Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'White Australia'
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1
Stephenson, Peta. "Beyond black and white : Aborigines, Asian-Australians and the national imaginary /." Connect to thesis, 2003. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/1708.
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This thesis examines how Aboriginality, ‘Asianness’ and whiteness have been imagined from Federation in 1901 to the present. It recovers a rich but hitherto largely neglected history of twentieth century cross-cultural partnerships and alliances between Indigenous and Asian-Australians. Commercial and personal intercourse between these communities has existed in various forms on this continent since the pre-invasion era. These cross-cultural exchanges have often been based on close and long-term shared interests that have stemmed from a common sense of marginalisation from dominant Anglo-Australian society. At other times these cross-cultural relationships have ranged from indifference to hostility, reflecting the fact that migrants of Asian descent remain the beneficiaries of the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. (For complete abstract open document)
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David, Delphine. "'White', indigenous and Australian : constructions of mixed identities in today's Australia." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017USPCC179/document.
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Dans les années 1990, l’Australie met en place une politique de réconciliation s’étalant sur dix ans et visant à développer une meilleure relation entre Australiens aborigènes et non-aborigènes. Cette politique est fondée sur la reconnaissance de l’existence continue de tensions entre les deux communautés, et ce malgré une plus grande reconnaissance de la place des Aborigènes en Australie depuis les années 1970. La relation complexe entre Australiens aborigènes et non-aborigènes – en particulier "blancs" et dont les origines sont anglo-celtes – est le résultat du processus de colonisation, des politiques ultérieures conçues pour contrôler la population aborigène, et de la domination des Aborigènes par l’Australie "blanche" au cours de l’histoire. Du fait des politiques discriminatoires, de nombreuses familles aborigènes décidèrent de cacher leurs origines et de se faire passer pour blanches. De nombreux enfants métisses à la peau claire furent enlevés à leurs familles et perdirent leurs liens avec leurs familles aborigènes. Aujourd’hui, un nombre grandissant d’Australiens choisissent de revendiquer leur identité Aborigène et de reprendre possession d’un héritage dont ils ont été privés. Mais si avoir des origines aborigènes n’est plus source de honte, en revanche, le chemin à parcourir pour retrouver son identité aborigène peut être difficile. Cette étude analyse les parcours identitaires de onze Australiens élevés dans une culture "blanche" anglo-celte et qui ont des origines aborigènes. L’analyse de leurs perceptions de l’identité aborigène révèle la prédominance des discours "blancs" sur les Aborigènes en Australie aujourd’hui, mais aussi la présence de discours essentialistes restreignant la définition de l’identité aborigène, et maintenant utilisés par la communauté aborigène afin de contrôler cette définition. L’analyse de la relation d’opposition entre Aborigènes et Australiens "blancs" dans l’Australie contemporaine révèle la difficulté à revendiquer à la fois des origines "blanches" et "noires", ainsi que des identités multiplesIn the 1990s, Australia set up a ten-year policy of reconciliation aiming at developing a better relationship between Indigenous people and the wider Australian community. This policy was based on the recognition of the enduring dichotomy between both communities despite an increasing acknowledgement of the place of Indigenous people in Australia since the 1970s. The complex relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – and especially ‘white’ Anglo-Celtic Australians – is the result of the process of colonisation, of the subsequent policies designed to control Indigenous people, and of the historical domination of ‘white’ Australia over Indigenous people. As a result of discriminatory policies, many Indigenous families decided to hide their heritage and ‘passed’ into ‘white’ society. Many mixed-race and fair-skinned children were taken from their families and lost their connection with their Indigenous relatives. Today, an increasing number of Australians choose to identify as Indigenous and to reclaim a heritage they were deprived of. But although having Indigenous heritage is no longer regarded as shameful, the road back to Indigeneity can be a difficult one. This study is the analysis of the identity journeys of eleven Australians who were raised in a ‘white’, Anglo-Celtic Australian culture and who have Indigenous heritage. Their perceptions of Indigeneity are analysed to reveal the dominance of ‘white’ discourses about Indigeneity in today’s Australia, but also the presence of restricting essentialist discourses now used by the Indigenous community to keep control over the definition of Indigenous identity. The analysis of the oppositional relationship between Indigenous and ‘white’ Australians in contemporary Australia reveals the difficulty of embracing both ‘white’ and ‘black’ heritages and of claiming multiple identities
3
Kennedy, Ellen Jane. "No Asians allowed : the 'white Australia' and 'white Canada' immigration policies /." ON-CAMPUS Access For University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Click on "Connect to Digital Dissertations", 2000. http://www.lib.umn.edu/articles/proquest.phtml.
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Rowse, Tim. "White flour, white power : from rations to citizenship in Central Australia /." Cambridge : Cambridge university press, 1998. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37104933x.
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Clarke, Robert. "The utopia of the senses : white travellers in black Australia, 1980-2002 /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2006. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe19149.pdf.
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Griffiths, Philip Gavin. "The making of White Australia : ruling class agendas, 1876-1888 /." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2006. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20080101.181655/index.html.
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Finlay, Christine School of Sociology & Anthropology UNSW. "Smokescreen : black/white/male/female bravery and southeast Australian bushfires." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Sociology and Anthropology, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23006.
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Black/white/male/female struggles over knowledge correctness and who is brave are examined inductively in the field of bushfires. The paradoxes of a white male icon are linked to contradictions in gender theories in disaster. In mainstream literature, assumptions of innate white male superiority in bravery justify white women???s diminution and white male domination. In feminist theory, women???s diminution is the problem and their bravery for struggling against hegemony applauded. Philosophies of bravery are explored in 104 semistructured interviews and 12 months??? fieldwork as a volunteer bushfirefighter. There is great variety in the ways volunteers cope with bushfires. However, evidence of white male hegemony emerges when volunteers complain of state and territory indifference to preventing property and environmental damage and injury and death. Evidence is examined that Indigenous Australians once managed bushfires better than a sprawl of bureaucracy. Bushfire service claims that Aborigines knew nothing about hazard reductions are contradicted. This debate over bushfire management leads to the discovery of a third epistemology breaking with claims of white male iconic bravery and bureaucratic mastery. To generalise about the habitus of claims to knowledge and bravery, I analyse Newcastle Herald articles from 1881-1981. Three competing knowledge fields and their associated struggles are examined; Indigenous Australians and white womens??? emancipatory struggles confront data on bushfirefighting. Bushfires emerge as a serious problem, a bureaucratic power base and a white male icon from the 1920s.
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Griffiths, Philip Gavin, and phil@philgriffiths id au. "The making of White Australia: Ruling class agendas, 1876-1888." The Australian National University. Faculty of Arts, 2007. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20080101.181655.
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This thesis argues that the colonial ruling class developed its first White Australia policy in 1888, creating most of the precedents for the federal legislation of 1901. White Australia was central to the making of the Australian working class, to the shaping of Australian nationalism, and the development of federal political institutions. It has long been understood as a product of labour movement mobilising, but this thesis rejects that approach, arguing that the labour movement lacked the power to impose such a fundamental national policy, and that the key decisions which led to White Australia were demonstrably not products of labour movement action.
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It finds three great ruling class agendas behind the decisions to exclude Chinese immigrants, and severely limit the use of indentured coloured labour. Chinese people were seen as a strategic threat to Anglo-Australian control of the continent, and this fear was sharpened in the mid-1880s when China was seen as a rising military power, and a necessary ally for Britain in its global rivalry with Russia. The second ruling class agenda was the building of a modern industrial economy, which might be threatened by industries resting on indentured labour in the north. The third agenda was the desire to construct an homogenous people, which was seen as necessary for containing social discontent and allowing free institutions, such as parliamentary democracy.
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These agendas, and the ruling class interests behind them, challenged other major ruling class interests and ideologies. The result was a series of dilemmas and conflicts within the ruling class, and the resolution of these moved the colonial governments towards the White Australia policy of 1901. The thesis therefore describes the conflict over the use of Pacific Islanders by pastoralists in Queensland, the campaign for indentured Indian labour by sugar planters and the radical strategy of submerging this into a campaign for North Queensland separation, and the strike and anti-Chinese campaign in opposition to the use of Chinese workers by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company in 1878. The first White Australia policy of 1888 was the outcome of three separate struggles by the majority of the Anglo-Australian ruling classto narrowly restrict the use of indentured labour in Queensland, to assert the right of the colonies to decide their collective immigration policies independently of Britain, and to force South Australia to accept the end of Chinese immigration into its Northern Territory. The dominant elements in the ruling class had already agreed that any serious move towards federation was to be conditional on the building of a white, predominantly British, population across the whole continent, and in 1888 they imposed that policy on their own societies and the British government.
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Nurjaya, I. Gusti Made Oka. "Studies on the competitive ability of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) in mixtures with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) : the importance of non-structural carbohydrate reserves and plant traits /." Title page, contents and summary only, 1996. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09APSP/09apspi11.pdf.
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Moor, Merryl, and n/a. "Silent Violence: Australia's White Stolen Children." Griffith University. School of Arts, Media and Culture, 2006. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20070111.172012.
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This thesis makes a significant contribution to the existing knowledge on 'unmarried mothers'. Much of the literature on 'unmarried mothers' has been written by white, male, middle-class professionals who assume that unwed mothers are happy to place their babies for adoption so that they can be free to pursue other interests, meet other men and make a new life. However, after interviewing many of the mothers who gave up their babies in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s in Australia, I found this was not the case. Many of the mothers had wanted to keep their babies but were forced to relinquish them by their families and the wider society who seemed more intent on upholding nuclear family values than making available the resources needed to keep natural mothers and their babies together. My argument throughout this thesis is that given a choice - a viable economic and socially supported choice - many of the unmarried mothers, typified by those whom I interviewed, would not have parted with their babies. Most mothers interviewed, and presumably many of those in the community at large, have experienced much pain and grief as a result of the separation - a grief which is profound and lasts forever. Using Marxist feminist theories of the state and post-structural theories, my thesis highlights the perceptions and memories of birthmothers about the birthing experience and adoption as experience, process and life consequence. I also argue that the removal of white, working-class babies from their mothers compares in some small way with the removal of the indigenous 'stolen children' in the same period. The removal of Aboriginal children from their homes and cultures has been referred to by some scholars and activists as a form of cultural genocide. While the removal of babies from white, working-class, unwed mothers was different in that it had few racial implications, I argue that the system in place at the time was patriarchal and class-based and as such left the young, unwed women with no options but adoption. The thesis makes a very important and socially significant contribution to our understanding of unmarried mothers in that it presents a largely unwritten history of women. Rich in the voices of unmarried mothers, there are important conceptual, empirical and practical policy implications flowing from the research findings.
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Moor, Merryl. "Silent Violence: Australia's White Stolen Children." Thesis, Griffith University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365291.
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This thesis makes a significant contribution to the existing knowledge on 'unmarried mothers'. Much of the literature on 'unmarried mothers' has been written by white, male, middle-class professionals who assume that unwed mothers are happy to place their babies for adoption so that they can be free to pursue other interests, meet other men and make a new life. However, after interviewing many of the mothers who gave up their babies in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s in Australia, I found this was not the case. Many of the mothers had wanted to keep their babies but were forced to relinquish them by their families and the wider society who seemed more intent on upholding nuclear family values than making available the resources needed to keep natural mothers and their babies together. My argument throughout this thesis is that given a choice - a viable economic and socially supported choice - many of the unmarried mothers, typified by those whom I interviewed, would not have parted with their babies. Most mothers interviewed, and presumably many of those in the community at large, have experienced much pain and grief as a result of the separation - a grief which is profound and lasts forever. Using Marxist feminist theories of the state and post-structural theories, my thesis highlights the perceptions and memories of birthmothers about the birthing experience and adoption as experience, process and life consequence. I also argue that the removal of white, working-class babies from their mothers compares in some small way with the removal of the indigenous 'stolen children' in the same period. The removal of Aboriginal children from their homes and cultures has been referred to by some scholars and activists as a form of cultural genocide. While the removal of babies from white, working-class, unwed mothers was different in that it had few racial implications, I argue that the system in place at the time was patriarchal and class-based and as such left the young, unwed women with no options but adoption. The thesis makes a very important and socially significant contribution to our understanding of unmarried mothers in that it presents a largely unwritten history of women. Rich in the voices of unmarried mothers, there are important conceptual, empirical and practical policy implications flowing from the research findings.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Arts, Media and Culture
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Copland, Mark Stephen. "Calculating Lives: The Numbers and Narratives of Forced Removals in Queensland 1859 - 1972." Thesis, Griffith University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367813.
