Australian Bicentenary was officially declared to be the Golden Wattle "Acacia pycnantha". The Gazettal was signed by the Governor General, Sir Ninian Stephen, on 19 August 1988. A ceremony was held on 1 September 1988 at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. The Minister for Home Affairs, Robert Ray, made the formal announcement and the Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Hazel Hawke, planted a Golden Wattle 1988 was also marked by the completion of many unique development projects such as the Bicentennial National Trail and on 9 May of that year, Queen Elizabeth II opened the New Parliament House in Canberra. As well as
Geological Society of London Phillips, and William Phillips. It received its Royal Charter on 23 April 1825 from George IV. Since 1874, the Society has been based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. This building houses the Society's library, which contains more than 300,000 volumes of books and journals. It is a member of the UK Science Council. In 1991, it merged with the Institution of Geologists, which had been formed in 1977 to represent the geological profession. The Society celebrated its bicentenary in 2007. It ran programmes in the geosciences in Britain and abroad, under the auspices of the science writer and palaeontologist Professor