Journal and Proceedings of
The Royal Society of New South Wales
Volume 107 Parts 3 and 4 [Issued 22nd January 1975]
CONTENTS
AUTHORS & TITLES
Sims, K.P., Proper Motions of Variable Stars in the Sydney Astrogaphic Zone
Lyons, M.T., Brooks, R.R. and Craig, D.C., Influence of Soil Composition on the
Vegetation of the Coolac Serpentite Belt in New South Wales
Hamilton, G., Hall G.C. and Roberts, John, Carboniferous Non-Marine
Stratigraphy of the Paterson-Gresford District, New South Wales
Hockley, J.J., Phonolite-Trachyte Spectrum in the Warrumbungle Volcano, New
South Wales, Australia
Rod, Emile, Structural Interpretation of New England Region
Birch, A.J., Chance and Design: An Historical Perspective of the Chemistry of
Oral Contraceptives [Liversidge Lecture 1974]
Morris, S.A. and van der Poorten, A.J., Extremely Disconnected Topological
Groups
Pollard, J.P., Floppy Rulers and Light Pens-Reactor Mathematical Aids.
Presidential Address, 3rd April, 1974
Cutler, Sir Roden, Address Delivered by His Excellency The Governor of New
South Wales
PAGES
49-66
67-75
76-86
87-89
90-99
100-113
114-115
116-121
122-123
Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.49-66
Proper Motions of Variable Stars in the Sydney Astrographic Zone
K.P. Sims
Abstract. The relative proper motions(λαcosδ, λα) of 30 stars determined photographically are
given together with absolute measures (μα cos δ, μδ) found by applying corrections for the
parallactic motion of the reference stars and for the effects of differential galactic rotation.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.67-75
The Influence of Soil Composition on the Vegetation of the Coolac
Serpentinite Belt in New South Wales
M.T. Lyons, R.R. Brooks, and D.C. Craig
Abstract. Plants and soils from the Coolac Serpentinite Belt, New South Wales, were analysed
for calcium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, nickel and zinc,
in order to establish plant-soil relationships for this area and also to evaluate those principal
compositional factors of the soil, which affected plant distributions. Species analysed were
Casuarina stricta, Ricinocarpos bowmanii, and Xanthorrhoea australis.
Relationships for pairs of elements in soils showed a strong mutual association of elements of
the iron family (cobalt, chromium, iron, manganese and nickel). Correlation analysis of
vegetation alone, showed mutual antagonism to uptake of calcium and potassium and also iron
and potassium. The only highly significant plant-soil association is for zinc in C. stricta and none
of the other species therefore appeared to be useful in biogeochemical prospecting.
Discriminant analysis of the soil data, showed that X. australis strongly favours soils high in
magnesium and low in copper, whereas the distribution of C. strida appeared io be controlled
mainly by the high potassium and nickel values in the soils. There is little evidence for any soil
factors controlling the distribution of R. bowmanii.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.76-86
The Carboniferous Non-Marine Stratigraphy of the Paterson~Gresford
District, New South Wales
G. Hamilton, G.C. Hall and J. Roberts
Abstract. Non-marine units in the Paterson-Gresford district comprise part of the Flagstaff
Sandstone and the classical succession of Gilmore Volcanics, Mt. Johnstone Formation,
Paterson Voleanics and Seaham Formation. The units range in age from late Early Carboniferous
to Late Carboniferous, and were deposited on a piedmont plain which gradually prograded
northwards into a marine area of deposition. The Gilmore Volcanics are subdivided into the
Newtown and Mowbray Formations (new names). Ignimbrites in the lower part of the sequence
have been mapped out and defined as members. A non-marine portion of the Flagstaff
Sandstone contains the Mount Rivers Ignimbrite Member (new name), the Newtown Formation
the Martins Creek and Vacy (new name) Ignimbrite Members, and the Mowbray Formation the
Breckin and Lambs Valley (new names) Ignimbrite Members. Erosion of the Lambs Valley
Ignimbrite at the top of the Mowbray Formation and a change in sediment colour from red or
purple in the Mowbray Formation, to yellow in the Mt. Johnstone Formation indicates a hiatus
between the two units. Rocks in the Paterson-Gresford District are folded into basinal structures
in the south-west near the Hunter Thrust, and into more open north-westerly trending folds in
the north-east. Faults, which mainly have a steep reverse component, extend north-eastwards
normal to the Hunter Thrust but swing towards the north at Gresford.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.87-89
The Phonolite-Trachyte Spectrum in the Warrumbungle Volcano, New South
Wales, Australia
J.J. Hockley
Abstract. The spectrum of salic magmas ranging in composition from phonolite to trachyte
from the Warrumbungle Shield Volcano is attributed to high-level, low pressure crystal
fractionation. Field, petrographic, mineralogical and chemical evidence all support the derivation
of the phonolite-trachyte spectrum by differentiation of a range of nepheline and hypersthene
normative alkali basalt parental magmas respectively. Rare xenoliths in the Breadknife trachyte
are interpreted as fragments of a crystal accumulate formed in a high-level magma chamber.
