• Skip to main content
  • Skip to site footer
img MENU MEMBERSHIP img
  • Home
  • Donate
  • Join
  • Login
img
  • About Us
    • Mission
    • History
    • Values
    • Advocacy
    • Partners
    • People
  • Get Involved
    • What You Can Do
    • State Chapters
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
  • Resources
    • Photo Gallery
    • Conferences
    • Courses
  • Latest News
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
  • Blog
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us
Australian Coastal Society

Australian Coastal Society

We are the voice of the Australian coast

Main Image

VALE: PAUL BISHOP

March 29, 2022

VALE: Paul Bishop

When I joined the Department of Geography at Sydney University in 1985, it was a pleasure to meet Paul Bishop who had just completed his PhD at Macquarie University. He had an adjoining office with another tutor, Peter Cowell, and it was obvious that they both brought intellectual vigour and enthusiasm to physical geography. I knew Peter from the time he had been working with Don Wright on coastal studies but did not know Paul. Together they had what Peter called self-indulgent fun engaging in philosophical questioning of many topics besides sharing a love for classical music. Sadly Paul recently died (age 72) and the lights that he shone on those he worked with have gone out; but he cannot be forgotten. Our deepest condolences to his partner, Geraldine.

Paul Bishop moved from Sydney to Monash in 1989 for a period before settling in Glasgow in 1998. But he maintained his deep connections to geomorphic studies in Australia. His fertile brain and immense curiosity saw him pursue an array of intellectual endeavours that are quite stunning in both scope and impact. We jointly ran the lower Hunter field excursion for Geography 2 students before he left Sydney and it was then that I got to know him and appreciate his methodical approach to organising work.  I have followed his career from afar meeting up with him on few occasions but maintaining contact via email even during the last year of his life. He is someone you always learnt from, generously giving time to stimulate your thinking.

One thing I shared with Paul was a fascination with the history of geomorphology. However, his interest was something he dived deeply into as part of his research into landscape evolution. In 2011 he published a chapter in The SAGE Handbook of Geomorphology (eds, Goudie and Gregory) on “Landscape Evolution and Tectonics”. By this stage of his career he was already accepted as an eminent scholar as well as scientist in this field and able to offer us a global view of the subject. This chapter expressed with great clarity the difficulties we face in answering major questions that underpinned the work of the greats of the discipline. He saw the need to tease out the detail of which geomorphic models are appropriate and in what settings. In this paper we also get to see how his own research contributes to the “detail” helping to explain landscape longevity through an integration of tectonics, including isostatic rebound, and landscape response. Along the way the paper captures his optimistic view of the current situation where he argues we now have techniques (e.g. cosmogenic dating—he helped pioneer its application) and over-arching paradigms such as plate tectonics to refocus attention on landscape evolution.

Paul’s field studies in the eastern highlands of NSW built on the work of others in association with colleagues such as Geoff Goldrick. This work focused on aspects of longevity of the landscape, the role of lithology in the evolution of rivers, and centrally the importance of denudation isostatic rebound within intraplate highlands. This passion for knowledge commenced during his PhD study. At the time of the International Geographical Congress in 1988, as editor of a special volume in Progress in Physical Geography (vol.12, no.2), I invited Paul to publish what he knew at the time. It was the lead paper and gave international readers a clear summary of the evolution of an intraplate highland belt. What is impressive is that over the next three decades he elaborated, modified, and developed the analysis based on new evidence from the field, an increased understanding of tectonic processes, and the application of new earth surface dating techniques. He was awarded the British Society of Geomorphology’s Wiley Award in 2007 for the best paper published in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (title “Long-term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes” (v 32, 329-365).  

Field evidence was very important to Paul. In his first journal publication prepared as an undergraduate, he discussed ideas of Karl Popper’s principle of falsifiability and the irrefutability of the Davisian cycle of erosion (Professional Geographer 32, 310-15). Quite amazing to get your first paper on such an erudite topic yet it defined his pathway to critical thinking based on what he and colleagues observed in the field. It also shows in the other areas that occupied Paul’s active mind when he ventured with teams to Thailand and Cambodia using his geoscience background to assist in archaeological studies. He developed a fascination for the Thai language and its ancient pottery working to unravel signatures of environmental change with Dan Penny, Duncan Cook and others.

