March for Science Adelaide

‘Thrown away’: More concerns over SA Museum research plan.

Charlie Gilchrist has written further in InDaily (13/2/2024) about the proposed downgrading of Research and Collections at the SA Museum, interviewing staff from the University of Adelaide: 'Thrown away': More concerns over SA Museum research plan - InDaily

He quotes Professor Robert Hill as saying that research at the Museum is being “deliberately downplayed and treated with contempt”. Professor Hill highlighted the importance of museums in identifying and describing species and noted that “we’re going through a period of massive environmental change” but “If we don’t have a group of really well-trained people who are monitoring what’s going on, who can talk with authority … [then] we’ve lost our ability to protect against what I think will be one of the major challenges for future generations’.

Associate Professor Kate Sanders also said that museums and their collections play a key role in understanding climate change. “That community of curators and collection managers have expertise that just doesn’t exist anywhere else, including at the university”.

Professor Andrew Austin said that other Australian museums are currently expanding their research programs but noted that in the proposed restructure at the SA Museum, “the new curator positions have very, very little research time and they’re all at very low promotional levels, much lower than the current staff”.


Can you identify what sort of feather this is and which species it is from?

A museum ornithologist could tell us, but if restructure plans at the SA Museum go ahead, there probably won’t be one!

Answer: tail feather of a Peregrine Falcon.