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European expansion caused dramatic dislocation for Aboriginal populations in the landmass that became the state of Queensland. On the frontiers, violence, abductions and forced relocations occurred on a largely informal basis condoned by colonial governments. The introduction of protective legislation in the late nineteenth century created a formal state-directed legal and administrative framework for the forcible removal and institutionalisation of Aboriginal people. This became the cornerstone for policy direction in Queensland and remained so into the mid-twentieth century. This thesis traces the development of policies and practices of removal in Queensland from their beginnings in the nineteenth century through to their dismantling in the mid-twentieth century. There has been much historical research into frontier violence and processes of dispossession in Queensland. The focus of this study is the systematic analysis of archival data relating to the forced removals of the twentieth century. The study has its genesis in an Australian Research Council Strategic Partnership with Industry — Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT) grant. This grant enabled the construction of a Removals Database, which provides a powerful tool with which to interrogate available records pertaining to removals of Aboriginal people in Queensland. Removals were a crucial element in the gathering and exploitation of Aboriginal labourers during the twentieth century. They also constituted a major form of control for the departments responsible for Aboriginal affairs within the Queensland administration. Tensions between a policy of complete segregation and the demand for Aboriginal labour in the wider community existed throughout the period of study. While segregation was implemented to an extent in relation to targeted sections of the Aboriginal population, such as “half-caste” females, employer insistence on access to reliable, cheap Aboriginal labour invariably took precedence. Detailed analysis of recorded reasons for removals demonstrates that they are unreliable in explaining why individuals were actually removed. They show a changing focus over time. Fluctuations in numbers of removals for different years reflect reasons not officially acknowledged in the records, such as the need to populate newly created reserves and establish institutional communities. They tell us little about the situation of Aboriginal people, but much about the racial thinking of the time. This study contributes to our knowledge base about the implementation and extent of Aboriginal child separation in Queensland. A comprehensive estimate of the number of separations concludes that one in six Aboriginal children in Queensland were separated from their natural families as a result of past policies. Local Aboriginal Protectors (usually police officers) played a major role in the way that the policy of removals was implemented. Local factors often determined the extent of removals as much as policy direction in the centralised Office of the Chief Protector of Aborigines. Removals took place across vast distances, and the Chief Protector was often totally reliant on local protectors for information and advice. This meant that employers and local protectors could have a major impact on the rate of removals in a given location. Responses of both Protectors and Aboriginal people to the policy of removals were not always compliant. Some Protectors worked to ensure that local Aboriginal people could remain in their own community and geographical location. Aboriginal people demonstrated a degree of resistance to the policy and there are a numerous recorded examples of extraordinary human endurance where they travelled large distances in difficult circumstances to return to their original locations and communities. The policy of removals impacted on virtually every Aboriginal family in the state of Queensland and the effects of the dislocations continue to be experienced to this day.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Arts, Media and Culture
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King, Andrew Stephen. "Marriageability and Indigenous representation in the white mainstream media in Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2007. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16654/1/Andrew_King_Thesis.pdf.
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By means of a historical analysis of representations, this thesis argues that an increasing sexualisation of Indigenous personalities in popular culture contributes to the reconciliation of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australia. It considers how sexualised images and narratives of Indigenous people, as they are produced across a range of film, television, advertising, sport and pornographic texts, are connected to a broader politics of liberty and justice in the present postmodern and postcolonial context. By addressing this objective the thesis will identify and evaluate the significance of 'banal' or everyday representations of Aboriginal sexuality, which may range from advertising images of kissing, television soap episodes of weddings, sultry film romances through to more evocatively oiled-up representations of the pinup- calendar variety. This project seeks to explore how such images offer possibilities for creating informal narratives of reconciliation, and engendering understandings of Aboriginality in the media beyond predominant academic concerns for exceptional or fatalistic versions.
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King, Andrew Stephen. "Marriageability and Indigenous representation in the white mainstream media in Australia." Queensland University of Technology, 2007. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16654/.
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By means of a historical analysis of representations, this thesis argues that an increasing sexualisation of Indigenous personalities in popular culture contributes to the reconciliation of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australia. It considers how sexualised images and narratives of Indigenous people, as they are produced across a range of film, television, advertising, sport and pornographic texts, are connected to a broader politics of liberty and justice in the present postmodern and postcolonial context. By addressing this objective the thesis will identify and evaluate the significance of 'banal' or everyday representations of Aboriginal sexuality, which may range from advertising images of kissing, television soap episodes of weddings, sultry film romances through to more evocatively oiled-up representations of the pinup- calendar variety. This project seeks to explore how such images offer possibilities for creating informal narratives of reconciliation, and engendering understandings of Aboriginality in the media beyond predominant academic concerns for exceptional or fatalistic versions.
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Monsour, Anne Maureen. "Negotiating a place in a white Australia : Syrian/Lebanese in Australia, 1880 to 1947, a Queensland case study /." [St. Lucia, Qld], 2004. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe18258.pdf.
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Greene, Charlotte Jordon. ""Fantastic dreams" William Liu and the origins and influence of protest against the White Australia Policy in the 20th century /." University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/4028.
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Doctor of PhilosophyThe structure of this study of William Liu will closely reflect his ideas and the major historical influences in his life, and will span the period from 1893 through ninety years spent mainly in Sydney, ending in 1983, the year before the beginning of the attack on multiculturalism launched by the historian Geoffrey Blainey. The memorialisation of Liu in the post-Blainey “immigration debate” period will then be considered. The study will also reflect the changes in protest against racially discriminatory immigration policies in Australia, as Liu moved from a period in which his was an almost isolated critique to one in which he was able to embrace the ever-widening group of people opposed to the ‘White Australia Policy’. This process has not been fully examined, perhaps due to the fact that the protest often appeared to have little impact upon policy. But the way in which Liu and other protestors expressed their view of what Australia should be and how the ‘White Australia Policy’ affected this vision sheds a great deal of light on these periods in Australian history. The structure of this thesis around Liu’s life, beginning with a period in which the ‘White Australia Policy’ was widely accepted, and ending in a period in which multiculturalism was entrenched as official policy, emphasises the cultural shift which was brought about by decades of protest against the Anglo-conformist model of Australian identity
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Taylor, Colleen Jane. ""Variations of the rainbow" : mysticism, history and aboriginal Australia in Patrick White." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22467.
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Bibliography: pages 206-212.This study examines Patrick White's Voss, Riders in the Chariot and A Fringe of Leaves. These works, which span White's creative career, demonstrate certain abiding preoccupations, while also showing a marked shift in treatment and philosophy. In Chapter One Voss is discussed as an essentially modernist work. The study shows how White takes an historical episode, the Leichhardt expedition, and reworks it into a meditation on the psychological and philosophical impulses behind nineteenth century exploration. The aggressive energy required for the project is identified with the myth of the Romantic male. I further argue that White, influenced by modernist conceptions of androgyny, uses the cyclical structure of hermetic philosophy to undermine the linear project identified with the male quest. Alchemical teaching provides much of the novel's metaphoric density, as well as a map for the narrative resolution. Voss is the first of the novels to examine Aboriginal culture. This culture is made available through the visionary artist, a European figure who, as seer, has access to the Aboriginal deities. European and Aboriginal philosophies are blended at the level of symbol, making possible the creative interaction between Europe and Australia. The second chapter considers how, in Riders in the Chariot, White modifies premises central to Voss. A holocaust survivor is one of the protagonists, and much of the novel, I argue, revolves around the question of the material nature of evil. Kabbalism, a mystical strain of Judaism, provides much of the esoteric material, am White uses it to foreground the conflict between metaphysical abstraction and political reality. In Riders, there is again an artist-figure: part Aboriginal, part European, he is literally a blend of Europe and Australia and his art expresses his dual identity. This novel, too, is influenced by modernist models. However, here the depiction of Fascism as both an historical crisis and as a contemporary moral bankruptcy locates the metaphysical questions in a powerfully realised material dimension. Chapter Three looks at A Fringe of Leaves, which is largely a post-modernist novel. One purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how it responds to its literary precursors and there is thus a fairly extensive discussion of the shipwreck narrative as a genre. The protagonist of the novel, a shipwreck survivor, cannot apprehend the symbolic life of the Aboriginals: she can only observe the material aspects of the culture. Symbolic acts are thus interpreted in their material manifestation. The depiction of Aboriginal life is less romanticised than that given in Voss, as White examines the very real nature of the physical hardships of desert life. The philosophic tone of A Fringe of Leaves is most evident, I argue, in the figure of the failed artist. A frustrated writer, his models are infertile, and he offers no vision of resolution. There is a promise, however, offered by these novels themselves, for in them White has given a voice to women, Aboriginals and convicts, groups normally excluded from the dominating discursive practice of European patriarchy.
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Elder, Catriona, and catriona elder@arts usyd edu au. "Dreams and nightmares of a 'White Australia' : the discourse of assimilation in selected works of fiction from the 1950s and 1960s." The Australian National University. Faculty of Arts, 1999. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20050714.143939.
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This thesis is an analysis of the production of assimilation discourse, in
terms of Aboriginal people’s and white people’s social relations, in a small
selection of popular fiction texts from the 1950s and 1960s. I situate these
novels in the broader context of assimilation by also undertaking a
reading of three official texts from a slightly earlier period. These texts
together produce the ambivalent white Australian story of assimilation.
They illuminate some of the key sites of anxiety in assimilation discourses:
inter-racial sexual relationships, the white family, and children and young
adults of mixed heritage and land ownership. The crux of my argument is
that in the 1950s and early 1960s the dominant cultural imagining of
Australia was as a white nation. In white discourses of assimilation to
fulfil the dream of whiteness, the Aboriginal people – the not-white – had
to be included in or eliminated from this imagined white community.
Fictional stories of assimilation were a key site for the representation of
this process, that is, they produced discourses of ‘assimilation
colonization’. The focus for this process were Aboriginal people of mixed
ancestry, who came to be represented as ‘the half-caste’ in assimilation
discourse. The novels I analyse work as ‘conduct books’. They aim to
shape white reactions to the inclusion of Aboriginal people, in particular
the half-caste, into ‘white Australia’. This inclusion, assimilation, was an
ambivalent project – both pleasurable and unsettling – pleasurable
because it worked to legitimate white colonization (Aboriginal presence as
erased) and unsettling because it challenged the idea of a pure ‘white
Australia’.
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Nuruzzaman, Mohammad. "Phosphorus benefits of white lupin, field pea and faba bean to wheat production in Western Australian soils." University of Western Australia. School of Plant Biology, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0094.
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[Truncated abstract] Soils of Western Australian cropping regions are very low in phosphorous. White lupin, chickpea, and faba bean are being increasingly used in rotations with wheat on these soils. Yield of wheat after a legume crop is frequently higher than its yield after wheat. It has been reported that in addition to nitrogen, legumes can also contribute to improve the availability of phosphorous for the subsequent crops. This PhD research project aimed at optimising the economic returns of wheat-legume rotations through more efficient use of P fertiliser in the legume phase as well as enhanced availability of soil P in the subsequent wheat phase
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Riffkin, Penelope A., of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, and Faculty of Science and Technology. "An assessment of white clover nitrogen fixation in grazed dairy pastures of south-western Victoria." THESIS_FST_xxx_Riffkin_P.xml, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/31.
