Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria

Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH)

Introduction

The Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH) comprises those administratively responsible for the major Australian Herbaria with the aim of promoting all matters of interest to herbaria in Australia and to increase cooperation and understanding between herbaria. Its operations are governed by a Constitution and a Statement of Objectives.

CHAH does not have an ABN. Currently it uses the ABN of Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne where the CHAH funds are held.
The ABN of the RBG Melbourne is 36 600 553 934.

Membership

Membership of CHAH consists of the heads of:

Australia

• Plant Biodiversity Centre (State Herbarium of South Australia), Adelaide (AD) [website]
• Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane (BRI) [website]
• Australian National Herbarium, Canberra (CANB) [website]
• Tasmanian Herbarium, Hobart (HO) [website]
• National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne (MEL) [website]
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, Sydney (NSW) [website]
• Northern Territory Herbarium, Darwin (DNA) [website]
• Western Australian Herbarium, Perth (PERTH) [website]

and
a Council Member representing the constituent collections of the National Collection of Fungi (including BRIP, DAR and VPRI) and a representative of the Australian University Herbaria.

New Zealand

• Allan Herbarium, Christchurch, NZ (CHR) [website]
• Te Papa Herbaria, Wellington, NZ (WELT) [website]
• Auckland Museum Herbarium, NZ (AK) [website]

Contact list (Word doc) for Australian members, June 2007.

Australian Herbaria

The contact details and holdings of Australia's 28 major herbaria are listed on the web site Resources of Australian Herbaria, based on the 1999 publication by Kirsten Cowley and Judy West with statistics updated in September 2002.

Meetings

The Council meets annually, the host institution rotating among the capital cities in the following order:

The business of CHAH is governed by a constitution. Most matters are resolved by consensus.

Barbara Briggs has outlined her recollections of the early history of CHAH meetings in the 1970s.

Observers

CHAH invites observers from kindred organizations to its meetings. At present there are observers from:

• Papua New Guinea National Herbarium (LAE)
• Council of Heads of Australian Fauna Collections (CHAFC)
• Council of Australian Museum Directors (CAMD)
• Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS)
• Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG)

Subcommittees and working groups

From time to time CHAH establishes subcommittees and/or working groups from among its member institutions to attend to and report on particular issues.

• The Herbarium Information Systems Committee (HISCOM) has representatives of the computing and information technology programs of each partcipating institution and deals with the application of new technologie in herbarium management, botanical research and information delivery.
• A particular project of CHAH and HISCOM is Australia's Virtual Herbarium which aims to provide integrated and shared access to a wide range of information held and produced by Australian Herbaria. Australian herbaria are collaborating to capture all the information from their herbarium collections and to provide and share this information for research, education and environmental decision-making. (ppt resources)
• A new CHAH project is the Australian Plant Census, a collaborative project of all the major Australian herbaria which aims to provide a consensus view of the accepted plant names and their synonyms, with explanations of alternative taxonomic opinions and areas of taxonomic uncertainty or confusion. This on-line resource is based on the database of the Australian Plant Name Index. (ppt resources)
• CHAH maintains a 'work in progress' biographical listing of collectors and illustrators for the Australian flora:
  Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators

Australian Botanical Liaison Officer (ABLO)

• Guidelines for the selection and appointment of the Australian Botanical Liaison Officer (ABLO) at Kew.
• Profile, duties and tasks - draft outline 2003.
• Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) support of ABLO.
• Call for applications for ABLO close in August

Reports and documents

CHAH has produced a number of reports that are of interest to the herbarium and botanical community:

• Curation Standards by Tim Entwisle & Kristina McColl, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, 26 September 2000
• Integrated Pest Management in Herbaria by Tony Martin, Lucy Nairn & Tim Entwisle, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, 28 September 2000
• Resources of Australian Herbaria by Kirsten Cowley and Judy West, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra.
• Conditions of Loan and Exchange - sample document for use by any Australian herbarium, prepared CANB November 2002.
• Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators - a web resource of biographical information on collectors and illustrators for the Australian flora.

CHAH Participants
	State Herbarium of South Australia, Adelaide (AD) http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/	Andrew Lowe (Bill Barker CHAH rep)
	Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane (BRI) http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/herbarium	Gordon Guymer
	Australian National Herbarium, Canberra (CANB) http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/	Judy West
	Herbarium of the Northern Territory, Darwin (DNA) http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/wildlife/plants/index.html	Dale Dixon
	Tasmanian Herbarium, Hobart (HO) http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/Herbarium/Herbarium2.htm	Gintaras Kantvilas
	National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne (MEL) http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/research_and_conservation/herbarium	Dave Cantrill
	National Herbarium of New South Wales, Sydney (NSW) http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/conservation_research/systematics_research	Brett Summerell
	Western Australian Herbarium, Perth (PERTH) http://www.naturebase.net/content/view/125/483/	Kevin Thiele
	Allan Herbarium, Christchurch, NZ (CHR) http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/db_details.asp?Database_Collection_ID=1	Ilse Breitweisser
	Te Papa Herbaria, Wellington, NZ (WELT) http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/Tepapa/	Patrick Brownsey
	Auckland Museum, NZ (AK) http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/
	Herbaria within Australian Universities	Murray Henwood
	Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra (ABRS) http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/	Cameron Slatyer