School of Geography - Theses
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ItemModern Aboriginal land management: a Victorian perspective( 1999)The aim of this research was to find out what land management activities are being undertaken by Aboriginal communities in Victoria and what barriers these communities face in doing so. Six Victorian Aboriginal communities were contacted and representatives were interviewed about the land management activities undertaken by their communities. Those involved were Ballarat, Framlingham, Healesville, Mildura, Orbost and Swan Hill. Information gathered from these interviews revealed a number of patterns in Victorian Aboriginal land management. First, there is a wide range of land management activities undertaken across the State that have been little documented. In this thesis they are described under these headings: conservation and land management activities; cultural heritage management; environmental and cultural tourism and education; and native title. This research has shown that communities that have title to land or are near areas of national park are likely to be more involved in land management than those surrounded by private property. Secondly, it was found that many of the works undertaken also involve an element of cultural heritage management. Finally the research revealed that Aboriginal land management activities in Victoria are likely to involve modem techniques of land management rather than what might be thought of as 'traditional' methods. This thesis also identifies the barriers that communities face in becoming involved in land management. The main causes are financial, lack of access to land and the lack of employment opportunities in the area land management. Most of these barriers are the result of political decisions and institutional arrangements. This thesis has only scratched the surface of this large issue and should be seen as a starting point. It raises many more questions that need to be asked if Aboriginal communities in Victoria are to realise their goals of managing and caring for the land.
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ItemDevelopment of a five star Landcare rating system for grazing properties in south west Victoria( 1999)A five star rating system has been developed to reward landholders for managing the physical features of their farm including land, water and vegetation in an environmentally sustainable manner. The Landcare movement largely relies on the goodwill of current land managers to undertake measures to ensure sustainable catchment management for future generations. The five star Landcare rating system has been devised to recognise the efforts of farmers in South West Victoria in working towards sustainable agricultural systems. The system can be adopted by graziers as a benchmarking system for continuous improvement, by local government in rate rebate schemes or used as a product marketing tool. The development of indicators as a measure of catchment health is a relatively new science and most systems developed to date are not practical for regular assessment at a farm level. The five star Landcare rating system uses easily measured and proven indicators that can be used by farmers at a farm scale. The system recognises the requirement for continued research to develop benchmarks for individual resource management units. Over time, measurement of indicators under the system can cumulate into long term measures of environmental outcomes.
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ItemQuality of life as a business objective( 1999)The main purpose of this study was to design and implement an instrument to measure the success of a company if its objective was to improve the quality of life of the people involved in it. The fundamental premise of the research is that companies, being one of the most important institutions of our time, could be more beneficial to humans if it's main objective was to improve their quality of life instead of the creation of profit and wealth. Throughout the thesis I have given theoretical and empirical evidence to support this idea. To analyse the full implications of such a change would require years of research. Because of this, the present study only seeks to answer the following question: How can the success of a company be assessed if its main objective was to improve the quality of life of the people involved in it? Based on the existing literature on quality of life measures, a questionnaire of 82 items and a report of the company's policies was produced to describe what is the influence of an organisation on its members' quality of life. This instrument was applied to a small Melbourne based company. It proved to be an effective tool to provide the company with the required information. The work done in this thesis has implications at two different levels. First, and perhaps most important, it has questioned the generalised idea that the main objective of a company's activities is to make money. Secondly, a first step has been taken towards the achievement of this change in objectives. There is now a specific instrument to measure the success of a company if its objective was to improve the quality of life of its members.
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ItemGender, power and leadership: a comparison of male and female managers in Melbourne( 1998)This study is an exploratory research project that investigated the relationship between gender, power and leadership style. A modified version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Rosener, 1990) was used to measure transformational and transactional leadership. A 31 item scale developed by Rosener (1990) was used to measure the five bases of power. The respondents were 18 male and 13 female managers from Melbourne. The median age of the respondents was 30 - 39 years. The majority of the respondents (84%) had tertiary qualifications ranging from a TAFE diploma up to a doctorate. The average number of staff reporting directly to each manager was 10. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) was used for data analyses and no significant sex differences were found in both leadership style and use of power, p>0.05 for all the factors.
