South Australia Branch Meeting, September 2019

The speaker for the September meeting of the SA Branch was Peter Josef Kasprzak. The talk mainly discusses his master’s work at the Biometry Hub, Adelaide University which looks at the use of sampling methods in agriculture trials. The ultimate aim is to make robust sampling methods available to end users such as farmers who may have little computational experience. However, first there has to be a proof of concept for a semi-automated sampling protocol in a typical agricultural scenario. The motivating scenario was a seed trial where the emergence of faba bean seedlings was estimated. Automatic data collection using drones was explored and computer vision and machine learning techniques for image processing was compared in a sampling context.

A data collection protocol for sampling is not always conducted in agricultural experiments. An exploration of the literature found that often papers offered no justification for sample sizes used. This exacerbates the issue of non-reproducibility of experiments highlighted by Baker (2016) where more than 70% of researchers failed to reproduce another scientists experiments and 50% failed to reproduce their own.  It’s clear that an unbiased random sampling protocol is needed to ensure good study design.

Mcintyre (1952) introduced the ranking set sampling (RSS) method (without theoretical justification). RSS compares the units before the final selection which increases the structure on the measured data, without analysis of all the sampled units (Ozturk and Wolfe, 2000). In common agriculture distributions RSS performs better than other sampling methods for example simple random sampling SRS. Takahasi and Wakimoto (1968) showed the theory behind RSS showing the variance of RSS will always be less than SRS. RSS has the advantage that ranking can be done with auxiliary variable which are highly correlated and easily gathered variables. While the infinite paradigm of RSS is well mapped the finite paradigm is not.

In a field trial scenario the sampling paradigm is finite. In finite sampling there are 3 different levels of replacement. No items returned, all items returned and all items returned except for the selected unit. Simulation is an obvious tool to determine what sort and level of sampling should be undertaken. R Shiny was used to create a web based app which performs a simulation study based on different sampling protocol. Simply load in some data and simulations can be run in real time which robustly select the best sampling protocol. The app outputs a csv file with positions in the field to be sampled.

So how can this be implemented in the faba bean emergence trial? A drone was used to collect images of a field where faba bean seedlings were emerging at the plot level. Manual and automated flights were undertaken with image stitching of footage needed before processing for prediction of individual seedlings could be undertaken. Microsoft ICE and webODM, both free programs, used to stitch the smaller images taken by the drone together to form a composite image were compared.  webODM proved to be a superior program for handling changing conditions, but required an intermediate level of computing knowledge to use.  ICE was very simple to use, but was far more susceptible to changing conditions, and blurred joins in the final composite. With the final composite image, two approaches for processing the image and predicting the seedling numbers were compared-Computer Vision (CV) and Neural Networks (NN).  Python programs for CV and NN were used to obtain an estimate per pre-specified grid area in the field, which was then used in the sampling app as a ranking variable for the RSS protocol.  The study found that CV is easier to use but NN were superior as long as there is an adequate training set size which is diverse. In CV there are limited options to deal with false positives in high level stubble and potential over fitting can occur in NN with a greater level of work required to create the training data set. Issues such as seedling stress, nutrient and water stress effect the colours that you get in CV but NN can sort this out. An ideal solution is to use both in conjunction- start with CV to propose positive candidates and then use NN to disqualify false positives to leave only true hits to improve ranking.

The Shiny app sampling coordinates can be matched to the photographic coordinates. This means that images collected and processing by NN can be mapped to sampling coordinate position.  Pete presented results from the faba bean study which compared different finite sampling scenarios under SRS and RSS. The results showed that RSS was superior across all finite sampling replacement scenarios with relative efficiencies (variance SRS/variance RSS *100) between 143.1-216.1.

McIntyre, G. A. (1952). A Method for Unbiased Selective Sampling,Using Ranked Sets. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research,(3):385-390.

Ozturk, O. and Wolfe, D. A. (2000). Optimal allocation procedure in ranked set sampling for unimodal and multi-modal distributions. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 7(4):343-356.

Takahasi, K. and Wakimoto, K. (1968). On unbiased estimates of the population mean based on the sample strati_ed by means of ordering. Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 20(1):1-31.

The detail of his talk can be found by contacting peter.kasprzak@adelaide.edu.au. A dinner was held right after the meeting at Sukhumvit Soi 38, 54 Pulteney Street, Adelaide.

By Helena Oakey

In the September meeting of the WA Branch, Mr Matt Schneider (CEO of Optika Solutions) presented a talk on “Population Sampling a Mixed Method Study”.The talk is available on You Tube and also on this website.

