School of Geography - Theses

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    Asian migration and changing employment and occupation in Melbourne
    Khan, Munir Ahmed ( 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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    Attitudes to tourism in Victoria's Alpine National Park
    McKercher, Robert D. ( 1996)
    Tourism is the next big issue facing managers, advocates and users of Victoria's Alpine National Park (ANP). While the logging and cattle grazing battles have been largely resolved, the debates over the acceptability of tourism, the appropriateness of a range of tourism activities and the desirability of attracting large numbers of people to the ANP are just beginning. A combination of Victorian government policy promoting greater use of its natural assets, increasing competition for access to the park from recreational users and the emergence of ecotourism as a commercial and consumer activity has resulted in increased pressures to develop the park as a tourist destination. At the same time, however, existing user groups may be at risk of being alienated by tourism activities and fear they will be displaced from the park. The thesis explores the attitudes to tourism of leaders of public and special interest groups who have become involved in the political debate about tourism in the Alpine National Park. It examines whether or not a state of conflict exists with tourism by exploring which user groups feel that tourism is or is not an appropriate ANP activity and which tourism activities are felt to be acceptable. More significantly, it strives to understand the causes of concerns about tourism by examining the similarities and differences in attitudes and ideal roles of the ANP that exist among stakeholders, including the opinion leaders of public and special interest groups, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources management staff and the tourism industry. In doing so, it examines the causes of these attitudinal differences to see if they are driven by identifiable differences towards the role and management of the park, identifiable value clash between user groups or by emotive perceptions that tourism and tourists are simply less appropriate user groups. At the time the study was completed, about half the opinion leaders surveyed expressed some level of opposition to tourism. Suspicion about tourism was evident, however, even among those people who expressed support for it. At its core, leaders of other park user groups fear that increased tourism activity will lead to their expulsion from the ANP. This displacement process could occur overtly, through the granting of exclusive or preferential use territories to tourist operators, or covertly, through a changed park experience that renders the Alps less attractive to non-tourism visitors.
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    Limited data, limited time: the use of groundwater models in salinity management
    Hodgson, Lesley ( 1995)
    This thesis uses salinity management in the Lake Wellington catchment in Gippsland, Victoria to develop a systematic method of regional groundwater analysis which addresses the currently relevant issue of parameter uncertainty where data are limited and the need for the local community to understand the implications of this in decision making. The method is based on groundwater models which are used as a framework for assessing and evaluating all the data available in the catchment which will influence groundwater management for salinity control. These data come from a variety of sources; both quantitative and qualitative. A considerable amount of information about a catchment which, while not directly used in a model, may, because of management decisions, influence how a model is run. In particular, through an historical analysis of hydrological impacts this thesis emphasises the need to understand past land use changes to facilitate future salinity management. A procedure for the evaluation of the initial input data for a groundwater model is described. The data are assessed in two ways; first, in terms of their spatial variability and second, in terms of how parameter estimates are obtained. The latter includes estimates from work in similar environments and estimates from descriptive data. The information about the variability of data and its measurement are combined to form a qualitative classification of the reliability of initial input data. This classification is of value both to researchers, in terms of subsequent modelling, and to the community in creating an awareness of data limitations which may influence decision making. The thesis uses the classification to obtain estimates of the input parameters to run a simple two-dimensional finite element model based on AQUIFEMN-N. Emphasis in the thesis is placed on the spatial analysis of the model output. A technique is described which facilitates the rapid appraisal of output data in order to direct further data collection in the catchment.
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    Denudation along a passive margin: a study from southeastern Australia
    Fabel, Frederik Gysbert ( 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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    The Port Melbourne condition: normative geographies of legitimation for urban development
    Batten, David Clark ( 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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    Second nature? : the socio-spatial production of disability
    Gleeson, Brendan James ( 1993)
    Social inequalities associated with disability are a disturbing feature of contemporary Western societies. The pervasiveness of this structural oppression means that millions of lives are overshadowed by disablement. This study sets out to situate this fact theoretically, historically, and geographically. Broadly speaking, disability is the socially imposed state of exclusion which physically impaired individuals may be forced to endure. Such a view contrasts with popular, or common sense, understandings which see the experience of disablement as `second nature' to impaired people. An important claim of the thesis is that disability is a socio-spatial oppression which social theory must no longer ignore. Further, historical materialism provides the explanatory foundations for a social theory of disability. It is asserted from the outset that the form of historical materialism needed to achieve this task is one which takes the human body and space to be central theoretical considerations. Accordingly, the study uses a spatially-focused historical materialism to analyse the question of disability, and does this through carefully designed empirical case studies of the everyday experience of disablement in different times and places. The study asks the question: How have changes in the socio-spatial organisation of society affected the lived experience of physical impairment? A response is made in the form of a comparative analysis of the lived experience of impairment in feudal England and colonial (nineteenth-century) Melbourne. Five important data sets exist which relate to the experience of impairment in both societies, and these are consulted in the course of the study. The most substantial empirical resource is the set of case records (1850-1900) of the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society, an important philanthropic organisation which operated in colonial Melbourne. The research demonstrates that socio-spatial changes affect the lived experience of impairment by transforming the material structures of everyday life. It is argued that past transformations in the mode of production have had profound social consequences for physically impaired people. In particular, the analysis shows that the socio-spatial organisation of industrial capitalism was an oppressive source of disablement for physically impaired people. The study concludes that a transformation in the present mode of production (capitalism) is a necessary first step towards ending the oppression of disability.