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ItemAsian migration and changing employment and occupation in Melbourne( 1997)This thesis examines the employment and occupation of South Asian migrants in Melbourne. To this end, census and cross sectional data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Bureau of Immigration and Population Research (0FR) as well as the survey data collected for this study, are used. In this study special attention is paid to South Asian migrants in terms of their demographic and economic characteristics, occupational adjustment, job quality and process of self-employment. The analysis of South Asian migrants is made according to birthplace, gender and policy category under which they enter into Australia. In examining the South Asian migrants, the study reviews the relevant literature and existing theories and models about their economic success and occupational adjustment overseas and in Australia. In this regard the main factors that influence migrants' occupational adjustment and economic success in the host country have been identified at and applied to the study of South Asian migrants in Melbourne. The study also reviews the Victorian economy in this context. The study describes demographic and economic characteristics, general flow and skill composition of South Asian migrants in Australia. According to the BIPR and survey data, most of the migrants from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are professional and came under the skill migration category. The data also show that South Asian migrants are distinctively different from other non-English speaking background migrants or other Asian migrants in respect of education, professional and occupational backgrounds and skills. The study examines transition and occupational adjustment, quality of jobs and experience of unemployment held by South Asian migrants in the local labour market. The data reveal that the majority of the qualified migrants from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka have adjusted well in their own profession through a sequence of jobs. A considerable number have regained either the same or higher status jobs compared to their pre-migration position. Although a considerable number of South Asian migrants have adjusted into occupations similar to their pre-migration occupations, the data show that they in fact status lost. The data also provide evidence that a significant number of migrants have shifted from professional and managerial to non-professional blue collar jobs in the process of their occupational adjustment in Melbourne. The findings reveal that the economic success and occupational adjustment of the migrants in the labour market vary according to birthplace and gender. Although the statistical test indicated that there is no significant difference between the present occupation status and policy category of the migrants, the chi square test indicates that there is some difference between birthplace groups in terms of the distribution of migrants' present occupation and industry. The chi-square test confirmed the significant difference between gender in terms of the distribution of migrants' present occupation. The evidence also shows that a significant number have not been able to enter the labour market since their arrival in Australia and were not able to utilise their professional, technical and academic skills.The study also examines the experiences of self-employed South Asian migrants. Again, the evidence suggests that the majority of these migrants are able to utilise their skills and potentials in their business. However, the case studies indicate that the career advancement of some migrants has been blocked due to this self-employment. The study also analyses the influence of structural change, particularly changes in employment and labour force characteristics, upon the participation of Asian migrants in different industries and occupations. The evidence reveals that South Asian migrants have been affected in terms of their participation according to industry and occupation due to the structural changes occurred in the 10 years to 1996. In conclusion, the study of South Asian migrants discussed relevant theories and models in the light of ABS and survey data. The examination of these data provides evidence that the human capital of migrants plays a significant role in their economic success and occupational adjustment particularly in terms of income and /or employment. In this regard they are able to utilise their skills and potentials in the local labour market. However, the theory of migrants has not paid attention to occupational status which this study identifies as an important indicator for economic success and occupational adjustment of South Asian migrants. The theory of migrants mainly focused on the overall labour market outcomes of the migrants in relation to employment, income differences, participation and unemployment rates.
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ItemPigs, gigolos and mail order brides from Bali to Melbourne: Balinese-Australian marriage as an acculturative response to tourism in Bali and multiculturalism in Melbourne( 1998)Bali has become a major international tourist destination over the past twenty years. The constant contact between tourists and locals in some cases results in marriages. Using the empirical examples of marriages between Balinese Hindus and Australian tourists who decide to settle in Melbourne, this thesis presents cross-cultural marriage as an acculturative response to contact. The contextualisation of these partnerships in nation state Indonesia, tourist areas in Bali and eventually in multicultural Melbourne shows them to be marginal for a number of historic reasons. Using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus, acculturative change is recognised as a constant process. The concept of acculturation, reframed in a contemporary situation, separates it from its colonial antecedents and therefore proves useful in describing social change. Indonesia's post-colonial response to nation building places Balinese people within the confines of a nationalistic discourse and an encompassing Indonesian identity. The tourist domain in Bali repositions the Balinese outside a totalising Indonesian system and somewhat surprisingly, highlights idiomatically Balinese responses to marriage. Tourists are ritually incorporated into Balinese families when they marry Balinese partners. Explaining ritual incorporation involves a redefinition of the structural circulating connubium, or circulation of women, often understood in anthropology to form the basis Balinese marriage practice. Thus, contact with tourism, the very domain thought to subsume Balinese identity, in some cases reinforces pragmatic Balinese marriage practices that have become unpopular within Indonesian nationalist rhetoric. Multicultural Melbourne is the locus of the ongoing relationships between some Balinese and tourists. Melbourne as the choice of settlement focuses the discussion on miscegenation, engagement with bureaucracy and migration in general. Multiculturalism plays the dual function of assuring the legitimacy of these partnerships in a traditionally racist environment, but also in limiting them to mono-cultural constructions. Acculturation as both a processual and substantive state informs Balinese-Melbourne marriages beyond the limitations of the multicultural model. Rather than representing 'culture loss' or 'culture gain', these cross-cultural marriages show that acculturation is the inevitable result of contact and cross-cultural identities formed through this contact represent the acculturative response.
