Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Remote Australia”

This thesis explores the possibility that in remote regions of Australia there may be some contradiction between the aim of economic assimilation as reflected in the policy of self management, and the aim of cultural autonomy as reflected in the policy of self-determination. This is done by analysing the way the work performed by Aboriginal people was organised in the industries of a region of the west Kimberley of Western Australia during 1985 and 1986. The thesis concludes that cultural factors did appear to influence the way that Aboriginal people were involved in the economy, and that these factors were most prevalent where Aboriginal control was greatest. However, it was noted that other factors also influenced Aboriginal involvement in the economy. These included the very low levels of training in all industries and in economic management, as well as the restrictions on full-time employment imposed by the region's seasons. The thesis also proposes that the Aboriginal traditional attachment to remote regions, such as the west Kimberley, makes economic assimilation and self-management difficult because of the limited potential of such regions to provide the necessary economic activity, within the mainstream economy of the nation state

Pulmonary rehabilitation, consisting of exercise training and education, is one of the most effective strategies for improving the health outcomes of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and reducing associated healthcare costs. Prior to the work presented in this thesis a description of the structure and content of pulmonary rehabilitation programs in Australia had not been published. In addition, whether existing programs met Australian recommendations for practice such as those contained in the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit, was unknown. Despite the significant benefits for both individuals with COPD and the community, access to pulmonary rehabilitation is limited, particularly for those in rural and remote regions. A lack of adequately trained healthcare professionals may contribute to difficulties with establishing and maintaining pulmonary rehabilitation. However, the effect of healthcare professional training on the availability of pulmonary rehabilitation had not been previously investigated. There were no published reports documenting existing knowledge and skill levels, evaluating training strategies to up-skill rural/remote healthcare professionals or evaluating the impact of such training on the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. The aims of the studies presented in this thesis were to: describe the current provision of pulmonary rehabilitation in Australia and the alignment of these pulmonary rehabilitation programs with evidence-based recommendations; determine the level of knowledge and skills of rural and remote healthcare professionals in the management of people with chronic lung disease; investigate the ability of an educational training program for healthcare professionals to improve knowledge and confidence and improve the availability and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation in rural and remote regions and explore the attitudes, opinions and concerns of healthcare professionals regarding the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. The first study (Chapter 2) was a cross sectional, observational study using a purpose designed anonymous paper-based survey. The national database of pulmonary rehabilitation programs, maintained by Lung Foundation Australia (LFA), was used to identify known programs in all states and territories of Australia. All pulmonary rehabilitation programs listed on the database at that time were included (n=193). Healthcare professionals who coordinated pulmonary rehabilitation were invited to participate. This study had a response rate of 83% (n=163) and all states and territories in Australia were represented. The responses enabled the structure and content of Australian pulmonary rehabilitation programs to be elucidated. Most Australian pulmonary rehabilitation programs broadly met recommendations for practice contained in the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit in terms of included components (exercise training and education), program length, patient assessment and exercise training (duration, frequency and mode). Many respondents were not aware of major evidence-based practice guidelines (including the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit). Interestingly, despite not being aware of guidelines, most respondents indicated that they perceived a gap between current evidence and their practice in terms of exercise prescription and training. The studies presented in Chapters 4-7 were undertaken as individual components of a mixed methods study to evaluate the impact of the Breathe Easy Walk Easy (BEWE) program on healthcare professional knowledge and confidence, service delivery and patient outcomes in rural and remote Australian regions. The BEWE program was an interactive education and training program related to providing components of assessment and management (in particular pulmonary rehabilitation) for people with chronic respiratory disease. The BEWE program consisted of a training workshop, access to online resources, provision of community awareness-raising materials and ongoing telephone/email support. Details of the development of the BEWE program are presented in Chapter 1. Further information regarding the content and structure of the BEWE program along with relevant methods for the studies contained in Chapters 4-7, are presented in Chapter 3. The evaluation process was conducted by a researcher (the PhD candidate) who was independent of the development and delivery of the BEWE program. The study presented in Chapter 4 was a descriptive cross-sectional, observational survey design using a written anonymous questionnaire. Participants were healthcare professionals (n=31) who registered to attend the BEWE program initial workshop in either one rural or one remote Australian region. The main outcomes were participant attitudes, objective knowledge (case vignette-based) and self-rated experience, training, and levels of confidence. Participants were from a variety of professional backgrounds (allied health, medical, nursing) but were predominantly nurses (n=13) or physiotherapists (n=9). The main findings of this study were that that rural and remote healthcare professionals had low levels of experience, training, knowledge and confidence in providing components of management for people with COPD. Most participants reported that they had minimal or no experience or training in this area of practice. The scores in the measured knowledge quiz were generally poor, with mean knowledge score (number of correct answers out of 19) being 8.5 (SD=4.5). There were higher numbers of correct responses for questions relating to COPD disease pathophysiology and diagnosis than for questions relating specifically to pulmonary rehabilitation. In addition, most participants reported particularly low confidence in the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. Based on the findings of the study, the need for an education and training program for rural and remote healthcare professionals in the evidence-based management of people with COPD with an emphasis on pulmonary rehabilitation was evident. The effects of the delivery of an education and training program on healthcare professional knowledge and confidence in the management of people with COPD and on the availability of pulmonary rehabilitation were investigated and are presented in Chapter 5. This study was a quasi-experimental, before and after repeated measures design. Healthcare professionals (n=33) from various backgrounds who participated in the BEWE program were eligible to participate. The BEWE program was delivered in one rural and one remote region. Participant knowledge, confidence and attitudes were assessed via anonymous written questionnaire before, immediately after and at three and 12 months following the BEWE workshop. Participation in the BEWE program resulted in significant improvements in participants’ self-rated knowledge and confidence immediately after the workshop, and at three and 12 month follow-up. Measured knowledge (case vignette score out of 19) improved significantly immediately after the workshop compared to before (mean difference 7.6 correct answers, 95% CI 5.8 to 9.3). At 12-month follow-up, three locally run pulmonary rehabilitation programs had been established in participating regions. The availability of pulmonary rehabilitation following delivery of the BEWE program, as well as patient outcomes and the factors contributing to the change in service delivery were further explored and results are presented in Chapter 6. Data were collected regarding the provision of pulmonary rehabilitation services before and after delivery of the BEWE program and patient outcomes (six-minute walk test and health related quality of life) before and after pulmonary rehabilitation. Pulmonary rehabilitation was not available in any of the participating sites before the BEWE program. At 12-month follow-up three sites had established locally-run pulmonary rehabilitation programs which had a structure and content broadly meeting Australian practice recommendations for pulmonary rehabilitation. Initial patient outcome data for the six-minute walk test and the St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire demonstrated evidence of the effectiveness of these pulmonary rehabilitation programs in improving functional exercise capacity and health related quality of life. Providing targeted specific training, the retention of key staff and strong local healthcare organisational support were important factors which contributed to the successful establishment of pulmonary rehabilitation. A study involving interviews with key healthcare professionals involved in the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation in rural and remote regions was conducted and is presented in Chapter 7. Those healthcare professionals who participated in the BEWE program and who were identified as key informants, were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The purpose of the interviews was to gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ attitudes and opinions regarding developing, establishing and delivering pulmonary rehabilitation in rural and remote regions. This study was designed to add perspective to the quantitative data rather than to inform the design of the evaluation process. Interviews occurred at three and 12 months following the BEWE workshop in the remote region and at 12 months following the BEWE workshop in the rural region. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A process of thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcripts. Healthcare professional staffing levels, time and case load constraints, knowledge and confidence, ensuring sustainability, individual and community attitudes, and practical issues related to the setting, structure and content of pulmonary rehabilitation were identified as the main concerns of informants. The results of this study indicate that dedicated funding to support additional healthcare professional staffing and to assist with providing specific education and training may facilitate the availability and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation in rural and remote regions. The body of work contained in this thesis has contributed to a greater knowledge of the practice and availability of pulmonary rehabilitation in the Australian rural and remote context and has provided evidence that the provision of a training program for healthcare professionals can facilitate the delivery of effective pulmonary rehabilitation in rural and remote Australian regions.

This thesis examined police and Indigenous relations in rural and remote contexts in Australia which historically and in contemporary times have often been contentious. Using a grounded theory approach, the police participants of this qualitative research provided insight as to how social factors such as ecological, organizational and occupational culture influenced their responses in discrete Indigenous communities. The findings revealed that ecological factors such as community dynamics and Indigenous culture heavily influenced police in how they responded to situations, more so than the influence of organizational and occupational culture. It found that ecological factors played a large role in shaping policing responses in discrete Indigenous communities.

The solitary position of nurses who practise in geographically isolated communities to provide direct health care to a predominantly Aboriginal population characterises nursing in remote areas. Munoz & Mann (1982) described this practice as unique. The uniqueness of this practice, however, has remained shrouded in superficial descriptions featuring service delivery at a one or two-nurse-post, the physical distance of nursing posts from hospital facilities and the autonomy with which nursing is performed. Only glimpses of the reality of nursing practice in a remote area have been revealed through the study of the educational needs of remote area nurses (Munoz & Mann 1982, Cameron-Traub 1987, Philp 1988, Kreger 1991a, Bell, Chang & Daly 1995). A key problem is the lack of a systematic description and detailed analysis of nursing as it is practised in a remote area.The purpose of this study was to explore, describe and analyse nursing practice in a remote area. The research was undertaken at Warburton, an isolated community mainly inhabited by the Ngaanyatjarra people in the Central Desert of Western Australia. An ethnographic design was chosen for this exploratory inquiry into the social and cultural pattern of everyday nursing practice. In a pre-entry study a suitable setting and informants were found. Fieldwork was conducted at the Warburton nursing post by the researcher and involved living on site for a year. Data gathering techniques were participant observation together with interviewing, collection of pertinent documents and the daily chronological recording of fieldnotes, memos and a personal journal. Data analysis was performed concurrently with data gathering. The process followed the Developmental Research Sequence Method by Spradley (1980). Through a cyclical process of data collection and analysis the domains, taxonomies and componential variables in the culture of remote area nursing practice emerged.Amorphous practice was the overall theme revealed in the underlying cultural patterns that shaped the practice of nursing in the remote area. The term amorphous practice is defined as the changeable nature of practice from nurse to nurse, from situation to situation, from time to time. This was observed in the recurrent differences between nurses in their knowledge, abilities and attitudes as well as in the variability between nurses in their management of client care. Contributors to the phenomenon of amorphous practice were found in three distinct, but inter-related, tributary themes termed detachment, diffusion and beyond the nursing domain. Detachment explained the nurses' feelings of separateness from the usual professional and organisational structures needed for the enactment of nursing. Diffusion encapsulated the broad spread of the nurses' role in remote area practice. Beyond the nursing domain described an unregulated practice considered to be outside the responsibilities of nursing care. The substantive theory of amorphous practice provided a detailed description of how nursing was practised in the remote area. It also explained why it was so different from nursing as it is generally understood by the profession.

The concentration of phytoplankton in waters off the Western Australian coastline contrast with the coastal waters west of southern Africa and South America. The lack of favourable upwelling conditions results in the majority of the southeastern Indian Ocean surface waters being nutrient poor. Which is reflected in their low productivity. Several areas either on or in close proximity to the coastline are notably more productive. The associated forcing terms generating phytoplankton favourable conditions differ between areas. as do the seasons in which they occur. Measurements of chlorophyll a concentration. the major photosynthetic pigment contained in phytoplankton, may be directly related to oceanic bioproductivity. Using data collected by the Coastal Zone Color Seamier between 1979-86, this work aims to improve the understanding of the spatial and temporal changes that occurred in chlorophyll a abundance in the southeastern Indian Ocean. The highest seasonal mean concentrations occur in Summer (January-March) and Autumn (April-June); the former occurring in waters of the North West Shelf and the latter in close coastal areas of Western Australia south of North West. Cape. Concentrations observed in the offshore oceanic regions are mostly poor. Exceptions to this occur in proximity to the adjacent Indonesian islands and directly south of Albany (possibly due to northwards flow of subantarctic nutrient-rich waters). A considerable interannual variation was also noted, with the highest mean chlorophyll concentrations occurring in 1981. 1982 and 1983.The influence of the forcing terms on chlorophyll a appears to vary significantly among the waters of North West Shelf, Western and southern Western Australian coastline. This is most notable in the interseasonal variations. The changes observed interannually and their influence on chlorophyll a are not easily discernible. but there may be some connection with the La Nina/El Nino related changes in both currents and winds.

This study is based on data collected for a large project that investigated social literacies and various aspects of the literacy culture of members of three rural communities in Queensland. This study draws on ideas from current critical literacy theory and research and post-structural writings. It reports a distinctive set of observations which aim to contribute to social and educational knowledge in respect of centre-margin relationships, literacy-empowerment relationships, the changing socio-economic and political landscape in rural Australia, and the need for a new conceptual landscape to define the foundations of a 'postprogressive pedagogy'. This study delineates some of the distinctive features of rural communities, and investigates the connections that people construct between schooling and economic change and the future, and between literacy and schooling and various aspects of the culture of the community. It interprets how schooling and literacy are socially constructed by members of the rural communities studied. One hundred and fifty-eight residents of three rural/remote communities were interviewed and their responses recorded and analysed. The residents represented the full range of ages and occupations. A selection of data from these interviews is taken for this study, based on themes and issues emerging from the data. A theoretical and empirical framework for the study is provided by reviewing current literature on rurality and rural living, on communities and schooling and cultural practices; literature on qualitative research methodology, specifically ethnomethodology, methods of interview analysis and the application of these methods, is also reviewed. Ethnomethodology is used for this study and the specific analytic procedures of Membership Categorisation Analysis. This specific type of qualitative research methodology is chosen because of its power to take the everyday conversations of community members and, through analytical procedures, to make explicit in those members accounts the interaction of their experiences with the organisational and social forces (the social realities) which permeate their relationships with one another and with the context of the community where they live, work and recreate. This study makes use of recent systematic procedures developed for interrogating interview data. It adds to the research literature on ideologies of family and community literacies and social practices in Australian rural communities. The study provides information relevant to rural development planners, and education policy developers and curriculum writers, for the purpose of enhancing schooling for rural students and better understanding of rural lifestyles. This study's focus on rural communities has highlighted the complexities and diversities of the rural communities that are studied. The different approaches and debates about 'defining rural' must continue, and researchers must avoid promoting a unidimensional category of 'rural'. The changing and developing nature of the rural communities has also been prominent in this study. The implications of these complexities and changes are that rural communities should be studied regularly so that the effects of the changes can be traced and documented. There is a varied set of understandings among rural dwellers about education. For some, education is bringing knowledge and skills to life in the rural location and enabling residents to avail themselves of the urban offerings that may enhance their occupations and leisure activities thus utilising the benefits of two cultures to their best advantage. For others, there are the expectations that education will enable them to move away from the rural areas, to go to the city, to take up other careers, to lead a different lifestyle. Hypotheses and generalisations that express negative approaches to rural cultures and to rural education must be reduced and the positive aspects promoted. Any centre-margin discourse must be scrutinised for its relevance and the feasibility of the assumptions on which it is based. Education policy developers, social researchers and rural policy planners need to re-evaluate the philosophical premises on which the current concept of success is based: success for the individual school student, success for education and schooling, and success in adult life. A number of recommendations are developed in an attempt to make a vision of excellence in rural education a central part of rural agenda. Curriculum in rural schools needs to be matched to rural resources and rural occupations and lifestyles, and to encourage enterprise. While education remains a centralised provision, it needs to provide a context for training in the communication skills that shape rural people's views of their communities. Rural secondary students may be disadvantaged by not having access to a wide range of curriculum offerings, and at tertiary level by inequities (mostly financial) of access, but technology could be used to assist in broadening the range of offerings at secondary level, and library resources across the country could be better utilised. Social and education research could benefit from further studies using this methodology, for example, studies in mining communities, rural ethnic communities, rural tourist communities.
Thesis (Masters)
Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
School of Cognition, Language and Special Education
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

The solitary position of nurses who practise in geographically isolated communities to provide direct health care to a predominantly Aboriginal population characterises nursing in remote areas. Munoz & Mann (1982) described this practice as unique. The uniqueness of this practice, however, has remained shrouded in superficial descriptions featuring service delivery at a one or two-nurse-post, the physical distance of nursing posts from hospital facilities and the autonomy with which nursing is performed. Only glimpses of the reality of nursing practice in a remote area have been revealed through the study of the educational needs of remote area nurses (Munoz & Mann 1982, Cameron-Traub 1987, Philp 1988, Kreger 1991a, Bell, Chang & Daly 1995). A key problem is the lack of a systematic description and detailed analysis of nursing as it is practised in a remote area.The purpose of this study was to explore, describe and analyse nursing practice in a remote area. The research was undertaken at Warburton, an isolated community mainly inhabited by the Ngaanyatjarra people in the Central Desert of Western Australia. An ethnographic design was chosen for this exploratory inquiry into the social and cultural pattern of everyday nursing practice. In a pre-entry study a suitable setting and informants were found. Fieldwork was conducted at the Warburton nursing post by the researcher and involved living on site for a year. Data gathering techniques were participant observation together with interviewing, collection of pertinent documents and the daily chronological recording of fieldnotes, memos and a personal journal. Data analysis was performed concurrently with data gathering. The process followed the Developmental Research Sequence Method by Spradley (1980). Through a cyclical process of data collection and analysis the domains, taxonomies and componential variables in the ++
culture of remote area nursing practice emerged.Amorphous practice was the overall theme revealed in the underlying cultural patterns that shaped the practice of nursing in the remote area. The term amorphous practice is defined as the changeable nature of practice from nurse to nurse, from situation to situation, from time to time. This was observed in the recurrent differences between nurses in their knowledge, abilities and attitudes as well as in the variability between nurses in their management of client care. Contributors to the phenomenon of amorphous practice were found in three distinct, but inter-related, tributary themes termed detachment, diffusion and beyond the nursing domain. Detachment explained the nurses' feelings of separateness from the usual professional and organisational structures needed for the enactment of nursing. Diffusion encapsulated the broad spread of the nurses' role in remote area practice. Beyond the nursing domain described an unregulated practice considered to be outside the responsibilities of nursing care. The substantive theory of amorphous practice provided a detailed description of how nursing was practised in the remote area. It also explained why it was so different from nursing as it is generally understood by the profession.

Governing water systems to address issues of safety, security and sustainability and to build resilient communities is a key policy focus globally, as climate change and human impacts on freshwater resources are being increasingly felt. Yet, in remote Indigenous community contexts, Western management systems tend to focus on technical and engineering aspects of water services, often excluding Indigenous people from decisions about their own water resources. Unsustainable and inadequate water services have resulted that constrain local economic development and contribute to poor health and high mortality rates of Indigenous peoples. Sustainable water governance approaches are recognised as important to address such issues, but the pace and scale of uptake has been slow. Transformative governance is an emerging field of research and praxis that has potential to support scaling up sustainable water outcomes, however, very limited empirical or theoretical studies exist from which to guide action, particularly at the community scale, or in remote Indigenous community contexts. Focusing on remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia as a study setting, this thesis aims to explore Transformative Community Water Governance (TCWG) as an approach for practice and consider how it can be applied to contribute to sustainable and resilient remote Indigenous communities. Through a pragmatic and transdisciplinary lens, three objectives are addressed: 1) identify key concepts and principles for TCWG and assess current water governance arrangements and processes in remote Indigenous Australia; 2) develop an evidencebased framework for TCWG appropriate for application to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; 3) apply the conceptual TCWG framework in a remote Indigenous community context to identify lessons for practice. Employing mixed methods, the exploratory study identified key concepts and principles for TCWG and assessed current practice in remote Australia in relation to these. The findings reveal limited uptake in practice of processes that could support longer-term transformative sustainability outcomes. Barriers that prevent transformative governance being adopted are also identified across five categories: governance arrangements and processes; economic and financial; capacity, skills education and employment; data and information; and cultural values and norms. Enablers that can support transformative community water governance in this context are also identified. These findings provide the foundation for design of a novel TCWG framework applicable to remote Indigenous Australia. Key components of the framework include a guiding vision, five foundational principles to guide planning and action, an eight-step process for implementation, together with knowledge sharing activities across communities and regions. These components in combination create a comprehensive framework to guide community water governance for transformative change outcomes across communities and the water sector. Moving beyond conceptual research, the TCWG framework was applied through participatory action research in the remote community of Masig in the Torres Strait Islands (Australia), providing lessons for practice. Activities included installation, monitoring and feedback on household water use from high-resolution smart water meters, household end-use survey and in-depth interviews with community and other stakeholders. The action research demonstrated how technocratic management approaches occur, are reinforced and impact on communities at the local scale resulting in outcomes that do not fit the local conditions. For example on Masig, continued focus and investments in centralised water treatment ignores community member preferences for drinking rainwater, which is often untreated, over mains water; imposition of water restrictions increase health risks from storing water for use during the day; while existing strengths within the community that could support longterm sustainable water outcomes are generally not considered in water decisions. A co-designed household water demand management trial also resulted in a 39% reduction in water use over the research period, demonstrating that a coordinated and educative approach can be more effective than ‘stick’ approaches, at least in the shortterm, building a foundation for long-term change. The overall thesis findings suggest that there is significant potential for a TCWG approach to improve outcomes for sustainable, resilient communities and water systems at the local level and for scaling up on a larger scale. Recommendations are provided based on the research findings, for embedding this approach into governance institutions and supporting capacity building within the water governance system. Considerations for scaling up the TCWG approach across diverse community contexts, such as Pacific Island communities, and post-colonial settler nations such as New Zealand, Canada and the United States are also identified.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Eng & Built Env
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
Full Text