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Australia is amongst the more efficient milk producers in the world.Milk production in the region of south-western Victoria relies mainly on rainfed white clover/perennial ryegrass pastures.As the demand for efficient and competitive milk production increases, the value of N2 fixation must be maximised. The objective of this thesis was to assess N2 fixation in grazed dairy pastures in south-western Victoria. Several tests and experiments were conducted and results noted. Studies revealed low white clover yields to be the major factor limiting N2 fixation in the region. For N2 fixation to have a significant impact on pasture quality and production, problems associated with legume persistence need to be addressed. Strategies may include the breeding of white clover cultivars with greater tolerance to water stress, improved winter production and increased competitiveness with companion species. Alternatively, the introduction of different legume species, better suited to the environment, may be appropriate. Where N2 fixation is unlikely to satisfy N demands, it may be necessary to introduce the strategic use of supplementary feeds or nitrogenous fertilisers. However, this would need to be carefully considered to ensure high input costs did not jeopardise the competitive advantage of low input pasture-based systemsMasters Thesis
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Reid, Patricia Mary, and n/a. "Whiteness as Goodness: White Women in PNG & Australia, 1960's to the Present." Griffith University. School of Arts, Media and Culture, 2005. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20070130.140518.
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In this thesis I examine the contemporary nexus between White women and the raced and classed institution of White womanhood. More specifically, I focus on White Australian women who are middle class, rich in cultural capital, and generally consider themselves to be progressive; that is race privileged women but women who are not usually associated with overt racism. My analysis unfolds White Australian women in the discursive context of the ideologies of feminism and feminist-influenced anti-racist politics, as well as the ideologies of femininity. The thesis shows how this nexus is enacted through a vision of White women as Good as expressed in the political commitments, mentalities, relationships, narratives and corporeality of such women. The research problem that I identified and worked through in the thesis is as follows: for middle class White women, (who can be seen and see themselves as generic 'women'), Whiteness has been seen and played out as Goodness. Further, in the playing out of this Goodness White women accumulate and defend the prestige and privileges of Whiteness. Specifically, I argue that Whiteness is reproduced in some of the discourses and practices of White feminism, by the progressive White women involved in anti-racist politics, and in the femininity industry and the ways it is taken up. The nub of the problem I identify is that White women's involvement in the structures and narratives that support Whiteness is often grounded in the very qualities of character and conduct that emerge from the colonial and class-constructed ideal of White womanhood and which have historically distinguished them from denigrated others. These qualities- notably virtue, innocence and self-restraint- whilst differently nuanced in other contexts are an ongoing expression of the uses made of White womanhood as the visible sign of race and class superiority. The work examines four key periods: the Australian colony of PNG during the decolonising 1960's and 1970's; the high years of 1970's and 1980's feminism; the race debates of the 1990's; and the bodily practices of present day White women gripped by fears of fat and aging. I explore the ways in which White women's Whiteness is played out in benevolent Black/White relationships, the over-reach of difference feminism, particular kinds of anti-racist identities and activism, and body-improvement practices. In all these cultural sites, White women's Whiteness is often represented as a kind of moral being and deployed as moral authority in ways that are consonant with the raced and classed construction of White women as moral texts. My research approach was determined by the research problem I identified. Given my argument that White women mis-recognise Whiteness as Goodness in a race-structured society, then the collecting of data through interviews or surveys would have yielded material subject to this blindness. Instead, I explored sites and material where moral claims were being pressed, and case studies where 'women' were enacting themselves or being represented or interpellated as moral texts. My selection of primary source material ranges from feminist newsletters, women's and other magazines, literature, film, event programs and flyers, radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and websites, as well as reflections on my own experiences. Secondary source material includes feminist theoretical texts as well as texts drawn from a range of other disciplines, and other historical background materials. I lay out and support my arguments using a technique not dissimilar to collage, aiming to construct a picture that is compelling in its detail as well as coherent in its overall effect. This thesis is a contribution to the de-naturalisation of Whiteness. Navigating a course between the opposing hazards of essentialising Whiteness and understating its effects in contemporary Australian society, I have brought into clearer view some of the strategies which maintain the authority of Whiteness.
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Reid, Patricia Mary. "Whiteness as Goodness: White Women in PNG & Australia, 1960's to the Present." Thesis, Griffith University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365505.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis I examine the contemporary nexus between White women and the raced and classed institution of White womanhood. More specifically, I focus on White Australian women who are middle class, rich in cultural capital, and generally consider themselves to be progressive; that is race privileged women but women who are not usually associated with overt racism. My analysis unfolds White Australian women in the discursive context of the ideologies of feminism and feminist-influenced anti-racist politics, as well as the ideologies of femininity. The thesis shows how this nexus is enacted through a vision of White women as Good as expressed in the political commitments, mentalities, relationships, narratives and corporeality of such women. The research problem that I identified and worked through in the thesis is as follows: for middle class White women, (who can be seen and see themselves as generic 'women'), Whiteness has been seen and played out as Goodness. Further, in the playing out of this Goodness White women accumulate and defend the prestige and privileges of Whiteness. Specifically, I argue that Whiteness is reproduced in some of the discourses and practices of White feminism, by the progressive White women involved in anti-racist politics, and in the femininity industry and the ways it is taken up. The nub of the problem I identify is that White women's involvement in the structures and narratives that support Whiteness is often grounded in the very qualities of character and conduct that emerge from the colonial and class-constructed ideal of White womanhood and which have historically distinguished them from denigrated others. These qualities- notably virtue, innocence and self-restraint- whilst differently nuanced in other contexts are an ongoing expression of the uses made of White womanhood as the visible sign of race and class superiority. The work examines four key periods: the Australian colony of PNG during the decolonising 1960's and 1970's; the high years of 1970's and 1980's feminism; the race debates of the 1990's; and the bodily practices of present day White women gripped by fears of fat and aging. I explore the ways in which White women's Whiteness is played out in benevolent Black/White relationships, the over-reach of difference feminism, particular kinds of anti-racist identities and activism, and body-improvement practices. In all these cultural sites, White women's Whiteness is often represented as a kind of moral being and deployed as moral authority in ways that are consonant with the raced and classed construction of White women as moral texts. My research approach was determined by the research problem I identified. Given my argument that White women mis-recognise Whiteness as Goodness in a race-structured society, then the collecting of data through interviews or surveys would have yielded material subject to this blindness. Instead, I explored sites and material where moral claims were being pressed, and case studies where 'women' were enacting themselves or being represented or interpellated as moral texts. My selection of primary source material ranges from feminist newsletters, women's and other magazines, literature, film, event programs and flyers, radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and websites, as well as reflections on my own experiences. Secondary source material includes feminist theoretical texts as well as texts drawn from a range of other disciplines, and other historical background materials. I lay out and support my arguments using a technique not dissimilar to collage, aiming to construct a picture that is compelling in its detail as well as coherent in its overall effect. This thesis is a contribution to the de-naturalisation of Whiteness. Navigating a course between the opposing hazards of essentialising Whiteness and understating its effects in contemporary Australian society, I have brought into clearer view some of the strategies which maintain the authority of Whiteness.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Arts, Media and Culture
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Rutherford, Lachlan. "Structural and metamorphic evolution of the western White Range Nappe, Arltunga Nappe complex central Australia /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09SB/09sbr975.pdf.
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Thesis (B. Sc.(Hons.))--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, 2000.National 1:250 000 grid reference SF 53-14 Alice Springs. One folded col. map in pocket inside back cover. Includes bibliographical references (5 leaves ).
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Taylor, Ashley David. "Structural mapping adjacent to the 'Woman-in-White amphibolite' in the Olary Domain, South Australia /." Title page, abstract and table of contents only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09SB/09sbt238.pdf.
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Stanhope, Sally K. ""White, Black, and Dusky": Girl Guiding in Malaya, Nigeria, India, and Australia from 1909-1960." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/history_theses/59.
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This comparative study of Girl Guiding in Malaya, India, Nigeria, and Australia examines the dynamics of engagement between Western and non-Western women participants. Originally a program to promote feminine citizenship only to British girls, Guiding became tied up with efforts to maintain, transform, or build different kinds of imagined communities—imperial states, nationalists movements, and independent nation states. From the program’s origins in London in 1909 until 1960 the relationship of the metropole and colonies resembled a complex web of influence, adaptation, and agency. The interactions between Girl Guide officialdom headquartered in London, Guide leaders of colonized girls, and the colonized girls who joined suggest that the foundational ideology of Guiding, maternalism, became a common language that participants used to work toward different ideas and practices of civic belonging initially as members of the British Empire and later as members of independent nations.
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Fong, Natalie L. "Chinese Merchants in the Northern Territory, 1880-1950: A translocal case study." Thesis, Griffith University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/410942.
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This thesis examines a leading group of Chinese merchants (those engaged in overseas trade) and their families who operated businesses in the Northern Territory (‘the Territory’) during the period 1880-1950. This study emphasises the benefits of a translocal approach to understanding the interrelationships of race, class, and gender in this history. But it also provides a framework for investigating the interrelationships of Chinese people in Darwin, of Chinese and Aboriginal people, and of Chinese people in different locations in Australia and overseas. I argue that Chinese merchants and their families based in particular locations should be studied in relation to each other and thus comparatively and transnationally to better understand their various contributions to local, national and international histories. Darwin is one such illuminating example. The Chinese merchants in the Territory are a dynamic and underinvestigated case study in this regard due to several compelling factors. The ongoing presence of Chinese in the Territory spanned a tumultuous era in the Territory and Australia’s path to nationhood: the discovery of gold in the Territory in the 1870s; the advent of the telegraph line, railway and international steamship companies; anti-Chinese sentiment in Australian colonies and overseas in the 1880s; Federation and the infamous Immigration Restriction Act in 1901; the passing of the Territory from South Australian to Commonwealth administration in 1911, and World Wars One and Two. Darwin occupied a pivotal position in Australia’s battle with Japan during World War Two. Moreover, the Territory, together with the northern regions of Western Australia and Queensland, featured in race debates and anti- Chinese rhetoric surrounding Federation. These regions posed a dilemma for Australian colonial then federal governments regarding the need for labour to develop the north without compromising the vision of a ‘White Australia’. Until 1888, the Territory was an ‘open door’ to Chinese immigration. Furthermore, the Territory’s dominant Chinese population affords a manageable but revealing in-depth historical analysis of a microcosm of Chinese of various dialect groups, classes, and occupations. As will be shown, this microcosm was organised and directed by a group of Darwin-based merchants. Darwin was a key node for European and Chinese merchants in the circulation of goods and people, aided by steamships and the telegraph. The tropical climate and challenging terrain prompted authorities to work with Chinese merchants to import labour. Chinese merchants established businesses in the Territory; some had transnational business networks, sometimes in conjunction with Chinese merchants in other parts of Australia, that contributed to economies beyond Australia to the Asia-Pacific. In contrast to mainstream assumptions about the marginalisation of Asians in ‘White Australia’, I demonstrate that in the Territory, Chinese merchants and their families experienced a degree of respect and acceptance from European political and business elites as leaders and representatives of the Chinese. They were also part of the Territory’s complication of global histories of race through the triangulation of European-Chinese-Aboriginal relations. These relations were policed by government regulations but afforded Chinese merchants elevated social status over other Chinese and over Aboriginal people, some of whom were employed by Chinese merchants, a practice later prohibited by law. The considerable political activism of the Territory Chinese leaders on behalf of the Territory Chinese against anti-Asian discrimination is also highlighted in this case study. The economic competitiveness of the Chinese merchants in the Territory was a major factor in the formation of an anti- Chinese faction of European businessmen in the Territory. This faction campaigned for national immigration restrictions in the lead-up to the passing of similar Chinese immigration restrictions by Australian colonies in 1888 and during the formulation of the 1901 federal Immigration Restriction Act. Territory Chinese merchants actively protested these and other ‘White Australia’ policies, producing valuable records of Chinese voices. These records also provide evidence of European support for the Chinese, an aspect of history rarely discussed then or since. My investigation of this aspect of European-Chinese relations places it in critical relationship to the interplay of issues such as the politics of citizenship, the economic agendas of governments and interpersonal exchanges ‘on the ground’. Finally, this case study contributes to another important and developing field of research – the history of Chinese women in Australia. Underused archival sources disclose numerous examples of Territory Chinese women from merchant families who became involved in business despite Australian and Chinese gender norms that restricted women’s activity. Two women who will be profiled in this study even self-identified as merchants. This translocal study of the Chinese merchants of the Territory adds considerably to our understanding of the history of the Territory, of the development of Australian nationhood, and of transnational political, economic and social histories. It is also a study of personal significance in exploring the experiences of my ancestors as the first generation to migrate to Australia. Additionally, being a descendant of one of the merchants and one of the remarkable merchants’ wives presented in this study has given me access to family archives which have been invaluable to my research.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Hum, Lang & Soc Sc
Arts, Education and Law
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Radford, James, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Conservation ecology and breeding biology of the white-browed treecreeper climacteris affinis." Deakin University. School of Ecology and Environment, 2002. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050825.122602.
