School of Geography - Theses
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ItemThe manufacturing geography of selected areas in Melbourne( 1965)The Australian manufacturing industry, whose real growth became apparent only after the turn of the present century, has displayed a distinct characteristic during its history of development in having an extremely high percentage of manufacturing activities concentrated in the five capital cities, and especially in the two major centres of Melbourne and Sydney. Statistics have shown that in 1360-61, 73% of the Australian manufacturing industry, in terms of employment, was located in the capitals, with Melbourne and Sydney together making up 58%. Studies of manufacturing actvities in these major centres, though not representative of those covering the whole nation, may nevertheless show numerous points of interest and reveal certain characteristics in the environment and structure of the Australian industrial economy. Such studies are unfortunately very limited, especially for the Melbourne metropolitan area. Although for this latter area, some general studies have been undertaken, none is profound enough to reveal in detail its basic industrial structure and environment. It is felt that Melbourne, with 81% of the Victorian and 27% of the Australian manufacturing employment and with its central position to the major industrial states of Australia, should be given greater consideration.
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ItemThe coalfields of eastern Australia: an examination of the rise, contemporary character and areal impact of bituminous coal mining( 1965)Traditionally the coal mining industry has resisted innovation. Changes in working methods, in conditions of employment and in productivity have often been achieved only as a result of considerable industrial, discord and community discomfort. In Australia reluctance to change has been all too obvious. Yet, since 194-6, few other industries have been quite so profoundly or so completely modified,so that coal mining in 1965 bears little resemblance to the industry of the immediate post-war years except that it is beset by problems resulting from continuing and intensifying fuel competition. The ramifications of these changes have been widespread. In New South Males a booming economy, highly specialised demands and ruthless price competition from the petroleum industry have brought about a drastic decline in the use of general purpose coal but a marked increase in the demand for specialised qualities e.g. for coke making or the generation of electricity. In consequence the prosperity of particular fields, or mines working specific seams within fields has been much affected. Many old, small, or unprofitable pits have been closed} mechanisation of working methods has become general; new mines have been established to meet particular demands; productivity and quality control have been vastly improved and the average size of collieries has tended to increase. In Queensland less specialised demands and the existence of an omnipotent Coal Board have staved off the worst of these changes until much more recently but there,too, the transformation is under way. The first collieries have how been equipped with mining machinery of a type long common in Mew South Wales, larger mines are in the process of establishment, productivity is beginning to rise and to show some marked differentiation according to mine size and the Coal Board is considering the desirability of closing mines unable to meet and maintain satisfactory price and quality standards. In Victoria, however, change is of a retrograde kind for only two of the handful of pits have any importance and these, as State owned enterprises, have made consistent trading losses for many years, an indication of their difficult working conditions and restricted deposits. With limited lives there is little possibility of change other than by demise. In the coalfield communities the social implications of these changes have been equally as significant. The retrenchment of more then 10,000 mine workers in the space of a decade from the New South Males mines alone has caused a major reorientation of some of the more highly specialised settlements and in others out-mignation or occupational diversification through long distance commuting. Others have begun on the slow decline that leads ultimately to loss of function and complete abandonment. With this has gone a change in settlement form - a revival of local commerce in those fortunate enough to retain their residents, further physical deterioration in some of the already under-maintained settlements, a change in population structure as pensioners move in and the school leavers move out, as families move in on the demise of pensioners, as migrants move in to replace the native born. In some localities these changes have contributed further to the distinctiveness of the coal town, in ethers they have tended to blurr a former distinctiveness. At a different level a blurring of the farmer distinctiveness is also taking place in the major urban areas that have risen with and because of the coal industry. Large scale industrial and residential development in the post-war years has now began to obliterate the last traces of more than a century of coal mining in and around the cities of Newcastle, Wollongong and Ipswich. Pit head gear, mineral railways, subsidence areas relics of all kinds and their distinctive contribution to urban morphology are being submerged in amorphous and omnivorous suburbia.
