A
S WE WELCOME spring, the year
seems to gather momentum,
and around the Australian
Geographic offi ces lots of things are
afoot. On 9 October the results of this
year’s Australian Geographic ANZANG
Nature Photographer of the Year com-
petition will be announced at the South
Australian Museum.
We are relishing our second year
of partnership with the museum, and
have been hard at work producing three
ANZANG publications, one of which is
Wild Australasia, a gorgeous coff ee-table
book celebrating the fi rst 10 years of
the competition. In the next issue of the
journal, we’ll show you how to get hold
of your free copy when you renew
your subscription.
In the meantime, enjoy an eye-
catching selection of this year’s fi nalists,
starting on page 42, and read about how
winning last year’s ANZANG title had a
profound eff ect on photographer DavidFROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Rennie’s life, and helped focus attention
on the mental health and conservation
causes close to his heart.
Later in October we are once again
hosting the Australian Geographic
Society Awards in Sydney. This year’s
event on Wednesday 29 October willContributing editors: Joanna Egan, Karen McGhee, Josephine Sargent More contributors: Vincent Antony, Tony Brown, Brian Choo, Darren Clark, Ian Connellan,
Julius Csotonyi, Julie Fletcher, Jason Freeman, Michael Gallagher, Wolfgang Glowacki, Barbara Hall, David Hancock, Mike Hollman, Drew Hopper, Aysha Josephson,
Alan Kwok, Ofer Levy, Darren Longbottom, Marc Lynch, Gail MacCallum, James McCormack, Jesse McCoullough, Tony McDonough, Ryan McKeller, Vanessa Mignon,
Kara Murphy, Alex Palmer, Adam Plucinski, Scott Portelli, Thomas Rich, Angela Robertson-Buchanan, Peter Schouten, Oliver Sekulic, Russell Shakespeare, Velizar
Simeonovski, Raoul Slater, Matthew Smith, Rob Smith, Stefan Sølberg, Peter Taylor, Murray Unkovich, Steve Wilson, Kah Kit Yoong.Tim Cope
has spent the best part of
a decade travelling through
Russia, Mongolia and
Central Asia. Born in
Gippsland, Victoria, his
most famous trek was a three-year journey
from Mongolia to Hungary on horseback
(Nomad spirit, AG 89), which led to him
being awarded the Australian Geographic
Society Adventurer of the Year in 2006.
Tim, also an author and fi lmmaker, is now
leading once-in-a-lifetime trips across the
Mongolian steppe for our readers.Lida Xing
is both a palaeontologist
and a palaeo-artist based in
Beijing, China. His science-
based reconstructions of
prehistoric species have fea-
tured in National Geographic, Nature and twice
before in AG. He earned his master’s degree
in palaeontology at the University of Alberta,
Canada; has done extensive fi eldwork in
China excavating feathered dinosaurs; and has
published dozens of papers on dinosaur tracks.
For this issue he created new illustrations of 12
species of Australian dinosaur.Dr Susan
Hayes
researches archaeological
and forensic sciences at the
University of Wollongong.
She specialises in
reconstructing the features of ancient faces
from skulls alone, as well as forensic facial
identifi cation. Her work on the face of
Homo fl oresiensis, the tiny ancient human
discovered in 2004, was partly funded by
the Australian Geographic Society. Susan is
now approximating the faces of other early
humans excavated in South East Asia.Contributors
feature fearless wingsuiters Heather
Swan and Glenn Singleman as guest
speakers, along with a host of deserving
award winners in the fi elds of adventure
and conservation. Each year the stories
from our awardees inspire and uplift all
present. It’s always a great night with
terrifi c food and wine, and, importantly,
we raise much-needed funds for the
AGS. We would love to have you, our
valued members, join us there.
Go to page 30 to fi nd out how you
can get your ticket. You can also visit
our wonderful website to book your
spot directly and also check out all of
97 shortlisted photos from the 2014
ANZANG competition.Springing into action
RIDING INTO HISTORY, PAGE 100 FRONT COVER AND DINOSAUR POSTER FACE TO FACE WITH THE HOBBIT, PAGE 88September–October 2014 13Follow me on Twitter at:
twitter.com/chrissigoldrickAG-clad crew. Chrissie in Cape York
with Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin.ag0914p013_edinchiefletter - 10 2014-08-12T16:04:26+10: