School of Geography - Theses

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    The water dreamers : how water and silence shaped Australia
    Cathcart, Michael John ( 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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    The coalfields of eastern Australia: an examination of the rise, contemporary character and areal impact of bituminous coal mining
    Wilson, Murray G. A. ( 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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    Study of a quantitative method of delineating physical-geographic regions in interdisciplinary integrated survey: the grid-point method
    Massey, Jack ( 1975)
    Interdisciplinary surveys involve mapping physicalgeographic regions according to readily observable criteria for the purpose of assisting in making a variety of decisions about land use. Difficulties are associated with traditional surveys, which rely on aerial photographic interpretation and purposive sampling, due to the lack of a standardized, quantitative methodology. The grid-point method is proposed as a rigorous, quantitative approach and was applied in the Grampians north-east section (507 sq.km.), the upper Barwon River catchment (977 sq.km.), and on French Island (172 sq.kin.). Variables used reflect obvious distributions of landform, soil, and native vegetation, and quasi-random sampling patterns with circular sampling units and densities between 1 sampling unit per .89 and 2.42 sq.km. were employed. Landform data were gathered from contour maps, and soil samples and vegetation data were gathered in the field; Boil data were obtained by laboratory analyses. Data were subjected to principal components analysis, and standardized data were scored on the first three scaled and first three orthoreormalized vectors. Sampling units were classified on the basis of the scores and then regionalized by SYM�-V proximal mapping. These regionalizations provided a sound basis for physical-geographic description. Inherent features of the grid-point method overcame difficulties associated with traditional surveys. Statistical analyses indicated that sampling densities as low as 1 sampling unit per 4 sq.km. are sufficient to generate interpretable regionalizations of the Grampians north-east section. Comparisons of regionalizations with the land systems map of this area produced by traditional methods reveals that the grid-point method is capable of generating regions similar in level of generalization to the land systems. With respect to selected variables,the regionalizations are in the majority of cases of higher quality than the land systems map. The cost of survey at 1 sampling unit per .97 sq.km. of this area is within the limits of most survey organizations and estimates for surveys at densities of 1 sampling unit per 1.14, 1.51, 2.07, 3.49, 4.15, and 9.74 sq.km. reveal that although there is a significant reduction in cost with decrease in sample size, an economy of scale factor operates. Because the grid-point method is orientated to field data gathering, it is least expensively applied in study areas characterized by undulating plains as well as flat plains and hills, which are for the most part cleared with a dry surface. Estimates for five study areas previously surveyed by the Soil Conservation Authority indicate that the cost of application of the grid-point method at sampling densities of 1 sampling unit per 1 ?q.km. and lower is not excessive. Efficiency of the grid-point method may be enhanced by purposivesystematic sampling near roads and vehicle tracks and purposive stratification of the study area prior to application. The grid-point method should be applied in interdisciplinary surveys carried out in south-eastern Australia. Applications should take the form of reco??aissan?e surveys involving relatively low density sampling. The resulting regionalizations, although probably somewhat coarse, should provide a sound framework for general pbysical-geographic description.
