Development of geochronology in Victoria.

Quantitative geochronology in Victoria began over 50 years ago with the setting up of a Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at the Museum of Applied Science in Melbourne. Although this embryonic laboratory struggled throughout its life, and was eventually closed in 1970, it was followed by a new and much stronger phase centred on the development of fission-track dating initially at the University of Melbourne and Rb-Sr dating at La Trobe University. The most recent phase, since about 1990, has involved extensive collaboration between the universities in Melbourne and the joint development of a breadth of additional geochronological facilities and methods, mostly centred on noble-gas mass spectrometry, TIMS and, most recently, multi-collector ICP-MS. Today, geochronology in Victoria based on this extensive arsenal is applied to an ever-widening range of applications across the geological sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]