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ItemAn impact analysis of enhanced-greenhouse climate change on the Australian alpine snowpack( 1997)This Thesis is concerned with the sensitivity response of the Australian alpine snowpack to the onset of possible enhanced-greenhouse climatic conditions in the 21st Century. The analysis procedure involved the use of both physical and empirical simulation models, and the various caveats associated with each of these components should be assessed when interpreting the results. A statistical downscaling model was constructed, which converted large-scale synoptic data into daily changes in the alpine snowpack. This snow model was calibrated for the Falls Creek site in the Victorian Alps (elevation 1649 m). The model was able to reproduce observed fluctuations in the observed snowpack when it was driven by largescale atmospheric temperature, humidity and airstream inputs. The research methodology used an extensive archive of daily output from the CSIRO 9- level General Circulation Model (GCM). This model incorporated a Mixed Layer Ocean, and operated at an R21 horizontal resolution. A daily-scale validation of a 24- year 1xCO2 control climatology revealed the existence of a number of biases within the simulated atmospheric fields. The most serious of these was a negative bias in tropospheric temperatures of between 2 C and 5 C. These biases were adjusted, and the GCM was used to drive the statistical snow model. The resulting simulation was successfully validated against observed data. The climate change sensitivity evaluation was conducted by applying a 29-year doubled-CO2 data-set from the CSIRO 9-level GCM to the statistical snow model. The resulting simulation showed an extremely high sensitivity response from the model site, with values such as mean snow cover duration and peak seasonal snow depth decreasing by over 90%. This was largely attributed to a particularly strong warming in the driving GCM of around 4.8 C. A range of further sensitivity perturbations were conducted by varying the input temperature fields (in both the GCM and observed atmospheric data-sets) by one degree Celsius increments. The mean snow model response suggested a quasi-exponential decay relationship, with the first degree of warming producing the strongest reduction in snow duration and snowpack depth. For example, mean maximum snow depths decreased by around 40% when the observed atmosphere was increased by 1 C. These changes were caused by a simultaneous decrease in snowfall and a very strong increase in ablation. Some preliminary impact analysis was conducted on various snow-affected sectors. Within the biophysical context, the snowmelt runoff into the Dartmouth Reservoir of northeast Victoria was calculated using a relatively simple terrain interpolation/snowmelt scheme. The seasonal runoff pattern was then perturbed to simulate an environment in which no alpine snowpack existed. The resulting runoff pattern contained an abnormally high mean winter maxima and a depressed spring inflow volume. A socioeconomic analysis was also conducted into the viability of the Australian winter tourism industry under a range of scenario conditions. A statistical regression relationship was delineated between the duration of the snowpack and visitation numbers at various alpine resorts. The analysis suggested that revenue generation and hence commercial feasibility could be threatened by a moderate reduction in the mean size of the Australian snowpack.