Recently in association with Duncan he had been asking questions about history of sand dune mobilisation near Stockton.  I suspect his long association with Peter Cowell and others in the coastal group at Sydney prompted a long term intertest in coastal issues. He wrote a short paper with Michael Hughes while at Sydney on coastal boulder deposits on the central coast (Geology 17, 544-47).  He later extended his coastal interests to the western isles of Scotland. He shared many of his coastal ideas along the way with Peter Cowell. This is seen in their penetrating article on drainage network determinants of drowned embayed coastlines such as that in eastern Australia (Journal of Geology, 1997, 103, 685-697). But that fertile mind was also exploring the history and geomorphic setting of water mills in Scotland relying on one of his favourite themes in river studies, that of knickpoints (e.g.in Area, 37, 443-445).

I am not familiar with Paul’s teaching and administrative roles in Glasgow. I know he enjoyed participating in national curriculum development as well as in university administration. But one thing Paul did along with his good friend Brad Pillans was to bring a number of us together in 2010 in contributing to a publication in honour of two greats of Australian geomorphology, John Chappell and Martin Williams. They edited a book, Australian Landscapes, which came out as Special Publication 346 of the Geological Society of London. Peter and I were honoured to contribute a paper that linked our marine interests with those of Paul and others on long-term landform evolution. We are all very grateful for the way he helped make this tribute to John and Martin possible.

Now is the time to pay tribute to Paul Bishop; his insights and knowledge are permanently on the record and he will be greatly missed.

Bruce Thom

I wish to thank Peter Cowell and Duncan Cook for their assistance in preparing this blog.  

Words by Prof Bruce Thom. Please respect the author’s thoughts and reference appropriately: (c) ACS, 2022. For correspondence about this blog post please email austcoastsoc@gmail.com

Category: Blog
Previous Post:Main ImageIPCC Throws Down the Gauntlet on Australian Institutional Deficiencies
Next Post:East Coast Weather ‘Traffic Jam’

