Colin Branch (geologist)

Last updated

Dr Colin Branch
B.Sc.(Hons), Ph.D. (Syd), FGSA
Born
Colin David Branch

(1936-05-23)23 May 1936
Nationality Australian
Education Newington College
University of Sydney
OccupationGeologist
SpousePamela Valerie (née Ford)
Children1 son, 1 daughter
ParentEdith Alicia Doris (née Baker) & Kenneth Macquarie Branch

Colin David Branch (born 23 May 1936) is an Australian geologist and former Chairman of the Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia. Branch is a Fellow of The Geological Society of Australia. [1]

Contents

Early life

Branch was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Edith Alicia Doris (née Baker) and Kenneth Macquarie Branch. His father was an architect [2] and honorary carillonist at the University of Sydney. [3] He attended Newington College in 1951 and 1952. [4] In 1956 he was awarded a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University Sydney. In 1962 he became a Doctor of Philosophy.

Geological career

Branch was a field geologist with the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) from 1957 until 1962. [5] He was senior volcanologist with the Department Lands, Mines and Surveys, Rabaul, New Guinea, in 1963 and 1964. In 1965 he returned to Canberra as petrologist-in-charge with the BMR and remained in that role until 1968. In 1969 he was appointed as a senior lecturer in geology at the University of Southern Queensland and in 1970 he became a professor. He moved to Adelaide, South Australia, as professor of geology at the University of South Australia and held that chair until 1976. Branch became director of resources at the Department Mines and Energy, Adelaide, in 1976 and assistant director general of the Department of Mines in Perth in 1987. He has been Chairman of the Minerals and Energy Research Institute, Perth. [6]

Related Research Articles

Australians generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies built railways in the then colonies of Victoria, opened in 1854, and New South Wales, where the company was taken over by the government before completion in 1855, due to bankruptcy. South Australia's railways were government owned from the beginning, including a horse-drawn line opened in 1854 and a steam-powered line opened in 1856. In Victoria, the private railways were soon found not to be financially viable, and existing rail networks and their expansion were taken over by the colony. Government ownership also enabled railways to be built to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except for a few lines that hauled commodities to a rural port.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Hill</span> Australian geologist and palaeontologist (1907–1997)

Dorothy Hill, was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Tenison-Woods</span> English Catholic priest and geologist

Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods, commonly referred to as Father Woods, was an English Catholic priest and geologist who served in Australia. With Mary MacKillop, he co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart at Penola in 1866.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarcoola, South Australia</span> Town in South Australia

Tarcoola is a town in the Far North of South Australia 416 kilometres (258 mi) north-northwest of Port Augusta. At the 2016 census, Tarcoola had no people living within its boundaries.

Ian Rutherford Plimer is an Australian geologist and professor emeritus at the University of Melbourne. He rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has been criticised by climate scientists for misinterpreting data and spreading misinformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Yorke Lyell Brown</span> Australian geologist

Henry Yorke Lyell Brown FGS was an Australian geologist.

Reginald Claude Sprigg, was an Australian geologist and conservationist. At 17 he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. During 1946, in the Ediacara Hills, South Australia he discovered the Ediacara biota, an assemblage of some of the most ancient animal fossils known. He was involved with oceanographic research and petroleum exploration by various companies that he initiated. In 1968, he acquired a derelict pastoral lease, Arkaroola, and transformed it into a wildlife sanctuary and wilderness reserve.

William Harper Twelvetrees was an English geologist who was important for the characterisation of the geology of Tasmania.

Walter George Woolnough was an Australian geologist.

Ernest Clayton Andrews BA, FRS, commonly referred to as E. C. Andrews, was an Australian geologist and botanist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radium Hill</span> Former mine in South Australia

Radium Hill is a former minesite in South Australia which operated from 1906 until 1961. It was Australia's first uranium mine, years before the country's next major mines at Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory (opened in 1950), and the Mary Kathleen mine in Queensland (1958). The associated settlement which once housed up to 1,100 people is now a ghost town, largely abandoned and demolished. The former townsite and cemetery were provisionally listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 24 August 2016. During its main period of production between 1954 and 1961 the mine produced nearly 1 million tonnes of davidite-bearing ore to produce about 860 tons of U3O8.

The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia.

John James Veevers was an Australian professor of geology and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Torrington Blatchford (1871–1938) was an Australian geologist and was Government Geologist in Western Australia from 1929 until 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Goldstein</span> American-born Australian geologist and regulator

Barry Goldstein was an American-born Australian geologist, civil servant, and regulator who served as the Executive Director of Energy Resources for Southern Australia's Primary Industries and Regions department for 20 years. Former employers include Phillips Petroleum, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Corporation, and Santos Limited.

Lawrence Austin Frakes is an American-born geologist and paleoclimatologist residing in Australia since 1973. He holds (emeritus) the Douglas Mawson Professor of Geology chair, at the University of Adelaide, in South Australia. Mount Frakes, a shield volcano in the Crary Mountains of Antarctica, is named for him.

Frank Thomas Matthews WhiteFGS FIM FIMM FIMinE FAusIMM FGSA FCIM (1909–1971) was an Australian mining and metallurgical engineer and mineral science educator. His career included appointments in Australia, Fiji, Malaya, and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Dickinson</span>

Sir Samuel Benson Dickinson FAusIMM, generally known as Ben Dickinson, was an Australian geologist and director of mines in South Australia.

Sir Colin Fraser was a mining engineer and executive in New Zealand and Australia.

James Gordon Young McKern was an Australian mining engineer, geologist and petrologist who became an executive with the petroleum company Mobil. In retirement he was a pioneer of the nature conservation movement in Australia. His papers are held by the J S Battye Library in Perth, Western Australia and his education medals are held by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

References

  1. Geological Society of Australia Archived 20 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  2. "BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 29, 575. New South Wales, Australia. 18 October 1932. p. 4. Retrieved 5 April 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  3. "CARILLON RECITALS". National Advocate . New South Wales, Australia. 1 January 1934. p. 2. Retrieved 5 April 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  4. Newington College Register of Past Students 1863–1998 (Syd, 1999) pp 93
  5. Branch, C. D. (Colin D.) (2007), Two strong legs and a winch rope : a field geologist's life in North Queensland, 1957–59, Colin D. Branch, retrieved 5 April 2019
  6. Geological Society of Australia Archived 20 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 5 April 2019.