Rejuvenation of volcanic activity resulted in disintegration and incorporation of the accumulate
in the Breadknife trachyte. No evidence to support an upper mantle origin for the phonolitetrachyte spectrum has been recognized.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.90-99
Structural Interpretation of New England Region
Emile Rod
Abstract. As a result of a geologic study of the New England Region it appeared that many
terms for newly proposed structural units in this region are ill-founded and more the expression
of guesswork than an evaluation of established geologic observations. The fact that the age and
relative position within the sequence of all those low-grade metamorphic rocks which make up
the bulk of the rock units and are so characteristic for the eastern portion of the New England
Region, are unknown or just a matter of conjecture, is not sufficiently emphasized in many
recent publications.
The New England Block and the Tamworth Fold Belt are the only two structural units which
can be regarded as well defined and valid.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.100-113
Chance and Design: An Historical Perspective of the Chemistry of Oral
Contraceptives*
A.J. Birch
Abstract. The requirement of total synthesis of sex and cortical hormones is discussed in the
historical context of evolution of ideas and techniques leading to biologically active analogues. In
particular, the desire to make 18- and 19-norsteroids led to development of the technique of
metalammonia reductions and eventually to the 19-norsteroid hormones used as oral
contraceptives. This history is considered against a background of the role of chance and design
in scientific research in general and pharmaceutical research in particular.
*The Liversidge Research Lecture, delivered before the Royal Society of New South Wales, 15th
August, 1974.
Full Text
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.114-115
Extremely Disconnected Topological Groups
Sidney A. Morris and Alfred J. van der Poorten
Abstract. It is shown that a metrizable extremally disconnected topological space is discrete. The
general result is applied to show that a non-discrete finitely generated nilpotent topological group
with a subgroup topology is not extremally disconnected.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.116-121
Floppy Rulers and Light Pens—Reactor Mathematical Aids
John Pollard
Presidential Address, April 3, 1974
Abstract. Much of the present day nuclear reactor mathematics is concerned with numerical
methods which require the use of giant digital computers. Even as little as a quarter of a century
ago sturdy rulers and ink pens were used as graphical aids in computation. These aids, or at least
their computer analogues, still play a part in computation, although the present fashion is to used
floppy rulers and light pens.
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Vol 107 pts 3-4, pp.122-123
Review of Society’s Activities
Sir Roden Cutler, V.C., K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., C.B.E.
Address delivered at the Society’s Annual Dinner, 20 March 1974
President and Members of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for your invitation to my wife and myself to join you at your dinner tonight in The
Sydney Opera House. I think that this arrangement is an imaginative one, and no doubt Sir
Philip Baxter would have been a supporter of the idea. The Opera House gives excitement and
charm to Sydney and is an outstanding feat of architecture and scientific construction—a feat
which you have recognized in your publication last year. This story of The Opera House and its
complexities is, I think, of considerable interest, and no doubt will become a valuable item in
your library, particularly to future members who will wish to look back on the challenge of
constructing a building which stretched technology in some respects to its limit.
I am also pleased to be here in the capacity of one of your two patrons, and am conscious of the
close links between the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Governors of this State since
you first formed the Philosophical Society of Australasia on the 4th July, 1821, and asked the
incoming Governor, Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, on the 14th November of that year to
accept the Presidency of the infant body. It is interesting to note that Brisbane had only arrived
in the Colony a week before, on the 7th November, and he must have replied immediately to the
Society’s letter of the 14th, because he accepted two days later and attended his first meeting on
the 2nd January, 1822. Today the rules of vice-regal patronage would prevent a governor
accepting the invitation of such a newly formed body, no matter how learned its members and
how estimable its aims.
Brisbane, of course, was noted for his interest in astronomy, an interest which he developed after
nearly being involved in a shipwreck in 1795. In 1808 he built at Brisbane House, the second
observatory in Scotland, and had been a member of the Royal Society of London since 1810. His
friend, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, when asked about Brisbane on one occasion
replied that he “kept the time of the army”. He was, however, a competent officer, and as
Governor introduced a number of reforms in the Colony. He experimented in the growing of
Virginian tobacco, Georgian cotton, Brazilian coffee and New Zealand dax, but without much
success. He had much more success in commencing an observatory at Parramatta near his
residence, and was obviously the man to be offered the Presidency of the Society. It is interesting
that he equipped the observatory at his own expense, buying books and instruments, and
engaging two astronomical assistants, Charles Runiker and James Dunlop. Brisbane took a
detailed interest in your Society, to such an extent that when it was proposed that a
commemorative tablet be erected at Kurnell to mark the point of landing of Cook, he made two
special trips from Parramatta to Sydney, but on the first occasion, Botany Bay was too rough to
risk a crossing from the north to the south shore, and so apparently the Governor and members
of the Society had a picnic lunch and decided to return a week later. On this occasion the
weather was favourable and the tablet was affixed to a rock on the shore above sea level. The
inscription said : “Under the Auspices of British Science, these Shores were Discovered by James
Cook and Joseph Banks, the Columbus and Myecaenas of their time. This spot once saw them
ardent in the pursuit of knowledge. Now, to their memory, this tablet is inscribed in the first year
of the Philosophical Societv of Australasia”. I don’t know whether the Plaque is still there, but I
attended the Cook Bi-Centenary Celebrations at Kurnell in 1970 and did not remember any
reference to the plaque.
