 Thank you very much. Studying groundwater may not sound as sexy as perhaps trying to cure cancer, but it is just as important if not arguably more so. Here in Perth, half of our water supply comes from groundwater and in our dry and climate it's essential that we manage this precious resource sustainably. It's not just us though, billions of people around the world rely on groundwater for their water supply and as the population increases, so does our water use. Meanwhile, there's a myriad of plants and animals that also depend on groundwater for their survival. I've chosen to highlight just one today in a shameless attempt to tug on your heartstrings. The Ricali is an otter-like animal that lives in permanent water in southwest WA. This permanent water is fed by groundwater that flows into our river systems. My research focuses on understanding not just how much groundwater flows into our rivers, but also where that groundwater is coming from. Groundwater starts as rainfall which infiltrates into the ground, filling the pore spaces between sand grains. This water can be stored in a groundwater system for up to hundreds of thousands of years as it slowly makes its way through the landscape to low points like rivers and the coast where it can discharge to the surface. Through my research, I've developed new techniques for understanding the age of this groundwater discharge. By measuring compounds that are dissolved in the water, we can tell how long it's been since that water fell as rainfall. Some of you may be familiar with some of these compounds, for example, radiocarbon, which can be used to date archaeological artefacts or tree rings. Once we know the age of the groundwater that's discharging, then we can then work out where it's come from because older groundwater has spent a longer time in the groundwater system travelling to the river. Younger groundwater is sourced from closer to the river system. Knowing this information is essential for allowing us to work out how much groundwater we can pump and where we can pump it from to minimise our impact on the river ecosystem. These techniques can be applied not just here in Australia, but around the world to help billions of people secure their water supply while also minimising their impact on the rikali. So it's not that I'm saving cancer, but I am helping save the rikali and that ain't nothing.