Sidebar

2023 (6)
  • Thursday, March 23 Federal Coastal Legislation – Public Trust Principles
  • Thursday, March 9 Public Trust Doctrine Part 1: Tribute to Jim Titus
  • Tuesday, February 28 Coastal Adaptation in Aotearoa New Zealand
  • Wednesday, February 15 US Coastal Barrier Resources Act: Model for Strategic Federal Intervention?
  • Tuesday, January 31 Philosophers and the Coast
  • Tuesday, January 17 Ocean Pools
2022 (24)
  • Thursday, December 22 Protecting Nature: Art of the Impossible?
  • Tuesday, December 13 Drainage Window Concept
  • Thursday, November 24 Cootamundra Shoals Survey 1982
  • Thursday, November 10 US Coastal Zone Management Act 1972: A Model for Australia?
  • Wednesday, October 26 Great Barrier Reef—More or Less Gloom
  • Wednesday, October 12 Bondi Pavilion Reopened and Rejuvenated
  • Wednesday, September 28 Coastal Journey Begins: September 1962
  • Monday, September 12 Protection For Sydney Harbour: Berrys Bay Case
  • Thursday, August 25 Coastal Inundation: A Hazard Not to be Underestimated
  • Tuesday, August 9 Beach Access – An International Perspective
  • Wednesday, July 27 SoE 2021 and Coasts
  • Tuesday, July 19 Human Rights and Beaches
  • Wednesday, July 6 Coastal Walks and Local Councils
  • Thursday, June 23 EPBC Act and Regional Landscape and Resilience Plans
  • Wednesday, June 15 29th NSW Coastal Conference
  • Thursday, May 19 Lament for Estuaries? (0)
  • Wednesday, April 27 East Coast Floods 2022 (0)
  • Monday, April 11 East Coast Weather ‘Traffic Jam’ (0)
  • Tuesday, March 29 VALE: PAUL BISHOP (0)
  • Thursday, March 24 IPCC Throws Down the Gauntlet on Australian Institutional Deficiencies
  • Friday, February 25 Recent federal coastal initiatives – February 2022
  • Tuesday, February 8 Resourceful ‘lucky’ country
  • Friday, January 28 FUTURE EARTH AUSTRALIA: SUSTAINABLE OCEANS AND COASTS NATIONAL STRATEGY 2021-2030
  • Monday, January 10 Sunflowers and hope
2021 (27)
  • Wednesday, December 22 DISCOVERING MORUYA 1971-2021
  • Sunday, December 12 PROTECTING A BIG CITY: NEW YORK DECISION MAKING
  • Wednesday, December 1 ICA REPORT: CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT “ACTIONS OF THE SEA” AND FUTURE RISKS
  • Friday, November 12 NATIONAL CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION STRATEGY (NCRAS)
  • Thursday, October 28 COASTAL FAMILY—THE ELIOTS
  • Sunday, October 10 COASTAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ROLES FOR THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
  • Monday, September 27 Sydney Harbour: Impact of contamination studies
  • Friday, September 17 Geological indicators of seabed mobility – Narrabeen Beach (Sydney, Australia)
  • Monday, August 30 LAST INTERGLACIAL SEA LEVELS: RECENT RESEARCH AND MEET “STROMBUS BUBONIUS”
  • Wednesday, August 18   COASTAL NEWS – AUGUST 2021
  • Monday, July 19 Reflections on past coastal recommendations by the Australian Government
  • Monday, July 5 LARGS: A GEOHERITAGE SITE?
  • Thursday, June 24 PROPERTY RIGHTS: WHAT CONDITIONS PREVAIL IN A CIVIL SOCIETY?
  • Monday, June 14 UNIVERSITY RESEARCH—PERSONAL SADNESS
  • Saturday, May 29 SEAHORSE MONITORING BY WOOLLAHRA COUNCIL, NSW
  • Tuesday, May 18 US Climate Indicators
  • Saturday, May 8 AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT MARINE AND COAST INITIATIVES 2021
  • Sunday, April 25 Travelling west of the sandstone curtain – to Orange (NSW) and back
  • Tuesday, April 20 Big surf at Port Fairy (Victoria) – April 2021
  • Thursday, April 8 LAND: OWNERSHIP AND RIGHTS
  • Sunday, March 14 ESTUARY WETLANDS AND SEA-LEVEL RISE
  • Saturday, February 20 COASTAL ZONE AND CATCHMENT BOUNDARIES
  • Sunday, February 14 Coastal Archaeology Revisited
  • Saturday, January 30 JUDITH WRIGHT – POET, COASTAL CONSERVATIONIST AND MUCH MORE
  • Monday, January 18 COASTAL STORIES FROM THE FIELD,1970-2020
  • Monday, January 11 US COASTAL MANAGEMENT UNDER TRUMP
  • Monday, January 4 2020: A COASTAL PERSPECTIVE
2020 (26)
  • Wednesday, December 23 EPBC ACT CHANGES –WILL THEY BE WORTH THE EFFORT?
  • Monday, December 14 TWO JIMS—BOWLER AND COLEMAN