Over the two centuries since the arrival of European settlers in Australia, the material culture and lifestyle of the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia has undergone dramatic change. Based on qualitative fieldwork in three remote Aboriginal communities in north-western Australia, this study examines the emergence of unique consumer cultures that appear to differ significantly from mainstream Australia and indeed from other societies. The study finds that the impact of non-indigenous goods and external cultural values upon these communities has been significant. However, although anthropologists feared some fifty years ago that Aboriginal cultural values and traditions had been destroyed, this study concludes that they are still powerful moderating forces in each of the communities studied. The most powerful are non-possessiveness, immediacy in consumption, and a strong sharing ethos. Unlike findings in the so-called Second and Third Worlds, these Fourth World consumer cultures have not developed an unquenchable desire for manufactured consumer goods. Instead, non-traditional consumption practices have been modified by tradition oriented practices. The consumer cultures that have emerged through a synthesis of global and local values and practices have involved Aboriginal adoption, adaption and resistance practices. This process has resulted in both positive and negative impacts on the Aboriginal people of these communities. Ways of dealing with the negative effects have been suggested, while the positive effects have been highlighted as examples of what can possibly be learned from Aboriginal culture. The study also finds differences between the emerging consumer cultures of each community, concluding that this can be attributed to historical and cultural differences. The main conclusion is that the development of a global consumer culture is by no means inevitable.

The concentration of phytoplankton in waters off the Western Australian coastline contrast with the coastal waters west of southern Africa and South America. The lack of favourable upwelling conditions results in the majority of the southeastern Indian Ocean surface waters being nutrient poor. Which is reflected in their low productivity. Several areas either on or in close proximity to the coastline are notably more productive. The associated forcing terms generating phytoplankton favourable conditions differ between areas. as do the seasons in which they occur. Measurements of chlorophyll a concentration. the major photosynthetic pigment contained in phytoplankton, may be directly related to oceanic bioproductivity. Using data collected by the Coastal Zone Color Seamier between 1979-86, this work aims to improve the understanding of the spatial and temporal changes that occurred in chlorophyll a abundance in the southeastern Indian Ocean. The highest seasonal mean concentrations occur in Summer (January-March) and Autumn (April-June); the former occurring in waters of the North West Shelf and the latter in close coastal areas of Western Australia south of North West. Cape. Concentrations observed in the offshore oceanic regions are mostly poor. Exceptions to this occur in proximity to the adjacent Indonesian islands and directly south of Albany (possibly due to northwards flow of subantarctic nutrient-rich waters). A considerable interannual variation was also noted, with the highest mean chlorophyll concentrations occurring in 1981. 1982 and 1983.
The influence of the forcing terms on chlorophyll a appears to vary significantly among the waters of North West Shelf, Western and southern Western Australian coastline. This is most notable in the interseasonal variations. The changes observed interannually and their influence on chlorophyll a are not easily discernible. but there may be some connection with the La Nina/El Nino related changes in both currents and winds.

Conventional bathymetric surveying is a costly and time consuming business. Even today many areas of shallow inshore ocean, some which encompass potential oil and gas fields, are only minimally charted. There is a need for reconnaissance systems which can effectively direct more expensive detailed surveys to best effect. Remote spectral bathymetry is one such system.A review of candidate sensor systems and processing algorithms highlighted problems due to changing bottom cover types and water quality parameters. A method, proposed and theoretically validated by other workers, was chosen for further investigation. This method develops an approximate relationship between the spectral content of the satellite data and water depths and then, by an iterative phase in the spatial domain, seeks to minimise the effect of spatially dependant variations.A study site in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia was chosen for a demonstration of this method. Spectral data are from the Landsat Thematic Mapper instrument and depth data are taken from Admiralty Charts. A variation on the originally proposed algorithm introduces spatial preprocessing phase, in which the image is segmented into zones where spectral relationships are expected to be more uniform. Two different methods of spatial mapping are used.The results demonstrate the capability of spatial modelling to improve remotely sensed depth estimates in the depth range of 5 to 12 m. The need for further research to better understand the shallow water spectral relationships is identified.

This study investigates how people living in remote and regional Western Australia (WA) responded to the start-up of the remote commercial television service. For three of the six communities investigated, this marked a first experience of in situ broadcast television. The research began with a policy-driven construction of the audience, and a core-periphery model. It was progressed through qualitative audience studies techniques. Both constructions of the audience were found valuable, but policy research would be much richer if it routinely included more qualitative constructions of the audience such as the one offered here. Drawing upon interviews with some 140 people, the thesis argues that respondents convert broadcast programs into materials which are used to construct and express understandings of themselves, their households and their communities. The study is an adaptation and application of the Silverstone, Hirsch and Morley (1992, pp. 20-6) schema of consuming domestic technologies through appropriation, objectification, incorporation, and conversion. Respondents were selected because of their remote or regional location and their isolation from ‘normal’ communications channels. Historically these communities have been little researched. Contributors were mainly interviewed at home or work — and ranged from adolescents through to retirees. In contrast, most benchmark Australian audience studies concentrate upon children and young people (Hodge and Tripp 1986, Noble 1975, Palmer 1986a and 1986b). A holistic study which celebrates breadth rather than depth, this thesis analyses what respondents say about a range of central issues, as expressed through discussion of television services and broadcast programming. As well as addressing community characteristics, the account considers the household, gender, technology adoption and conversion, the building of community, and the construction of consumer culture. In summary, the traditional core-periphery dynamic is found to be overly deterministic and paternalistic, and insufficiently complex and subtle to represent the creativity of responses from people at the ‘periphery’.

A remote sensing study of global and Australian cloud cover was undertaken using a combination of High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) and MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data for a 31-year period (1985 to 2015). Regional characterisations of potential rain clouds were investigated in the Southwest and Kimberley regions of Western Australia using satellite-derived cloud physical and micro-physical properties (cloud top pressure, cloud effective emissivity, cloud top temperature, cloud optical thickness and cloud effective radius).

[Truncated abstract] It is essential to attract, recruit and retain quality teachers in rural and remote schools for provision of quality education to rural and remote students. A robust body of research confirms that teacher quality contributes to quality of education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hay McBer, 2000; Kaplan & Owings, 2002; OECD, 2002; Ramsay, 2000). Staffing histories of rural and remote schools identify persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers, but previous research has failed to address the experiences and perspectives of rural and remote teachers from the earliest phases of appointment, tracking their experiences over time. In times and places of persistent teacher shortages, teacher quality of worklife issues are paramount. Factors impacting on teacher quality of worklife may impact on teacher retention, staffing levels and ultimately the quality of education for children. For these reasons, this study aimed to develop substantive theory about the experiences of teachers commencing appointments in rural and remote schools by investigating the perspectives of novice, interstate and overseas-qualified teachers. The study sought to develop understandings of rural and remote teachers quality of worklife. In order to achieve this aime, the experiences of 29 teachers were examined, in four categories of teachers likely to be appointed to rural and remote locations: young novices; mature-aged novices; interstate; and overseas-qualified teachers in a qualitative collective case study. ... Awareness of the variety of factors in multiple environments, and the complex interplay between them, helps to account for the diversity of perspectives and quality of worklife outcomes for rural and remote teachers. Two theories were generated from ten propositions. The first theory, Quality of Worklife for Rural and Remote Teachers: Person-Environment Fit to Multiple Environments, identified protective and risk factors associated with workrole, workplace, organisation, geographic and socio-cultural community environments. The theory recognises spillover between work and non-work life experiences, impacting on quality of teacher worklife; however, factors directly associated with worklife impacted most significantly on quality of worklife. The second theory, Processes of Adaptation to Multiple Rural and Remote Environments, identified processes (teacher expectations, evaluations of environments, responses to environments) and coping strategies (direct-action, palliative and avoidant) as leading to one of four outcomes: integration; resilient integration; disequilibrium; and withdrawal. The case study findings offer original understandings of experiences of teachers newly appointed to rural and remote schools, through the development of theory about multiple environments teachers encounter and processes of adaptation associated with their relocation to rural and remote areas. The findings have implications for theory, policy and practice, and contribute new dimensions to the general quality of worklife literature.

