School of Geography - Theses
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ItemInitiating peace: local peace-builders experiences in Croatia( 2014)The aim of this thesis was to understand the factors that influence local peoples' initial involvement and participation in building peace in Croatia. This aim was met through the analysis of narratives of 24 local peace-builders in Croatia. The time covered in this study with regard to participants' initial participation and involvement ranges from 1990 to 2002. Peace-builders, those who are actively involved in working for peace in times of war, are identified as individuals who approach to conflict constructively, seeking to prevent and/or redirect its destructive outcomes by applying non-violent means. Peace-building, this thesis refers to as activities that deal with the effects of war on people and their social worlds while also aiming to create conditions for the prevention of recurring conflict. A view put forward is that, in addition to the end of war violence and structures that promote human wellbeing, peace also has a personal dimension. Therefore, personal acts that challenge and create alternatives to war violence are important in peace-building, and thus, it is important to understand more about factors that influence local people's participation in building peace. The literature that concern these factors comes mostly from literature on women peace-builders, although the literature on social and peace movements provides broader analytical categories that can be applied to explain peace-building in a country at war. The narrative analysis revealed three main factors influencing interviewees' beginnings as peace-builders, namely, their own imposed experiences of war, beliefs in their agency and connectedness, and informal social networks. These factors can be summarised as follows: First, peace-builders react to their experience of war as an imposition on their lives in that (i) they cannot identify with the war and have an emotional reaction to that experience; (ii) they experience interruptions in their planned and/or expected course of life, and (iii) they witness impacts of war on relationships. This experience can be across a continuum of lived experiences of war: living in a country under war conditions; being concerned for, or witnessing, significant others being harmed by war; and being harmed or under the threat of being personally harmed. Second, peace-builders believe (i) that they can make a change and do something about the situation - that is, they have a strong belief in their own agency, and (ii) in connectedness with people of different ethnicity and from different places. Third, peace-builders have social networks that (i) provide them with emotional and intellectual support, and (ii) provide sites from which action is created and implemented.
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ItemComparing local and international perspectives on corruption in Papua New Guinea( 2012)This thesis compares international and local perspectives on corruption in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It fills a gap in our understanding about corruption an anti-corruption: there have been few attempts to compare international and local perspectives on corruption within the academic literature; no studies of this kind have been undertaken in PNG. The thesis develops a typology of corruption based on the academic literature on corruption. This typology classifies perspectives on corruption into five types - legal, public office, economic, moral and critical. To determine how local and international actors in PNG reflect these types, primary research was undertaken with two groups of people. First, semi-structured interviews, informal interviews and observations were undertaken with those associated with four anti-corruption organisations in PNG - Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TI PNG), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea (OC PNG) and a coalition of local non government organisations called The Non-Governmental Organisations and Civil Society Coalition ('The Coalition'). The second group comprised rural Papua New Guineans in four provinces in the country; focus group discussions, supported by observations, were conducted with this group. Both groups were asked to evaluate a set of scenarios that described possible corruption, a research approach unique to this thesis. Four key conclusions emerge from this analysis. First, the perspective on corruption that anti-corruption organisations reflected was, in part, a product of their place in the modem international anti-corruption industry. The group most marginalised within the industry - The Coalition - reflected a perspective more attuned to the cultural and structural limitations facing those involved in corruption (the moral perspective). More established organisations - TI PNG, AusAID and the OC PNG - reflected perspectives that were more concerned with state rules and laws (the public office and legal perspectives). Second, most rural respondents aligned to international anti-corruption agencies concerns about corruption in the government; this helps explain the support of these organisations and the expansion of the anti-corruption industry in PNG. Despite this alignment there were significant differences between rural respondents and anti-corruption organisations perspectives on corruption; the third conclusion suggests that this disconnect has lead to an inadequate response to rural people's broader social, environmental and economic concerns. Finally, it concludes that a group of critical scholars (associated with the critical perspective) offer important insights into we how we should understand the anti-corruption industry. These findings collectively offer a nuanced account of the ways in which corruption is thought about, researched and addressed, and so challenge the often one-dimensional and universalising way in which many academics and those in the anti-corruption industry typically understand corruption.