Matt Schneider presented the talk on the 10^th September at the University of Western Australia as part of the WA Branch of the monthly Statistical Society of Australia seminar series.

Optika Solutions is working with Water Corporation in transforming the way we think about urban water use in response to climate change and population growth challenges. H2OME incorporates the technology, data, and approach to determine how much water Perth should be using to preserve the liveability, amenity, and quality of life of the community.

The project aims to achieve this result through a multi-modal approach, using surveys, audits, and the installation of remote digital meters. Through a stratified sampling approach, with subpopulations grouped by region and household land size, the study guarantees representativeness across the Perth population to ensure the accuracy and applicability of these results.

The talk was around the use of a stratified sampling approach, populations and techniques that were looked at in selecting the overall approach.

H2OME has already been recognised, having won the Data Insights Of The Year category of the 2019 iAwards.

The talk brought many questions among other things about the pricing of water, and afterwards a select group attended a local nearby restaurant.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Matt Schneider is a founder and CEO of Optika Solutions. Optika is at the forefront of the algorithmic economy. Matt’s interests embrace the application of technology to innovative ground breaking solutions across a wide range of domains such as finance, mining, energy and health. Matt has orchestrated a wide range of consulting engagements both within Australia and overseas. These engagement have had transformational outcomes for the customers and delivered significant Return on Investment (ROI).

Scribe:  Brenton R Clarke

The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 held earlier this month was a roaring success. As part of this event, SSA Canberra was proud to sponsor two local students, Zhi Yang Tho and Yuehan (Joyce) Zhang, to attend the conference, listen and present their research, and most importantly expand their network and sow the seeds of future collaborations with other early career statisticians around Australia.We are honored to have both present their experiences of YSC, and you can read more about below. 

Francis Hui, Warren Muller, Phil Tennant

On behalf of SSA Canberra

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Zhi Yang Tho

The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 (held at Manuka Oval, Canberra) has been a wonderful and eye-opening experience for me as this was my first time attending an academic experience. I am grateful to be able to present my Honours research project to colleagues from a similar field of study. I also received feedback that can certainly help to improve the project. The conference included talks on a diverse range of topics, such as Population and Economics, Mathematical Statistics, Bioinformatics and Computer Science. I learnt a lot about the current trend and new findings in these fields from the presentation of the research projects of the other presenters.

The keynote speeches delivered in this conference were inspiring and helpful. Teresa Dickinson, Deputy Australian Statistician, gave an interesting talk about the role of Australian Bureau of Statistics in providing official statistics to inform Australia’s important decisions. Dr Alison’s speech with the topic “The Art of Literate Projecting” provided insight about good literate projecting practices that are important in accomplishing a successful project. Besides, the careers panel gave useful information about future career pathway for all young statisticians.

The Young Statisticians Conference was not just about talks. We also had two social events, which is the pre-conference Trivia Night on Monday evening and a conference dinner on Tuesday evening. The Trivia Night hosted by Francis, Emi, and Nidhi was fun and entertaining. The conference dinner was held at the Kingston Hotel to celebrate women in Statistics. In this event, sponsored by ACEMS, we created Wikipedia pages for women who had contributed to the field of Statistics. The conference dinner was a good way for delegates to socialise with each other and I had an interesting discussion about robust statistics with other delegates in the dinner.

I would like to thank Statistical Society of Australia Canberra branch for sponsoring my registration to attend the conference, and the organisers of the Young Statisticians Conference for such a wonderful event.

Zhi Yang Tho
03/10/2019

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Yuehan (Joyce) Zhang

It has been a great experience attending the 2019 Young Statisticians Conference as a student supported by the Statistical Society of Australia, Canberra Branch. I got to meet many intelligent young statisticians through this conference. Personally I think this conference was very well organised and very successful. I fully enjoyed the two-day event with so many interesting seminars, presentations, and a career panel. 

On the first day, Teresa Dickinson, deputy Australian statistician from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), introduced the work of Big Data that ABS is doing now. I have heard about big data and machine learning when I was a master student in China. After hearing Teresa’s presentation, I am now clearer about the concept of big data and how statistical analysis on big data differs from traditional statistical analysis. I am impressed by the ABS’s statisticians’ enthusiastic attitude on big data and how organised the work has been conducted. 

Many PhD candidates presented their work throughout the conference. The models of maths and statistics are sometimes hard to understand, however, I am so impressed  by the way they  presented their work in a way such that other people can understand easily. Many PhD students explained their models step by step, how they perfected the models, and use data to prove how the models were improved. From their presentations, I deeply feel that statistics is the future. Take epidemiology for example, many of the diseases has been studied by previous researchers, nowadays the hard part is how to look at the diseases in a deeper way. Statistics can help epidemiologists better interpret their findings. 

I enjoyed the career panel the most. I really want to thank the organisers  was creating such a career panel. As a PhD student myself, I sometimes can be confused about my future. Professor Louise Ryan’s speech in particular was really encouraging.. Like her, I’m also more likely to choose the harder way in life. She let me know that a person can only grow through hard work and experience, that choosing an easier way doesn’t mean life will be easy afterwards, and that it doesn’t matter if you’re not a good planner, as long as you follow your heart, you will learn to enjoy your life sooner or later. 

I’m also impressed by the organisers of this conference. They cooperated with each other so well, and they seem really close to each other. I like the atmosphere of the Statistical Society Australia as well, but particularly the Canberra Branch. I appreciate their work and have benefited very much from this conference. 

Yuehan Zhang
03/10/2019

     

                

          

             

 

                  

SSA Vic was delighted to support six PhD students to attend the recent Young Statisticians Conference in Canberra. 

Three of them share their experiences with us:

Ruoxu Tan (University of Melbourne):

It was a great experience at YSC2019 last week. I was delighted and excited to communicate with so many young statisticians and experienced professors. By listening to the presentations, I found that statistics is really an interdisciplinary subject: not only is it based on profound mathematics, but it also combines with computer science, bioinformatics, etc. to be so powerful to really make a difference in our lives. A particular example that interested me was data visualisation by a few presenters. That was beautiful and impressive through the natural way, vision. Besides, it was the first time I gave a formal talk at a conference. I was quite nervous at the beginning, but I believe it went well overall. By the way, the refreshments during the breaks were quite yummy. I appreciate that I've been to YSC2019.

Quoc Duyet Tran (RMIT):

This is the first time I joined Young Statistician Conference in Australia. I spent 4 days to attending YSC2019 in Canberra and I can’t forget this exciting time in my life. In the first day, I learned from the training workshop to learn how to access and build up the data from ABS for contributing in the future research. Then, in the late afternoon, how beautiful and fantastic Floriade festival in Canberra to enjoy and explore with various kinds of tulip flowers. The next two days, I and other delegates presented our topics and learned from each other. I found that lots of topics are very potential keys to figure out and research if we can collaborate with others. I expect to get more feedback and questions from other participants, but my talk duration is only 5 minutes before lunch. So, people don’t have time to ask me and I also don’t have time to explain more on my topic. However, I had share my topic through the break time and discuss with some new friends. The most valuable for me to gain from this conference is that I met some new talented friends and extended my network. Thanks to my supervisors, RMIT and SSA Vic for supporting me to attend the YSC2019. Hopefully, I will go to YSC2021!

Udani Wijewardhana (Swinburne University):

As a postgraduate student reading for a PhD, I was much privileged for the opportunity to participate at the recently concluded Young Statistician Conference 2019. Presenting my research to an academic audience and exchanging and learning new concepts and ideas was a memorable and priceless experience. The R Markdown workshop was extremely useful to me in learning the essential skills of drafting research papers and statistical websites in a more effective and attractive manner. The trivia night and conference dinner were awesome for networking with counterparts with similar interests. The program was well organised, and the committee very friendly and supportive. I definitely hope to attend next year's conference too and would like to sincerely thank SSA Vic for their supporting grant to make the YSC conference a possibility.

YSC2019 was sponsored by

     

                

          

             

 

                  

This month’s event was a showcase of talks presented by three young statisticians from the Vic Branch.  

The first presentation was by PhD student Jiadong Mao on methods for analysing streaming data. Streaming data are collected sequentially over a potentially infinite time period requiring real-time data estimation. Jiadong is developing nonparametric estimation approaches for streaming data that are computationally fast (easy to update) and adaptive to nonstationarity. He demonstrated an application of kernel density estimation to satellite data.

Next up was PhD student Rushani Wijesuriya who performed a comprehensive simulation study to compare different multiple imputation methods for handling missing data in three-level data structures (e.g. Naplan data where there are repeated waves of data collection from students clustered within schools). Rushani found that approaches which impute the missing data using a multilevel model performed better than simpler methods that impute data at a single level using a wide format.