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The White-browed Treecreeper Climacteris affinis is one of many woodland-dependent birds that are at risk from the encroachment of human-dominated land-uses into natural landscapes. The White-browed Treecreeper inhabits semi-arid woodlands in north-west Victoria, Australia, a vegetation community that has undergone extreme modification in the last century due to the expansion of agriculture in the region. Extant woodlands represent only 10% of the original woodland cover in the region, and are highly fragmented and disturbed in many districts. Thus, the survival of the White-browed Treecreeper may depend on active management. However, current knowledge of the ecology and biology of this species is virtually non-existent, and inadequate for informed and effective conservation actions. The aim of this thesis is to redress this situation and provide the ecological basis for sound conservation management of the species. The thesis consists of two parts: an investigation of habitat use at three spatial scales and a study of the social organization, nesting requirements, breeding behaviour and reproductive success of a population of White-browed Treecreepers.
Fifty-six patches of remnant woodland in north-west Victoria were surveyed to determine the factors affecting the occurrence of the White-browed Treecreeper at the regional scale. It was detected in 16 patches, and was largely confined to two core districts - Yarrara and, Wyperfeld (Pine Plains). The floristic composition of the dominant tree species was an important determinant of patch occupancy, with the results providing quantitative support for the previously suspected affinity for Belah Casuarina pauper and Slender Cypress-pine Callitris gracilis Buloke Allocasuarina luehmannii woodlands. However, the absence of the White-browed Treecreeper from several districts was due to factors other than a lack of appropriate habitat. Demographic isolation - the distance from the focal patch to the nearest population of the White-browed Treecreeper - was the most important variable in explaining variation in patch occupancy. Patches isolated from other treecreeper populations by more than 8.3 km in landscapes of non-preferred native vegetation, and 3 km in agricultural landscapes, were unlikely to support the White-browed Treecreeper. The impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on the capacity of individuals to move through the landscape (i.e. functional connectivity) is considered in relation to disruption to dispersal and migration, and the potential collapse of local metapopulations.
Habitat use was then examined in a network of patches and linear strips of Belah woodland embedded in a predominantly cultivated landscape. A minimum area of 18.5 ha of Belah woodland was identified as the most important criterion for patch occupancy at the local scale. This landscape appeared to be permeable to movement by the White-browed Treecreeper, facilitated by the extensive network of linear habitat, and clusters of small to medium fragments.
The third scale of habitat use investigated the frequency of use of 1-ha plots within tracts of occupied woodland. It is important to discriminate between habitat traits that operate at the population level, and those that act as proximate cues for habitat selection by individuals. Woodlands that have high tree density, extensive cover of low-stature shrubs, abundant lichen, a complex vertical structure, and relatively low cover of grass and herbs are likely to support larger populations of the White-browed Treecreeper. However, individuals appeared to be using tree dominance (positive) and tall shrub cover (negative) as proximate environmental stimuli for habitat selectivity. A relatively high cover of ground lichen, which probably reflects a ground layer with low disturbance and high structural complexity, was also a reliable indicator of habitat use. Predictive models were developed which could be used to plan vegetation management to enhance habitat for the White-browed Treecreeper. The results of the regional, landscape and patch-scale investigations emphasise that factors operating at multiple spatial scales influence the suitability of remnant vegetation as habitat for the White-browed Treecreeper.
The White-browed Treecreeper is typical of many small Australian passerines in that it has high annual survival, small clutches, a long breeding season, multiple broods and relatively low reproductive rates. Reproductive effort is adjusted through the number of clutches laid rather than clutch size. They occupy relatively large, all-purpose territories throughout the year. However, unlike many group territorial birds, territory size was not related to the number of occupants.
The White-browed Treecreeper nests in tree hollows. They select hollows with a southerly orientation where possible, and prefer hollows that were higher from the ground. At Yarrara, there was considerable spatial variation in hollow abundance that, in concert with territorial constraints, restricted the actual availability of hollows to less than the absolute abundance of hollows. Thus, the availability of suitable hollows may limit reproductive productivity in some territories, although the
magnitude of this constraint on overall population growth is predicted to be small. However, lack of recruitment of hollow-bearing trees would increase the potential for hollow availability to limit population growth. This prospect is particularly relevant in grazed remnants and those outside the reserve system.
Facultative cooperative breeding was confirmed, with groups formed through male philopatry. Consequently, natal dispersal is female-biased, although there was no skew in the sex ratio of the fledglings or the general adult population. Helpers were observed performing all activities associated with parenting except copulation and brooding. Cooperatively breeding groups enjoyed higher fledgling productivity than simple pairs, after statistically accounting for territory and parental quality. However, the difference reflected increased productivity in the 1999-breeding season only, when climatic conditions were more favourable than in 1998. Breeding commenced earlier in 1999, and all breeding units were more likely to attempt a second brood. However, only breeders with helpers were successful in fledging second brood young, and it was this difference that accounted for the overall discrepancy in productivity. The key mechanism for increased success in cooperative groups was a reduction hi the interval between first and second broods, facilitated by compensatory reductions in the level of care to the first brood. Thus, females with helpers probably achieved significant energetic savings during this period, which enabled them to re-lay sooner. Furthermore, they were able to recommence nesting when the fledglings from the first brood were younger because there were more adults to feed the dependent juveniles.
The current utility, and possible evolutionary pathways, of cooperative breeding is examined from the perspective of both breeders and helpers. Breeders benefit through enhanced fledgling productivity in good breeding conditions and a reduction in the burden of parental care, which may impart significant energetic savings. Further, breeders may facilitate philopatry as a means for ensuring a minimum level of reproductive success. Helpers benefit through an increase in their inclusive fitness in the absence of opportunities for independent breeding (i.e. ecological constraints) and access to breeding vacancies in the natal or adjacent territories (i.e. benefits of philopatry). However, the majority of breeding unit-years comprised unassisted breeders, which suggests that pairs are selectively favoured under certain environmental or demographic conditions.
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Bagnall, Kate. "Golden shadows on a white land an exploration of the lives of white women who partnered Chinese men and their children in southern Australia, 1855-1915 /." University of Sydney. Arts. Department of History, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1412.
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis explores the experiences of white women who partnered Chinese men and their children in southern Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has been based on a wide range of sources, including newspapers, government reports, birth and marriage records, personal reminiscences and family lore, and highlights the contradictory images and representations of Chinese-European couples and their families which exist in those sources. It reveals that in spite of the hostility towards intimate interracial relationships so strongly expressed in discourse, hundreds of white women and Chinese men in colonial Australia came together for reasons of love, companionship, security, sexual fulfilment and the formation of family. They lived, worked and loved in and between two very different communities and cultures, each of which could be disapproving and critical of their crossing of racial boundaries. As part of this exploration of lives across and between cultures, the thesis further considers those families who spent time in Hong Kong and China. The lives of these couples and their Anglo-Chinese families are largely missing from the history of the Chinese in Australia and of migration and colonial race relations more generally. They are historical subjects whose experiences have remained in the shadows and on the margins. This thesis aims to throw light on those shadows, contributing to our knowledge not only of interactions between individual Chinese men and white women, but also of the way mixed race couples and their children interacted with their extended families and communities in Australia and China. This thesis demonstrates that their lives were complex negotiations across race, culture and geography which challenged strict racial and social categorisation.
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Moran, Anthony F. "Imagining the Australian nation settler- nationalism and Aboriginality /." Click here for electronic access to document, 1999. http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au/R/U1L2H28HB18MC24L4CL743PII8DUPUQSDYN9NGAGLBXL8YA8BU-00451?func=results-jump-full&set_entry=000013.
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Byrge, Matthew Israel. "Black and White on Black: Whiteness and Masculinity in the Works of Three Australian Writers - Thomas Keneally, Colin Thiele, and Patrick White." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2010. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1717.
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White depictions of Aborigines in literature have generally been culturally biased. In this study I explore four depictions of Indigenous Australians by white Australian writers. Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) depicts a half-caste Aborigine's attempt to enter white society in a racially-antipathetic world that precipitates his ruin. Children's author Colin Thiele develops friendships between white and Aboriginal children in frightening and dangerous landscapes in both Storm Boy (1963) and Fire in the Stone (1973). Nobel laureate Patrick White sets A Fringe of Leaves (1976) in a world in which Ellen Roxburgh's quest for freedom comes only through her captivity by the Aborigines. I use whiteness and masculinity studies as theoretical frameworks in my analysis of these depictions. As invisibility and ordinariness are endemic to white and masculine actions, interrogating these ideological constructions aids in facilitating a better awareness of the racialized stereotypes that exist in Indigenous representations.
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Molloy, Sally Y. "'Staying with the Trouble' of Representing Land(scape): A Personal, White, Non-Indigenous Response to Ongoing and Everyday Colonisation in Contemporary Australia." Thesis, Griffith University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/402269.
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This arts-based research project responds to the denial of Indigenous sovereignty and ongoing processes of colonisation in Australia from a white non-Indigenous perspective. The intimate relationship between colonisation and landscape painting is highlighted through identifying a thread of uncertainty, disquiet, doubt, and discomfort in Australian landscape painting history. This establishes a legacy of white non-Indigenous responsiveness to colonisation within which to contextualise my own visual responses. The cited examples in this legacy routinely distance and depersonalise colonisation in spatial, temporal, and corporeal ways, which omits from consideration the fact that colonisation is an everyday process perpetrated by everyday people living their everyday lives. Analysis of the whiteness studies and white anti-racism discourses laid foundations for my understanding of some of the dilemmas associated with centering ‘the personal’ in my visual responses to colonisation. Subsequently, utilisng writings by Clare Land and Donna Haraway, I position whiteness as a detail of my specific subjective, locational, and historical situatedness that actually compels, constrains, shapes, informs, binds and limits the nature of my own responses to colonisation. I contend that a personal white non-Indigenous response to colonisation has the capacity to address how colonisation facilitated my existence on stolen Indigenous lands, how colonisation manifests in the shape and appearance of my personal surroundings, and how I sustain colonisation while living my everyday life. Works by contemporary white non-Indigenous artists Mark Shorter, Joan Ross, and Helen Johnson are analysed to reveal what might be described as common strategies for a critical responsiveness to colonisation. Namely: ‘critical ambiguity’, collage methods, humour and attendance to issues of subjectivity. However, while issues of subjectivity are raised by all three artists, the personal and everyday nature of colonisation is obscured in various ways, which continues the depersonalization of colonisation identified in Australian landscape painting history. The visual outcomes of this research utilise digital collage, painting, and focus on my own life. That is, they derive from a personal photographic archive of ‘details’ relating to colonisation as it is evident in my own backyard, habits, and possessions. Both the process of gathering this archive and the process of making collage-paintings from it, can be understood in relation to Haraway’s terms of ‘staying with the trouble’. That is: I have chosen the awkwardness of intensely inhabiting and documenting the specificities of my own body, time, and place in order to respond. The collage-paintings that are the outcomes of this research, locate and visualise everyday manifestations of colonisation in order to acknowledge that colonisation is an everyday process perpetrated by everyday people living their everyday lives. These works are visual manifestations of my personal situatedness in relation to, or rather my white non-Indigenous relationship with, colonisation. This research, both written and visual, does not claim to resolve tensions, answer questions, offer solutions, or ameliorate disputes. Nor does it exist in the interests of overcoming Australia’s colonial past and present. Rather it might be apprehended in terms of ‘living with’ this colonial past and present in material and symbolic terms.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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Layman, Katherine. "No Longer the "White Trash of Asia" -- What Now? Australia Breaks the Record for Longest Economic Expansion in OECD History." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1957.
