RESUME
Contact Details
John Byrnes
NSW Department of Primary Industries
MEA Section
PO Box 536
ST LEONARDS
NSW 2065
AUSTRALIA
Phone (02) 9901 8789
Email: [email protected] (Work)
[email protected] (Home)
I may not be here a great deal longer - as the Department wants to move north to Maitland and I am wanting to convert to contractor and lessen my working week in MEA (or maybe take redundancy) so that I can begin to broaden out into other areas to utilise my social science and work organisation interests, as well as the strictly geological experience.
My life in a Museum, working for the DDG, and any other Career Highlights...
I have spent some years in the policy-related work area in the roles of Minerals Executive Officer and Ministerial Liaison Officer, providing high-level support directly for the Deputy Director-General (and also to Director General and other members of Departmental Executive). This was enjoyable and well utilised the breadth of my 30+ years experience in geology and natural resource management and information management. Also, this close exposure to a range of problems (via ANZMEC, Native Title Act, Heritage matters, etc.) set me firmly on the quest of SUSTAINABILITY. This was the time when I began doing policy and social science studies.
• Transition from geology-only work to more social and commercially involved work involving mineral resources. Increasing involvement with changes in the nature of work, and change management.
• Minerals Exploration Assessment. Interaction with minerals exploration companies and especially with the geologist-authors of exploration progress reports (required every six months for each exploration licence held in NSW).
• Forensic investigation work (with a wide range of court experiences including several days as witness at state Supreme Court, e.g. Hilton bombing and K. Rose cases).
• Metallogenic (metalliferous mineral deposit) work in the Cobar-Bourke region.
-- References: Byrnes, J.G., 1993. Metallogenic Study and Mineral Deposit Data Sheets - Bourke Metallogenic
Map 1:250,000 SH/55-10. Geological Survey of New South Wales. 127 pages. [Notes to
accompany Bourke Metallogenic Map]; Gilligan, L.B. and Byrnes, J.G., 1995. Metallogenic Study
and Mineral Deposit Data Sheets - Cobar Metallogenic Map 1:250,000 SH/55-14. Geological
Survey of New South Wales. 240 pages. [Notes to accompany Cobar Metallogenic Map];
Byrnes, J.G., Gilligan, L.B. and Suppel, D.W., 1993. Bourke 1:250 000 Metallogenic Map
SH/55-10. Geological Survey of New South Wales; Gilligan, L.B. and Byrnes, J.G., 1995. Cobar
1:250 000 Metallogenic Map SH/55-14. Geological Survey of New South Wales.
• Study of the Receptaculitoids
-- [A group of fossils some hundreds of millions of years old which is debated over as to whether they
are plants or animals - Refs: Byrnes, J.G., 1968. Notes on the nature and environmental significance of
the Receptaculitaceae. Lethaia, 1, 368-381; Byrnes, J.G., 1979. Receptaculitoids. Pp. 684-690 in
Fairbridge, R.W., and Jablonski, D. (Eds.): The Encyclopedia of Paleontology. Hutchinson & Ross,
Stroudsburg, Pa.].
• Field studies in far western New South Wales.
-- [ In the Great Australian Basin (Lightning Ridge, White Cliffs, Bullo River Overflow region), and in
the Darling Basin. Refs: Byrnes, J.G., 1984. Sedimentology of the Cretaceous marine sequence in the
Eromanga Basin. Pp. 125-142 in Hawke, J.M., and Cramsie, J.N. (Eds.): Contributions to the
Geology of the Great Australian Basin in New South Wales. Geological Survey of New South
Wales. Bulletin 31; Byrnes, J.G., 1985. Petroleum Data Package - Darling Region, New South
Wales. 221 pages. Department of Mineral Resources, Sydney. ]
• Interpretation of guilielmites structures.
-- [Byrnes, J.G., 1976. Lightning Ridge Chinese hat nobbies may be guilielmites. Australian Lapidary
Magazine; Byrnes, J.G., Rice, T.D., and Karaolis, D., 1978. Guilielmites formed from phosphatized
concretions in the Ashfield Shale of the Sydney area. Records of the Geological Survey of New
South Wales, 18(2), 169-200].
• Ancient marine palaeogeography and palaeoecology of the Molong Rise.
-- [Vandyke, A., and Byrnes, J.G., 1976. Palaeozoic succession beneath the Narragal Limestone,
Oakdale Anticline near Mumbil. Records of the Geological Survey of New South Wales, 17(2),
123-134; Byrnes, J.G., 1976. Silurian environments of the northern Molong Rise. Journal of the
Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, 7(1), 18-21; Byrnes, J.G., 1982. Borenore
Limestone, Narragal Limestone, Wallace Shale, etc., with Silurian palaeogeography and facies
scheme for the northern Molong Anticlinorium. Contributions in Pickett, J. (Ed.): The Silurian
System in New South Wales Geological Survey of New South Wales. Bulletin 29].
Education is a life-long business...
I went to University of NSW (Kensington) for a science degree, following the same up at University of Sydney for postgrad years and then gave it away for a while before deciding to continue at UNSW but this time in the Arts Faculty, in social sciences.
• Current and ongoing studies (towards Master of Social Studies):
--I am currently doing the subject "Social Sciences in Australia" (code SGY14) run by Griffith University, which is a remote studies subject administered through Open Learning Australia. This will be followed by a Master of Social Science degree by thesis. I am specialising in matters of information policy and sustainability.
• Master of Policy Studies. University of New South Wales. Graduated 10th October, 2003.
• PhD (in Geology). University of Sydney (1974).
-- [Holder of a Commonwealth Post Graduate Research Scholarship: Research was related to early Palaeozoic evolution of the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW, with particular reference to the environmental significance of limestones and their fossil biota].
• BSc (First Class Honours & University Medal) (in Geology). University of NSW (1966).
--[Subjects for this degree were: geology; geophysics; chemistry; mathematics; physics; psychology,
sociology, English.].
• Other (short) courses:
-- Various short courses taken over a range of topics: Computers, communications, strategies for
change, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, stress management, industrial relations courses
such as on enterprise agreements, report writing, safety training (WorkCover courses), safe driver
training (at Oran Park), Hay Job Evaluation methodology (trained as both Job Analyst and Job
evaluator), volcanism, coal and carbonate geology, and models of metallogenesis.
Computer topics: Internet, DOS, UNIX, rudiments of languages and compilers (C, Pascal, and
assembly language principles) and application programs, database courses (dBase, Q&A, SQL,
MS-Access), and how to build and maintain computers. And developing web skills
although I have not progressed beyond hand-coding HTML
usually with nothing more than Notepad.
Key Areas of Expertise...
• Policy (especially on sustainability and information).
• Ethics and change management.
• Investigation, analysis, and report writing.
• Geology and minerals exploration; private sector relations.
• Government interoperability and integration research.
Work History...
This part is now just getting down to finer detail, and can be conveniently skipped.
Department of Mineral Resources: 1997-03 Geologist, Geological Survey, Minerals Exploration Assessment. 1994-97 Executive Officer and Ministerial Liaison Co-ordinator (Acting).
• High-level support for Deputy Director-General (all matters), and for Director-General (Discovery 2000 steering committee work only).
• Prepared briefings/reports and correspondence on various issues. Prepared or assisted in preparation of speeches. Quality checked and tracked the flow of all Ministerial correspondence and submissions dealt with by DMR.
• Acted as Secretary for the following committees and working groups: - Minerals Planning and Strategy Committee - Mineral Resources Operations Committee - Mineral Resources Development Committee - Camps on the Opal Fields Working Group - Investment Promotion Co-ordinating Group - NPWS/DMR Policy Working Group My functions included
• Preparation of meeting agendas, minutes of meetings, correspondence, press releases and Ministerial correspondence and briefings.
• Preparation and distribution of project reports.
• Maintenance of various follow-up systems to track performance of tasks assigned in committee meetings.
• Liaison with senior personnel within the Department, in government, consultancies and industry.
• Assistance to Deputy Director-General in program management of the Minerals Executive Program. 1989 (pt) Senior/Scientific Information Officer (Acting) in Information Division (Various duties with strong similarities to later Ministerial Liaison Officer position.) 1972-94 Geologist in Geological Survey Branch and in Coal & Petroleum Geology Branch (1984-94), AND Sedimentary Petrologist in Specialist Services & Applied Research Section, located at Geological and Mining Museum in The Rocks, Sydney. (1972-83)
Summary of work performed in 1972-1994:
• Forensic work for Police (comparison of dirt/soil samples using comparative microscopic examination during fractionation, clay mineralogy, optical emission spectrographic analysis, X-ray fluorescence, electron microscopy, thin sectioning, etc).
• Sample examination and determination for field geologists. Identification of prospectors' samples. Sedimentary petrology specialising in carbonates.
• Drilling program planning and tender preparation. Mineral exploration assessment. Mineral deposit audits and inventory data-basing. Metallogenic mapping. Mineral resource land information system input. Worked particularly in the Darling Basin, Cobar-Bourke region and the Southern Coalfield.
• Computer package coal mine modelling and seam logging (MINEX), Image analysis using geophysical or other data. Petroleum data package preparation for promotion of the State's potential petroleum resources to private enterprise explorers (done on a basin-by-basin basis). In the above it may be noted that earlier years were laboratory-focused, on sediments, rocks, fossils, minerals, and forensic examinations. In later years there followed minerals exploration assessment, work on land use issues, metallogenic data collection work, petroleum work (e.g. "Darling Region Petroleum Package"), major contributions to three metallogenic studies (Bourke, Cobar and Nymagee); and a period in Coal Geology (Southern Coalfield). [Still earlier positions were with: University of Sydney, Commonwealth Government, and the exploration industry.]
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