The Geographical Society of New South Wales confers a number of awards that recognise the role that the recipients have made to the discipline of Geography and to its teaching.

Fellowships of The Geographical Society of New South Wales:

The 2008 Fellowship Award has been awarded to Professor Pauline McGuirk.

Professor Pauline McGuirk has been an active member of the Society's Council since 1997, and has served as Vice President and President since 1999. She has convened or co-convened three conferences under the auspices of the Society. These have included two of the annual honours conferences held at the University of Newcastle, as well as being on the steering committee of the Geography's New Frontiers Conference in 2003. Other Society roles have included Associate Editor of The Australian Geographer, service on a range of committees, the editing of Conference Proceedings of the Society, and presentations to the Society's and GTA conferences.

Professor McGuirk is an accomplished Geographical educator, having received a series of prizes and awards for her excellence in tertiary teaching. She has also produced teaching resources that have received critical acclaim from her Geography peers. These have included an award winning first year University textbook (the first of its kind in Australia). She has also published chapters in texts intended for upper level University students, including a chapter on the use of questionnaire surveys as a research method, and also the Australian chapter for Cities of the World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).

Professor McGuirk has been centrally involved in some important urban research projects in Australia, many of them attracting ARC funding.
Over the last decade she has produced over eighty independent publications, including 18 refereed journal articles, 20 refereed conference papers, eight chapters in scholarly books, and two monographs. Her research publications, conference presentations (over thirty in the last decade), and other works, have enhanced the standing of her sub-discipline (Urban Geography), and the discipline (Geography) in Australia.

She undertakes frontiers scholarship in Urban Geography, is an excellent teacher who is absolutely committed to Geography, and has demonstrated excellence in professional service to the Society.

It is for these many contributions to Geography and to the Geographical Society that her colleagues have unanimously supported the award of the 2008 Fellowship of the Geographical Society to Professor Pauline McGuirk.

Macdonald Holmes Medal:

James Macdonald Holmes was McCaughey Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney during the period 1929 to 1961. To commemorate his achievements over these years, the Geographical Society together with the Geography Teachers’ Association awards, biennially, a medal bearing his portrait and name, to a person deemed to have made a distinguished contribution in the field of geographical education in Australia.

The 2009 recipients of the medal are Dr Susan Bliss and Assoc Prof Gordon Waitt.

Dr Susan Bliss is an accomplished Geography teacher, HSC and SC examiner, curriculum writer, noted textbook author and teacher educator. She has been a member of the Geography Teachers' Association of NSW for nearly 40 years. During this time she has served as a councillor, president and vice-president. Susan has convened and presented more than 200 professional development activities, written in excess of 50 refereed journal articles, presented at numerous conferences and secured grants totalling $1.1 million. She has also served on the executive of the Australian Geography Teachers' Association as a director and treasurer. As a teacher educator, Susan taught the Geography methodology units at Macquarie and Sydney Universities. At Sydney University, she received a Teaching Excellence Award for "preparation and sharing of extensive, detailed resources and for her enthusiasm which has been responsible for the transformation of student attitudes giving them a passion for the subject." As a textbook author she has been a driving force behind the acclaimed GeoActive series published by Jacaranda, Australia. It is, however, in her role as State Director, Global Education Project, that Susan has made her greatest contribution. She is a passionate advocate of Global Education within a geographical context. Sue sees it as a means of building a better, more socially just, world. She is an enthusiastic advocate of social justice, global citizenship and sustainable development. Her doctorate focused on the integration of Geography and Global Education. Susan is a worthy recipient of the Macdonald Holmes Medal. She has inspired a generation of Geography teachers and greatly advanced the cause of Global Education.

Assoc Prof Gordon Waitt has led international practice in tertiary human geography education in the following ways: writing influential, prize-winning first year textbooks that are core at numerous universities; developing the teaching-research nexus in cultural geography (long before the phrase “teaching-research nexus” became de rigueur); designing innovative student field trips and local in-class exercises for teaching qualitative research methods; and leading a succession of jointly-authored academic publications with students. He has won quality teaching awards and at the University of Wollongong has been the backbone of human geography for nearly twenty years, transforming its core first year subject into an innovative, multi-campus unit that itself has been nominated for awards; introducing a new third year cultural geography and qualitative methods specialty subject; and supervising a long line of honours and postgraduate students. His teaching legacy is found in generations of successive human geography graduates who are equipped with a philosophical and intellectual commitment to diversity..

Past recipients of the Macdonald Holmes Medal are:

The programs for the medal presentations for 2007 and 2009 are here.

Brock Rowe Award:

The Brock Rowe Award is granted jointly by the Councils of the Geography Teachers’ Association of New South Wales Inc (GTANSW) and the Geographical Society of New South Wales Inc (GSNSW), biennially, to persons who have demonstrated consistently, over a period of time, excellence in the teaching of geography in schools. The nomination form for the Brock Rowe Award is available here.

The 2006 Brock Rowe Award has been awarded to Sharon McLean. The award citation reads:

Sharon is a dedicated and professional Geography teacher. She has a passion for her subject and creatively and thoroughly imparts her knowledge and her enthusiasm to her students.

Sharon encourages independent learning and is able to communicate the relevance and importance of the study of Geography, both formally and as a critical element of life long learning.

Sharon has worked in a variety of locations from Dungog High School to Tangara School for Girls and is currently Head of Faculty at St Ignatius’ College Riverview. She inspires her staff, leads by example and is the source of information for current practice, creative teaching and knowledge.

Sharon ’s influence extends well beyond the classroom. She is an experienced School Certificate Senior Marker, HSC Marker, Catholic Schools Trial HSC Examination Committee Member and GTA Council member since 2000. Sharon was the Convener of the CSSA Trial paper in 2006 and has written a number of articles for the GTA Bulletin.

Beyond all of this, Sharon is a person of integrity and balances her dedication to Geography teaching with a very generous nature, complete commitment to her family and service in the wider community. She is an outstanding role model to her students and her peers and a most deserved recipient of the Brock Rowe Award for Excellence in Teaching Geography.

 

University Student Prizes:

Each year prizes are awarded to students from all NSW Universities who topped geography in second year. Students receive a certificate, gift voucher and membership of the Society for one year.

In 2007 prizes were awarded to:

Macquarie University - Jennifer Ingram
University of Newcastle - Daniel Lambert
University of New South Wales - Samantha Travers
University of New South Wales, ADFA - Ashleigh Payne and Sarah Tame
University of Sydney - Amelia Roberts
University of Wollongong - Eliza de Vet

In 2008 prizes were awarded to:

Macquarie University - Melissa Lee
University of Newcastle - Martin Amidy
University of Sydney - Sabin Zahirovic
University of Wollongong - Brittany Johansen-Dibden

In 2009 prizes were awarded to:

Macquarie University - Veronica Jarron
University of New England - Sarah Heagney
University of New South Wales - Hugh Burley
University of Sydney - Anna Helfensdorfer
University of Wollongong - Ellen Swanson

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