Dr Matt Cupper

BA, BSc (Hons), PhD (Melb)

Research Fellow

School of Earth Sciences

The University of Melbourne

 

 

 

Biography:

Dr Matt Cupper has a wide background in the sciences and humanities, with degrees in archaeology and classical history, geology and botany from the University of Melbourne.

Matt's particular area of expertise is the interaction of Aboriginal people and arid ecosystems in the interior of Australia. His 2003 PhD examined hydrological and ecological change in the desert dunefields of the Murray-Darling Basin over the Late Quaternary.

Current collaborative research projects include investigating the geomorphic contexts and ages of extinct megamarsupial fossil localities at Keilor (with Tim Stone, The University of Melbourne), Lancefield (with Joe Dortch, The University of Western Australia, and Rainer Grün, The Australian National University), Menindee (with Jacqui Duncan, La Trobe University) and in recently discovered caves on the Nullarbor Plain (with Gavin Prideaux, Flinders University, and John Long, Museum of Victoria). Matt has also dated several early human occupation sites in the Murray-Darling Basin including at Kow Swamp and in the Menindee and Willandra Lakes. He is involved in a number of projects examining Late Pleistocene coastal sandplain and shoreline sequences including those of the Pacific rim in southeastern Australia, New Zealand and Central America.

Contact details:                                                      Affiliations:                          

e-mail: cupper@unimelb.edu.au

tel: +61 3 8344 6521

mob: +61 408 006 690

fax: +61 3 8344 7761

 

Member - ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity

Postal:

School of Earth Sciences

The University of Melbourne

Victoria 3010 Australia

Public Officer - Australasian Quaternary Association Inc.

Publications:

Refereed publications:

 

Gardner, T., Webb, J., Pezzia, C., Amborn, T., Tunnell, R., Flanagan, S., Merritts, D., Marshall, J., Fabel, D. and Cupper, M.L. (in press). Episodic intraplate deformation of stable continental margins: evidence from Late Neogene and Quaternary marine terraces, Cape Liptrap, Southeastern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews. pdf

Smith, M.A., Williams, A.N., Turney, C.S.M. and Cupper, M.L. (2008). Human-environment interactions in Australian drylands: exploratory time-series analysis of archaeological records. The Holocene 18, 389-401. pdf

Quigley, M.C., Sandiford, M. and Cupper, M.L. (2007). Distinguishing tectonic from climatic controls on range-front sedimentation. Basin Research 19, 491-505. pdf

Prideaux, G.J., Long, J.A., Ayliffe, L.K., Hellstrom, J.C., Pillans, B., Boles, W.E., Hutchinson, M.N., Roberts, R.G., Cupper, M.L., Arnold, L.J., Devine, P.D. and Warburton, N.M. (2007). An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia. Nature 445, 422-425. pdf

Cupper, M.L. and Duncan, J. (2006). Last glacial megafaunal death assemblage and early human occupation at Lake Menindee, southeastern Australia. Quaternary Research 66, 332-341. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2006). Luminescence and radiocarbon chronologies of playa sedimentation in the Murray Basin, southeastern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 2594-2607. pdf

Webb, S., Cupper, M.L. and Robins, R. (2006). Pleistocene human footprints from the Willandra Lakes, southeastern Australia. Journal of Human Evolution 50, 405-413. pdf

Quigley, M.C., Cupper, M.L. and Sandiford, M. (2006). Quaternary faults of south-central Australia: palaeoseismicity, slip rates and origin. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 53, 285-301. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2005). Last glacial to Holocene evolution of semi-arid rangelands in southeastern Australia. The Holocene 15, 541-553. pdf

Stone, T. and Cupper, M.L. (2003). Last Glacial Maximum ages for robust humans at Kow Swamp, southern Australia. Journal of Human Evolution 45, 99-111. pdf

Cupper, M.L., Drinnan, A.N. and Thomas, I. (2000). Holocene palaeoenvironments of salt lakes in the Darling Anabranch region, south-western New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Biogeography 27, 1079-1094. pdf

Cupper, M.L. and Ward, W.T. (2000). Palaeoecological transition in southwestern New South Wales: ecosystem change in pollen assemblages revealed using fuzzy analysis. Quaternary Australasia 18, 34-40. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (1998). Chenopodiaceae: Casuarinaceae pollen ratios and soil salinization in the Murray-Darling Basin. Quaternary Australasia 16, 28-34.

