Conference 2022
68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society
We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting an in-person annual meeting for the Society for the first time since the pandemic started.
The 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society will be held at DoubleTree by Hilton Northbridge and the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip in Perth on the 27th to the 30th of September 2022. It has been almost 3 years since the last in-person conference, so we are delighted to be hosting all Australian Mammalogists in Perth.
The conference will start with the Student and ECR workshop at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip on the 27th September, followed by a Welcome Drinks mixer at the Wildlife Gallery in the museum.
Click here for the full conference program and book of abstracts
The Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip:
The main sessions on Wednesday through Friday will be held at DoubleTree by Hilton Northbridge:
The conference dinner will be held at Fraser’s in Perth’s iconic Kings Park:
To register for the conference, follow the link below. Be sure to grab yourself a conference t-shirt when you register, designed by the AMS' very own student rep, Mel Taylor. Check out the colour and sizing options here.
Click here for conference registration through Humanitix
Register for the conference dinner by following this link:
Click here to register for the conference dinner through Humanitix
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Follow the link below:
Click here to read the Sponsorship and Exhibition Prospectus
Conference Tours
Pre-Conference Tour: WA Museum Collection and Research Centre
Join us for a unique behind-the-scenes tour of the Western Australian Museum. Visit the various areas where mammals are preserved and researched, in the dry collection, wet collection, palaeontology collection and the molecular systematic unit (mammal DNA!).
Date: Tuesday 27th September
Cost: $20
Maximum Capacity: 32 people
| Time | Activity |
| 12:30 pm | Pick up from Double Tree Northbridge |
| 1:00 pm | Arrival at the Collection and Research Centre |
| 1:15 to 3:30 pm | Visit of the dry collection, wet collection, palaeontology collection and molecular systematics unit, focusing on the mammal collections |
| 3:30 pm | Departure from the Collection and Research Centre |
| 4:00 pm | Arrival at Double Tree Northbridge |
Click here to register for the pre-conference tour
Post-Conference Tour 1
Karakamia Sanctuary – Spotlighting tour
Photo credit: © Brad Leue/ AWC and Wayne Lawler/ AWC
Experience the magic of Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Karakamia Sanctuary, the conservation organisation’s first property, purchased in 1991. Karakamia is home to healthy populations of woylie (brush-tailed bettong), koomal (common brush-tailed possum), tammar wallaby and quenda, all of which are likely to be seen on a night walk. Other species that may be sighted include mardo (yellow-footed antechinus), brush-tailed phascogale, short-beaked echidna, tawny frogmouth and eastern barn owl.
Details: Friday 30th September
6pm – Pick up from Double Tree Northbridge
7pm – Arrival at Karakamia Sanctuary for two-hour guided walk.
9pm – Departure from Karakamia Sanctuary
10pm – Arrival at Double Tree Northbridge.
Cost: $50 ($45 for students)
Maximum capacity: 30 people
Click here to register for Post-Conference Tour 1
Post-Conference Tour 2
Paruna Sanctuary – self-guided walking tour
Photo credit: © Wayne Lawler/ AWC
Set in the scenic Avon Valley, Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Paruna Sanctuary is the ideal place to experience Western Australia’s celebrated wildflowers. Paruna has several walking trails of varying length, which take in a diverse cross-section of the vegetation communities to be found in the Perth Hills, while making the most of the spectacular scenery Paruna has to offer. Being a day-time walk, mammal sightings will be at a premium but short-beaked echidnas, western grey kangaroos and tammar and western brush wallabies may be seen.
Details: Saturday 1st October
9am – Pick up from Double Tree Northbridge
10am – Arrival at Paruna Sanctuary for self-guided walk around the sanctuary.
2pm – Departure from Paruna Sanctuary.
3pm – Arrival at Double Tree Northbridge.
