The health and welfare of any intellectual pursuit resonates with the social and political realities of the day. In our own days, issues of eco-irrationalism fuelled by rampant managerialism threaten so many traditional aspects of university research. Where does Quaternary science stand in this context? Traditional values of scholarship have come under a range of new pressures, some would say outright attack. Classical Studies, Greek and History have all come under the axe in various universities. This should ring alarm bells, for so much of our work rates as pure history. History defends itself by its "shaping of society". Earth history may well "shape the earth" but in an increasingly urban environment with a culture almost myopically transfixed on "heroes of sport" who really cares? Is Quaternary history really relevant to any but the scholarly and idealistic members of AQUA? If so, who are they, and are we really delivering the product? Many claims for Quaternary relevance to applied problems of the day are often difficult to support to hard-nosed engineers or model pragmatists. In an environment where human impact now dominates over so many elements of natural change, what hierarchy can be claimed for historically based studies of plants, landscapes, animals or even people for that matter? For those of us imbued with confidence and enthusiasm for our discipline, an important question remains. Are we delivering to those who most need our information? Is academia in this area, really performing to meet Australia's needs?
Maybe we can take a leaf from the many books of our colleague historians. The most successful are good storytellers. Quaternary Australia has some great stories to tell. How are we going to get those stories across?