the extra large screens of the Convention Centre. The posters of equally 
variable topic and spectacular design were exhibited in a spacious corridor – making us 
forget that we had to pay 20 Australian dollars for showing them. Many of us missed the 
List of Participants and the Abstracts which were only published on CD for environmental 
protection considerations. It was not easy to fi nd the papers most interesting for us and to 
get an idea in advance on their contents.

For the days prior to the conference four fi eld trips were planned. The most com-
prehensive led us to Western Victoria, where Bernie Joyce (Melbourne) showed us a se-
ries of volcanoes of diff erent types and surprisingly young age as well as sea stacks and 
archways, a karst plateau, a lake region and at one plaeontological site we could receive 
information on the Australian megafauna, which became extinct some ten thousand years 
ago. The bus fi eld trips of Wednesday took the participants to a drained swamp area, to 
coastal landforms, to the suburbs of Melbourne and into the vineyards of the Yarra Valley. 
At the same time, a trip was organized for bikers and paddlers along the Yarra River. Those 
who were particularly interested in the Australian Outback (and could aff ord it) started 
for a logn journey aft er the conference to see the Lake Eyre Basin or the tropical rivers and 
coasts of the Cape York Peninsula.

The IAG/AIG elected new Honorary Members in recognition of their life-work: 
Takasuke Suzuki (Japan), John Chappel (Australia), Olav Slaymaker (Canada) and Paul 
Williams (New Zealand) – great fi gures of the discipline, mostly well known in Hungary 
too – were presented with the walking stick that accompanies this award. The 34 repre-
sentatives of the Association’s Scientifi c Members (member countries) with a voting right 
elected Michael Crozier (New Zealand), a renowned researcher of landslides, as the new 
IAG/AIG President, while Morgan de Dapper has kept his position as Secretary. The next 
Regional Conference (in 2011) will be held in Addis Ababa, organized by the Italian and the 
Ethiopian group of geomorphologists, while the venue of the 8th International Conference 
on Geomorphology in 2013 will be Paris

We congratulate on the organizers ”down under” in the hope that the French col-
leagues would manage to host an equally successful and remarkable meeting – perhaps at 
lower expenses and with slightly more inclusive services for the participants.

Dénes Lóczy