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ItemCasa mia : home ownership, identity and post-war Italian Australian migration( 1996)This thesis begins with an inquiry into the high rates of home ownership for Italian Australian post-war migrants and second generation Italian Australians. This inquiry points to the importance of home ownership to Italian Australians and suggests a connection between Italian Australian home ownership and migration. An examination of urban and geographical literature establishes the argument that the experiences and meanings of home ownership are not homogenous but are variously influenced by class, gender and ethnicity. Further, it is argued that the meanings, rates and importance of home ownership cannot be attributed to being Italian. This argument is based on feminist poststructural debates about the formation of identity and arguments within recent cultural geographies against the use of culture as an explanatory tool. The methodology is developed from feminist discussions on standpoint epistemologies and feminist geography debates on research methods. Qualitative data from 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with first generation Italian Australian post-war migrants and 20 interviews with second generation Italian Australians answer the research question: what does home ownership mean to Italian Australians? This thesis argues that to first generation Italian Australian post-war migrants home ownership means security, independence, privacy and autonomy, control, success, responsibility, place and a future. It is argued that these meanings are unique because they take on a distinctive character within the notion of sistemazione, best translated as 'settling down'. This thesis demonstrates how the desire for sistemazione comes out of a specific migration experience. The relationship between sistemazione, immigration, identity and home ownership for first generation Italian Australians is represented as a heterosexual home ownership matrix'. Within the matrix the desire for home ownership is naturalised by connecting it to a specific set of heterosexual household relations. It is argued that second generation Italian Australians naturalise home ownership further, by defining it as an Italian tradition. The matrix is one site around which second generation Italian Australians negotiate their gender, class, sexual and ethnic identities. The nature of these negotiations is reflected in four separate lists of meanings of home ownership for second generation Italian Australians. This thesis shows that the experience and meaning of home ownership are not homogenous but are influenced by the complex relationships between immigration and identity.
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ItemTelework and child-care : life stage factors and preference for telework( 1996)Telework is a type of work practice that is claimed will provide many employees the opportunity to more satisfactorily balance their work and family commitments, whilst also providing benefits to employers and society. Past research indicates that telework has so far been mostly taken up by women (Huws et al 1990 p.96; Schneider De Villegas 1990, p.425), and suggests that telework, as practiced overseas has been of particular interest to women with young children (Kraut 1989 Fig.2; DuBrin 1991 p. 1230; Yap & Tng 1990 p.234; Dawson & Turner 1989 pi8; Korte 1988 p.168). The reasons which are proposed by this previous research for the interest which mothers of pre-school children have in teleworking, centre on their need or desire to combine employment with the care of their young children (eg. Huws et al 1990 p.145). It is surprising therefore, that none of these studies have considered the impact of telework on the conventional strategies employed by individuals to accommodate child-care responsibilities. The impetus for this thesis was the passing of the Australian Public Service Home Based Work Interim Award in February 1994, for federal public service employees. The award is Australia's, and possibly the world's, first. Much of the media fanfare surrounding this award has concentrated on the notion that telework provides a good opportunity for women to combine work and child-care (quotes from press articles are provided in Appendix 1). However, the research literature which addresses women and telework is inconclusive as to whether women with young children in Australia will view telework as a superior alternative to their existing child-care options. This gap in the research literature was reflected in a 1989 report by the Department of Employment, Education and Training in Australia (Dawson & Turner 1989 p.64), which recommended that research was required to answer the questions:- "Is increasingly 'flexible' employment protecting and encouraging full and equitable participation by women in the [Australian] workforce? Are there other employment options which should be encouraged?" Given that no empirical research had emerged with which to answer these questions, it seemed appropriate for the present study to review the current situation, and contribute in a practical way to the discourse on telework in Australia. This study therefore aims to explore women's attitudes to telework across life cycle stages (expanding from Huws et al 1990); it explores key factors which are likely to influence demand for telework among women; and it compares preference for telework with preference for other work/no work options (updating Vandenheuval 1991). The sample for the study is restricted to computer professionals (programmers, systems analysts, and data processing managers). This study therefore, does not consider 'clerical teleworking' by clerical/secretarial and data entry staff, but only 'professional teleworking' by higher paid staff. This is a significant point, as the two forms exhibit different characteristics (Tomaskovic-Devey & Risman 1993; DiMartino & Wirth 1990 p.537; Weijers, et al. 1992 p.1049; Huws et al , 1990 p. 176; and Bailyn 1988 p.144). Bailyn (ibid) posits that "some of the confusion in the discussion of working from home has resulted from not clearly differentiating these two types of employees". In respect to this point therefore, the focused approach of this study provides some needed specificity.
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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.