Over the past decade, national testing in literacy and numeracy for primary and junior secondary education reveals NT remote Aboriginal children have consistently performed at a much lower level than all other groups across Australia. This performance is situated within a broader and stratified education system, of which ongoing education reforms have failed to address. This entrenched pattern by wealth has NT remote Aboriginal students located at the bottom of this layering, underpinned by an Aboriginal racial identity as a defining characteristic. For NT remote Aboriginal families this layering is bound within a deepened embeddedness of racism, interacting with an economic ordering that has relegated NT remote Aboriginal families to a life of socially–constructed marginalisation, on their own lands. This study applies Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a primary tool of analysis, Aboriginalising its tenets to respond to the unique narrative of NT Aboriginal education. Drawing on research with remote North Australia Aboriginal principals (head teachers), Aboriginal communities and educators, critical race methodology is used to explore the intersecting roles of colonial history, ‘race’ and wealth inequality in the construction and deployment of NT remote Aboriginal education inequality. This investigation privileges the voices and Stories of Northern Territory remote Aboriginal families, strengthened through my lived Aboriginal experience of 25 years employment as a teacher and senior education administrator in Northern Territory urban and remote communities. In this study, the CRT tenet of interest convergence/interest divergence is utilised alongside Indigenous CRT frameworks. Underpinning this study, a form of NT remote Aboriginal social capitalism is shown to be at the epicentre of a progressive NT remote Aboriginal education policy architecture, wrapped around Indigeneity and its existential dimensions, as a foundation to improving the pattern of NT remote Aboriginal education performance.

This study was performed because of the potential vulnerability to climate change of the Australian continent. For example, global warming may increase the frequency and severity of drought [McAlpine, C.A., Syktus, J., Ryan, J.G., Deo, R.C., McKeon, G.M., McGowan, H.A. & Phinn, S.R., 2009: A continent under stress: interactions, feedbacks and risks associated with impact of modified land cover on Australia’s climate. Global Change Biology 15, 2206-2223]. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate spatial and temporal patterns in temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation and how native vegetation (represented by NDVI) and land-use correlate with these climatic parameters. The correlations are investigated during the 1982-2006 period across the Australian continent. To meet this general aim, three objectives are implemented: (1) to identify how these variables vary spatially and temporally; (2) to investigate whether spatial variations in these variables correlate; (3) to investigate whether temporal variations in these variables correlate. Using GIS software, maps are produced that show how the selected parameters vary over the study period across the Australian continent. During winter there is a trend of increasing temperature, solar radiation, and vegetation density and spatial distribution during 1982-2006. It is likely that the climatic variation over the 1982-2006 period is forcing the observed change in winter vegetation. The systematic variations of the trend indicate that winter is the key season over the 1982-2006 study period. Decreased winter rainfall over 1982-2006 across all of Western Australia, along with a trend of increasing summer rainfall displayed over the same period, indicate a negative outcome for this part of the continent. This is because there is more water runoff to streams and soils in the winter, because of low evapotranspiration and cool temperatures. The strongest correlation between spatial variations in vegetation distribution and climatic parameters during winter seasons 1982-2006 occurs between vegetation and temperature. During summer seasons over the same period, the strongest correlation occurs between vegetation and solar radiation. Correlations between expansion of selected land-use areas and spatial variations in climate during 1992-2005 show ambiguous patterns and could possibly be random. These findings are also unreliable because the land-use data has some significant errors, e.g. in estimated agriculture areas. During 1982-2006, the strongest correlation between temporal variations in vegetation density-distribution and climatic parameters occurs in the summer vegetation-temperature relationship (mean R² = -0.53). Vegetation density displays over 1982-2006 negative correlations with temperature and solar radiation, and positive with rainfall. Relationships between temporal variations in climate and selected landuse areas over the 1992-2005 period indicate a specific pattern. Areas of water, conservation, and production from relatively natural environments show, in general, higher mean values in all climatic parameters (except for winter rainfall) than other land-use areas. Because these land-use areas are mainly distributed in hot and arid Australian climate zones, the climate is unsuitable for agriculture, which might explain their higher mean values in the climatic parameters than, for example, croplands. The findings of variations (trends) and correlations in the present study, together with previous predictions, indicate that the future for Australia might be challenging because of increasing frequency of droughts and forest fires. Therefore, the potential vulnerability to future climate change of the Australian continent is of great concern.

In 2025, there will be almost 8 billion people to feed as the worlds population rapidly increases. To meet domestic and export demands, Australian grain productivity needs to approximately triple in the next 20 years, and this production needs to occur in an environmentally sustainable manner. The advent of Hi-tech Precision Farming in Australia has shown promise in recent time to optimize the use of resources. Most

The study focused on assessing the total above ground biomass using remote sensing in the Kimberley rangelands of Western Australia. Remote sensing has the advantage that it can rapidly provide estimates non-destructively on a large scale with a high temporal frequency. In this thesis a field sampling protocol was developed and mono- and multi-temporal above ground biomass estimation models could be calibrated and validated with field based measurements for the most significant vegetation types.

Conventional bathymetric surveying is a costly and time consuming business. Even today many areas of shallow inshore ocean, some which encompass potential oil and gas fields, are only minimally charted. There is a need for reconnaissance systems which can effectively direct more expensive detailed surveys to best effect. Remote spectral bathymetry is one such system.A review of candidate sensor systems and processing algorithms highlighted problems due to changing bottom cover types and water quality parameters. A method, proposed and theoretically validated by other workers, was chosen for further investigation. This method develops an approximate relationship between the spectral content of the satellite data and water depths and then, by an iterative phase in the spatial domain, seeks to minimise the effect of spatially dependant variations.A study site in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia was chosen for a demonstration of this method. Spectral data are from the Landsat Thematic Mapper instrument and depth data are taken from Admiralty Charts. A variation on the originally proposed algorithm introduces spatial preprocessing phase, in which the image is segmented into zones where spectral relationships are expected to be more uniform. Two different methods of spatial mapping are used.The results demonstrate the capability of spatial modelling to improve remotely sensed depth estimates in the depth range of 5 to 12 m. The need for further research to better understand the shallow water spectral relationships is identified.