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The thesis investigates factors that contributed to Australia's record breaking economic expansion. The booming mining sector fueled by Chinese demand for raw material deserves some credit, but it is only part of the story. The thesis examines whether Australia learned from the last recession in the early 1990s and also finds that high average population growth driven by immigration policy has played a role. I attempt to extract lessons from the island nation’s experience for other advanced economies. Finally, Australia had relatively small real GDP growth during the Global Financial Crisis. If the definition of a recession is adapted to include other national accounts and economic indicators, then the country did in fact encounter a recent economic downturn.
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Durrant, Kate. "The Genetic and Social Mating System of a White-Backed Population of the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen tyrannica)." Thesis, Griffith University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366788.
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The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a large, sedentary, omnivorous passerine. In some populations, individuals live in groups, and some of these groups breed cooperatively. The white-backed magpie (G. t. tyrannica) from the south-eastern corner of the continent, has had relatively little study, and few details are known of its mating system, social structure, and method of parental care. I conducted an observational study on a population of white-backed magpies, recording details of their demography, dispersal, breeding system, and parental care. In conjunction, I conducted a genetic analysis of the population, to determine if the genetic mating system matched the observed social system, to detect instances of extra-group mating, and to sex juvenile birds. Extra-pair paternity (EPP) is a common feature of the mating systems of many birds. The rate of EPP may vary between species, races and populations. I made a comparison of extra-group paternity (EGP) rates between two races of the Australian magpie, to determine if similar mating systems were being employed. The two populations had similar social structure, but differed in group size and dispersal. I predicted that dispersal differences would have a profound effect on the rate of EGP between the populations, as the population with the lower rate of dispersal and higher chance of breeding with a close relative would engage in EGPs more frequently. Eight microsatellite loci were used to determine parentage in the white-backed Australian magpie. The rate of EGP was found to be 44%. Dispersal rates were estimated from observational data. Over half of the juvenile magpie cohort from the previous breeding season leave the territorial group. These results contrast sharply with the results found by other researchers in a population of western Australian magpies (G t. dorsalis). In this population, 82% EGP is recorded and dispersal of juveniles is close to nil. The results indicate that dispersal rate is a potentially important predictor of rates of extra-group fertilisations between populations of this species, and suggest that females maximise their reproductive output by avoiding breeding with close kin. The reproductive success of a male bird is often correlated with measurable traits that predict his intrinsic quality. Females are thought to select mates based on their quality to gain their 'good genes'. Male Australian magpies of the white-backed race were trapped in two breeding seasons. Measurements were taken of morphometric and other characteristics in order to discover whether particular traits of males were associated with: a) number of fledglings produced in the territory per season; b) percentage of offspring sired in the territory; and c) whether females select males for their 'good genes'. The only variable that was correlated with number of territorial offspring was feather lice load. Males with high numbers of lice were less likely to produce territorial fledglings in one season and across both seasons. Males of inferior quality may be subject to increased conspecific territorial intrusions, leading to more time spent on defence, more failed breeding attempts, less time allocated to grooming and thus high parasite loads. Males that produced many territorial fledglings were more likely to gain genetic paternity of at least some of them, although again this was significant for only one season. Also, across both seasons, a high number of females in the group was correlated with increased paternity within the group. The general lack of correlation between the variables and level of genetic paternity may be due to females engaging in extra-group mating primarily to avoid breeding with a close relative rather than to choose a quality male. In this scenario, males would not have to be 'high quality', but merely genetically different to the female's social mate. Extra-group paternity (EGP) can affect paternal effort. It may also influence the helping effort of auxiliary birds in cooperatively breeding species. If helping is driven by kin selection, helpers should decline to provision unrelated young. Relatedness becomes difficult to assess however, when females mate outside the group. Alternative rewards may then become important in helper decisions. In my study population of Australian magpies, 38% of fledglings were sired by males outside the territorial group. In a second population (G. t. dorsalis), 82% of fledglings were sired by extra-group males. I observed within-group male and helper feeding effort over three breeding seasons in the first population and obtained data recorded over a single season in the second population. In both populations, males provisioned young regardless of relatedness, as did helpers. Males provisioned less than the nesting female on average. Paternal effort did not reduce with an increase in the rate of EGP between populations. In the population with intermediate levels of EGP, the white-backed magpies, I observed helpers in about half of the sampled territories that produced fledglings. Helpers did not increase the production of young. In the population with high levels of EGP, western magpies, I detected helping behaviour in proportionally more territories. It appears that Australian magpie helpers provide help in order to pay 'rent' and remain on the natal territory. I discuss these results in light of the differences between the two races of magpie and the major theories regarding male parenting decisions and helper activity. Finally, I examine the relatively high rates of EGP's in the Australian magpie from a phylogenetic perspective. Although inbreeding avoidance is strongly supported by this study as the major reason EGP is so common in magpie populations, there may be an element of phylogenetic inertia that maintains the frequency of this behavioural trait. I comment upon the use of single-population estimates of species EGP rates in comparative analyses, given the intraspecific variation discovered between Australian magpie populations. Future directions for the study of mate choice in the Australian magpie are outlined with a proposal to study variation at the major histocompatibility complex between mated pairs.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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Durrant, Kate, and n/a. "The Genetic and Social Mating System of a White-Backed Population of the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen tyrannica)." Griffith University. Australian School of Environmental Studies, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040716.093636.
Full textAbstract:
The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a large, sedentary, omnivorous passerine. In some populations, individuals live in groups, and some of these groups breed cooperatively. The white-backed magpie (G. t. tyrannica) from the south-eastern corner of the continent, has had relatively little study, and few details are known of its mating system, social structure, and method of parental care. I conducted an observational study on a population of white-backed magpies, recording details of their demography, dispersal, breeding system, and parental care. In conjunction, I conducted a genetic analysis of the population, to determine if the genetic mating system matched the observed social system, to detect instances of extra-group mating, and to sex juvenile birds. Extra-pair paternity (EPP) is a common feature of the mating systems of many birds. The rate of EPP may vary between species, races and populations. I made a comparison of extra-group paternity (EGP) rates between two races of the Australian magpie, to determine if similar mating systems were being employed. The two populations had similar social structure, but differed in group size and dispersal. I predicted that dispersal differences would have a profound effect on the rate of EGP between the populations, as the population with the lower rate of dispersal and higher chance of breeding with a close relative would engage in EGPs more frequently. Eight microsatellite loci were used to determine parentage in the white-backed Australian magpie. The rate of EGP was found to be 44%. Dispersal rates were estimated from observational data. Over half of the juvenile magpie cohort from the previous breeding season leave the territorial group. These results contrast sharply with the results found by other researchers in a population of western Australian magpies (G t. dorsalis). In this population, 82% EGP is recorded and dispersal of juveniles is close to nil. The results indicate that dispersal rate is a potentially important predictor of rates of extra-group fertilisations between populations of this species, and suggest that females maximise their reproductive output by avoiding breeding with close kin. The reproductive success of a male bird is often correlated with measurable traits that predict his intrinsic quality. Females are thought to select mates based on their quality to gain their 'good genes'. Male Australian magpies of the white-backed race were trapped in two breeding seasons. Measurements were taken of morphometric and other characteristics in order to discover whether particular traits of males were associated with: a) number of fledglings produced in the territory per season; b) percentage of offspring sired in the territory; and c) whether females select males for their 'good genes'. The only variable that was correlated with number of territorial offspring was feather lice load. Males with high numbers of lice were less likely to produce territorial fledglings in one season and across both seasons. Males of inferior quality may be subject to increased conspecific territorial intrusions, leading to more time spent on defence, more failed breeding attempts, less time allocated to grooming and thus high parasite loads. Males that produced many territorial fledglings were more likely to gain genetic paternity of at least some of them, although again this was significant for only one season. Also, across both seasons, a high number of females in the group was correlated with increased paternity within the group. The general lack of correlation between the variables and level of genetic paternity may be due to females engaging in extra-group mating primarily to avoid breeding with a close relative rather than to choose a quality male. In this scenario, males would not have to be 'high quality', but merely genetically different to the female's social mate. Extra-group paternity (EGP) can affect paternal effort. It may also influence the helping effort of auxiliary birds in cooperatively breeding species. If helping is driven by kin selection, helpers should decline to provision unrelated young. Relatedness becomes difficult to assess however, when females mate outside the group. Alternative rewards may then become important in helper decisions. In my study population of Australian magpies, 38% of fledglings were sired by males outside the territorial group. In a second population (G. t. dorsalis), 82% of fledglings were sired by extra-group males. I observed within-group male and helper feeding effort over three breeding seasons in the first population and obtained data recorded over a single season in the second population. In both populations, males provisioned young regardless of relatedness, as did helpers. Males provisioned less than the nesting female on average. Paternal effort did not reduce with an increase in the rate of EGP between populations. In the population with intermediate levels of EGP, the white-backed magpies, I observed helpers in about half of the sampled territories that produced fledglings. Helpers did not increase the production of young. In the population with high levels of EGP, western magpies, I detected helping behaviour in proportionally more territories. It appears that Australian magpie helpers provide help in order to pay 'rent' and remain on the natal territory. I discuss these results in light of the differences between the two races of magpie and the major theories regarding male parenting decisions and helper activity. Finally, I examine the relatively high rates of EGP's in the Australian magpie from a phylogenetic perspective. Although inbreeding avoidance is strongly supported by this study as the major reason EGP is so common in magpie populations, there may be an element of phylogenetic inertia that maintains the frequency of this behavioural trait. I comment upon the use of single-population estimates of species EGP rates in comparative analyses, given the intraspecific variation discovered between Australian magpie populations. Future directions for the study of mate choice in the Australian magpie are outlined with a proposal to study variation at the major histocompatibility complex between mated pairs.
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Lau, Ian Christopher. "Regolith-landform and mineralogical mapping of the White Dam Prospect, eastern Olary Domain, South Australia, using integrated remote sensing and spectral techniques." Title page, abstract and table of contents only, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37972.
Full textAbstract:
The research contained within this thesis was directed at examining the spectral properties of regolith-dominated terrains using airborne and proximal hyperspectral instruments. The focus of the investigation was to identify the mineralogy of the regolith and determine if surficial materials were indicative of the underlying bedrock in the regolithdominated terrain of the eastern Olary Domain, South Australia. The research area was constrained to a 250 km2 area around the Cu-Au mineralisation of the White Dam Prosect. Integrated remote sensing, using airborne hyperspectral datasets (HyMap), Landsat imagery and gamma-ray spectroscopy data, was performed to map regolith-landforms and extract information on surficial materials. Detailed calibration of the HyMap dataset, using a modified model-based/empirical line calibration technique, was required prior to information extraction. The White Dam area was able to be divided into: alluvial regolith-dominated; in situ regolith-dominated; and bedrock-dominated terrains, based on mineralogical interpretations of the regolith, using the remotely sensed hyperspectral data. Alluvial regions were characterised by large abundances of vegetation and soils with a hematite-rich mineralogy. Highly weathered areas of in situ material were discriminated by the presence of goethite and kaolinite of various crystallinities, whereas the bedrock-dominated regions displayed white mica-/muscovite-rich mineralogy. Areas flanking bedrock exposures commonly consisted of shallow muscovite-rich soils containing regolith carbonate accumulations. Traditional mineral mapping processes were performed on the HyMap data and were able to extract endmembers of regolith and other surficial materials. The Mixture Tuned Matched Filter un-mixing process was successful at classifying regolith materials and minerals. Spectral indices performed on masked data were effective at identifying the key regolith mineralogical features of the HyMap imagery and proved less time consuming than un-mixing processes. Processed HyMap imagery was able to identify weathering halos, highlighted in mineralogical changes, around bedrock exposures. Proximal spectral measurements and XRD analyses of samples collected from the White Dam Prospect were used to create detailed mineralogical dispersion maps of the surface and costean sections. Regolith materials of the logged sections were found to correlate with the spectrally-derived mineral dispersion profiles. The HyLogger drill core scanning instrument was used to examine the mineralogy of the fresh bedrock, which contrasted with the weathering-derived near-surface regolith materials. The overall outcomes of the thesis showed that hyperspectral techniques were useful for charactering the mineralogy of surficial materials and mapping regolith-landforms.Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, 2004.