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    Planning in Melbourne 1950-1985: the formation of professional ideologies
    Wilks, Judith Lynne ( 1993)
    This is a study of Melbourne planners and their professional ideologies. The vehicle for this research is metropolitan strategy planning in Melbourne ranging from 1950 to 1985, performed by a public sector organisation called the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). The subjects are a group of thirty planners who authored the strategic plans and documents produced during this time period. By linking theoretical and archival material with empirical data this research aims to develop an understanding of what constitutes professional ideologies in planning. Moreover, it examines the interplay between elements of professional ideologies and features of the context of planning, such as the political-economy, political and socio-cultural agendas, and the bureaucratic organisation. This is the first study of its kind in Australia, and it is hoped that it will make a useful contribution to developing a better and more 'grounded' understanding of planners' ideologies, and the relevance and practical usefulness of the various elements which comprise them in the day-to-day world of metropolitan strategy planning. This research has been conducted in an exploratory mode, that is, to understand and account for all the possible influences on professional ideology formation. At the theoretical level, the implications of adopting such an approach are such that both the major sociological traditions which have taken an interest in the professions (Weberian and Marxist), are reviewed. In the first section of this thesis, neo-Weberian perspectives on the professions are evaluated for their possible contribution to understanding the processes through which professional ideologies in planning have been formed and re-formed during the period under study. The central interest of neo-Weberian scholars with respect to the study of the professions, is professionalisation. This denotes the process by which an occupation or an activity establishes, or attempts to establish itself as a profession. The role, methods, and strategies of the Royal Australian Planning Institute in developing and promoting its particular construction of a professional ideology in planning is investigated through the analysis of archival and documentary material. This is followed by a review of neo-Marxist perspectives on the professions, again with the aim of establishing what further contributions they make to our understanding of ideologies in planning. Relationships which are investigated include those between planning and the state, between planning's professional ideologies and the 'dominant' ideology, and between planning and the processes of class formation. One of the most salient propositions of this perspective - that 'functional' relationships exist between planners' ideologies and 'the role of planning', ensconced as it is within the capitalist state - is rendered into an empirical investigation. Explored are possible relationships between planners' ideologies, the strategic plans and policies they developed, and the political and economic context of planning in Melbourne during the period 1950 - 1985. It is argued that although both neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist perspectives have important contributions to make to a study such as this, there is a need to extend the concepts, relationships, and questions they embody at a 'middle level' of theorising. At such a level, it is possible to integrate our understanding of the dominant economic, social, and political processes, with what is known about the individual's (i.e. planner's) experience of these. Planners' ideologies comprise elements such as: planning knowledge, educational socialisation, planners' professional associations, professional values and beliefs, and ethics. Much of the empirical work is directed at examining the role of these elements in the construction of the individual planner's 'world view' about their own planning and about planning in general. An extensive interview and questionnaire process was carried out amongst a group of planners who had worked with the MMBW at various stages during the period 1950 - 1985, and at various levels of the organisational hierarchy. However, importance is also placed on understanding how individual planner's professional ideologies intermesh with or are integrated into other ideological practices and positions. Such relationships can be understood through examining the interplay between the constitutive elements of professional ideologies and the context features of planning. This research describes the political, economic, socio-cultural and organisational circumstances of metropolitan strategy planning in Melbourne 1950-1985. It also describes their role in creating the dissonance which was observed between certain elements of planners' ideologies and the representation of these in their work.
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    Causes of incision of Gippsland river channels during the period of European settlement, with particular reference to Bruthen Creek
    Bird, Juliet Frances ( 1987)
    Historical evidence shows that many of the Gippsland river channels which are now deeply incised were formerly shallow, meandering and swampy. The change has occurred within the historic period, beginning in most cases between 1870 and 1900. This thesis investigates the changes along Bruthen Creek, near Yarram, using a variety of historical sources, including early maps and air photos, and archival material from the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (now the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands), Victorian Railways (now V-line) and the local Shire offices. Together these provide sufficient evidence to support a model of development of incision through headward migration of a series of five distinct erosion sequences, each of which originated in a different part of the channel system. Possible causes of instability are investigated. It is concluded that although there appears to have been a climatic change towards increased annual rainfall in the area, dating from the mid 1940s, as proposed for coastal New South Wales, there is no evidence that this is causally related to channel instability. Similarly, although there has been extensive deforestation of the catchment, it is argued that this has not had sufficient impact on run-off to have caused channel erosion. The thesis concludes that human interference has been the critical factor leading to incision, particularly the efforts to drain the riverain swamps by channelising flow within them, and limiting the extent and frequency of flooding. This hypothesis is presented for Bruthen Creek, and evaluated in the light of the author's studies of eroded channels in other parts of Gippsland. Many of these studies have already been published, and are presented with this thesis as supporting papers. Some evidence is also included from the preliminary studies by the author, not yet published, of channel instability in a group of tributaries of the Tarra River, the catchment of which adjoins that of Bruthen Creek. It is concluded that all the Gippsland channels which were shallow and poorly defined at the time of settlement and have subsequently incised have been subject to similar attempts to channelise flow. Much of the work was carried out on a small scale by individual farmers soon after land settlement, and the only record of their activities is in the original land selection records. Entrainment of flow to ensure that floodwaters passed under newly constructed road and rail bridges has been a contributory factor, but most of this, particularly in the case of roads, is only poorly documented. The importance of individual action, and the paucity of early road records, has meant that the extent of human interference has often been underestimated, because much of it took place long before the establishment of a government department with a specific interest in river management.