Our final presentation was by PhD student Ravindi Nanayakkara who introduced us to cosmic microwave background data, which capture leftover radiation from the Big Bang. The data are complex requiring models to represent random fields on a sphere. Ravindi evaluated model fits using real and simulated data.

Julie Simpson

16 years ago, SSA included in its initial (2003 – 2007) Strategic Plan something called Strategic Objective 8: 

Promote the development and adoption of a [national] statistics course for Years 11 and 12 at school, based on the best teaching practices that can be utilised, together with appropriate training programs for teachers.

16 years later, some basis has been provided for this. 

The International Data Science in Schools Project (IDSSP, www.idssp.org) is a cross-disciplinary project involving an international team of computer scientists and statisticians from the leading professional organizations for both disciplines. Its purpose is to promote and support the teaching of Introductory Data Science, particularly in the final years of schooling, by developing

• a framework for introducing data science including topics, learning outcomes, and sample lesson plans
• excellent modular teaching and learning resources and associated assessment rubrics
• a moderated portal for ongoing sharing of materials and experience
• professional development services for teachers and teacher trainers

The project comprises two phases:

Phase 1. Develop a curriculum framework as the basis for development of resources to support teaching students a pre-calculus course on Introductory Data Science;
and
a corresponding framework to teach teachers how to teach students Introductory Data Science.

Phase 2. Develop the resources to support courses based on the curriculum frameworks, and devise and implement a course aimed at prospective teachers of Data Science.

The online report, Curriculum Frameworks for Introductory Data Science, sets out the frameworks developed under Phase 1.

The impetus for this project was a high-profile workshop, STEMS2016, held in response to the critical shortage of data scientists entering the workforce. It was initiated by the Statistical Society of Australia and involved academia, government and industry.  As a consequence, the SSA collaborated with the NZSA to scope an activity targeting school students and their teachers.  At first it was confined to Statistics education, but it rapidly became apparent that the great Data Science tidal wave was about to overwhelm everything, hence the broadened scope, and the strong representation of computer scientists, not to mention the strong support of the ACM, the world’s leading Computer Science society.

It is envisaged the Frameworks developed to date will be used not just in schools, but also as a valuable source of information for data science courses in community colleges and universities and for private study.

The supporting societies are now pondering how to build on this work.  The most ambitious option is to seek the funding to support a major international project to complete Phase 2.

For further information please send email to idssp.info@gmail.com, or visit www.idssp.org.

Nicholas Fisher

As we begin to understand the impact we’re having, more and more of us are striving to be responsible custodians of the planet we call home. Even simple things like recycling, riding to work instead of driving, or rejecting single-use plastic can go a long way to helping us live a more sustainable life. 

But what about those things outside our immediate control? Can we hold the businesses and organisations we support to the same high standards? Great news – there is a local organisation who is doing just that! 

The Responsible Investment Association Australasia^

In the world of banking and finance, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia^(RIAA) is the peak body representing responsible and ethical investors across Australia and New Zealand. 

With an active network of over 240 members, managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, the RIAA promotes and supports approaches to responsible investment, helping to achieve a more sustainable society, environment and economy. 

Know more about the RIAA and their processes. 

What to ask your Bank

With strong scientific evidence that the production and use of fossil fuels contributes to climate change, more and more of us are welcoming the shift to renewable energy. But does your bank share this public sentiment? 

Here are some questions you can ask to make sure your bank is acting responsibly:

• Are they involved in any activity that contributes to large-scale greenhouse pollution from the production of fossil fuels?
• Does your bank lend funds to any business or organisation that participates in the manufacture or distribution of harmful goods such as alcohol, armaments, pornography, uranium or tobacco?
• Are they involved in the financing of military activities, deforestation, correctional facilities, cryptocurrency, slavery or any kind of gross environmental damage?
• Does your bank sponsor contentious activities such as gambling, or donate money, gifts or employee time to support political candidates or organisations?

If the answer is "yes" to any of these, you can send a strong message that you don’t approve by shifting your accounts to a financial institution that acts in a more responsible manner. But it’s not only the potential damage your bank’s investments can do. Are they active in the community? What percentage of profits does your bank invest in social and environmental programs?

Know more about UniBank’s approach to responsible banking 

Socially responsible investments

As a member of UniBank, you can expect your investments to be handled ethically and responsibly. You don’t want your hard-earned money to fund businesses who don’t have our world’s best interests at heart. 