Cost: $45 (no permit required)
Maximum capacity: 15 people
Click here to register for Post-Conference Tour 2
Conference Program
Click here for the full conference program and book of abstracts
| Date | Activity |
| Tues 27 Sept | Student and ECR workshop, or pre-conference tour of the WAM collection and research centre followed by conference registration and welcome drinks mixer at Wildlife Gallery, WA Museum Boola Bardip. |
| Wed 28 Sept | Day 1 of conference followed by Student and Old fart’s dinners. |
| Thurs 29 Sept | Day 2 of the conference followed by AGM and conference dinner at Fraser’s in Kings Park. |
| Fri 30 Sept | Day 3 of the conference concluding with student awards. |
| Sat 1 Oct | Post-conference tour to AWC's Paruna and Karakamia sanctuaries (details coming soon). |
We would like to make this conference as accessible as possible to members who may be unable to travel to Perth and will be running a hybrid conference where a small number of online talks can be pre-recorded and played on the day with the conference streamed online via Zoom. Contact the President if you’d like to be on the organising committee or have any questions.
Student and ECR workshop
Workshop 1: Navigating Publishing
Tuesday 27th of September 12:30-1:30pm AWST
Presenter: Mike Calver
Chair/mediator: Mel Taylor
Structure: 15min presentation, 15min Q&A, 30min cover letter to the editor writing activity
Publishing your findings is an important part of being a researcher, but it can be a confusing and complicated process when you’re new to it. Join us for a presentation from Prof. Mike Calver, the editor of Pacific Conservation Biology and get some tips and tricks on how to get published. There will be an opportunity to ask questions followed by a cover letter writing exercise. The aim of the workshop is to help prepare students to publish their research from selecting a journal, to responding to editor and reviewer comments.
Click here to register for workshop 1
Workshop 2: Early Career Researcher 'Speed dating'
Tuesday 27th of September 2:30pm-3:15pm AWST
Panel:
- Dr. Hannah Bannister, South Coast NRM
- Dr. Bryony Palmer, AWC
- Dr. Amy Edwards, NSW National Park and Wildlife Service
- Dr. Stuart Dawson, Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development
- Dr. Anthony Rendall, Deakin University
- Dr. Kaori Yokochi, Deakin University
Chair/mediator: Mel Taylor
Structure: 3-4 students per ECR at a table with a small jar of questions to get the conversation started. ECRs will give a brief 1min introduction each at the start (total of about 6min). Groups will have about ~8mins of question time before rotating to the next ECR
Everyone's had those 'Oh I wish I'd known this earlier' moments, or just wanted to talk to someone who'd just gone through the same thing to compare experiences. Join us for a ‘speed dating’ session with early career researchers where students get to ask any question about student life and what comes after. Learn how these researchers made it through their studies and into employment, and get advice and tips on how to make the most of the opportunities available to students. Talk to these researchers in small groups in an informal setting and ask all the questions that only someone who has just gone through it all will have insight into.
Click here to register for workshop 2
Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to announce two of our keynote speakers for the conference:
Dr Rebecca McIntosh
Seals as ecosystem sentinels: a multidisciplinary approach
Dr. Rebecca McIntosh is a Marine Scientist at Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria with an honorary appointment at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney. Rebecca studies fur seals as top predators and sentinels of ecosystem change, aiming to inform policy and contribute to community education for marine conservation. Her research experience spans 20 years in not-for-profit, government, university and private sectors. Specific research interests include diet and foraging behaviour; health, ecotoxicity and stress investigations; disease influence on abortion and pup survival; and impacts of marine debris, including human behaviour change programs to reduce plastic inputs to the ocean. Rebecca collaborates with a large multi-disciplined team that uses passive acoustic recorders, drones and remote systems to gather data with reduced disturbance to the seals and seabirds inhabiting offshore islands. She co-built a global citizen science project to count seals from drone images, using outputs to develop rapid (real-time) counting of seals through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Rebecca enjoys diving, surfing and exploring wild places.
Dr Kevin Rowe
Museum Collections and Contemporary Australian Mammalogy
As Senior Curator of Mammals at Museums Victoria, Kevin leads an integrative scientific collections-based research program in mammalogy. His research, focussed on the evolution, ecology and conservation of Indo-Australian rodents is fuelled by fieldwork from Australia to Indonesia.
Azarnia Malay, Amelia Hurrell (Dambimangari Rangers),
and Larissa Potter (Australian Wildlife Conservancy)
Working in partnership for conservation in the Kimberley
The Dambimangari Rangers manage our Traditional land, sea and islands in the remote North-West Kimberley Region. The name for our people comes from Dambima, meaning “homelands”, and -ngari meaning “belong to”. Our country covers 16,040 km2 of land and 11,896 km2 of sea country. We are Saltwater people who have been living along the coast for thousands of years. Our Indigenous Ranger team is guided by our 10-year Healthy Country Plan and our Elders and Cultural Advisors. We combine traditional knowledge with western science and modern technology to look after our country for future generations. Key programs include fire, feral animal and weed management, sea patrols, marine species monitoring and management, threatened species, training and skills development, carbon abatement, Indigenous knowledge transfer, cultural activities and visitor management. Since 2018, Dambimangari have worked in partnership with the Australia Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) on fire, feral animal and weed management and threatened species conservation, with a focus on building Dambimangari’s skills and capacity.