 

Chapters in books:

 

Cupper, M.L., White, S. and Neilson, J.L. (2003). Quaternary: Ice Ages environments of change. In Geology of Victoria. (Ed. Birch, W.D.). pp. 337-360. (Geological Society of Australia). pdf

 

Non-refereed publications:

 

Cupper, M.L. and Gallagher, S.J. (editors) (2007). Climate change or human impact? Australia's megafaunal extinction, Selwyn Symposium of the GSA Victoria Division, September 2007. Geological Society of Australia Extended Abstracts 79. pdf

Clark, D.J., van Dissen, R., Cupper, M.L. and Collins, C. (2007). Temporal clustering of surface ruptures on stable continental region faults: a case study from the Cadell Fault scarp, southeastern Australia. In XVII INQUA Congress Abstracts. Quaternary International 167/168. p. 72. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2007). Late Quaternary hydrology of salt lakes in the western Murray Basin, southeastern Australia. In XVII INQUA Congress Abstracts. Quaternary International 167/168. p. 86. pdf

Gardner, T., Pezzia, C., Tunnell, R., Flanagan, S., Merritts, D., Marshall, J., Webb, J. and Cupper, M.L. (2007). Deformation of late Neogene and Quaternary marine terraces, Cape Liptrap, southeastern Victoria, Australia. In XVII INQUA Congress Abstracts. Quaternary International 167/168. p. 132. pdf

Smith, M.A., Williams, A., Turney, C.S.M. and Cupper, M.L. (2007). Human-environment interactions in Australian drylands: time series analysis of archaeological records. In XVII INQUA Congress Abstracts. Quaternary International 167/168. pp. 392-393. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2007). Ice Age cold case. Australasian Science 28, 16-17. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2006). Surviving the Ice Age: evolution of the vegetation of the Mallee over the last glacial and Holocene. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 118, 9. pdf

Cupper, M.L. (2001). Playa lake environments in the Murray Basin during the last glacial cycle. The Victorian Geologist (May), pp. 1-2.

Cupper, M.L. (2000). Mid-late Holocene changes in a Mediterranean-type ecosystem in the Anabranch region, southwestern New South Wales, Australia. In Abstracts from the XVth INQUA Congress held in Durban, South Africa,3-11 August 1999. Quaternary International 63/64. (Eds. M. Avery and T. Partridge). pp. 45-46.

 

Media interviews and articles:

Cool Jobs: Geoscientist

ABC TV2, Ace Day Jobs, 22 Nov 2007.

http://www.abc.net.au/acedayjobs/cooljobs/profiles/s2094685.htm

Frozen Out?

Article by Paul Heinrichs, The Age, 13 Aug 2006, p. 3

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/frozen-out/2006/08/12/1154803145306.html

Fossil footprints are from Ice Age

Article by Rebecca Scott, UniNews, 6 Feb 2006,p. 6

http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_3128.html

 

Stone Age Footwork: Ancient human prints turn up down under

Article by Bruce Bower, Science News, 7 Jan 2006,p. 3

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060107/fob1.asp

 

Fossilised footprints hark back to Ice Age

Interview with Jennifer Macey, ABC Radio The World Today, 22 Dec 2005

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1536570.htm

 

Revealed: the runners of 20,000BC

Article by Deborah Smith, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Dec 2005,p.1

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/12/21/1135032083655.html

 

Earliest human footprints in Australia

Interview with Anna Sellah, ABC Science Online, 21 Dec 2005

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1532698.htm

 

Academics argue over the age of Victorian skeletons

Article by Stephen Cauchi, The Age, 9 Jan 2004,p. 3

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/08/1073437416715.html

 

Climate change, new dates may solve pre-history riddle

Media Release by Jason Major, The University of Melbourne, 9 Jan 2004

http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_1160.html

 

Keywords:Murray River, Darling River, Optically stimulated luminescence, OSL,geomorphology, Lake Mungo, Lake Menindee, Lake Garnpung, dunes, Matthew L.Cupper, Matthew Cupper