Vic Semeniuk: Geoheritage and Geoconservation

Dr Vic Semeniuk (geoheritage practitioner, Wetlands Research Association, and Geoheritage Australasia) will talk about the importance of Geoheritage as a conservation endeavour. Geoheritage (recognising the heritage importance of geological features) and Geoconservation (the action to conserve geological features) are being actively pursued worldwide with a wide variety of geological features now recognised as significant for Earth history, Research, and Education. Vic will outline the scope and scale of what constitutes sites of Geoheritage significance, from the montane to the crystal scale, and from sites of intrinsic importance to those of geohistorical, cultural, or reference importance, and will outline the technique of evaluation. For examples of features of global Geoheritage significance, Vic will illustrate cases in Western Australia, that include Shark Bay, the ria shores of the Kimberley Coast, the beach/dune sequence at Muderup Rocks, and the sand-sized zircon crystals at Jack Hills that are the oldest crystals on Earth.