Azarnia Malay, Dambimangari Ranger - My family group is Morlumbun, and I’m from Malarndoom country in the North of Dambimangari. I’ve been a Ranger for four years, and now I’m focusing on biodiversity and threatened species. I started this job because I want to encourage young people and care for my country. My ranger job makes me who I am. My grandmother was a strong woman I always looked up to for guidance. Now she’s left us, I want to carry on what she taught me for younger ones about how to respect and look after country.
Amelia Hurrell, Dambimangari Ranger - I’m a Worrora woman from Larinyuwar on the southern part of Dambimangari country. I’ve been a Ranger for a year now and done lots of work with AWC on significant animals that are important to our culture. As a child I was always taken out to my grandfather’s country at Yaloon, where my oldest uncle Sam Umbagai told me dreamtime stories and taught us to respect country and not to harm it, or the animals and spirits of the land will get angry. I love being a ranger. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. I get to go out on our beautiful country, learn and share my knowledge with my children and families.
Larissa Potter, Australian Wildlife Conservancy - Larissa is a Senior Field Ecologist with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) in the Kimberley region, WA. She has spent several years working in northern Australia, with her current role helping to develop the science program for AWCs partnership with Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation. This involves working closely with Traditional Owners and Rangers to conduct biological surveys for threatened and culturally important species, inform fire, feral animal and weed management, provide training opportunities and capacity building for Rangers, community engagement and increasing knowledge of Dambimangari Country in a culturally appropriate way.
Accommodation Bookings
Open NOW. DoubleTree by Hilton Northbridge is offering discounted accommodation for our delegates. Please use the link below to book:
There are alternative options for accommodation in Northbridge and in Perth City, including backpackers.
How to get there
For directions from the Perth Airport to Northbridge, click the link below:
Get directions to Northbridge from Perth Airport
Abstract & Presentation Guidelines
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION HAS NOW CLOSED
PRESENTER GUIDELINES
All papers must be presented in person or pre-recorded, as per last year's online conference. As a general rule, only one spoken paper may be presented by each person. Standard talks will be of 15 minutes duration (12 min talk, 3 min questions). Speed talks of 5 minutes duration (4 min talk, 1 min questions).
If you are presenting in person, questions may come from the audience or from the Zoom chat. If you are not attending in person, your recordings will be broadcast in the theatre and on Zoom at the time scheduled, followed by questions before moving on to the next talk.
Recordings will need to be sent as an mp4 file, strictly no longer than the allocated time for either a standard (12 minutes) or speed talk (4 minutes). To ensure the conference program is able to stick to schedule, any part of the presentation that goes beyond the time limit will be cut, including for in-person presentations.
We recommend using Zoom to record your presentation, which can be freely downloaded from https://zoom.us/. Have your presentation open on the screen, start a meeting in Zoom, share screen, select presentation, hit record and start talking. Other software, e.g. PowerPoint, can be used if preferred.
Directions on how to submit your video will be given closer to the conference.
Audio-visual facilities will include projection for PowerPoint presentations (Windows preferred, Mac available, USB possible).
Posters
The space allotted for each poster is 120cm high by 90cm wide.
Student presentation awards
There will be two student awards presented at AMS2021. The annual Bolliger Award for the best student presentation will be awarded to the best student standard talk (12 minutes plus 3 minutes for questions) and the Lyne Award, will be awarded to the best student poster. Please make sure to fill out the separate relevant form (available on the AMS website), and submit it with your abstract.
With thanks to our 2022 Conference Sponsors:
Platinum Sponsor: Business Events Perth
Gold Sponsor: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
Silver Sponsor: Western Australian Museum
Silver Sponsor: Murdoch University
Bronze Sponsor: Edith Cowan University
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For information on how to join as a sponsor, read our Sponsorship and Exhibition Prospectus