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ItemSustainable microfinance and poverty alleviation : understandings of small farmers in rural Nepal( 2006)Microfinance, as a tool for rural development, is one of the most important sectors of financial services for the rural poor in the developing countries. However, a high credit default rate is a worldwide problem that is particularly pronounced in the developing countries. Credit providers in developing countries have generally experienced serious financial problems since the late 1970s due to a constant high credit default rate and consequent loss on loans. Microfinance for the poor is one of the major grassroots initiatives in rural development in Nepal. However, the high credit default rate amongst small farmers has seriously questioned the small farmers' sense of ownership and commitment towards the sustainability of microfinance institutions at the local level. Institutional sustainability of a microfinance institution is heavily dependent on the repayment rate of loans, but the actual repayment of loans largely depends on how the small farmers understand and engage with institutional credit. Very little research has been conducted into the views of the supposed beneficiaries of microfinance schemes, that is, the small farmers. This thesis, based on extensive field research amongst the small farmers of the Chitwan district of Nepal, examines and documents their understandings of credit, what sustainable microfinance means to them, why there is a high rate of loan defaults (on average more than 60%), and other related issues. My research revealed that the small farmer-managed microfinance institutions were not able to achieve the required repayment rate level due to the imposition of a local bureaucratic framework dominated by internal social differences and with totally different expectations between lenders and borrowers. The results indicate that the understandings of the terms `credit' and `sustainability' differ substantially between the loaning institutions and small farmers. This thesis argues that the divergence in views, interests, and perspectives between bankers and policymakers on the one hand, and the small farmers on the other, explains why microfinance programs will continue to struggle to fulfil their mission of poverty alleviation and sustainability. The study reveals that low incomes amongst small farmers and their understandings about credit are the key factors responsible for high credit default. In conclusion, the findings in this study demonstrate that unless governments and lending institutions understand how small farmers interpret the terms `credit' and `sustainability' there will be no mutually favourable outcomes. Providing small farmers `credit' without other inputs such as training and education, infrastructure and support services, marketing facilities and an appropriate pricing policy simply burdens them with increasing debt. The findings from this study will help the government and lending institutions in understanding better the views held by small farmers, and will hence ensure more effective delivery of credit to the poor and others in need of financial services in rural Nepal.
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ItemThe resistance of herbaceous vegetation to erosion: implications for stream form( 2006)Vegetation growing on the banks of a stream channel influences geomorphological processes operating in that channel. A large body of research has investigated the role of vegetation in controlling the erosion of stream channels, but the majority of this research has considered riparian trees and other woody vegetation. Consequently, our understanding of the influence of herbaceous vegetation on channel erosion is limited. The overall aim of this thesis was to address this knowledge gap by establishing the resistance to erosion of herbaceous vegetation in terms of shear stress and the length of time (duration) of exposure to shear stress, then comparing it to the shear stress and duration of exposure that occur in a number of streams in Victoria, Australia. The study focuses on the influence of herbaceous vegetation on the fluvial entrainment of sediment from horizontal surfaces. Horizontal surfaces are a particular subset of geomorphological features that occur in alluvial streams that include bars and benches. The erosion resistance of herbaceous vegetation directly sampled from horizontal surfaces in streams was estimated using a custom-built laboratory flume that generated very high bed shear stresses. The influence of stem length and substrate size on erosion resistance was tested in the flume study: mature herbaceous vegetation with long stems withstood high levels of shear stress for several days of continuous exposure. Erosion resistance was found to be inversely related to substrate size and positively related to stem length. The maximum erosion resistance of herbaceous vegetation in the flume study was greater than values reported in the literature for herbaceous vegetation growing in