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ItemThe biogeography and ecology of Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia in south-eastern Australia( 2009)Xanthorrhoea (grasstree) is a significant genus of the Australian flora, yet there is a lack of knowledge addressing its conservation needs. This research records a new species for Victoria, and defines its community ecology, taxonomy and biogeography by field research and literature review. X. glauca subsp. angustifolia (the Grey Grasstree) is a tall arborescent grasstree of central Victoria, NSW and possibly southern Queensland, and is often found in association with Eucalyptus macrorhyncha and Brachyloma daphnoides on sandstone, granite and metamorphic geologies, and some Tertiary sedimentary deposits where soils are severely nutrient deficient. Evidence presented suggests that Xanthorrhoea evolved in the Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary Periods and adjusted the eco-physiological rhythm from seasonal water-logging to seasonal drought conditions. The evolution of the genus has occurred as a result of significant climate change events in association with marine incursions since the Early Tertiary Period. The evolution of the mass flowering (masting) of grasstrees was investigated via a multidisciplinary literature review. It was hypothesised that the mast flowering response to fire in some species demonstrates an evolutionary pathway from tall arborescent species with annual or a biennial-like flowering phenology, to species with stems absent or short, and flowering almost exclusively in response to fire. Along this evolutionary gradient, there is a switching from a climatic driven flowering phenology to fire evolved strategies. Through review of the emerging literature concerning the signal pathways of plant hormones, it was demonstrated that the switch is easily explained by the unique hormonal response to the chemical ethylene which is present in both wood smoke and produced by the plants when exposed to stress. Comparison to similar morphological species across the globe suggests that other environmental factors, namely the long periods of drought and cold may have been responsible for pre-adaptations that enabled survival of the genus in the modem environment. Due to dramatic vegetation clearance since the 1850s across its distribution, the Grey Grasstree is a threatened species in the State of Victoria. The species' fire resilience has been assumed in previous literature due to evidence of fire-adapted traits in X australis and experience of other populations and species across Australia. This research has shown that many of the fire-adapted traits have a long evolutionary history and fire protection should not be assumed for all species and all life stages. Indeed, the use of fuel reduction burning strategies currently being implemented across the box-ironbark ecosystem would appear to be a threat to the continued survival of this species in the ecosystem. This high mortality is partly a result of a change in fire regimes which has allowed the population to grow long unburnt, and partly due to the arborescent qualities of this species. Based on the limited information available, a more frequent fire regime may have supported a younger more fire-resilient population around or before the mid 1800s. The increased mortality of adults in the post-fire environment is partly off-set by an apparent increased chance of seedling survival as a result of soil nutrients becoming accessible resulting in faster root-mass development. However, in an ecosystem where moisture is the major limiting environmental factor to seedling establishment, the positive effects of fire can only be realised in years of adequate rainfall that is highly intermittent. An ecological strategy of mast flowering in drought years appears to occur as a consequence, therefore increasing the likelihood of higher than average rainfall in subsequent years for seedling establishment. The decadal temporal-scale of these recruitment events is overcome by the adult persisting in the environment during the harsh times, thus conservation of the species in relation to fire management needs to ensure adult survival. Further research is needed to develop prescriptive management guidelines in relation to fire.