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White, Nicole. "Molecular approaches used to infer evolutionary history, taxonomy, population structure, and illegal trade of White-tailed Black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus spp.) in Australia." Thesis, White, Nicole (2011) Molecular approaches used to infer evolutionary history, taxonomy, population structure, and illegal trade of White-tailed Black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus spp.) in Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2011. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/7245/.
Full textAbstract:
Cockatoos are charismatic, iconic Australasian birds, yet this family (Cacatuidae) is inadequately understood from a genetic perspective. Herein, this thesis describes a detailed genetic study of endangered white-tailed black-cockatoos (WTBCs, Calyptorhynchus spp.). The species is endemic to Western Australia and has undergone a demographic decline of ~50% since European arrival. Causes of the decline are complex, but likely involve a combination of anthropogenic habitat loss, poaching and shooting. Through extensive sequencing of nuclear (nu) and mitochondrial (mt) genes (10 complete mt genomes, 138 mtDNA sequences, and 89 nuDNA sequences), in addition to microsatellite profiling 840 cockatoos, the primary aim of this research was to resolve the evolutionary history, taxonomy, and population structure of WTBCs. The data presented here will facilitate conservation and management of WTBCs, and assist in policing the illegal trade and harvest from the wild.
With the use of a comprehensive nuDNA and mtDNA dataset (inclusive of five novel cacatuid mt genomes), fossil calibrations and Bayesian modeling, the evolutionary history of cockatoos was investigated (chapter two). The divergence of Cacatuidae from Psittacidae was estimated to have occurred during the Eocene (95% CI 51.6-30.3 Ma). A cockatoo multi-gene phylogeny for 16 of 21 species shows a most recent common ancestor in the Oligocene (95% CI 38.1-18.3 Ma). This analysis enabled, for the first time, an accurate phylogenetic placement for numerous cacatuids that have been historically difficult to resolve. From this investigation, insights into the diversification and radiation of the subgenus Zanda (white- and yellow-tailed black-cockatoos) show they shared a common ancestor ~1.3 million years ago. The lack of any clear species-specific sequence differences between the two forms of WTBC (C. baudinii and C. latirostris) prompted a more in-depth study using microsatellites (chapter three). Twenty highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and used to generate a database containing 660 contemporary and 24 historical samples. Genotyping 156 cockatoos from seven other genera demonstrated the utility of the microsatellite markers beyond WTBCs.
The DNA sequence and microsatellite data immediately brought to the forefront inconsistency with the current taxonomic recognition of WTBCs, namely that negligible genetic differentiation, a high degree of gene flow and genetic admixtures for the long- (C. baudinii) and short-billed (C. latirostris) forms was evident. A detailed investigation (chapter four) into genetics, morphology, vocal dialect, diet and reproductive behaviour resulted in the decision to synonymise the two forms to C. baudinii Lear 1832. The reclassification advocated here will result in reprioritisation of conservation management and recovery plans, increase the protection of an endangered species, and facilitate the accurate species identification in wildlife forensic casework.
To examine the effects of severe native vegetation clearing on WTBCs, contemporary and historical samples were used with a spatial and temporal landscape approach to examine; population structure, genetic diversity, and gene flow (chapter five) in severely modified habitats. Despite overall low genetic substructure (K=2) and population divergence (FST = 0.013), a possible hypothesis for this substructure is the result of the clearing of the wheatbelt, where only 7% of the native vegetation remains in an area 95,800 km2, and could act as a major boundary separating WTBC of the western and eastern regions. Importantly, the genetic data support the vegetation corridor of the deep-south as the primary remaining migration passageway facilitating gene flow between the regions. The genotypes of the historical individuals and western region birds suggest WTBC of the eastern region have recently suffered a loss of genetic variation and fitness effects of genetic drift. Overall, despite a dramatic decline in census size the historic and contemporary samples show genetic diversity was not affected in the same way, with no significant reduction detected (HE ~0.70).
Lastly this thesis set out to apply this newly developed molecular toolkit in a wildlife forensic context. Three cases involving suspected poaching and shooting of black-cockatoos are presented (chapter six). The established DNA databases enabled high-resolution kinship and identity testing to be conducted (PID 2.6E-20; PIDsibs 2.4E-8). In one case, a cockatoo poached from a tree hollow was matched to DNA from eggshell recovered from the nest. The second case showcased the utility of the WTBC provenance (nest sites) database, as the kinship and geographic origin of a poached WTBC was determined. The third case identified the number of WTBCs allegedly shot at a fruit orchard from body part remains. The cockatoo population databases are the first of their kind in Australia, and demonstrate the efficacy and probative value of molecular approaches to inform wildlife enforcement agencies responsible for the protection of Australian fauna.
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Shephard, Jill, and n/a. "A Multi-Scale Approach to Defining Historical and Contemporary Factors Responsible for the Current Distribution of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster (Gmelin, 1788) in Australia." Griffith University. Australian School of Environmental Studies, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20041012.142221.
Full textAbstract:
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster is widespread in Australia, but has been the subject of conservation concern due to suggested localised declines and extinctions. Regionalised monitoring programmes have addressed some aspects of local concern, however a broader approach is needed to gain an understanding of large-scale processes affecting long-term persistence at scales equivalent to the species Australian range. Ultimately, the ability to predict change in population size over time accurately depends on the scale of analysis. By necessity, ecological studies using direct sampling techniques are often made across spatial scales smaller than a species geographic range and across relatively short time frames. This seems counter-intuitive considering that long-term species persistence is often dependent on large-scale processes. The principal aim of this thesis was to identify historical and contemporary forces responsible for the current pattern of population structure in H. leucogaster. This required a multi-scale approach, and the resulting research uses genetic, distributional and morphometric data. Haliaeetus leucogaster is a large territorial raptor that historically has been associated with coastal regions, lakes and perennial river systems. It has an extensive worldwide distribution from the western coast of India throughout the Indomalaysian region, Papua New Guinea and Australia. By virtue of the species' large-scale distribution, in Australia it is fairly cosmopolitan in its use of habitat and prey types. Haliaeetus leucogaster is monomorphic for adult plumage colouration, but in body size displays reversed sexual dimorphism with female birds significantly larger. A discriminant function based on 10 morphometric characters was 100% effective in discriminating between 19 males and 18 females that had been sexed using molecular genetic methods. Re-classification using a jackknife procedure correctly identified 92% of individuals. The discriminant function should be a viable alternative to genetic sexing or laparoscopy for a large proportion of individuals within the Australo-Papuan range of this species; and can also be used to identify a small proportion of "ambiguous" individuals for which reliable sexing will require those other techniques. I used mitochondrial (mtDNA) control region sequence data to investigate the current distribution of genetic variation in this species at the continental level and within and between specified regional units. I was specifically interested in identifying breaks in genetic connectivity between the west and east of the continent and between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. Overall, genetic diversity was low and there was no significant level of genetic subdivision between regions. The observed genetic distribution suggests that the population expanded from a bottleneck approximately 160 000 years ago during the late Pleistocene, and spread throughout the continent through a contiguous range expansion. There is insufficient evidence to suggest division of the population into different units for conservation management purposes based on the theoretical definition of the 'evolutionary significant unit'. It is clear from the analysis that there are signatures of both historical and contemporary processes affecting the current distribution. Given the suggestion that population expansion has been relatively recent, additional sampling and confirmation of the perceived pattern of population structure using a nuclear marker is recommended to validate conservation monitoring and management at a continental scale. To determine the existence of perceived population declines across ecological time scales, I analysed the Australian Bird Atlas Data to identify the extent and pattern of change in range and density of the species between three Atlas Periods (1901-1976, 1977-1981 and 1998-2001) using a new standardised frequency measure, the Occupancy Index (OI) for 1° blocks (approx. 100km2) across the continent. At the continental scale, there was no significant difference in the spatial extent of occupancy between Atlas Periods. However, there were considerable changes in frequency and range extent between defined regions, and there were distinct differences in the pattern of change in OI between coastal and inland blocks over time. Coastal blocks showed much more change than inland blocks, with a clear increase in the use of coastal blocks, accompanied by a decrease in inland blocks, during the 1977-1981 Atlas Period, relative to both other Atlas Periods. The over-riding factor associated with distributional shifts and frequency changes was apparently climatic fluctuation (the 1977-1981 period showing the influence of El Nino associated drought). The impression of abundance was strongly dependent on both the temporal and spatial scale of analysis. To test for correspondence between geographic variation in morphology and geographic variation in mtDNA I analysed morphometric data from 95 individuals from Australia and Papua New Guinea. First, the degree of morphometric variation between specified regions was determined. This was then compared with the pattern of genetic differentiation. There was a strong latitudinal cline in body dimensions. However, there was no relationship between morphometric variation and patterns of genetic variation at least for mtDNA. Females showed a pattern of isolation by distance based on morphometric characters whereas males did not. Three hypotheses to explain the pattern of morphometric variation were considered: phenotypic plasticity, natural selection and secondary contact between previously isolated populations. I conclude that the pattern of morphometric variation is best explained by the suggestion that there is sufficient local recruitment for natural selection to maintain the observed pattern of morphometric variation. This implies that gene flow may not be as widespread as the mtDNA analysis suggested. In this instance either the relatively recent colonisation history of the species or the inability of the mtDNA marker to detect high mutation rates among traits responsible for maintaining morphometric variation may be overestimating the levels of mixing among regions. As might be expected given the physical scale over which this study was conducted, the pattern of genetic, morphometric and physical distribution varied dependent on the scale of analysis. Regional patterns of genetic variation, trends in occupancy and density and morphometric variation did not reflect continental patterns, reinforcing the contention that extrapolation of data from local or regional levels is often inappropriate. The combined indirect methodologies applied in this study circumvent the restrictions imposed by direct ecological sampling, because they allow survey across large geographic and temporal scales effectively covering the entire Australian range of H. leucogaster. They also allow exploration of the evolutionary factors underpinning the species' current distribution.
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Shephard, Jill. "A Multi-Scale Approach to Defining Historical and Contemporary Factors Responsible for the Current Distribution of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster (Gmelin, 1788) in Australia." Thesis, Griffith University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367440.