artificial drainage channels and on hillslopes. The shear stress exerted in stream channels is often estimated using methods based on cross-sectional average hydraulic conditions. Comparison of cross-sectional mean shear stress and the local shear stress exerted on horizontal surfaces estimated at six study sites in Victoria using high-resolution two-dimensional hydraulic modelling indicated that the erosion of horizontal surfaces is unlikely to be accurately predicted by mean shear stress. It is also possible that mean shear stress will not accurately predict the erosion of other sub-cross-section-scale geomorphological features. The frequency of erosion of horizontal surfaces covered with herbaceous vegetation was estimated at the study sites using erosion prediction analyses that combined the erosion resistance data from the flume study, estimates of local shear stress and exposure duration of horizontal surfaces at the study sites. The exposure duration was estimated by analysing the long-term sub-daily discharge records. The erosion prediction analyses indicated that mature herbaceous vegetation had sufficient resistance to erosion to withstand the shear stress and exposure duration at all study sites, and consequently would not be eroded. Immature herbaceous vegetation, however, would be eroded at all study sites; the frequency of erosion varied and was dependent on the stem length. The erosion prediction analysis method was applied to investigate the variation in the effectiveness of herbaceous vegetation in stabilising horizontal surfaces at the catchment-scale. Although the results were not conclusive, it appears that the influence of herbaceous vegetation is greatest in the upper catchment, which contrasts with previous research that identified a mid-catchment peak in fluvial entrainment of bank material. The duration of exposure to inundation is likely to be the main driver of herbaceous vegetation degradation in the lower catchment, as hydrograph attenuation leads to long duration events that cause oxygen deprivation stress on the herbaceous vegetation. A number of conceptual models of the temporal variation in erosion resistance of horizontal surfaces for different management scenarios were developed. Further data on the influence of vegetation other than herbaceous vegetation on the erosion resistance of horizontal surface are required, but based on the outcomes of the thesis and previous research it is clear that stream restoration designs that aim to increase channel stability with woody vegetation should be carefully considered. It is possible that rather than stabilising the channel, the impact of the maturing woody vegetation on the herbaceous vegetation understorey will lead to a reduction in overall stability.
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ItemFluvial terraces in the Fengpin River basin of the Coastal Range, eastern Taiwan( 2005)This thesis reports the results obtained and conclusions made regarding research into the probable locations of active tectonics in the Fengpin River basin of the Coastal Range in eastern Taiwan, which is located on the active margin of the Chinese continental margin and the Philippine sea plate, and how Quaternary climate, sea-level, and tectonic changes affect the fluvial terrace genesis of the Fengpin River. Probable locations of active tectonics in the Fengpin River basin are identified using geomorphic indicators and indices of active tectonics, such as changes in width of channel and fluvial terraces, sediment grain-size, channel geometry and hydraulics, the stream gradient-length index, and the ratio of valley floor width to valley height. Palaeo-long profiles of the Fengpin River are reconstructed by projecting the fluvial terraces on the valley long profile, and correlating them based on the heights of terrace surfaces and straths measured by global positioning system, the ages of terraces obtained by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, and the results of the geomorphic indicators and indices. The valley fill-and-cut history and known Quaternary environmental changes around Taiwan, therefore, can be linked by the OSL dates of the terraces. Results of geomorphic indicators and indices of active tectonics indicate that there are at least four belts of active tectonics in the north-south to northwest-southwest directions of in the basin. The locations of these belts are roughly consistent with the uplifted fluvial terraces, and the bearings of rock bedding and the Bouguer gravity anomalies published by previous studies. From the regionally geological context, these active structures could be produced and controlled by the Huatung Longitudinal Valley fault and the Chi-Mei fault. Five palaeo-long profiles, T1-T5, are reconstructed. Except T1, rest of the palaeo-long profiles can correlate to the marine terraces near the river mouth. The finding indicates that the genesis of major fluvial terraces is attributed to base-level lowering. However, evidences also show that differential tectonic uplifting and meander cut-off