Person

Bowler, James Maurice (Jim) (1930 - )

AM

Born
1930
Leongatha, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Geomorphologist

Summary

Jim Bowler is a geomorphologist whose main research was into the evolution of climate. He focussed on the landforms and soils in arid and semi-arid areas of Australia, investigating the hydrology of ancient Australia and how water levels in Australia tied into global climatic events. Bowler studied closed lake systems as if they were rain gauges that might offer evidence of major climate change. His work on the dune fields in the Murray-Darling Basin elucidated how the lunettes were formed. While doing fieldwork in the Willandra Lakes in 1968 he discovered the cremated remains of what came to be called Mungo Lady, exposed on the surface of the soil and at risk of erosion and destruction. This and subsequent discoveries provided evidence of Aboriginal presence in Australia for much longer than had been supposed.

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Details

Chronology

1958
Education - BSc, University of Melbourne
1961
Education - MSc, University of Melbourne
1965 -
Career position - Research Fellow, Australian national University
1970
Education - PhD, Australian National University
1980
Award - Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research
1986
Career position - Vice-President, International Union for Quaternary Research
1986
Award - Stillwell Medal, Geological Society of Australia
1988 -
Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities
1989
Award - Mawson Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science
1999 -
Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Victoria
1999
Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) - for service to earth sciences, particularly through the study of landscape and environmental history, and to Australian prehistory
2001
Award - Centenary Medal - for service to Australian society and the humanities in prehistory and archaeology

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Books

  • Griffiths, Billy, Deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia (Carlton, Vic.: Black Inc., 2018), 376 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Bowler, J., 'Joseph Newell Jennings', Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplementband, 55 (1985), v-ix. Details
  • Bowler, Jenny, 'Mungo memories', Griffith Review, 19 (2007), 180-5. Details
  • Magee, John and De Deckker, Patrick, 'Australian Quaternary studies: a tribute to Jim Bowler', Quaternary international, 83 (5) (2001), 5-7. Details
  • Magee, John and De Deckker, Patrick, 'J. M. Bowler's contribution to Australian Quaternary studies: a tribute to Jim Bowler', Quaternary international, 83 (5) (2001), 1-4. Details

Resource Sections

Helen Cohn

Created: 11 September 2018, Last modified: 21 March 2023

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260