Full textAbstract:
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster is widespread in Australia, but has been the subject of conservation concern due to suggested localised declines and extinctions. Regionalised monitoring programmes have addressed some aspects of local concern, however a broader approach is needed to gain an understanding of large-scale processes affecting long-term persistence at scales equivalent to the species Australian range. Ultimately, the ability to predict change in population size over time accurately depends on the scale of analysis. By necessity, ecological studies using direct sampling techniques are often made across spatial scales smaller than a species geographic range and across relatively short time frames. This seems counter-intuitive considering that long-term species persistence is often dependent on large-scale processes. The principal aim of this thesis was to identify historical and contemporary forces responsible for the current pattern of population structure in H. leucogaster. This required a multi-scale approach, and the resulting research uses genetic, distributional and morphometric data. Haliaeetus leucogaster is a large territorial raptor that historically has been associated with coastal regions, lakes and perennial river systems. It has an extensive worldwide distribution from the western coast of India throughout the Indomalaysian region, Papua New Guinea and Australia. By virtue of the species' large-scale distribution, in Australia it is fairly cosmopolitan in its use of habitat and prey types. Haliaeetus leucogaster is monomorphic for adult plumage colouration, but in body size displays reversed sexual dimorphism with female birds significantly larger. A discriminant function based on 10 morphometric characters was 100% effective in discriminating between 19 males and 18 females that had been sexed using molecular genetic methods. Re-classification using a jackknife procedure correctly identified 92% of individuals. The discriminant function should be a viable alternative to genetic sexing or laparoscopy for a large proportion of individuals within the Australo-Papuan range of this species; and can also be used to identify a small proportion of "ambiguous" individuals for which reliable sexing will require those other techniques. I used mitochondrial (mtDNA) control region sequence data to investigate the current distribution of genetic variation in this species at the continental level and within and between specified regional units. I was specifically interested in identifying breaks in genetic connectivity between the west and east of the continent and between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. Overall, genetic diversity was low and there was no significant level of genetic subdivision between regions. The observed genetic distribution suggests that the population expanded from a bottleneck approximately 160 000 years ago during the late Pleistocene, and spread throughout the continent through a contiguous range expansion. There is insufficient evidence to suggest division of the population into different units for conservation management purposes based on the theoretical definition of the 'evolutionary significant unit'. It is clear from the analysis that there are signatures of both historical and contemporary processes affecting the current distribution. Given the suggestion that population expansion has been relatively recent, additional sampling and confirmation of the perceived pattern of population structure using a nuclear marker is recommended to validate conservation monitoring and management at a continental scale. To determine the existence of perceived population declines across ecological time scales, I analysed the Australian Bird Atlas Data to identify the extent and pattern of change in range and density of the species between three Atlas Periods (1901-1976, 1977-1981 and 1998-2001) using a new standardised frequency measure, the Occupancy Index (OI) for 1° blocks (approx. 100km2) across the continent. At the continental scale, there was no significant difference in the spatial extent of occupancy between Atlas Periods. However, there were considerable changes in frequency and range extent between defined regions, and there were distinct differences in the pattern of change in OI between coastal and inland blocks over time. Coastal blocks showed much more change than inland blocks, with a clear increase in the use of coastal blocks, accompanied by a decrease in inland blocks, during the 1977-1981 Atlas Period, relative to both other Atlas Periods. The over-riding factor associated with distributional shifts and frequency changes was apparently climatic fluctuation (the 1977-1981 period showing the influence of El Nino associated drought). The impression of abundance was strongly dependent on both the temporal and spatial scale of analysis. To test for correspondence between geographic variation in morphology and geographic variation in mtDNA I analysed morphometric data from 95 individuals from Australia and Papua New Guinea. First, the degree of morphometric variation between specified regions was determined. This was then compared with the pattern of genetic differentiation. There was a strong latitudinal cline in body dimensions. However, there was no relationship between morphometric variation and patterns of genetic variation at least for mtDNA. Females showed a pattern of isolation by distance based on morphometric characters whereas males did not. Three hypotheses to explain the pattern of morphometric variation were considered: phenotypic plasticity, natural selection and secondary contact between previously isolated populations. I conclude that the pattern of morphometric variation is best explained by the suggestion that there is sufficient local recruitment for natural selection to maintain the observed pattern of morphometric variation. This implies that gene flow may not be as widespread as the mtDNA analysis suggested. In this instance either the relatively recent colonisation history of the species or the inability of the mtDNA marker to detect high mutation rates among traits responsible for maintaining morphometric variation may be overestimating the levels of mixing among regions. As might be expected given the physical scale over which this study was conducted, the pattern of genetic, morphometric and physical distribution varied dependent on the scale of analysis. Regional patterns of genetic variation, trends in occupancy and density and morphometric variation did not reflect continental patterns, reinforcing the contention that extrapolation of data from local or regional levels is often inappropriate. The combined indirect methodologies applied in this study circumvent the restrictions imposed by direct ecological sampling, because they allow survey across large geographic and temporal scales effectively covering the entire Australian range of H. leucogaster. They also allow exploration of the evolutionary factors underpinning the species' current distribution.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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Welch, Ian, and iwe97581@bigpond net au. "Alien Son : The life and times of Cheok Hong Cheong, (Zhang Zhuoxiong) 1851-1928." The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20051108.111252.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion of modern Chinese identity by pro-viding a case study of Cheok Hong CHEONG. It necessarily considers Australian atti-tudes towards the Chinese during the 19th century, not least the White Australia Pol-icy. The emergence of that discriminatory immigration policy over the second half of the 19th century until its national implementation in 1901 provides the background to the thesis. Cheong was the leading figure among Chinese-Australian Christians and a prominent figure in the Australian Chinese community and the thesis seeks to iden-tify a man whose contribution has largely been shadowy in other studies or, more commonly, overlooked by the parochialism of colony/state emphasis in many histo-ries of Australia. His role in the Christian church fills a space in Victorian religious history.
Although Cheong accumulated great wealth he was not part of the Chinese mer-chant class of the huagong/huaquiao traditions of the overseas Chinese diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries. His wealth was accumulated through property investments following the spectacular collapse of the Victorian banking system during the 1890s. His community leadership role arose through his position in the Christian Church rather than, as was generally the case, through business. His English language skills, resulting from his church association, were the key to his role as a Chinese community spokesman.¶
Cheok Hong Cheong left an archive of some 800 documents in the English lan-guage covering the major people, incidents and concerns of his life and times. His Let-terbooks, together with the archives of the various Christian missions to the Chinese in Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, shed light on one person’s life and more broadly, through his involvements on the complex relationships of Chinese emigrants, with the often unsympathetic majority of Australians.¶
This is a case study of a Chinese identity formed outside China and influenced by a wider set of cultural influences than any other Chinese-Australian of his time —an identity that justifies the description of him as an ‘Alien Son’. Cheong’s story is a con-tribution to the urban and family history of an important ethnic sub-group within the wider immigrant history of Australia.¶
While Cheong remained a Chinese subject his identification with Australia cannot be questioned. All his children were born in Australia and he left just twice after his arrival in 1863. He visited England in 1891-2 and in 1906 he briefly visited China. Identity and culture issues are growing in importance as part of the revived relation-ship between the Chinese of the diaspora and the economic renewal of the People’s Republic of China and this thesis is offers a contribution to that discussion.
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Evans, Thomas P. "The proterozoic metamorphic evolution of rocks exposed in the White Range Nappe, Central Australia : polymetamorphism and an unconformity in the Southern Strangways metamorphic complex /." Adelaide, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09SB/09sbe92.pdf.
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Noble, Jenny Austin School of English UNSW. "Representations of the mother-figure in the novels of Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23897.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis argues that through bringing together two branches of inquiry???the literary work of Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark and socio-feminist theory on health, contagion and the female body???the discursive body of the mother-figure in their novels serves as a trope through which otherwise unspoken tensions???between the personal and the political, between family and nation and between identity and race in Australian cultural formation???are explored. The methodology I use is to analyse the literary mother-figure through a ???discourse on health??? from a soma-political, socio-cultural and historical perspective which sought to categorise, regulate and discipline women???s lives to ensure that white women conformed to their designated roles as mothers and that they did so within the confines of marriage. The literary mother-figure, as represented in Prichard???s and Dark???s novels, is frequently at odds with the culturally constructed mother-figure as represented in political and religious discourses, and in popular forms of culture such as advertising, film and women???s magazines. This culturally constructed ???ideal??? mother-figure is intimately linked to nationalist discourses of racial hygiene, of Christian morality, and of civic and social order controlled by such patriarchal institutions as the state, the church, the law and the medical professions during the period under review. This is reflected in Prichard???s and Dark???s inter-war novels which embody unresolved tensions in a way that challenges representations of the mother-figure by mainstream culture. However, their post-war novels show a greater compliance with nationalist ideologies of the good and healthy mother-figure who conforms more closely with an idealised notion of motherhood, leading up to the 1950s. Through a detailed analysis of the two writers??? changing representations of the mother-figure, I argue that the mother-figure is a key trope through which unspoken tensions and forces that have shaped (and continue to shape) Australian culture and society can be understood.
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Harrison, Jen. "Incarnations: exploring the human condition through Patrick White�s Voss and Nikos Kazantzakis� Captain Michales." University of Sydney. School of Modern Languages and Cultures, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/671.
Full textAbstract:
Nikos Kazantzakis� Captain Michales is a freedom fighter in nineteenth century Crete. Patrick White�s Voss is a German explorer in nineteenth century Australia. Two men struggling for achievement, their disparate social contexts united in the same fundamental search for meaning. This thesis makes comparison of these different struggles through thematic analysis of the texts, examining within the narratives the role of food, perceptions of body and soul, landscapes, gender relations, home-coming and religious experience. Themes from the novels are extracted and intertwined, within a range of theoretical frameworks: history, anthropology, science, literary and social theories, religion and politics; allowing close investigation of each novel�s social, political and historical particularities, as well as their underlying discussion of perennial human issues. These novels are each essentially explorations of the human experience. Read together, they highlight the commonest of human elements, most poignantly the need for communion; facilitating analysis of the individual and all our communities. Comparing the two novels also continues the process of each: examining the self both within and outside of the narratives, producing a new textual self, arising from both primary sources and the contextual breadth of such rewriting.
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Paki, Dionne. "What do primary school principals from the Yamaji region or Mid West Education District say about their school's bullying prevention and management guidelines and practices and how they support the strengths and needs of Aboriginal students and their families?" Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2010. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/150.
Full textAbstract:
Background: Australia‟s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are over represented in poor health and education outcomes. Little is known about the bullying experiences of Aboriginal school age children and young people. This Master's study aimed to investigate the policies and practises school principals use for bullying prevention and management in primary schools located in the Yamaji region or Midwest Education District of Western Australia.This study was conducted in conjunction with the Child Health Promotion Research Centre‟s Solid Kids, Solid Schools project. Solid Kids, Solid Schools is a four-year study that aimed to contextualise the bullying experiences of Yamaji school-age children and young people; and develop a locally relevant and culturally secure bullying prevention and management resource.
Method: Thirty-one principals and four deputy principals of primary school aged students participated in either a semi-structured telephone interview or survey. Instrument items asked principals: how often staff at their school used 12 bullying management strategies; to describe and rate the effectiveness of 25 bullying prevention guidelines and strategies; and to describe enablers and barriers to working with Aboriginal students who are bullied or who bully others.Participant responses were matched for compliance with evidence-based recommendations (Cross, Pintabona, Hall, Hamilton, & Erceg, 2004, p. 11) and national policy as set out in the National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF) (Department of Education Science and Training; DEST, 2003) for school bullying prevention and management. Participant responses were also compared to a culturally secure bullying prevention and management model to determine if their guidelines and strategies are culturally secure and could respond to the strengths and needs of Aboriginal students.
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Collard, Len. "Boorda noonakoort Wedjela, quarppa Nyungar wangkai noonakoort geenurzg, wa, kia = Later you white fellow, good Nyzcngar speaker, you see, won't you, yes : an analysis of Nyungar influence in South West Western Australia." Thesis, Collard, Len (1996) Boorda noonakoort Wedjela, quarppa Nyungar wangkai noonakoort geenurzg, wa, kia = Later you white fellow, good Nyzcngar speaker, you see, won't you, yes : an analysis of Nyungar influence in South West Western Australia. Masters by Coursework thesis, Murdoch University, 1996. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/40882/.
Full textAbstract:
As a number of Aboriginies (be they Koori, Tiwi or Palawah) and non Aboriginal Australian Historians have recently claimed, it is now time that formally recorded history recognise Nyungar, Koori, Nunga or Murri and other indigenous interpretations of Australian histtories. this thesis sets out to contribute to the process of offering a Nyungar interpretation of history...
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Imamoto, Shizuka. "Racial Equality Bill Japanese proposal at Paris Peace Conference : diplomatic manoeuvres and reasons for rejection /." Electronic version, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/699.