would contribute to the fluvial terrace formation in the middle and upstream areas, suggesting that previous study is oversimplified the scenario of fluvial terrace formation here. Three OSL dates from the southern tributary of Fengpin River indicate that palaeo-long profiles T1-T3 were all formed during the late Pleistocene, and T4-T5 were formed during the Holocene. Channel incision rates and tectonic uplift rates during the late Pleistocene are about 0.5-0.8 mm/yr, which are about 3 to 4 times slower than the Holocene tectonic uplift rates (2-3 mm/yr) deduced from the marine terraces around Fengpin. As the tectonic uplift rates during the Pleistocene are relatively stable and slow, effects of climate changes and sea-level changes may outpace the effect of tectonics and control the formation of fluvial terraces. I proposed that bedrock strath was created at the early stage of climate changing from cold to warm, and terrace surfaces were formed by sequent valley aggradation. Conversely, when climate changed from warm to cold, the sediment load of the river decreased, and the under-loaded river would focus on vertical channel incision rather than lateral channel erosion. If the sea-level remained relatively stable at the moment, tectonics would mainly control the development of fluvial terraces. If the sea-level dropped dramatically at the same time, base-level lowering-induced knickpoint migration could occur, and accelerated vertical channel incision. Two conceptual models are established to describe how climate change, sea-level change and tectonic activity affect the genesis of the fluvial terraces of the Fengpin River basin during the late Pleistocene. In terms of contributing to our understanding of strath terrace formation, the findings of this study suggest the roles of climate change and sea-level change in strath terrace formation. The dynamics between rates of lateral erosion and vertical channel incision may be strongly influenced by these changes, and thus control the genesis of fluvial terraces. The findings also support the recent challenge about the genesis of strath terraces: that strath terrace formation could be controlled by climate fluctuations in a tectonically active setting.
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ItemMeasuring rural community sustainability: the use of social indicators in an adaptive approach to catchment management( 2005)An understanding of social issues is imperative for effective planning and policy development to foster sustainability. Social sustainability, or well-being, of communities is integral to any assessment of sustainability since it reflects, and impacts upon, ecological and economic sustainability. One area where this has direct implications is the management of natural resources. The catchment, or watershed, has assumed importance as a planning unit for natural resource management (NRM) in Australia. Integrated catchment management (ICM) has widely been adopted for NRM at the catchment scale but is largely confined to biophysical issues. To combat this bias, social issues need to be represented in a format that can be used to assist decision-making. Such feedback can fulfil a range of purposes. In the case of ICM, insight into social conditions can be used to both inform the social context for decision-making and provide feedback on policy and program outcomes, to enable an adaptive approach to catchment management. This thesis was concerned with the development of a system to monitor trends in the social sustainability of rural communities. Several theoretical areas and a multi-staged empirical investigation informed this thesis. In particular, it is ground in the notions of 'community sustainability' and 'social sustainability' that evolved from the discourse on sustainable development; consideration of methodological frameworks for social indicators; and through a case study. The case study draws upon the needs and concerns held by local stakeholders from multiple communities across the Woady Yaloak catchment in rural Victoria, Australia. Through interviews, personal observation and questionnaires, some insight is offered into the social dimensions of community sustainability in a rural context, and a suite of perceptual social indicators were constructed and applied to validate the tool and measure how stakeholders consider the social condition of their communities. A series of social indicators were developed and validated to represent the components of community sustainability in a manageable format that can be quantified. This provides a comprehensive framework of the issues to consider, a mechanism that can be applied to inform the social context for decision-making and the strengths that can be harnessed or the weaknesses that need to be addressed, for planning or policy evaluation, or for sustainability considerations. It is argued that this system of perceptual social indicators is useful to counter the emphasis on objective measures. This system can be used in conjunction with objective measures to provide a broader picture.