The aim of this work was to use remote sensing data from the MODIS instrument of the Terra satellite to detect bush fires in Australia. This included preprocessing the demodulator output, bit synchronization and reassembly of data packets. IMAPP was used to do the geolocation and data calibration. The fire detection used a combination of fixed threshold techniques with difference tests and background comparisons. The results were projected in a rectangular latidue/longitude map to remedy the bow tie effect. Algorithms were implemented in C and Matlab. It proved to be possible to detect fires in the available data. The results were compared with fire detection done done by NASA and fire detections based on other sensors and found to be very similar
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Nutzung von Fernerkundungsdaten des MODIS Instruments an Bord des Satelliten Terra zur Erkennung von Buschfeuern in Australien. Das schloss die Vorverarbeitung der Daten vom Demodulator, die Bitsynchronisation und die Umpacketierung der Daten ein. IMAPP wurde genutzt um die Daten zu kalibrieren und zu geolokalisieren. Die Feuererkennung bedient sich einer Kombination von absoluten Schwellwerttests, Differenztests und Vergleichen mit dem Hintergrund. Die Ergebnisse wurden in eine rechteckige Laengen/Breitengradkarte projiziert um dem BowTie Effekt entgegenzuwirken. Die benutzten Algrorithmen wurden in C und Matlab implementiert. Es zeigte sich, dass es moeglich ist in den verfuegbaren Daten Feuer zu erkennen. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit Feuererkennungen der NASA und Feuererkennung die auf anderen Sensoren basieren verglichen und fuer sehr aehnlich befunden

During the early 1980s the Warlpiri at Yuendemu, a remote Aboriginal community in Central Australia, began their own experiments in local television and radio production. This was prior to the launch of the AUSSAT satellite in 1985 which brought broadcast television and radio to remote Australia for the first time. There was concern amongst remote Aboriginal communities, as well as policy makers, that the imposition of mass media without consultation could result in permanent damage to Aboriginal culture and language. As a result, a policy review 'Out of the Silent Land' was published in 1985 and from that developed the Broadcasting in Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme (BRACS) which allowed communities to receive radio and television from the satellite. BRACS also provided the option to turn off mainstream media and insert locally produced material. This study of the Warlpiri at Yuendemu has found that, since the original experiments, they have enthusiastically used modern communication technology including radio, video making, locally produced television, and, more recently, on-line services. The Warlpiri have adapted rather than adopted the new technology. That is they have used modern communications technology within existing cultural patterns to strengthen their language and culture rather than to replace traditional practices and social structures. The Warlpiri Media Association has inspired other remote broadcasters and is now one of eight remote media networks that link to form a national network via the National Indigenous Media Association of Australia. The Warlpiri have actively adapted modern communication technology because it is to their advantage. The new technology has been used to preserve culture and language, to restore, and possibly improve, traditional communications and to provide employment and other opportunities for earning income. It appeals to all age groups, especially the elders who have retained control over broadcasts and it also provides entertainment.

This thesis evaluated the potential for managed aquifer recharge (MAR) in the Namoi basin. The catchment was hydrologically characterised. Several studies combining remote sensing and hydrologic information were carried out. The first study sought to study the open water evaporation at the catchment scale, and the long-term changes in rainfall, temperatures, humidity, and reference evapotranspiration. These present evidence of a general intensification on the water cycle and a reduction in the frequency of surface water, leading to less lumped evaporation, but increasing evaporation per unit surface. This justifies the implementation of alternative water storage methods, such as MAR. Likewise, spatiotemporal patterns of flooding in the catchment and their frequency were studied considering the water surplus from those events as a key aspect for the development of a MAR project. Thus, algorithms for water volume quantification during floods and the frequency of such events were also evaluated. The groundwater flow medium was studied using natural language processing (NLP). An NLP model specific for geosciences was developed. This demonstrated to be more effective than general domain models in characterising the multidimensional space between concepts of a specific domain. Using this model, lithological descriptions from boreholes were classified and interpolated to build 3D lithological models. These allowed characterising the hydrogeological setting in the region. Lastly, suitability areas for MAR projects were mapped using hydrological, hydrogeological, and lithological characteristics in the catchment. These maps were validated through the study of groundwater recharge in an area of interest selected by its high suitability. However, the potential for the development of such projects is ultimately limited by current water regulations and water entitlements.

