School of Geography - Theses
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ItemThe participation of people of non-English speaking backgrounds in SkillShare( 1994)Targeting is the practice of according disadvantaged groups, including people of non-English Speaking Backgrounds, priority access to government services and programs. In 1992, SkillShare, a community based labour market program for long term unemployed people and other disadvantaged groups, withdrew its obligation to target people of non-English Speaking Backgrounds. This thesis investigates the effects of this decision on the participation rates of people of non-English Speaking Backgrounds in SkillShare and explores the implications of denying them priority access. Data collected from the Department of Employment Education and Training, from SkillShare Project Manager interviews, and from SkillShare participant surveys, suggest that participation rates have decreased, while barriers to access have increased. The results of these findings conflict with the Department of Employment Education and Training's renewed statements of commitment towards securing better access to labour market programs for people of non-English Speaking Backgrounds in view of the disproportionately high rate of unemployment experienced by this group.
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ItemDenudation along a passive margin: a study from southeastern Australia( 1994)This thesis reports the results obtained and conclusions made regarding research into the isostatic effects of denudation and deposition on the post-rifting morphological evolution of the southeast Australian margin. The temporal and spatial variation of denudation since 125 Ma is quantified using geomorphological and apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) data. Depositional data for the Gippsland Basin is derived from isopach maps. Reference surfaces for the volumetric calculations of material removed and deposited are based on 2 x 2 km gridded data. On the basis of modelling the thermal and mechanical effects of denudation on the thermal structure of the lithosphere it is assumed that rifting related thermal overprinting did not occur in the AFTA samples. Hence the estimated thicknesses of crustal section removed by denudation are maxima. The denudation and deposition data are used as applied loads in one- and twodimensional continuous elastic plate models to determine the isostatic response of the margin. Results on the spatial and temporal variation of denudation indicate that from 125 Ma to 60 Ma a maximum of 3.6 km of crustal section has been removed from the southeast Australian margin. The amount of material removed generally decreases from the coast inland, supporting a model of margin evolution where the morphology of the margin is largely the result of the retreat of a major erosional escarpment. Rates of denudation have varied considerably in the last 125 Ma, suggesting that previously argued post Cretaceous landscape stability for the area is incorrect. The isostatic response of the margin suggests that within the limitations of the model used, the morphological evolution of the margin can be explained without the need for postrifting tectonic surface uplift. The maximum amount of surface uplift generated by the escarpment retreat model is in the order of 500 m along the boundary between the elevated tablelands and the escarpment. Deposition in the Gippsland Basin does not significantly change the amount of predicted surface uplift, however, it does change the spatial distribution of the uplift. Evidence from the Towamba and Snowy River valleys suggests that escarpment retreat has been slowed considerably since the early Tertiary. This may be due to changes in the drainage pattern of the margin associated with the uplift of the Kosciusko Block and river capture. The results provide some answers to contentious issues raised by geomorphologists and thermochronologists about the timing of uplift and overall morphological evolution of the southeast Australian margin. These conflicts appear to be largely due to differences in terminology and definitions, as well as extrapolations of results beyond the constraints of the data.
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ItemThe Port Melbourne condition: normative geographies of legitimation for urban development( 1994)This thesis argues that the legitimation of urban development projects is an important dimension to urbanisation as such. It argues that legitimation is the role of the discourse of urban development and as such is complementary to the more usual political economic or policy analyses of urban development. The local scale of development projects makes for a complex legitimation problem for State-sponsored development, because of the influence of local differences. A case study of a State sponsored major project, the Bayside Project in Melbourne, Australia (1984-1992) explores this proposal. The thesis uses the notion of normative geographies of legitimation to examine the discourse of Bayside from its procedural and substantive participatory dimensions, and for the definition of Port Melbourne that provides insight into the normative construction of places in development discourse. A normative geography defines what some space ought to be like. Normative geographies have forms both of expression and content. Expression has a normative geography in the public sphere of discourse, both from a procedural (when and where things happen, with whom) and a substantive point of view (who participates how and to what effect). Normative geographies of content are the definitions of places through the mobilisation of knowledge, and are frequently in conflict with other geographies of the same place. Analysis of these normative geographies in the case study of the Bayside Project reveals some interesting relations of power, especially as they relate to the use of the public sphere and its rules of operation. The Bayside project eventually collapsed and with it the State Government of Victoria. The whole saga was an exquisite example of the complexities of the relationship of legitimation and urban development. ii
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ItemRestructuring of health and education services in a Victorian rural community( 1994)No abstract available
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ItemImpact of changing land use on the management of groundwater in the Kooweerup-Dalmore groundwater conservation area( 1994)No abstract available
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ItemThe Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Hydroelectric Scheme: political causes of an international environmental conflict( 1994)No abstract available
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ItemLate Holocene environments of Den Plain, north-western Tasmania( 1994)The study of fossil pollen grains (palynology) is an extremely useful tool for understanding past Quaternary environments. The history of palynology extends back to Europe in the early twentieth century, with the pioneering work of Von Post in Scandinavia (Williams et al. 1993). The history of pollen analysis in Australia has been much more recent and can only be traced to the early 1970's, with Dodson's studies in South Australia (1974 and 1975), Hope's study at Wilsons Promontory in Victoria (1974) and Macphail's (1974) work at Port Stephens in New South Wales. Considering the youth of palynology in Australia there are large gaps in our understanding of the past environments that existed during the late Quaternary. A knowledge of Late Pleistocene and Holocene (last 25,000 years) climates and vegetation is very important, as it shows how the environmental processes that affect today's landscape may have evolved. We can see how vegetation responds to climate change and how humans, both Aborigines and Europeans, interacted and impacted on the Australian environment. My literature review on the Late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeoenvironments of south eastern Australia discusses these general trends in greater detail. This paper concentrates on the Late Holocene palaeoenvironments of a specific site in north western Tasmania, Den Plain, and the general environmental trends that can be observed at this location. This study provides a regional picture of the vegetation changes in environments in the Mersey Valley over the Holocene. This project reinforces the fact that vegetation communities are dynamic, not static. The stimulus to undertake this study was to try to disentangle the long term effects of people from those of climate on a portion of the Mersey River flood plain called Den Plain. The study area is particularly well suited to this task because it is adjacent to one of Australia's most significant Aboriginal sites (Mckay 1994). In addition, the area has long been settled by Europeans (Pink 1990). This conjunction of well documented Aboriginal and European heritage allows this project to assess the relative effects of humans on the site over a time span of over 3,000 years.