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ItemChinese multinational enterprises in Vietnam: motivation and mechanism( 2004)China is not only the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) recipient in the world, but also ranked as the fifth largest international investor in 2004. Curiously, such a development has been largely ignored in the existing literature. This thesis answers the following primary research questions: 1) What motivates Chinese Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) to invest in Vietnam? 2) What are the main theoretical determinants behind the phenomenon? 3) How does the internal management system work between MNE' head offices in China and their subsidiaries in Vietnam? 4) How are the MNEs linked to external governmental, financial and business organisations in China and Vietnam? Two Chinese MNEs (China Luo Yang Floating Glass Group (CLFG) and China TCL Corporation) have been used as case studies to investigate these questions. A network perspective research framework has been developed to explain the phenomenon from intra-firm, extra-firm and inter-firm levels. Based on in-depth interviews with government officials, MNEs' managements and an analysis of government statistics, this thesis reveals seven common and three different motivations behind the investments of these two MNEs in Vietnam. These include: considerations of Vietnamese market potential; avoidance of transaction costs; "to follow the customers"; local customers' tastes and needs; favourable home and host country policies; similar political, economic and cultural systems; and a desire for larger company size. Meanwhile, escaping intensive home market competition and targeting broader markets through operation in Vietnam, are unique motivations for China TCL. For CLFG, increasing export volumes triggered their MNE investment in Vietnam. Empirical data indicates that existing theoretical approaches, such as the Product Life Cycle, Internationalisation and Eclectic approaches, only partially explain Chinese MNEs' investments in Vietnam from a production and market perspective. The Eclectic Approach more adequately explains the phenomenon. However, unique characteristics, like home country policy, corporate strategy of organisation, and the role of home government, are lacking in this approach. Through an examination of their external networks from extra-firm and inter-firm levels, this thesis concludes that Chinese MNEs' financial connections are also tightly managed and highly centralised by the Chinese Government through the foreign exchange management system. Both CLFG and China TCL are using formal business and political connections, instead of informal personal or family GuanXi, to facilitate business operations in Vietnam. Internal networks of coordination and control within intra-firm levels involve formalised organisational structures for both Chinese MNEs. Departmentalisation of divisions at China TCL was a by-product, but this was geographically constructed in Vietnam. In contrast, departmentalisation of CLFG was geographically organised. For Head Office-Subsidiary relationships, TCL Vietnam is a resource networker and a resource user, while CLFG Vietnam is a resource user and a resource independent. This is reflected in that whilst CLFG is using multinational and international strategies, China TCL is adopting transnational, international strategies for the Vietnam venture. Both Chinese MNEs share similar characteristics in influencing government polices and risk taking, but there are also pronounced differences, such as TCL's leadership-influenced decision-making, compared to `pre-researched' decisions at CLFG. It is concluded that Chinese MNEs demonstrate unique characteristics where their internal organisations need to meet both advanced market demand and the requirements of external `tiao tiao kuai kuai' management system adopted by the Chinese Government, which is characterised by the horizontal involvement of many ministries and vertical involvement of many levels of government.
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ItemBeyond red and gold: environmental governance in China( 2004)This thesis is concerned with the question as to how China governs its environment. It focuses on the process and manner of managing the country's environmental affairs in which the actors include but transcend government, encompassing the whole of society. The study offers a pragmatic diagnosis of environmental governance (EG) within the Chinese context, giving unique insights to the EG problem with an in-depth analysis of its root causes, and hence devising alternative ways for endeavours to protect the environment to be assessed and thought about. Due to the nature of the research question and the reality of EG in China, the research methodology is based on a case study, associated with documentary and interview approaches. To conduct the research diagnosing Chinese EG status, three concrete steps were taken, comprising an initial theoretical framework and finally an analysis of a case study and its ongoing activities and subsequent outcomes. In between, an elaboration of the multiple Chinese contexts for EG are presented, i.e., key political, social and economic aspects, and institutional and administrative developments for governing the environment in China together with non-state variables in relation to governance practice. At the theoretical level, this thesis is informed by the academic literature of contemporary studies on governance in terms of conceptualising EG. A new EG theorisation is constructed, which converts the holistic nature of EG research into a conceptualisation including seven key elements, namely: accommodation, predictability, accountability, participation, communication, transparency, and specialisation (scientific expertise), all in combination with country-specific considerations of political, administrative and socio-economic contexts. Through a case study, the EG process is revealed through newspaper reports, wenjian (official documents) and interviews. The case study is based on a landmark January 2000 event in relation to the Nanjiang Industrial Park in Sihui, a county city located in the Pearl River Delta Region of the Chinese Province of Guangdong. The Sihui case, which provided an example of 'one step ahead of the whole country' in terms of publicity through news media reporting, suggests that some progress has been made in certain aspects of China's environmental governance, albeit without a guarantee of everlasting duration. However, the overall result of the Sihui case sends discordant and mixed signals for diagnosing the status of environmental governance in China. Of equal importance, as shown in the Sihui case, is that the process between the hierarchical government and the rest of society was far from being interactive, but highlights too great a reliance on the government. Considered together, the thesis concludes that there are strong indications that complications exist within China's environmental governance. EG practice in China appears to be mired in political constraints, social dysfunction and exclusion, and is too rigidly driven by the obsessive consideration of economic imperatives.