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ItemThe water dreamers : how water and silence shaped Australia( 2008)Australia is the most arid continent on earth. This thesis explores how that challenge shaped the ways in which the settlers appropriated the Aboriginal countries, and how those settlers tried to make sense of a land that was so unlike the places from which they came. On the shores of Sydney Cove, the British cut down gum trees. As they crashed to the ground, it seemed as if these trees were shattering the primal silence of Aboriginal Australia - initiating the land into time. The settlers were confident that this process would be repeated in valley after valley until they had brought the whole of this 'silent continent' to life. But in inland Australia, the settlers found that the silence would not disperse. This was the arid zone. The explorers John Oxley and Charles Sturt articulated a core idea when they referred to this region as a place of 'death-like silence'. By the mid-nineteenth century, this silence had become an accepted fact about Australia. But the colonists disagreed about how they should respond. Some argued that the inland was a place of despair, a place to be avoided. Others found consolation in a mythos I have called necronationalism, which imagined that the people who had died in the desert were somehow elevated into the mystery of the land itself. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, the water dreamers began to challenge the very idea of silence. Their optimism was based on the promise that hydroengineering could triumph over the climate itself, creating a new, luxuriant Australia in the silent voids of the desert. By the 1920s, this ethos of 'Australia Unlimited' had become a major site of debate in Australia, when it was challenged by the geographer Griffith Taylor. Taylor insisted that the environment was the determining factor in human settlement. It could not simply be overridden by engineering. The debate took on a patriotic urgency, because many Australians believed that their failure to occupy the inland and the 'open north', left the continent vulnerable to an Asian invader. This debate produced a series of plans for great hydro-engineering schemes, some of which were built and some not. Today, this phase has largely ended, as we face the environmental damage caused by a code of engineering which, for all its idealism, took insufficient account of the environment itself.
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ItemEnvironmental policy and orthodox economics: a case study of Victorian solid waste( 2007)In this thesis I use the idea of 'rational ideologies' to investigate the value and role of orthodox economics in solid waste policy in Victoria, and its relationship with a dominant set of policy ideas that I call industrial ecology. I show that many orthodox economists criticise industrial ecology and prescribe alternative policies based principally on market-based instruments (MBIs) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with environmental valuation. They largely ignore the economic underpinnings of industrial ecology. I report on four empirical research projects. Firstly, I investigate the influence of unit-based pricing of domestic garbage in Melbourne on garbage quantities. I find its effects trivial except where rates were set at levels higher than orthodox economic theory would suggest is appropriate. Home owners have reduced garbage for non-economic reasons. Secondly, I compare 37 cost-benefit studies of recycling, revealing enormously varied approaches and results that are often apparently infused by analyst ideology or sponsor interests. Rather than the hard rationality it seems to promise, CBA with environmental externality valuation diverts debate into complexities that are the preserve of experts. The ideological foundations of some orthodox economic interpretations of environmental issues are shown to be weakly supported by theory or logic. Thirdly, I review the history of Victorian solid waste policy since 1970. As an early pollution crisis was overcome, the agenda shifted to waste minimisation. Regulation, corporatist agreements, targets and strategies have helped to level off the quantity of waste to landfill and grow post-consumption recycling into a major industrial operation. Costs have risen substantially but public support remains strong. Industry, local government and environment groups have competed for influence in the policy arena. While waste management has been transformed into a competitive market structure, orthodox economics has played only a small role in the policy history. Where CBAs have not be desultory they have failed to resolve policy disputes. Use of MBIs has been beset by administrative and sunk-cost concerns. Finally, I report on a survey of 46 members of the solid waste policy community on the economics of solid waste. There is a surprisingly high degree of in-principle acceptance of orthodox economics conceptions of the environment, such as CBA, environmental valuation and MBIs. There is more disagreement over resource efficiency,, recycling targets and interpretation of the value of economic tools in practice. Variation in views is linked with professional grouping more than economics education. There is strong support for the economic underpinnings of industrial ecology. I suggest that environmentalists' simultaneous acceptance of orthodox economists' intellectual framework yet rejection of their prescriptions demonstrates the practical weakness of that framework but also represents a latent danger to environmentalism. In concluding, I interpret orthodox economics as a rational ideology that is blind to its ideological content. I argue that this blindness has led to overconfidence, inflexibility and overambition, and that these characteristics have marginalised orthodox economics in Victorian solid waste policy. I argue for analytical plurality and the supremacy of political judgement.
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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.