Collaboration meetings with academics at UWA, Canberra University and an international conference presentation of new research in Melboune, Australia.

Soil is everywhere & it is therefore often an important form of physical evidence that can be used to solve a crime. Although prolific, soil can have very specific properties which can identify precise geographic sources. Many chemical and biological components of a soil vary even at the microscopic scale and they can not therefore be used confidently to make comparison between samples taken from different locations. However, the most common mineral in a soil is quartz; it survives through geological time and is resistant to most chemical and mechanical environmental processes. Such survival does however, come at a cost to the quartz grain.Scratches, indentations and etchings occur upon the surface of each quartz grain resulting in distinctive patterns which reflect the geological history of that grain. Because quartz is so common and because the history of a sediment or soil can be so varied in comparison to other soils and sediments, these surface features provide a very distinctive comparison between different geographical areas and thus are of great importance in forensic enquiry. Our prize winning work (The P W Allen award from the Forensic Science Society 2007) concerning the forensic application of quartz grain surface texture analysis provides an embryonic database for England derived from soil samples taken during forensic case work. To enhance the capabilities of this technique this database needs to be developed beyond the borders of the UK. In the last ten years, the academic community in Australia and New Zealand have lead the way in forensic palynology and botany, both developing the technique and providing evidence for its application and use. It is hoped that collaboration with a number of Australian academics and forensic practitioners will enable me to assess the viability of quartz grain surface texture analysis as a form of analysis in forensic situations in Australia which has hitherto not been attempted in a forensic context. In addition a further aim is to assess its ability to provide complementary, independent and corroborative analysis that complements the existing forms of analysis for geoforensic evidence in Australia. Our world is becoming progressively more interconnected and crime is increasingly being carried out across international borders. The future of forensic geoscience (the application of soils and sediments to forensic investigations) lies in its ability to respond to the international nature of crime detection making the development of this database crucial.Specifically, the 3 main objectives are: Firstly, to present this technique to academics at the Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia, and to hold discussions with them concerning a future collaborative research project. It is hoped that this project will utilise a wide range of expertise to assess the complementarity of quartz grain surface texture analysis with other biological and chemical forms of analysis for geoforensic investigation in west Australia. Secondly, to follow up a seed project which we have just embarked on with Dr James Robertson (Forensic Laboratories of the Australian Federal Police) & Dr Chris Lennard (University of Canberra) concerning the potential for applying this technique to geoforensic situations in east Australia. Additional fieldwork will be carried out and discussions concerning the direction of future research in this area will be undertaken. Thirdly, the initial findings of this seed project will be presented as a paper at the 19th International Symposium on the Forensic Sciences in Melbourne. This conference will provide opportunities to disseminate our findings at an international level and present opportunities to meet and have discussions with the international forensic science community. It is expected that newly forged relationships will enable future research into the applicability of quartz grain surface texture analysis at an international scale.