Meetings programme

Speaker Programme

The Society's meetings are open to Fellows, guests and members of the public.

Entry is free, but fellows and guests are reminded that if they wish to partake of refreshments before the meeting, there is a $4.00 charge to cover this.

Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, March to November inclusive. Meeting commence at 6.30 pm and are preceded by wine and nibbles at 6.00 pm. 

An invited lecture is normally arranged for each meeting. For ordinary meetings, the reading of papers and the presentation of exhibits of scientific interest may also occur.  

These meetings are usually held in the Society's Rooms. Meetings are occasionally organised jointly with other kindred societies and may be held elsewhere. Occasional Symposia on topical issues are also organised by the Society.


COVID 19 restrictions

While in force, a maximum of 30 will be ticketed through Eventbrite for those wishing to attend in person but there will also be on line access using the Zoom platform. For further information contact the Society through our email roysocsa@gmail.com or, alternately, our Programme Secretary at: alice.clement@flinders.edu.au

May 13th 2021, the second Thursday of the month at 6.30 pm.

Renate Faast Adelaide Uni

Renate is a plant ecologist, with a particular interest in the ecological interactions that affect the reproductive output of plants. 
Her PhD project investigated the reproductive ecology of two species of spider orchids, Caladenia rigida and C. tentaculata, in the Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia.  This involved developing methods to capture and identify pollinators, assessing the impacts of predation on reproductive success, investigating the potential trade-off between floral attraction of mutualists and antagonists, and testing the variability in seed viability across populations.
She is currently working on an ARC-linkage funded project, investigating the impacts of prescribed burns on the reproductive ecology of terrestrial orchids. This will involve monitoring orchid populations and pollinators across a number of burnt and control sites in the Mount Lofty Ranges, to determine how fire affects pollination, herbivory, seed production and seedling establishment. She will also develop DNA-barcoding techniques to identify pollinators and the orchids they pollinate.


Future meetings:
June – Craig Williams, Mosquitos, Zoology & Citizen Science
July – Vulcanology (Ralph Tate Memorial Lecture)
Aug – Mojtaba Rajabi (Geology)

---