What’s in a name? – Mt Geikie and the recognition of glaciation in Tasmania

Although glaciation of the Tasmanian highlands was recognised by early explorers, it was in the 1890s that Edward Dunn and Thomas B. Moore provided the first formal descriptions and maps – the Lake Dora–Tyndall Range glaciated area in western Tasmania. The Victorian geologist E.J. Dunn published the first map in 1893 with a description of glacial features of the Lake Rolleston–Lake Dora area. Moore described glacial features over a larger area than Dunn, including the Tyndall Range, and named one of the mountains in that area, Mount Geikie, in honour of pioneering work on glacial geology that had been carried out in the British Isles. Publication of Moore’s paper caused quite a colonial stir; in particular, Moore’s claim to be the first to record evidence of (Quaternary) glaciation in Tasmania. In fact, neither Dunn nor Moore were the first to observe the effects of glaciation though they presented the first early maps of glaciation of the Lake Dora–Tyndall Mountains area of the West Coast Ranges.