Full textAbstract:
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours) at Macquarie University.Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Dept. of Asian Languages), 2006.
Bibliography: leaves 137-160.
Introduction -- Anglo-Japanese relations and World War One -- Fear of Japan in Australia -- William Morris Hughes -- Japan's proposal and diplomacy at Paris -- Reasons for rejection : a discussion -- Conclusion.
Japan as an ally of Britain, since the signing of Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, entered World War One at British request. During the Great War Japan fought Germany in Asia and afforded protection to Australia. After the conclusion of the War, a peace conference was held at Paris in 1919. As a victorious ally and as one of the Five Great Powers of the day, Japan participated at the Paris Peace Conference, and proposed racial equality to be enshrined in the Covenant of the League of Nations. This Racial Equality Bill, despite the tireless efforts of the Japanese delegates who engaged the representatives of other countries in intense diplomatic negotiations, was rejected. The rejection, a debatable issue ever since, has inspired many explanations including the theory that it was a deliberate Japanese ploy to achieve other goals in the agenda. This thesis has researched the reasons for rejection and contends that the rejection was not due to any one particular reason. Four key factors: a) resolute opposition from Australian Prime Minister Hughes determined to protect White Australia Policy, b) lack of British support, c) lack of US support, and d) lack of support from the British dominions of New Zealand, Canada and South Africa; converged to defeat the Japanese proposal. Japanese inexperience in international diplomacy evident from strategic and tactical mistakes, their weak presentations and communications, and enormous delays in negotiations, at Paris, undermined Japan's position at the conference, but the reasons for rejection of the racial equality proposal were extrinsic.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 188 leaves
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Lyssa, Alison. "Performing Australia's black and white history acts of danger in four Australian plays of the early 21st century /." Thesis, Electronic version, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/714.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Department of English), 2006.Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in English in the Division of Humanities, Dept. of English, 2006. Bibliography: p. 199-210.
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Rhodes, Monika, and n/a. "The Ecology and Conservation of the White-Striped Freetail Bat (Tadarida australis) in Urban Environments." Griffith University. Australian School of Environmental Studies, 2006. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20070314.114451.
Full textAbstract:
Of all anthropogenic pressures, urbanisation is one of the most damaging, and is expanding in its influence throughout the world. In Australia, 90% of the human population live in urban centres along the eastern seaboard. Before European settlement in the early 1800s, much of the Australia's East coast was dominated by forests. Many of the forest dependent fauna have had to adapt to forest fragmentation and habitat loss resulting from clearing for urbanisation. However, relatively few studies have investigated the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity. This is especially true for the remaining fauna in large metropolitan areas, such as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The physical and conceptual context of this thesis is the increasing impact of urbanisation and the potentially threatening factors to forest dependent fauna. Bats were selected because they comprise a third of Australia's mammal species, and therefore form a major component of Australia's biodiversity. Very little is known about the ecology and conservation biology of hollow-dependent bats in general, but particularly in urban environments. The study was conducted in Brisbane, south-east Queensland, one of Australia's most biodiverse regions. More than a third of Australia's bat species occur in this region. A large insectivorous bat, the white-striped freetail bat (Tadarida australis), was selected to study two key resources in this urban area - hollow availability and foraging habitat. This thesis also examined if artificial roost habitat could provide temporary roosts for white-striped freetail bats and other insectivorous bats and assessed whether these bat boxes can be used as a conservation tool in urban environments where natural hollow-availability is limited. The white-striped freetail bat is an obligate hollow-dweller and roosted largely in hollows of old or dead eucalypts throughout Brisbane's urban matrix. These roost trees harboured significantly more additional hollow-dependent species compared to control trees of similar age, height, and tree diameter. Roost cavities inside trees often exceeded 30 cm in diameter. Furthermore, maternity colonies used cavities of hollow trunks, which often extended into major branches, to roost in big numbers. Therefore artificial alternatives, such as small bat boxes, may provide temporary shelter for small roosting groups, but are unlikely to be suitable substitutes for habitat loss. Although five bat species used bat boxes during this study, the white-striped freetail bat was not attracted into bat boxes. Roost-switching behaviour was then used to quantify associations between individual white-striped freetail bats of a roosting group. Despite differences in gender and reproductive seasons, the bats exhibited the same behaviour throughout three radio-telemetry periods and over 500 bat-days of radio-tracking: each roosted in separate roosts, switched roosts very infrequently, and associated with other tagged bats only at a communal roost. Furthermore, the communal roost exhibited a hub of socialising between members of the roosting group especially at night, with vocalisation and swarming behaviour not found at any of the other roosts. Despite being spread over a large geographic area (up to 200 km2), each roost was connected to others by less than three links. One roost (the communal roost) defined the architecture of the network because it had the most links. That the network showed scale-free properties has profound implications for the management of the habitat trees of this roosting group. Scale-free networks provide high tolerance against stochastic events such as random roost removals, but are susceptible to the selective removal of hub nodes, such as the communal roost. The white-striped freetail bat flew at high speed and covered large distances in search for food. It foraged over all land-cover types found in Brisbane. However, its observed foraging behaviour was non-random with respect to both spatial location and the nature of the ground-level habitat. The main feeding areas were within three kilometers of the communal roost, predominantly over the Brisbane River flood plains. As the only mammal capable of flight, bats can forage above fragmented habitats. However, as this study showed, hollow-dependent insectivorous bats, including free-tailed bats, are specialised in their roosting requirements. The ongoing protection of hollow-bearing trees, and the ongoing recruitment of future hollow-bearing trees, is essential for the long-term conservation of these animals in highly fragmented landscapes. Furthermore, loss of foraging habitat is still poorly understood, and should be considered in the ongoing conservation of bats in urban environments.
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Rhodes, Monika. "The Ecology and Conservation of the White-Striped Freetail Bat (Tadarida australis) in Urban Environments." Thesis, Griffith University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367292.
Full textAbstract:
Of all anthropogenic pressures, urbanisation is one of the most damaging, and is expanding in its influence throughout the world. In Australia, 90% of the human population live in urban centres along the eastern seaboard. Before European settlement in the early 1800s, much of the Australia's East coast was dominated by forests. Many of the forest dependent fauna have had to adapt to forest fragmentation and habitat loss resulting from clearing for urbanisation. However, relatively few studies have investigated the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity. This is especially true for the remaining fauna in large metropolitan areas, such as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The physical and conceptual context of this thesis is the increasing impact of urbanisation and the potentially threatening factors to forest dependent fauna. Bats were selected because they comprise a third of Australia's mammal species, and therefore form a major component of Australia's biodiversity. Very little is known about the ecology and conservation biology of hollow-dependent bats in general, but particularly in urban environments. The study was conducted in Brisbane, south-east Queensland, one of Australia's most biodiverse regions. More than a third of Australia's bat species occur in this region. A large insectivorous bat, the white-striped freetail bat (Tadarida australis), was selected to study two key resources in this urban area - hollow availability and foraging habitat. This thesis also examined if artificial roost habitat could provide temporary roosts for white-striped freetail bats and other insectivorous bats and assessed whether these bat boxes can be used as a conservation tool in urban environments where natural hollow-availability is limited. The white-striped freetail bat is an obligate hollow-dweller and roosted largely in hollows of old or dead eucalypts throughout Brisbane's urban matrix. These roost trees harboured significantly more additional hollow-dependent species compared to control trees of similar age, height, and tree diameter. Roost cavities inside trees often exceeded 30 cm in diameter. Furthermore, maternity colonies used cavities of hollow trunks, which often extended into major branches, to roost in big numbers. Therefore artificial alternatives, such as small bat boxes, may provide temporary shelter for small roosting groups, but are unlikely to be suitable substitutes for habitat loss. Although five bat species used bat boxes during this study, the white-striped freetail bat was not attracted into bat boxes. Roost-switching behaviour was then used to quantify associations between individual white-striped freetail bats of a roosting group. Despite differences in gender and reproductive seasons, the bats exhibited the same behaviour throughout three radio-telemetry periods and over 500 bat-days of radio-tracking: each roosted in separate roosts, switched roosts very infrequently, and associated with other tagged bats only at a communal roost. Furthermore, the communal roost exhibited a hub of socialising between members of the roosting group especially at night, with vocalisation and swarming behaviour not found at any of the other roosts. Despite being spread over a large geographic area (up to 200 km2), each roost was connected to others by less than three links. One roost (the communal roost) defined the architecture of the network because it had the most links. That the network showed scale-free properties has profound implications for the management of the habitat trees of this roosting group. Scale-free networks provide high tolerance against stochastic events such as random roost removals, but are susceptible to the selective removal of hub nodes, such as the communal roost. The white-striped freetail bat flew at high speed and covered large distances in search for food. It foraged over all land-cover types found in Brisbane. However, its observed foraging behaviour was non-random with respect to both spatial location and the nature of the ground-level habitat. The main feeding areas were within three kilometers of the communal roost, predominantly over the Brisbane River flood plains. As the only mammal capable of flight, bats can forage above fragmented habitats. However, as this study showed, hollow-dependent insectivorous bats, including free-tailed bats, are specialised in their roosting requirements. The ongoing protection of hollow-bearing trees, and the ongoing recruitment of future hollow-bearing trees, is essential for the long-term conservation of these animals in highly fragmented landscapes. Furthermore, loss of foraging habitat is still poorly understood, and should be considered in the ongoing conservation of bats in urban environments.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
Full Text
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Thistleton-Martin, Judith. "Black face white story : the construction of Aboriginal childhood by non-Aboriginal writers in Australian children's fiction 1841-1998 /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031024.100333/index.html.
Full text
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Kemp, Joshua M. "Heartwood: Spiritual homebuilding and white-vanishing in Australian gothic fiction." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2022. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2549.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis represents the spiritual connection between a non-Aboriginal Australian and the Australian natural landscape through a creative work, Heartwood, and an exegesis, which engages with the white-vanishing trope in Australian Gothic fiction. It critically examines ways in which this trope has been used in Australian literature to, consciously or not, represent Aboriginal characters as Other, peripheral or absent, and sometimes appropriated their religious beliefs.
Heartwood (2021) is an Australian Gothic novel which features two white Australian characters and their spiritual connection to the landscape, in an attempt to articulate the white-vanishing trope but without othering or sidelining Aboriginal characters. The novel also attempts to explore a form of spiritual connection which does not impinge on or appropriate Aboriginal religious beliefs, a thematic concept rarely explored in Australian Gothic fiction.
This thesis utilised the Practice Based Research methodological approach in an attempt to gain new knowledge through the research and creative production of a novel, Heartwood. The subsequent exegesis explores how effective this creative work has been in seeking out this new knowledge. Since the emergence of Australian forms of Gothic fiction during colonisation, white Australian writers have explored the complex and fraught spiritual relationship between non-Aboriginal people and the landscape, often utilising corrosive narrative structures such as the lost-in-the-bush trope to do so. In these texts Aboriginal presence is sidelined or even completely ignored in favour of a primarily white Australian focus. When Aboriginal characters do appear, they have been depicted as demonic, ghostly or supernatural. Some academics believe because Aboriginal characters are depicted as inhuman, their connection to the landscape and sense of land ownership has been elided. Aboriginal religious beliefs have also been appropriated in these works to explore a non- Aboriginal sense of spirituality. Some of the most popular and critically acclaimed Australian novels of the twentieth century have been guilty of this, such as Voss by Patrick White and Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay.
This creative work, and the exegesis accompanying it, explore and ultimately seek to subvert the bias inherent in these traditions of Australian Gothic fiction. This is achieved by producing a story which refuses to appropriate Aboriginal religious and/or spiritual beliefs, as well as featuring Aboriginal characters who are not depicted as supernatural or ghostly. The novel also explores a spiritual connection between non-Aboriginal characters and the natural landscape of Western Australia’s Southern Forests region without impinging on the religious beliefs of Aboriginal people. The creative work re-emplaces Aboriginal presence into the text without appropriating an Aboriginal voice or point-of-view.