All retail mortgages and deposit accounts opened by UniBank are Certified as Responsible Investment. They have been independently Certified by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia^ (RIAA). 

Know more about UniBank’s certification by the RIAA.

By Phillip Middleton, UniBank

UniBank is a division of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited ABN 30 087 650 459 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238981.
Membership eligibility applies to join the Bank. Membership is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia who are current or retired employees, students and graduates of Australian universities or family members of members of the Bank.

^RIAA. Retail mortgages and deposits have been certified by RIAA according to the strict operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program. The Responsible Investment Certification Program does not constitute financial product advice. Neither the Certification Symbol nor RIAA recommends to any person that any financial product is a suitable investment or that returns are guaranteed. Appropriate professional advice should be sought prior to making an investment decision. RIAA does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence. Teachers Mutual Bank Limited's $1 billion Debt Issuance Programme has been certified by RIAA according to the strict operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program. www.responsibleinvestment.org   

The August meeting of the WA Branch has been held as a joint meeting of the Statistical Society of Australia, WA Branch and the International Biometric Society, Australasian Region since 2013. The occasion is used to invite a statistician whose work focuses on biometrics to deliver a presentation. The speaker this year was Dr Suman Rakshit from Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry (SAGI) West who works as a biometrician at Curtin University. Dr Rakshit has a background in research in spatial statistics and the analysis of point patterns. His current research primarily focuses on developing methods for the design and analysis of large-scale agricultural field trials.

Suman’s talk was titled ‘Statistical Inference for on-farm experiments with a focus on large strip trials’. He began by explaining the historical context of field trials in agricultural research, where the questions of interest traditionally involved testing differences in mean yields from applying qualitative or quantitative treatments, such as different cultivars or differing levels or timing of nitrogen application. Field trials of this kind were implemented on small plots on relatively uniform land, and the designs incorporated randomisation, replication and blocking. Much of the early theory of trial design and analysis was developed for this type of application.

New technology has brought new opportunities for agricultural research. In particular, motivated growers can now conduct experiments cost-effectively in their own paddocks by utilising variable rate application technology to vary inputs, and real-time sensors fitted to harvesters to collect vast amounts of data. In these situations, the question of interest changes from a comparison of treatments to working out how to best manage inputs to maximise profit. Rather than trying to answer a question that can be extrapolated to other growers and other farms, inference is local: the questions being answered relate only to the actual paddock on which the trial is implemented. With no knowledge of trial design theory, trials are often implemented systematically and in ways that make life easier, such as in long-strip plots with lengths greater than 200 metres. Statistical methods developed for small plot trials are not appropriate in this context.

Suman discussed an adaptation of geographically weighted regression for use in grower-initiated on-farm experimentation in order to analyse geo-referenced yield monitor data to obtain spatially-varying estimates of treatment effects, and demonstrated his proposed approach on a publically available dataset of corn-field fertilizer trial from Argentina. He concluded his talk by presenting derived maps of spatially varying relationships which could be used to guide grower decisions in paddock management.

Following the talk, further discussions were held at a nearby restaurant. Special thanks to SSAI WA Branch and IBS-AR for the pre-dinner drinks and post-dinner dessert/coffee, respectively.

Dr Karyn Reeves
Karyn.Reeves@curtin.edu.au

Not long now until YSC2019 and we are so excited to welcome you to Canberra! To date we have received close to 70 registrations, which means we are able to deliver a solid program, offering fascinating talks on many different topics. Sessions include “Population and economics”, “Applied biostatistics and biostatistics in practice”, “Computer science” and much more.  And don’t forget the Career Session at the end of the first day! Hear from first class statisticians how they turned their passion for statistics into successful careers they love.
A tentative program is now available on the conference website.

Our international keynote speaker is Alison Hill. She is busy putting the material together for her keynote address and her workshop “Communicating with R Markdown”. Keep in mind that the workshop, held at Manuka Oval, is available to everyone, not just conference delegates. Alison will demystify how R Markdown works “under the hood”. Participants will learn practical tools and workflows to increase their efficiency and productivity using R Markdown (including RStudio IDE features and templates), while learning how to use some extension packages along the way. You don’t need to be an advanced R Markdown user to be able to take advantage of this workshop.

Another course held in conjunction with YSC2019 is our workshop “Maximising the use of Australian Bureau of Statistics Data Products and Analysis Tools” and we are grateful to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for generously sponsoring this event.The one-day workshop will have two components. First, it will provide an overview of the wide variety of data sources from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that are available for analysts. Secondly, part it will focus on how Table Builder can produce data-cubes for a standard analysis in R.