The Founding Society was very firm in its rules, and laid down that each of its original seven
members had to produce a monthly paper under penalty of £10; no refreshments were to be
introduced except tea and coffee under penalty of £5; the Society was to meet every Wednesday
at each other’s house in Sydney in rotation, and if not present within a quarter of an hour of the
time of seven o’clock there was a fine of five shillings. Mr. Wollstonecrait was excused from one
meeting because of attendance at a friend’s funeral in the country, but was fined when he
accepted the Governor’s invitation to dine at Government House rather than fulfil his obligation
to attend a meeting. Whether or not this reached the Governor’s ears I do not know, but for the
July meeting in 1822, the Governor invited all members of the Society to dinner to mark the
anniversary.
The Philosophical Society of Australasia ceased to function early in 1823, apparently because
colonial politics, particularly concerning free settlers and emancipists, and Brisbane’s instructions
following upon Commissioner Biggs’ inquiry into affairs of the Colony left, in the words of a
member, Barron f(F)ield, “A baneful atmosphere of distracted politics” in which the Society
“soon expired”. There was a revival on the 19th, January, 1850, when Charles Nicholson and
Henry Grattan Douglass founded the Australian Philosophical Society with the object of
encouraging such research as should help in developing the Colony’s material resources.
Obviously the Society’s name was causing some difficulty, because in June of that year it was
changed to “Australian Society”, and again in August to the “Australian Society for the
encouragement of arts, science, commerce and agriculture”. It is no wonder that with a name like
that the Society ceased to function after five years, in 1855.
Again, it was probably due to the encouragement of the then Governor that the Society was
reformed as the Philosophical Society of New South Wales on the 30th July, 1855. Sir William
Denison, who was an engineer of some merit, read a paper at the first meeting entitled “The
development of the railway system in England, with suggestions as to its application to the
Colony of New South Wales”. He continued to write articles for the Philosophical Society, and
indeed regarded this activity as compensating for what he described as the “work (of the
Government) being taken out of my hands” by the formation of a Legislative Council. I should
not have thought that my distinguished predecessor was a man of humour, but one of the papers
which he read was “On the dental system of mollusca”. (It occurs to me that I might read this
paper if I am ever asked again to the oyster farmers’ luncheon.) He also took a great interest in
the grounds of Government House and sought the advice of Professor John Smith of Sydney
University, and one of the members of the Society’s council, as to the composition of the soil in
the Government House gardens and what fertilizers should he used. The Society holds a letter
which Sir William Denison wrote to the Professor in October, 1858, in which he solemnly (and
perhaps again without humour) sent “Dear Smith” several bags of soil and invited him to dine at
Government House to discuss the matter.
The Philosophical Society of New South Wales was said to be in a “languishing condition” in
1865, and therefore in November of that year the members sought permission to change the
name to “Royal Society of New South Wales”, and again this would have involved the
Governor, Sir John Young, in obtaining Royal consent in September, 1866. In 1881 an Act of
Parliament of New South Wales incorporated the Society. From that day the Society has
continued its learned work and investigations, and I think that one of its most valuable functions
has been the keeping of a library. The papers which are written by its members are carefully filed
and are available with other books and documents for study and reseach.
The Royal Society of New South Wales may not be as widely known as it deserves, nor may its
functions be fully understood. However, there is encouragement in the fact that in the last year
your membership has increased by 60 to 402, and it must be remembered that the real value of
your Society is in the learned qualifications of your membership, not in the total number. The
medals which you award are held in high regard, and include the Clarke Medal, which has been
given for the last 96 years for work in the field of natural sciences. There are others, such as the
Walter Burfitt Medal for contributions to science and, since 1947, The James Cook Medal for
contributions to science and human welfare in the southern hemisphere. The medal named after
Edgeworth David is awarded to younger scientists for contributions in learning. These medals
are a valuable source of encouragement to workers in these fields.
The purpose of the Society becomes increasingly important over the years, and in essence I
should think your object is to make the public aware of the contributions of science and its
influence on everyday affairs. The rapidly increasing fields of scientific study and the
proliferation of scientific knowledge in recent years almost makes it an impossible task for the
Society to keep the public informed. Scientific investigations and discoveries in the last 25 to 30
years have both excited public imagination and at the same time occasionally frightened the
public. The Society’s task is to bring a balance into people’s assessment of the advantages and
limitations of scientific progress. You need to encourage research and investigation, and
occasionally express a word of warning.
It is, as I said, a pleasure to be with you tonight as one of your patrons. I compliment you on the
work which you are doing. Thank you for the dinner and thank you for your good sense in not
asking the Governor these days to read learned treatises for you.