Kia ora koutou

It's nice to be back in Dunedin (I worked here from 2001-2009 in the Clothing and Textile Sciences department).

I'm here to do some scanning electron microscopy contributing towards two main projects: our knicker work and gunshot to fabrics.

It's been a busy four days. Liz Girvan (SEM) and I have been discussing the work, preparing specimens and today started some imaging.

I've been meeting with Jules Kieser about the gunshot project, and talking with a joint PhD candidate Jules and I have (Therese de Castro) about her research on blood spatter.

Me, Therese and Jules

 

I've also met with my old Head of Department Raechel Laing to discuss a PhD candidate who is just about to hand in her thesis (Nur Yusof) - I was a co-supervisor for this work.

I'm staying with my friends Trevor Deaker and Mark Borrie (and Tussock - woof); this weekend we're all heading off to their vineyard Eight Ranges in Alex :)

 Liz mounting specimens

 Coating the specimens

First specimens in the JOEL

Brunches and beaches

I've just had a weekend in Sydney visiting an old friend Peter who used to work at The University of Otago and was a member of the same tramping club as me.

We brunched and walked beaches; a few pics below for you to enjoy.

 Thelma and Louise cafe

 Walking in Cremorne Reserve

  View from Cremorne Reserve

 At the end of Cremorne Reserve - one of the first uses of reinforced concrete in AUS

 Peter at Palm Beach

 Barrenjoey lighthouse

 Looking back 

Cakes, old and new friends

Saturday - onwards to Melbourne. Sarah Sakaguchi (a Cranfield Masters graduate) picked me up from the airport and we went off to St Kilda for brunch, a walk and cakes!

 So many cakes, so little time

 Sarah with cakes :)

Sunday was a day of catching up with other old friends, this time two Otago grads Gemma Radford and Sarah Weller; time for brunch.

Sarah, me and Gemma at Yellow Bird

Don't want you to think the week was one long brunch ;) My visit to Melbourne hit four places in four days. Monday and Wednesday had a defence orientation at DSTO and Diggerworks respectively. At both organisations I gave presentations, presented more Churchill coins and had meetings with old and new Australian colleagues. Thanks to Horace, Bin, Sarah and Annette.

On Tuesday I visited the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine to learn about how clothing is dealt with in the mortuary and particularly how damaged clothing in handled and packaged ready for forensic scientists to examine. I was invited to give a lecture and had an opportunity to present a Churchill coin to the team :)

 The Mortuary Team

Thursday, I was out at the Textiles Department of RMIT. I've known Mac Fergusson for a few years having met him at The Textiles Institute conference in 2010. Mac has worked with AFP on textile damage projects and is also involved in the book edited by James and Jane. He is supervising a MSc candidate Libby, who we hope will come to Shrivenham to spend some time working with us on a very interesting forensics project - Libby's in the process of presenting the work at the ANZFSS this week in Hobart. I had an opportunity to present to staff and students from RMIT with some outside guests from DSTO and CSIRO. Mac and I exchanged a Churchill coin for a very nice bottle of Aussie shiraz!

Mac and I at RMIT

A highlight of my week in Melbourne was dinner with some local Churchill Fellows. Thank you SO much Ben, Shane, Janine and Lou.

 Lou, me and Janine

Finally, a few pics from Melbourne:

Hair, textile damage and a little sightseeing

Apologies for the lack of posts; I've had a laptop disaster "Hard drive failure imminent"! Anyway, I'm now at a friends place in Sydney so have chance to up date my blog :)

The rest of my time in Canberra was spent with Professor James Robertson at the University of Canberra and Dr Jane Hemmings (and Team) at Australian Federal Police. I also had chance to do a little sightseeing :)

James, Jane and I discussed a book chapter we are collaborating on.

At UoC I sat in on a first year laboratory in hair analysis taught by James, I wonder if the students realised how lucky they are to have him teaching them. I had a chance to chat with the students about their aspirations and we talked about the differences in teaching / degrees between AUS and UK. I also sat in on a lecture James gave to a mixture of forensic and law students So you think you know about forensic science - very interesting and some useful pointers for my own lecturing. I was lucky to be able to participate in an AFP training course on hair examination.

At AFP I was invited to give a lecture and I had a chance to understand how evidence is submitted for examination and the process by which textile damage is assessed.

Lecture at AFP

After the lecture I had a chance to discuss with the Textile Damage team a case of ripped knickers, the damage observed in both the actual garment and the recreations was very similar to laboratory based work we are currently conducting at Shrivenham. This is important because it means we might be able to answer the question "how hard were they pulled off the person".

I handed out my first Churchill coins to James and Jane to thank them for looking after me during the week.

Jane, James and I with Churchill coins

Some general pics from Canberra:

Winston, harakeke and muddy socks

Well, I'm in Canberra :) Flights etc. were just fine and the city is lovely. The weather's been fantastic although some of the locals tell me it's cold! Typically it's been -2 deg. C overnight and 20 (ish) deg. C during the day.

I popped in to meet the folk at the WCMT Office here; they're based on the ANU campus. Paul and his team were incredibly welcoming and we had a great chat about the WCMT in the two countries and my Fellowship.

 Paul and I with Winston Churchill by Ante Dabro (2001)

Winston at ANU

As I was walking out of the ANU campus Paul's parting words of "Take any opportunity" presented themselves in the form of the Textiles Department building. I suddenly remembered a good friend of mine, Rokahurihia Ngarimu-Cameron, telling me there was harakeke (Phormium tenax, NZ flax) planted on the campus and she had held raranga wanaga there (weaving workshops). You can see some of Roka's stunning work here. As I chatted to a visiting scholar from South Africa there (screen printing), one of the students, Tara Bromham, came and kindly showed me some of the harakere, turns out she had taken part in the wanaga. You can see some of Tara's work here.

Tara with harakeke

Next stop was a date at the Conservation Department of The Australia War Memorial. Even though my Fellowship is in Forensic textile science I have an interest in materials science in conservation and a friend of mine, Tharron Bloomfield, mentioned I should try to call in on the Conservation Department. I had the opportunity to meet with both textile and painting conservators, specifically Cathy Challenor, Alana Treasure and Jessie Firth. Turns out there was a great connection to some work a MSc graduate of mine Jemma Mitchell has recently done at Cranfield and will be doing in the future for her PhD. There were some objects, including shirt fragments and socks, in the conservation laboratory from the Fromelles Project. We enjoyed chatting about the rarity of recovered buried textiles (moden ones that is). Hoping this visit might lead to some interesting collaboration and some projects for future MSc candidates at Cranfield. Cathy showed me aound the laboratories, fantastic facility. I hope that staff from the AWM might come visit us at Cranfield soon.

 Shirt fragments

Inner and outer sock



I visited The AWM itself and wondered up and down ANZAC parade admiring the various memorials placed there. I think my favourites were the Diggers and the Nurses.

 The Diggers

 Very interested in the overseas visitor

 Inscription by AUS-NZ memorial

 AUS-NZ

 AWM

From AWM to Parliament down ANZAC Parade