One of the conference highlights, no doubt, will be the Trivia Night, kindly organised by the Canberra Branch. Again, this event is open to everyone keen to show off their trivia skills, not just YSC2019 delegates and it would be great to see lots of members of the Canberra Branch there as well. Being held at Manuka Oval you’ll be in for a real treat, as Manuka Oval will be supplying the refreshments.

If you need another incentive to travel to Canberra to YSC2019 (though why would you?), there is an amazing Dreamworks Animation exhibitionstarting at the National Museum of Australia in September. This Exhibitionexplores the essential ingredients— character, story and world— of the studio’s most popular films. Through interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, original concept art, maquettes, digital interactive displays and more, visitors can follow the creative path from sketch to screen.So if you are a fan of all things animated, or Shrek, Hiccup, or the gang from “Madagascar”, you won’t be disappointed.

Perhaps, though, you are into film-making yourself? Then you should enter this year’s Video-Competition.  At this stage we haven’t received many entries so it doesn’t take a statistician to conclude that you’re in with a real chance of taking home the prize! Not only that, if you win, we’ll be tweeting about you, mentioning you on social media and featuring your video at the next YSC in 2021, trying very hard to make you as famous as Shrek in no time! So throw your hat in the ring and be part of this year’s conference, even if you can’t make it to our conference in person.

One thing we are still fine-tuning is the conference dinnerat the Kingston Hotel. We received some really good ideas from our YSC2019 committee members, ensuring that it will be a fun night and not “just” a dinner. Details will be revealed in due course. The registration fee for the dinner is only $20 for conference delegates, but the meal alone will be worth more than that – let alone the entertainment and the drinks- and you can’t put a price on the fantastic company! Please join us for a great night out!

See you in Canberra!

Marie-Louise Rankin
SSA Executive Officer

     

                

          

             

 

                

 

 

The job of an Association Executive Officer is not without its perks. As we are all counting down the last days of winter, I was lucky enough to escape the chilly temperatures last week, having been invited to “Meet Darwin”, a familiarisation tour of Darwin and surrounds, compliments of the Northern Territory Business Bureau and Darwin Convention Centre.  Over four fabulous days I experienced the superb hospitality of the Northern Territory. It didn’t take me long to decide: Darwin would make a fantastic conference destination.

With average temperature highs of about 30C and no humidity at this time of year, all the delegates, including myself, relished in the opportunity to shed a few layers and walk around in short-sleeved shirts and summer sandals. This was the perfect clothing for the excursions planned for us, such as a trip out to Pudakul Aboriginal Cultural Tours area, watching a mesmerising sunset from the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets (of course!) before heading for an unforgettable dinner at Pee Wees at the Point, a visit to the National Critical Care Trauma and Response Centre, a harbour cruise and a scenic helicopter flight -truly a highlight of my visit.

On one of the mornings we were invited to a business session at the Darwin Convention Centre, where we heard inspiring talks about this exciting conference destination. The Darwin Convention Centre itself was impressive. It offers everything we have come to expect these days from a modern conference centre, but on a smaller scale, perfect for an event such as our Australian Statistical Conference. We were treated to the most amazing dinner there, enjoying a “Seven Seasons” dinner, a culinary journey inspired by the “Gulumoerrgin” seasons, the seasons followed by the Larrakia people. The Larrakia people are the traditional owners of the Darwin region. However, the food was fantastic wherever we went in Darwin. An abundance of first class restaurants provided stunning backdrops for what could be a very memorable conference dinner.

For me, having immigrated to Australia in my early thirties, Darwin and its surrounds symbolises quintessential Australia the way people from outside Australia imagine it: a country of akubras, crocodiles, didgeridoos and - of course- tropical sunshine. I found Darwin to be a vibrant town, offering so many delightful cultural experiences and stunning venues to stay at, have a drink or a quality meal.

If you are wondering where I am going with this review of a trip to Darwin, in a statistical newsletter, don’t wonder anymore. This trip raised the important question: Could we hold a conference there? It would certainly be an event to remember, one that would not only be a perfect break from winter weather, but a fantastic opportunity to bring your family along and extend it into a holiday. We might even draw a small crowd from South East Asia? What do our members think? Before you decide, watch this video – it may sway you.

I would love to hear your thoughts – don’t hold back! (eo@statsoc.org.au).

Marie-Louise Rankin
Executive Officer, SSA