The conference opened in Auckland on Thursday morning with Professor David de Laubenfels, who has described more of the currently-accepted species in the family than any other scientist, presenting a controversial paper on ‘New perspectives on the division of the Araucariaceae’ which served to kick off the proceedings in style. He outlined the reasons for his decision to divide the genus Araucaria into two monophyletic genera so as to give a more even taxonomic treatment of the family as a whole, reflecting the similarities he feels exist between the separate genera Agathis and Wollemia. He intends to resurrect the genus name Eutassa for the species currently included in Section Eutacta (all the New Caledonian species, plus Araucaria heterophylla and A. cunninghamii) and publish the necessary fifteen new combinations accordingly in the Proceedings of the Conference.