Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria

Introduction

The Council of Heads of Australian 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. A Statement of Objectives is being developed and is presently in a draft form.

Membership

At present, membership of CHAH consists of the heads of:

• 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)
• National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne (MEL) [website]
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, Sydney (NSW) [website]
• Northern Territory Herbarium, Darwin (DNA)
• Western Australian Herbarium, Perth (PERTH) [Florabase website]

[contact list]

CHAH Participants
	State Herbarium of South Australia, Adelaide (AD)	Laurie Haegi
	http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/science/state-herbarium/overview.html
	Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane (BRI)	Gordon Guymer
	http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/herbarium
	Autralian National Herbarium, Canberra (CANB)	Judy West
	http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/
	Herbarium of the Northern Tettitory, Darwin (DNA)	Greg Leach
	Tasmanian Herbarium, Hobart (HO)	Gintaras Kantvilas
	National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne (MEL)	Jim Ross
	http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/ps/
	National Herbarium of New South Wales, Sydney (NSW)	Tim Entwisle
	http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/
	Western Australian Herbarium, Perth (PERTH)	Neville Marchant
	http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/
	Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra (ABRS)	Ian Cresswell
	http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/

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.

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 concensus.

Observers

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

• New Zealand National Herbarium Network
• 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 HISCOM is the Virtual Australian Herbarium which aims to provides integrated and shared access to a wide range of information held and produced by Australian Herbaria.

Reports

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