Australian Aboriginal children experience disproportionate levels of health, educational and social disadvantage. Their significant disadvantage stands in stark contrast to the well-being of the majority of Australians. These poor outcomes are magnified in remote communities where Aboriginal children have been shown to have developmental vulnerability beyond the national average. A concerning and poorly understood determinant of development and well-being is the influence of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). National surveys show differences in the drinking patterns between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian women. Aboriginal women are less likely to drink than non-Aboriginal women but when they do consume alcohol, they do so at far more hazardous levels. As alcohol is a teratogen, PAE can have devastating effects on fetal and brain development leading to a spectrum of disorders termed Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). FASD are characterised by significant learning, behavioural, cognitive and motor deficits which disrupt education and development trajectories leading to severely limited occupational options and dependent living. These adverse life outcomes place enormous burden on families, their communities and social supports. The Fitzroy Valley in north Western Australia contains a unique, culturally rich population of 4,500 people (81% Australian Aboriginal), living in approximately 45 very remote communities with five distinct language groups. Over the last decade there has been growing anxiety amongst Aboriginal leaders in the Fitzroy Valley, that high-risk maternal drinking within many of their remote communities may be harming the development and future potential of children. This concern led to an invitation from Aboriginal leaders for researchers to collaborate with them on a project to evaluate the impact of in-utero alcohol exposure on child health and development. This project conducted in 2011 was named The Lililwan Project and is Australia’s first population-based study to determine FASD prevalence, using active case ascertainment, in remote Australian Aboriginal communities. Population-based data from this study indicate that high-risk alcohol use is common. Of the 127/134 (95%) eligible mothers and caregivers who participated in this study, it was reported that more than half (55%) of mothers drank. Of mothers who did drink, 52% did so at “risky” or “high risk” levels with 88% drinking in the first trimester and 53% drinking in all three trimesters. FASD diagnoses were determined in 21/108 (194.4 per 1000) children, one of the highest prevalence rates in the world. The FASD diagnostic process includes the assessment of neurodevelopmental functional outcomes in a number of central nervous system (CNS) domains known to be affected by PAE. Motor performance and its subset gross motor performance is one of several CNS domains recommended for assessment by four key international FASD guidelines. Despite this, data on motor function are rarely included in FASD prevalence or observational studies and therefore the association of motor performance and PAE or FASD is poorly understood. In the Fitzroy Valley, physical activity including football, basketball, netball, swimming and cultural activities such as hunting and traditional dance feature highly in recreational pursuits of children. Given concern that the motor skills needed to participate in these activities could be significantly affected by PAE, motor performance was included as a CNS domain for assessment in the Lililwan Project, with the results of this original research being reported in the following chapters. Chapter One provides an introduction to the context of this Thesis and a literature review of the existing evidence. The current Thesis contributes much needed evidence to support the neurodevelopmental needs of children with motor impairment associated with PAE or FASD who live in the Fitzroy Valley. This work is unique as cultural considerations and the very remote geographical location with extreme climate makes this population very difficult to assess. Not surprisingly, there is paucity of data related to motor performance of Aboriginal children living in very remote communities and currently no normative data or observational studies exist. The findings provide a significant evidence base to assist parents, clinicians, the education sector and policy makers, to make optimal decisions for management of children and their families living with FASD. The first aim of this Thesis was to characterize gross motor impairment in children with a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) or “moderate” to “heavy” maternal alcohol intake. Chapter Two describes a systematic review where 2881 articles were identified of which 14 met the inclusion criteria. The subjects’ mean age ranged from 3 days to 13 years. Study limitations included failure to report cut-offs for impairment, non-standardised reporting of PAE, and small sample sizes. The meta-analysis pooled results (n=10) revealed a significant association between a diagnosis of FASD or moderate to heavy PAE and gross motor impairment (Odds Ratio: 2.9; 95% Confidence Interval: 2.1–4.0). GM deficits were found in balance, coordination, and ball skills. There were insufficient data to determine the prevalence of gross motor dysfunction in the included cohorts. In conclusion, these results suggest that evaluation of gross motor proficiency should be a standard component of multidisciplinary FASD diagnostic services. The second aim of this Thesis was to identify a suitable standardised instrument to measure motor performance (including fine and gross motor skills) and determine its reliability for use in predominantly Australian Aboriginal children living in very remote communities and with risky levels of PAE. Chapter Three reports on this work. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency – Second Edition (BOT-2) Complete Form was identified after performing a literature review and consulting with national and international experts. Given the difficult logistical context in which the research was performed, it was decided to use the highly correlated short-form version of the BOT-2 for the reliability testing. A reliability study using the BOT-2 Short Form was then performed with a convenience sample (n=30) of children aged 7-9 years from the Lililwan Project (n=108). The inter-rater reliability for the BOT-2 Short Form score sheet outcomes ranged from 0.88 (95%CI, 0.77 – 0.94) to 0.92 (95%CI, 0.84 – 0.96) indicating excellent reliability. The test-retest reliability (median interval between tests being 45.5 days) for the BOT-2 Short Form score sheet outcomes ranged from 0.62 (95%CI, 0.34 – 0.80) to 0.73 (95%CI, 0.50 – 0.86) indicating fair to good reliability. The raw score Minimal Detectable Change was 6.12. In conclusion, the BOT-2 Short Form has acceptable reliability for use in remote Australian Aboriginal communities and will be useful in determining motor deficits in children prenatally exposed to alcohol. This is the first known study evaluating the reliability of the BOT-2 Short Form, either in the context of assessment for FASD or in Aboriginal children. The third aim of this Thesis was to describe motor performance in predominantly Australian Aboriginal children living in very remote communities (n=108) and to compare motor performance in children with no PAE, PAE or FASD. Chapter Four describes this work. Motor performance of the cohort was assessed using the modified BOT-2 Complete Form, and the relationship between motor skills, PAE, and FASD was explored. FASD diagnoses were assigned using the Canadian guidelines. Motor impairment sufficient to contribute to a CNS domain of impairment was defined according to these guidelines as a score two or more standard deviations (SD) below the mean. A total of 108 children (Aboriginal: 98.1%; male: 53%) with a mean age of 8.7 years were assessed. The cohort’s mean total motor composite score (mean±SD: 47.2±7.6) approached the Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency - Second Edition normative mean (50±10) despite high levels of risky PAE, social disadvantage, and poor fine motor skills. There was no difference between children with PAE and those without PAE (mean difference ± standard error: -2.2±1.5; 95% CI: -5.1 to 0.80). Motor performance was lower in children with FASD diagnosis than those children without a diagnosis (Mean Difference±SD: -5.0±1.8; 95% CI:-8.6 to -1.5). The prevalence of motor impairment (≥ 2SD below the mean) was 1.9% in the entire cohort, 9.5% in children with FASD, 3.3% in children with PAE and 0.0% both in children without PAE or FASD. In conclusion, these results show that almost 10% of children with FASD have significant motor impairment. Evaluation of motor function should routinely be included in assessments for FASD, to document impairment and enable targeted early intervention. The fourth aim of this Thesis was to characterise gross motor performance, as distinct from total motor performance as discussed above. In children participating in the Lililwan Project (n=108), a subset of the BOT-2 motor performance data that related to the gross motor performance of the cohort was extracted which enabled exploration of the relationship between gross motor skills, PAE, and FASD. Chapter Five describes this work. A total of 108 children (98.1% Aboriginal; 53% males, mean age: 8.7 years) were assessed. Half (52.2%) were exposed to at least “risky” levels of PAE and 21 (19%) were diagnosed with a FASD. The mean Gross Motor Composite score of the cohort (47.0±8.4) approached the BOT-2 normative mean (50.0±10) despite poor health and development indices, and was similar between children with and without PAE (MD±SD: -1.8±16.5; p=0.27). This mean score however, was significantly lower in children with FASD than those without (MD±SD: -5.5±20.6; p=0.006). Compared to children without FASD, children with FASD had (i) significant impairment in Subtests for Running Speed and Agility (MD±SD:-2.4±8.1; p=0.003) and Strength (MD±SD:-2.8±9.9; p=0.004) and (ii) a higher proportion than expected had overall gross motor impairment (≤2SD:9.5%; ≤1SD:23.8%). In groups with PAE, no PAE, and no FASD, gross motor function approached expected population norms and there were no significant difference in function between these groups. In conclusion, almost 10% of children with FASD had gross motor scores that indicated significant impairment whilst 25% of these children had scores which indicated a need for therapy. Evaluation of gross motor performance should routinely be included in FASD assessment to determine strategies to optimise child development. The fifth aim of this Thesis was to describe the presence of soft neurological signs (SNS) in predominantly Australian Aboriginal children (n=108) living in very remote communities where children had no PAE, PAE and FASD. Chapter Six reports on this work. The presence of SNS in the cohort was assessed using the Quick Neurological Screening Test – Second Edition (QNST -2) and the relationship between SNS, PAE, and FASD was explored. “Severe discrepancy” was defined as scores equal or below the 5th percentile while “moderate discrepancy” represented scores from the 6-24th percentile. FASD diagnoses were assigned using the Canadian guidelines. International expert opinion recommended that a QNST-2 Total Score of equal to or greater than 30 be used to define SNS sufficiently significant to contribute to a CNS domain of impairment. A total of 108 of 134 (80.6%) eligible children (mean age 8y 9mo, SD=6mo, 53% male) were assessed. The median QNST-2 Total Score for all participants was within the normal category (19.0, range 4–66) despite more than half (52.2%) of the cohort being exposed to at least risky levels of PAE. However, the median QNST-2 Total Score was higher in children with PAE than without PAE (r=0.2, p=0.045) and in children with FASD than without FASD (r=0.3, p=0.004). Half (8/16) of children scoring ‘moderate discrepancy’ and all (2/2) children scoring ‘severe discrepancy’ had at least three domains of CNS impairment. In conclusion, SNS were more common in children with PAE or FASD, consistent with the known neurotoxic effect of PAE. The QNST-2 is a useful screen for subtle neurological dysfunction and for indicating the need for more comprehensive assessment in children with PAE or FASD. The final aim of this Thesis was to systematically review the literature to investigate the efficacy of conservative interventions to improve gross motor performance in children with PAE or FASD or a range of similar neurodevelopment conditions. Chapter Seven describes this work. As no clinical trials for children with FASD were found, results from groups of children with similar neurodevelopmental disorders and mild to moderate gross motor impairment were considered. Of 2513 papers, 9 met inclusion criteria including children with cerebral palsy (CP) (n=2) or Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) 98 (n=7). There were 11 different interventions reported among the 9 included trials. Two of 9 trials showed an effect for treatment, and a meta-analysis was performed to determine the pooled effect of intervention on gross motor function. Using the least conservative trial outcomes a large beneficial effect of intervention was shown (standardised MD:-0.8; 95%CI:-1.1 to -0.5) with “very low quality” Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) ratings. Using the most conservative trial outcomes there was no treatment effect (SMD:-0.1; 95%CI:-0.3 to 0.2) with “low quality” GRADE ratings. Study limitations included the small number and poor quality of the available trials. In conclusion, although we found that some interventions such as Taekwondo can improve gross motor outcomes in children with DCD or CP, our confidence is limited by the very low quality of the available evidence. High quality intervention trials are urgently needed. Chapter Eight provides a summary of the principal findings of this Thesis, describes implications of these findings, proposes directions for future research and presents recommendations. In conclusion, the series of studies reported in this Thesis provide the first data on motor performance, gross motor performance and SNS in a population-based cohort of predominantly Aboriginal Australian children with PAE. They represent the only data of this kind. The findings provide new information regarding the motor performance skills of Aboriginal children living in remote communities, and demonstrate the significant impairments that children with a FASD suffer. This work has significant implications for future studies of FASD prevalence emphasising the importance of assessing motor performance as a component of CNS function. The findings also highlight the impact of alcohol on child development particularly motor performance and indicate the critical need for allied health services to ensure the health and well-being of these most vulnerable children.