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    In the wake of June 4 : an analysis of the Chinese students' decision-making process to stay in Australia
    Gao, Jia ( 2001)
    This is a study of the Chinese students' efforts to gain the right and chance to stay on in Australia after the June 4 massacre event occurred in Beijing in 1989, when there were about 20,000 of them living in Australia. The specific focus of this study is the experiences of the students over a period of twelve months from 4 June 1989 to 27 June 1990, when the students were virtually allowed to stay permanently. This was a special onshore migration intake. Such an intake once had a significant impact upon Australian humanitarian and refugee immigration policies in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. This is a topic relevant to international and refugee migration and in need of empirical explication and theoretical conceptualisation. A comprehensive study of the decision-making experiences of both international and refugee migrants has many dimensions. To develop an adequate portrayal of the onshore asylum seekers' decision-making process, this study uses the multimethod approach. Information gained from in-depth interviews forms the main empirical basis of this study. The data collected through participant observations is woven in among documentary sources, and both provide context to the main interview-based data. In the course of the literature review, current thinking on identity, especially on strategic identity formation is found to be a most useful theoretical framework to guide this study. By utilising the identity formation framework, this study addresses five aspects of the Chinese students' efforts to form their onshore asylum seekers' identity and to meet the Australian government's migration criteria for gaining the right and chance to stay on in this country permanently. The main features of the onshore asylum seekers' efforts to shape their identity to suit government criteria can be summarised as follows. Firstly, as these asylum seekers are onshore, they necessarily have extensive involvement with the local agencies in dealing with their residence issue. This involvement offers asylum seekers various notions of what a 'refugee identity' is, and this in turn influences how they constitute themselves in this local context. Secondly, the efforts of the onshore asylum seekers are made away from home in a new place. As such, they make their decisions in a newly formed primary social group, instead of within a family which, in current studies, is the most commonly documented decision-making unit. Thus, their decision-making distinguishes itself from the family-based process in many ways. Further, as onshore asylum seekers are not recognised by nor rescued by refugee agencies, they have to provide solid evidence to prove that they fit in with refugee criteria and are qualified to stay. This expectation results in onshore asylum seekers participating in a very self-conscious and more strategic process of constructing a refugee identity. Furthermore, the onshore refugee identity is consolidated and expressed by interactions with the major local agencies. This influences these agencies in terms of the way in which the onshore asylum seeker issue is perceived and solved. In particular, the asylum seekers actively contacted and lobbied the government, the media and the migrant service organisations. Lastly, as a logical development of the onshore asylum seekers' efforts to stay, the seekers take highly organised political actions, which often comply with the main themes of the conflicts in international political ideology.
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    What is the value of a hole in the ground?: What is the value of discrete choice contingent valuation?
    Cook, Darron Manuel ( 2001)
    The inability of market price systems to reflect the social value associated with environmental conservation presents a barrier to the achievement of overall allocative efficiency. Stated preference valuation techniques such as the contingent valuation method have been found to be useful in capturing and measuring unexpressed preferences for environmental protection and enhancement. When applied correctly, these techniques can alleviate some of the most intractable market failures, such as those which involve pure public goods. This thesis explores the theoretical validity of different approaches to contingent valuation questioning through a survey of Victorian households' attitudes to the dereliction of open gold mine pits in the Victorian countryside. The methodological research involves comparison of discrete and continuous models of contingent valuation questioning, including a wide scale test of a new approach to discrete questioning, referred to as the "dissonance minimising choice" method, which seeks to correct the upward bias of yea-saying suspected in dichotomous choice studies. The results reveal a notable level of community concern about present mining practices in Victoria and a considerable willingness to pay for minesite rehabilitation. The results for the contingent valuation method indicate that survey respondents made robust and rational utility-maximimsing choices. The discrete-choice results were still significantly higher than the results for open ended study, with the performance of the dissonance mimimising choice method rather mixed in comparison with the traditional dichotomous choice approach. i
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    If Descartes swam with dolphins: the framing and consumption of marine animals in contemporary Australian tourism
    Jarvis, Christina Harwood ( 2000)