  • Thursday, November 26 AUSTRALIA UNDER THREAT—WHAT TO DO NEXT?
  • Saturday, November 7 SHORELINE RESPONSES TO SEA-LEVEL RISE
  • Sunday, October 25 Port Stephens-Myall Lakes 1960 – Research Opportunities
  • Wednesday, October 14 Port Stephens – Myall Lakes 1960 – the journey.
  • Monday, September 28 LEGACY ISSUES AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT
  • Friday, September 11 TYPHOONS AND HAINAN ISLAND, CHINA
  • Tuesday, September 1 Impact of sea-level rise on coastal natural values in Tasmania
  • Saturday, August 29 ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES REMAIN THREATENED
  • Thursday, August 6 HAMELIN POOL (Shark Bay, Western Australia) —AN ESTUARY?
  • Thursday, July 16 Estuary Health
  • Friday, July 3 UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND TEACHING—THE NEXUS IS IT BROKEN?
  • Sunday, June 21 Sandy beach morphodynamics – a new book
  • Sunday, June 7 Cliffs in the Narrabeen Group, Sydney
  • Thursday, May 21 PROGNOSIS FOR A CHOKING MOUTH: THE RIVER MURRAY
  • Wednesday, May 6 Geomorphologic Mapping
  • Wednesday, April 22 DOVER HEIGHTS CLIFFS, SYDNEY
  • Sunday, April 12 Recent Coastal Legal Cases
  • Tuesday, March 24 CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE—THE CURRENT CRISIS
  • Wednesday, March 18 Recent papers in the journal Nature
  • Thursday, February 27 HOLOCENE SEA LEVELS AND COASTAL EVOLUTION
  • Monday, February 17 Brian Caton ‘a coastal legend’- RIP 9 February 2020
  • Tuesday, February 4 NATIONAL COASTAL ADAPTATION AGENDA 2010: A RETROSPECTIVE
  • Wednesday, January 22 TIME FOR ADAPTATION ACTION
  • Friday, January 10 EAST COAST FLOODS 2022 (0)
2019 (29)
  • Monday, December 30 Parsley Bay in the Summer
  • Monday, November 25 Australian Coastal Systems: A New Book from Andy Short
  • Tuesday, November 19 South Australian 2019 Coastal Conference and the ACS AGM
  • Wednesday, November 6 28th Annual NSW Coastal Conference – Terrigal, 2019
  • Sunday, October 27 Coastal Incidents
  • Tuesday, October 8 Coastal morphostratigraphy: two papers from Denmark
  • Friday, September 27 Climate Change Attribution
  • Tuesday, September 10 Vale Jack Davies at age 97 – leader, teacher and mentor
  • Wednesday, September 4 Coastal erosion and accretion beyond the historical timescale in NSW
  • Monday, August 19 Rethinking Landscape in Aotearoa
  • Friday, August 2 Collaborative Science and Coastal Adaptation
  • Saturday, July 20 CLIMATE CHANGE AND RELATIVITY – SOME PARALLELS
  • Sunday, July 14 DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON 1919 AND BEYOND
  • Tuesday, July 2 The Sandiford Line
  • Saturday, June 22 A Curiosity of Cusps
  • Monday, June 3 Federal Election 2019 and Coasts
  • Monday, May 13 Mangrove Generations
  • Sunday, May 5 John Sinclair of K’Gari (Fraser Island) 1939 – 2019
  • Monday, April 22 The Mighty Ord
  • Thursday, March 28 Climate change adaptation: perspectives from Canada and England
  • Monday, March 18 Foreshore land grants in eastern Sydney
  • Friday, March 15 The right to bath on the beach
  • Wednesday, March 6 Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program
  • Thursday, February 21 Future national need for a healthy environment
  • Wednesday, February 13 ANZGG CONFERENCE AT INVERLOCH, VICTORIA
  • Wednesday, February 6 Coastal science and the Murray River mouth
  • Saturday, February 2 INDIA COASTAL MANAGEMENT
  • Tuesday, January 15 Sydney Harbour Sea Fog – Summer of 2018/2019
  • Saturday, January 5 COASTAL RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION
2018 (31)
  • Monday, December 17 CLIFF-TOP DUNES
  • Saturday, December 15 The whereabouts of climate change adaptation
  • Sunday, December 2 Observations from a long time marine debris collector.
  • Sunday, December 2 Backbarrier flats – a relic coastal landform
  • Monday, November 19 King Tides in Venice
  • Wednesday, November 14 27TH NSW COASTAL CONFERENCE 2018
  • Monday, November 12 Is the coast losing out with NRM? Proposed changes for South Australia
  • Saturday, November 3 Slicks (Part 2)
  • Tuesday, October 16 Twofold Bay – A Great Coastal Laboratory
