35th Brian Daily Memorial Lecture
INSPIRING YOUNG GEOLOGICAL MINDS: TWO DECADES OF TEACHING AT PICHI RICHI
Thursday 4th June 2026 at 7.00 pm

Mawson Lecture Theatre,
Department of Earth Sciences,
Adelaide University

Associate Professor Rosalind King
Earth Sciences 
Adelaide University    

   Brian Daily led the first fieldtrip to Pichi Richi Pass in 1962, and on inspecting the rocks that crop out in the pass it is little wonder that this student fieldtrip was continued for another 63 years. The rocks in Pichi Richi Pass are special, very special. These rocks tell us the story of a time when Earth was covered in icesheets from the poles to the equator, when the first signs of multicellular life were emerging and when the Flinders Ranges were the size of the European Alps as continents collided to form Australia as we know it. This story and the unique experience of field mapping has inspired many undergraduates to go on to become geologists in Australia’s burgeoning resources and environmental industries and government agencies, with each generation quietly advancing Australia’s knowledge and understanding of our planet. Here, I tell my story of this iconic fieldtrip and the students that make it all worth it.

   Ros King is an associate professor at Adelaide University. She was awarded her PhD in 2006 from the University of Liverpool (UK) for her work on the structural geology of the Cape Fold Belt and SW Karoo Basin, South Africa. Ros started postdoctoral work with Prof Richard Hillis in the Australian School of Petroleum in 2005, studying the neotectonics of NW Borneo, uniquely combining structural geology with geomechanics. In 2010, Ros moved to the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Discipline of Geology and Geophysics (as it was then). In addition to extensive research activities she has taught a range of courses in that time including Sedimentary Geology, Petroleum Exploration, Building a Habitable Planet, Planet Earth, Science or Fiction, Tectonics, Structural Geology, Exploration Methods, Mineral and Energy Resources and Energy Resources. She has been the honours coordinator, postgraduate coordinator and head of department. It was in 2015 that she took the special reins of leading the Pichi Richi field camp.
 
University policy is to close doors at 7.00 pm, so arrive punctually! The door may be monitored for latecomers until the main lecture starts (around 7.10 to 7.15 pm). 
Refreshments will be served in the tea room following the meeting.
The meeting will be zoomed. The link will be distributed to members by email a day or two before the meeting,





 

TUTORIAL - “ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GRANITES.”

Granites are a common rock type; we see them in SA landscapes or as dimension stone for buildings and monuments. Being an Intrusive igneous rock, they only become revealed when erosion removes their overburden, many millions of years after their formation. This tutorial examines how granites form, their mineral composition, how they appear in the landscape and how we use them. 

We meet in the Mawson Lecture Theatre and start at 6:40. For those who would like to attend the tutorial, try to arrive before 6:40 and sit more towards the left-hand side of the theatre (as viewed from an audience perspective). 

Peter Briggs