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ItemLife history variation in two co-existing understorey palms of Mexican rainforests( 2003)This thesis is a study of the ecology and life history of the dioecious palms Chamaedorea pinnatifrons (Jacq.) Oerst. and Chamaedorea oblongata Mart.as they grow in the wild at two sites in southern Mexico. C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata densely co-occur in the understorey of the tropical rainforests of Central America and represent one of a number of pairs of co-occurring species of the genus Chamaedorea in which vegetative similarity is such that the two species are almost indistinguishable. This co-occurrence of vegetatively identical congeners raises several questions relating to evolutionary changes within related species occupying the same environment. This thesis compares attributes of the life history, demography, morphology (architecture) and ecology of the two species in relation to the constraints to variation, and environmental pressures experienced by palms, and rainforest understorey plants in general. It had three broad aims: to describe and compare the ecology and demography of two co-existing rainforest palms, to investigate the effects of forest fragmentation on their demography, and to conduct a comparative study on the ecology and life history attributes of an entire guild of rainforest understorey plants. Principal among the constraints to life history variation examined relate to the architectural peculiarities of palms. As arborescent monocotyledons, palms are limited in their growth form by the number, placement and temporal availability of meristems. These limitations affect many characteristics of palms: their establishment, patterns of growth, tendency to produce relatively few, but large organs (e.g. fronds, inflorescences), susceptibility to certain kinds of mortality but flexibility in other respects, as well as the form of tradeoffs between current, expected and future growth, survivorship and reproduction. Evidence was found in the studied populations of C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata for some of these kinds of limitations, but not for others. The role of environmental variation in affecting life history traits was examined temporally and spatially, the latter both within and between two widely separated sites (Los Tuxtlas, in the gulf coast state of Veracruz, and Chajul in the southern state of Chiapas). In most demographic characters examined, variation was at least as strong between years as between sites, and some between-site differences appeared to be the result of unsynchronised temporal variation between sites. Temporal variation may relate to differences in the timing and length of the rainy season, and subsequent variation in light receipt at the forest floor. Examination of the demography, morphology and ecology showed few significant differences between C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata. The major, though subtle, differences appear to reflect differences in response to the low and variable light conditions of the tropical rainforest understorey, and to the constant rain of falling debris, direct strikes by the largest of which can flatten and sometimes kill individual palms. The Los Tuxtlas palm guild is the most studied, and among Los Tuxtlas palms C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata are the most short lived and, correspondingly have the highest mortality and adult fecundity. Also, their population growth rates show the greatest variability. In general, this is also the case when C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata are compared to all studied rainforest palms. Rainforest palms do however, differ from palms of other habitats, being typically less fecund, and less longlived, but with higher rates of seedling survival. Relative to the set of studied species, the differences between C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata are minor. Comparison between populations of C. pinnatifrons and C. oblongata in extensive (Chajul) versus fragmented (Los Tuxtlas) forest sites revealed none of the differences in herbivory rates, seedling densities, population structures and population growth rates that have been hypothesised to result from the absence of large mammalian herbivores and carnivores in forest fragments.
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