  • Sunday, October 7 VALE: Professor John Chappell FAA (1940-2018)
  • Thursday, September 27 Coasts and Legal Systems
  • Sunday, September 16 Moods of Sydney Harbour
  • Sunday, August 26 Community Consultation
  • Saturday, August 18 Managing water quality through regenerative agriculture
  • Friday, August 3 Tomorrow’s Coasts – Complex and Impermanent
  • Thursday, July 12 Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission
  • Monday, July 2 New South Wales Coastal Reforms – NSW Coastal Council’s first meeting
  • Tuesday, June 26 Victoria’s Coastal Reforms – ‘fit for purpose’ or an opportunity lost?
  • Wednesday, June 20 New SA Government promises improved coastal management
  • Thursday, June 14 OCCUPATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENTAL SHELF
  • Wednesday, May 30 National Budgets – Some Thoughts
  • Wednesday, May 16 Guiding Principles for Marine and Coastal Management
  • Friday, May 4 Last Interglacial Marine Deposits at Mary Ann Bay, Tasmania
  • Sunday, April 29 Coast to Coast Hobart 2018
  • Thursday, April 5 Coastal Reforms in New South Wales – The Next Stage
  • Monday, March 26 Coastal Archaeology
  • Monday, March 12 Barrier Islands – An American Obsession?
  • Monday, February 26 Climate Change Adaptation in Australia – A Loss of Momentum
  • Thursday, February 15 Bruce Thom Blog – SUMMERAMA
  • Wednesday, January 31 King tides and extreme events
  • Sunday, January 14 Coastal Geomorphology 101
2017 (39)
  • Friday, December 29 Bruce Thom Blog – Speaking Truth to Power
  • Wednesday, December 20 National Surfing Reserves
  • Thursday, December 14 Beachrock
  • Saturday, December 9 Higher Tides
  • Monday, December 4 Keeping the Murray Mouth open
  • Monday, November 27 Victorian Coastal Management in 2017
  • Thursday, November 16 26th NSW Coastal Conference at Port Stephens
  • Thursday, October 26 Ancestral rivers and terraces
  • Monday, October 16 Murray Valley: a recent visit
  • Wednesday, October 11 The National Construction Code and coastal planning
  • Tuesday, September 19 Geomorphic evolution of Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth
  • Wednesday, September 13 Queensland Coastal Conference 2017 – Ten years in the making
  • Tuesday, September 5 Hurricane Harvey and its implications
  • Friday, September 1 Gippsland (Victoria) and relative sea level rise
  • Sunday, August 27 US Office of Naval Research and the Australian Coast
  • Monday, August 21 Managing the unique wetlands of Gippsland Lakes
  • Thursday, August 10 Lifecycle of coastal environmental law
  • Friday, July 28 Charlie Veron – A Life Underwater
  • Sunday, July 23 Coastal Sediment Management
  • Friday, July 7 Coastal walks -Malabar Headland National Park, Sydney
  • Friday, June 30 Honeycomb Weathering
  • Friday, June 23 Disaster preparedness
  • Wednesday, May 31 Sept-Iles: Managing a migrating foreland
  • Wednesday, May 24 Achievements of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
  • Saturday, May 13 Coastal Shacks
  • Wednesday, April 26 Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville
  • Thursday, April 20 The Blue Mud Bay case – Aboriginal property rights in the Northern Territory
  • Tuesday, April 4 Botany Bay Sands
  • Saturday, March 25 Wave Energy Resource
  • Wednesday, March 15 Clustering of Storms
  • Wednesday, March 15 Cape to Cape: A voyage around Botany Bay
  • Tuesday, March 7 The “Venice Effect”
  • Monday, February 27 Port Stephens Bioherms
  • Thursday, February 9 Coast Ambassadors
  • Friday, February 3 Coastal Graphics
  • Tuesday, January 31 Irukandji on the move
  • Tuesday, January 24 Acceleration in mean sea level
  • Wednesday, January 11 Concerns of an American coastal scientist under a Trump presidency
  • Sunday, January 8 EXTREME STORM EVENTS IN THE USA, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2021
  • About us
  • Get involved
  • News and events
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact us

Banner Photography by Pixabay

© 2023 Australian Coastal Society. All Rights Reserved.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • LinkedIn