Vale: Kevin Wake-Dyster (1953–2018) KevinWake-Dyster passed away in October 2018 following a 17 month long brave battle with a glioblastoma brain tumour. Kevin was born Kevin Wake in Kimba, a small town north of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. When his father died in a farming accident his family returned to his mother’s home town of Orooroo in South Australia, where his mother later met and married Colin Dyster and Kevin became Kevin Wake-Dyster. As both parents were school teachers the new family moved to Adelaide, where Kevin attended Adelaide High School. In 1974 he obtained a BSc (Hons) degree in geophysics from the University of Adelaide. After graduating from university Kevin joined Exploration Logging of Australia and worked on well-site surveys, mainly on the North-west Shelf. In 1976 he joined the Geophysical Branch of the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) and spent 1977 as an Antarctic geophysical observer, undertaking regional magnetic field survey work in Enderby Land and observatory duties at Mawson Station, where he looked after the geomagnetic and seismic observatories. He undertook similar duties at the Macquarie Island Observatory in 1979. When he returned to the BMR in Canberra Kevin joined the seismic group as a geophysicist and worked on the Central Eromanga Basin Project. He carried out several deep seismic reflection surveys throughout Queensland from 1980 to 1986, firstly as a field geophysicist and then as Party Leader. He was the lead author of many of the final reports of these BMR/AGSO deep seismic reflection surveys. Kevin married Pauline in 1987. They were introduced by Shiron, who was the wife of fellow geophysicist, Owen Dixon, who worked for GSQ. Kevin continued working in the BMR’s seismic group in the late eighties and early nineties, running a number of BMR onshore seismic surveys around the Cobar and Broken Hill regions, and the Gunnedah, Bowen, Surat, Otway and Gippsland Basins. In the mid-nineties, he was appointed Manager of Land Seismic Operations at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO, formerly BMR) and was involved in the formation of the reflection seismic component of ANSIR (the Australian National Seismic Imaging Resource). In this role, he undertook selection, procurement and delivery of the ANSIR facility’s IVI Hemi60 vibrators, ARAM24 seismic system and, his personal favourite, the IVI T1500 Minivibrator. In late 1998 Kevin left AGSO, and in 1999 he moved with his wife Pauline from Canberra to the warmer climate of Brisbane.Whilst in Brisbane he carried out environmental engineering research into the management of stormwater erosion of unpaved sand roads on Fraser Island with Queensland University ofTechnology. In 2003 he established EcoSeis to provide specialist shallow hi-resolution reflection and surface wave seismic imaging services with a variety of weight drop and shotgun sources with a RAS24 seismic acquisition system and a towed seismic array streamer that he had developed. He also undertook a number of engineering seismic refraction and MASW surveys with Koya Suto. Kevin was an active Member of the ASEG, presenting at conferences and ­ co-authoring several papers in Exploration Geophysics. His friends and former colleagues will also recall his passion for a bargain when collecting antiques, tractors and geophysical equipment. Purchases during his field trips over time meant he needed more and more storage space. Urban myth has it that after filling his Charnwood house in Canberra he had to buy a rather large shed on a big block in Boorowa NSW to accommodate his treasures. He would often drive down from Brisbane to visit this shed. The geophysical equipment will be sorted and catalogued by some of his friends and former colleagues over the coming months, and they will ensure that everything finds a good home. Kevin is survived by his wife Pauline. Kevin was always a cheery sort of character with a‘she’ll be right’attitude that will be sorely missed. Tim Barton Geoscience Australia tim.barton@ga.gov.au Henk van Paridon GeoSolve henk@geosolve.com.au Kevin Wake-Dyster (left) consulting with a South Australian farmer about an AGSO seismic survey being carried out over the Otway basin in 1992. 13 PREVIEW People News FEBRUARY 2019