About Geoff Vivian

Geoff Vivian is a freelance journalist based in Perth, Western Australia with a particular interest in the Kimberley and Australia's north. He has worked at various times as an art and theatre reviewer, science writer, and general rounds journalist for several local newspapers. He has managed an Indigenous radio station where he was breakfast announcer, and more recently completed a university degree with a journalism major. He is a regular contributor to Science Network WA and The Koori Mail, and maintains the news digest KimberleyPage.com.au

Compensation push for GM-contaminated farmers 29/6/2017

Featured

It’s on again. Greens are pushing for some kind of compensation for canola growers who have had their crops contaminated with neighbours’ genetically modified seed.

Such farmers can find their crops attract much lower prices on the world market.

This story began as a media release from a politician but quick interviews with an industry expert and the farmer most affected by GM contamination brought it to life.

From The Great Southern Weekender Thursday June 29 p5.

From The Great Southern Weekender Thursday June 29 p5.

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Ausgold inches to mine trigger point 22/6/2017

TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN

EXPLORATION company Ausgold is inching ever closer to the day it hopes to begin open pit mining in several locations near Katanning.

X22ALB_005PCEO Matthew Greentree said the company first needed to find one million ounces of gold within its 4,031 square kilometres of leases.

“We’ve already defined 637,000 ounces; if we push that to a million that would be a fairly reasonable sized operation,” Dr Greentree said.

“That would be a trigger point to start studies and development for a
mining project.

From The Great Southern Weekender Thursday, June 22, 2017 p5.

Isotopic technique pinpoints Burrup rock art age 10/5/2013

Text by GEOFF VIVIAN

TWO Australian National University researchers have used a high-tech isotopic method to estimate the potential age of the Burrup Peninsula’s rock art, based on the rate at which the rock surface erodes.

"Our measurements indicated that some of the surface erosion rates at the Burrup are amongst the lowest in Australia and indeed the world"—Prof Pillans. Image: Paul Williams

“Our measurements indicated that some of the surface erosion rates at the Burrup are amongst the lowest in Australia and indeed the world”—Prof Pillans. Image: Paul Williams

Geologist Professor Brad Pillans and nuclear physicist Professor Keith Fifield employed cosmogenic radionuclide measurements of the isotope beryllium-10 on rock surfaces at the world-famous Pilbara site.
They concluded that the oldest carvings could be 20- 30,000 years old, or even older, which implies they were possibly made when the site was a range of low hills about 100km inland from the glacial-period coastline. Continue reading