    Cultural geography has become increasingly interested in the ways in which nature is socially constructed within society as other. In more closely examining the broad category of 'nature', the field of animal geography has come about in an attempt to rethink the place of animals in society. The Cartesian culture/nature binary is seen to be one reason for the mistreatment of animals in society. The thesis investigates to what extent the binary is challenged or reinforced through the act of visiting animals within an ecotourism context. To this end the thesis looks at the ways in which marine animals are produced for and consumed by the tourism industry in Australia. Set within a backdrop of the early collection and display of marine animals as a form of imperial expansion, the thesis travels across a spectrum of marine animal tourism experience, from a point of extreme mediation to one of minimum mediation. In investigating the ways in which marine animals are framed and toured in contemporary Australia, the thesis utilises two key case studies, the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island in Victoria, Australia and Wild Dolphin Tours in Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, Australia. At the same time, the case studies act to uncover a key question of the thesis, namely the reasons why people choose to visit marine animals in Australia. Initially the thesis investigates the display of marine animals in early aquaria, modem day theme parks and in Blue Zoos. In then moving on to the first case study, the thesis considers the ways in which penguins are framed as a novelty event, as a threatened animal and as a link 'to the wild' for tourists. Data collection through a visitor survey and participant observation showed that tourists visit the birds as part of a more general family/friends holiday experience. The second case study begins with an examination of the ways in which dolphins are framed through popular culture as at once human like and as better than humans. A visitor survey and participant observation undertaken with tourists who went to sightsee and swim with the bottlenose dolphins of Port Phillip Bay revealed that visitors primarily chose to visit these animals because of a desire to see them unconfined and to learn about them. The thesis found that marine animals are framed for tourism in Australia in a multitude of ways which simultaneously bring the animals closer to humans and set them apart. Environmental education differed between the case studies. Generally tourists felt they learnt about the animals through a combination of seeing them first hand and experiencing some form of interpretation. Overall the culture/nature binary was found to be actively supported but also challenged by the practice of ecomarine tourism examined in the thesis.
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    Data and information exchange in multi-jurisdictional river basins : an evaluation of procedures
    Chenoweth, Jonathan Lee ( 2000)
    The exact role that data and information exchange plays in the management of multi- jurisdictional river basins needs clarification if management processes are to be improved. With many major river basins being shared by several countries, and competition for water resources becoming increasingly severe, it is important that mechanisms are established to permit the comprehensive integrated management of shared basins. Under international law nations have a clear obligation to co-operate in the management of multi-jurisdictional river basins, including in the area of data and information exchange. Mechanisms for doing this, however, are not well developed. The Murray-Darling River basin in south-eastern Australia and the Mekong River basin in south-east Asia are both major multi-jurisdictional river basins in which inter-government authorities for managing the river basins have been established with similar aims and legal foundations. Despite the significant differences in the socio-economic and political environments of the two basins, both the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) and Mekong River Commission (MRC) have set up data collection networks and exchange mechanisms which function through quite similar means. The efficiency of the networks, however, differ markedly for a variety of reasons. The MDBC also engages in significant data and information exchange with its basin community as part of its extensive efforts at working with the community. This is integral to its management objectives for the basin. By contrast, the MRC's efforts at working with and communicating with its basin community have been limited to date. Existing community participation and communication mechanisms adopted by other organisations within the basin indicate the types of processes the MRC itself could adopt as it develops. The exchange of high quality data and information at the highest decision making level can help balance political based decision making with technical considerations. The internal working documents and meeting minutes of the MDBC and MRC reveal that the MDBC draws to a significant extent on the data and information channels it has developed to support its decision making processes. The MRC, however, has yet to make extensive use of its databases and other information sources, due to its developmental stage as an organisation. Several significant planned initiatives mean that it will depend extensively on the data and information systems it has put in place if these initiatives are implemented. Tough decisions, however, depend upon sufficiently reliable data, meaning that some improvements are required to the data and information systems the MRC has in place for supporting its decision making. This research shows that effective data and information exchange between all significant players in a multi-jurisdictional river basin is indispensable to achieving the integrated management of such river basins. The effective and sustainable management of multi- jurisdictional river basins depends upon sound functional data and information systems, with co-operative efforts being built upon this. Not only is data and information exchange between all significant players needed to implement integrated management itself, this research suggests that data and information exchange also plays a major role in developing the impetus for integrated management amongst those with political power in a multi-jurisdictional river basin.
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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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    An impact analysis of enhanced-greenhouse climate change on the Australian alpine snowpack
    Hewitt, Simon Donald ( 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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    Casa mia : home ownership, identity and post-war Italian Australian migration
    Pulvirenti, Mariastella ( 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.