A History

The Australian Hydrographers’ Association was born in the late 1970’s, evolving out of the technical group meetings related to activities of the then Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC) in that period.

Water data collection was in the process of beginning to move from ‘tomes’ of paper based sacred hydrological data and information into the beginnings of the electronic era that today many younger hydrographers take for granted as now easily accessible and obtainable at the click of a mouse button. Hydrographers were involved in the AWRC technical committees on data collection and instrumentaion (just to name a couple) and many shared the common belief that collecting the best quality water data enabled the production of best quality water information which would then feed into the best decisions for Australia’s Water Resources.

In the 1960’s and 70’s there was a national program of investment in hydrographic infrastructure expansion. It was a time for building things hydrographic and many weirs and gauging stations were built across the nation with a rapid expansion in gauging station numbers and a focus on water assessment for human uses. Unfortunately the end of this funding program for infrastructure did not carry over into funding the continual operation of the greatly expanded networks and gradually the numbers in the network began to slowly decrease as authorities chose to make ‘core business’ decisions on maintaining gauging station networks due to the lack of funding to maintain and operate existing sites, let alone upgrade the network with newer equipment or technologies.

Australian Hydrographers, who were members of these technical committees, as well as working in authorities with a decreasing operational funding committment and covering (at times) vast operational areas with limited staff,  also happened to be at the edge of the  new ‘digital’ revolution. In their co-operative work in the technical committees they saw the opportunity to develop water data collection systems and processes that would hopefully enable effective water data collection to continue across the nation.

These Hydrographers also saw the need for a body that would enable a forum for ideas, techniques and technological answers to issues hydrographic. The body would work towards the ideals below that would eventually form the basis of Objectives of the Constitution of The Australian Hydrographers Association

  • To encourage the development of all aspects of Hydrometric data collection, processing, analysis and presentation throughout Australia.
  • To contribute to the knowledge of, and encourage interest in Australia’s water resources and management and utilisation of such resources.
  • To provide a forum for the interchange of knowledge and ideas of  the above.
  • To represent the interests of all Australian Hydrographers and support staff.

    • In 1978 the first Australian Hydrographic Workshop was convened under the AWRC banner. It was during the proceedings of this workshop that the Australian Hydrographers Association was born. Over the following twenty years activities of the Association revolved around the AWRC sponsored (in name only) biennial workshops, where many hydrographers attended at their own own expense but in some instances were supported by their employer to attend (if the workshop was in the hometown!) In the early 90’s the Associations was incorporated in the ACT

    In 1998 the Association went into a two year hiatus until November, 2000 where, at the 3rd International Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, a number of Australian Hydrographers in attendance decided that the Australian Hydrographers Association needed to be woken up again to that which is now the currentyet continuing to evolve Australian Hydrographers Association Incorporated (NSW)

    A Time of Changing Communications

    The first Australian Hydrographers Newsletter was published in April, 1979, and was regularly published at quarterly intervals. It provided a means to circulate information about hydrography, technical advances in hydrography, the development of the new ‘digital’ revolution, information about the technical committees of AWRC and the proceedings of Hydrographic Workshops.

    Publication of the Newsletter was (and still is) an important method to get hydrographic news and information to a widely dispersed profession from the roof of Australia in the depths of winter to the oven like interiors of central Australia in summer, to even those hydrographers working underground!

    In 1995 the publication was renamed the Australasian Hydrographer in recognition of a membership expanding outside Australia, as well as an increasing amount Australian Hydrographers working on international projects and programs particularly in New Guinea and the South Pacific.

    In 2001 the Association launched its first foray into the world wide web with a basic site on a free server. Being free though, and in a period of short lived ISPs, the site was moved to another free site, but it was soon realised that chasing free websites could not go on and in 2002 the domain name www.aha.net.au was registered to the Australian Hydrographers Association Inc and server space bought.

    This site was recently revamped (2009) to make information more easy to access for users as well as improve the management of the site.