GeoRabble once again proved that interesting stories can come from anywhere and it isn’t all about maps and GIS. The 13^th instalment of GeoRabble came on a cold, wet night yet for the over 80 strong crowd they were entertained and amazed by a handful of interesting speakers. The gender balance was certainly in favour of the women speakers with 5 out of the 6 showing that this certainly isn’t a boys club. Maya Dominice kicked off proceedings as our MC for the night and a special thanks to Ajilon for sponsoring the event.

First up, Helen Ensikat (a now pro on the Georabble talking circuit) provided an interesting insight into the http://thelostfestival.org/, a view Perth through the ages. This is a cultural history of Perth lands hacked up during the recent Festival of Perth events and a smart use of mapping for interactive with our historical past.

Grace Yun proved that Health Services are fundamentally linked to location and people and provided the audience with an insight into the detail and complex nature of health mapping. I certainly feel much better for hearing this talk, knowing that so much goes into ensuring that the health of the state has so much rich data supporting the activities of our dedicated health staff. Cecilia from Curtin University took a look into how we travel from day to day and apply this to our surroundings showing mobility and walkability. How to build a walk-able community based on knowing landmarks and people, an interesting research project, one that I’m sure will be used for planning in years to come.

Eun-Jung from UWA delved into our own backyard (literally) and talked about how automation in mineral detection (let’s face it, WA is a resources state) is now starting to break through by combining smart people and smart technology saving $$ in the meantime. I know that a number of resource companies would be well placed if they engaged with EJ’s work!

Elizabeth-Kate was next up and talked about how we are data rich but discovery poor and how her work can change how we search for data in the future. Taking common language queries into the spatial data searching world is almost a mythical legend although EK is forging a path here and by the looks of her talk it is being well researched and will make data searching much easier in the future.

Finally – last but certainly not least was Andrew (in support with Petra) oversaw the team at Curtin University whom recently surveyed (in amazing high detail) the HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran and treated us with a world first view into the data and imagery captured. An innovative use of surveying and imaging technology, preserving our history and a tribute to the lives lost in that fateful encounter. Read more about this fascinating survey here: http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/sydney/videos/hmas-sydney-ii-and-hsk-kormoran-survey-expedition-4-may-2015

And

http://news.curtin.edu.au/rdnow/stories/simulated-salvage/

With some added footage now available on You Tube: http://youtu.be/ym-xcpaZy-E

And with that, we are pleased to announce the next Georabble for Perth will be on the 9^th of September and this is the only hint I will give to the event “Rise of the machines”. We hope to see you there. Event details will be on-line soon so please keep an eye on this space.