The outstation movement has resulted in the development of many new Aboriginal communities, ranging in size from small family groups to collectives of 100 or more people in remote areas of Australia. Health problems arising from ineffective waste disposal systems and lack of maintenance of existing systems are prevalent in many of the communities. In some areas of the Pilbara, the soil is extremely impermeable with high clay and silt contents causing water applied to the soil to pond on the surface. In such situations conventional septic tank/soil absorption systems frequently fail: effluent moving into the disposal field is not absorbed by the soil sufficiently rapidly to prevent rise to the surface and hence system failure occurs. The only alternative currently used in such situations is a reticulated sewerage collection system which is very costly and frequently fails due to lack of maintenance. Evapotranspiration (ET) systems could be used instead, being considerably less in cost and potentially requiring less maintenance than reticulated systems. In this study the effectiveness of ET systems in disposing of wastewater and the application of these systems to remote Aboriginal outstations was investigated. Experiments were carried out between August 1988 and March 1989 at Murdoch University. Monitoring of daily changes in water levels in watertight tanks (constructed of either concrete drainage pipes with set in bases or polyethylene drums) containing soil, grass, gravel or trees (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). The gravel tanks were filled to the brim with 40mm gauge crushed granite. The tanks with soil, grass and trees were filled with graded gravel above which was placed a 40cm depth of Bassendean sand. As much as possible, the water table in each tank was kept within the sand layer to allow capillarity of water to the surface to occur. The bulk density and average particle density of the sand was measured to determine the porosity, from which the actual ET from the tanks was calculated. Calibration experiments were conducted to measure the time taken for the water level to stabilise when water was added or removed from a tank. The bulk density of sand used in the study was 1.44g/cc and the particle density was 2.11 glee. From this the porosity was calculated as 0.32. Calibration experiments showed that the water level took up to six days to stabilise (to a water content of 0.91 L/cm sand in tank) when water was added down the standpipe to the tanks containing sand and even longer when added to the surface simulating rainfall. This placed the accuracy of ET determined for each lysimeter in some doubt over short periods as water was frequently added at intervals smaller than six days. Over a larger period however, water balances with an approximately constant water level in the tank gave a good estimate of ET rates. ET from bare soil and grass followed similar trends to pan evaporation rates for the same period, ranging from 30-60% of pan evaporation for soil and from 60-80% of pan evaporation for grass. ET rates increased in the tree lysimeters as the plants grew and exceeded pan evaporation rates in December and February. Evaporation from gravel filled lysimeters was low, being as little as 10% of pan evaporation at a depth to water table of 28cm. The results showed that the presence of vegetation increased water loss, indicating that soil capillarity may not be important in the functioning of an ET system that has plants growing. Gravel was not a suitable medium for sustained high ET rates. The water balance equation was used to determine the ET system sizing requirements for a given locality, where system depth was dependent upon the total storage of wastewater needed in a year and on the storage capacity of the fill material used in the disposal field. Application of the equation in designing an ET system for Punmu showed that the information that was available was pan evaporation rates, rainfall and average wastewater production figures. Information that was not available and would require collection on-site was seepage rates of the soil, and likely numbers of people present throughout the year at the outstation. Similarly, the ET rates for trees could not be determined from pan evaporation data and required further investigation. The acceptance by residents at an outstation of ET systems should also be examined - fear of snakes hiding in vegetation may perhaps cause people to pull out shrubs planted on a disposal field. In conclusion, ET systems would appear to be a suitable alternative to reticulated systems in remote communities. The arid conditions of the Pilbara favour the successful implementation of such a disposal system, provided sufficient wastewater is generated all year round to maintain vegetative growth. There should be no public health risk involved in the functioning of a system if it is designed to maintain a depth to water level in the bed of at least 20cm.

This study investigates the relationship between media and democracy with a particular focus on Australian community broadcasting. I put forward the thesis that the value and purpose of community broadcasting are located in its community development function, rather than in its ability to transmit alternative information. This suggests that an analysis should emphasise community rather than media. Community development promotes the empowerment of ordinary people so that they can confidently participate in management and decision-making - that is, the procedures and norms that underpin democratic practices. In the case of community media, the relationship between democracy and media is located primarily in its volunteers. To understand this relationship, I link together concepts of the public sphere and social capital. The public sphere is understood as multiple and diverse and linked to other publics via the web of relationships forged among people with shared interests and norms. I argue that a community public sphere should be understood as a cultural resource and managed as a common property. The public sphere is thus conceived to have a more or less porous boundary that serves to regulate membership. Understood as a bounded domain, the public sphere can be analysed in terms of its ideological structure, its management practices and its alliances with other publics. This approach also allows for a comparison with other similar public spheres. The study identifies two main ideological constellations that have shaped the development of Australian community broadcasting - professionalism and community development, with the former gaining prominence as the sector expands into rural and regional communities. The ascendancy of professional and quasi-commercial practices is of concern as it can undermine the community development potential of community broadcasting, a function that appears to be little understood and one which has attracted little research. The study presents a case study of three regional and remote rural community radio stations and compares them from a social capital perspective. Social capital is a framework for understanding the relationship between the individual and the community and explores this relationship in terms of participation in networks, reciprocal benefits among groups and individuals and the nature of active participation. Demographic and organisational structures of the three stations are also compared. By taking this approach, each station's capacity for community development and empowerment is addressed. The results of the fieldwork reveal that the success of a community radio station is related to 'community spirit' and demographic structure. They reveal that the community radio station in the smallest community with the lowest per capita income was best able to meet the needs of its community and its volunteers.

This study investigates the relationship between media and democracy with a particular focus on Australian community broadcasting. I put forward the thesis that the value and purpose of community broadcasting are located in its community development function, rather than in its ability to transmit alternative information. This suggests that an analysis should emphasise community rather than media. Community development promotes the empowerment of ordinary people so that they can confidently participate in management and decision-making - that is, the procedures and norms that underpin democratic practices. In the case of community media, the relationship between democracy and media is located primarily in its volunteers. -- To understand this relationship, I link together concepts of the public sphere and social capital. The public sphere is understood as multiple and diverse and linked to other publics via the web of relationships forged among people with shared interests and norms. I argue that a community public sphere should be understood as a cultural resource and managed as a common property. The public sphere is thus conceived to have a more or less porous boundary that serves to regulate membership. Understood as a bounded domain, the public sphere can be analysed in terms of its ideological structure, its management practices and its alliances with other publics. This approach also allows for a comparison with other similar public spheres. -- The study identifies two main ideological constellations that have shaped the development of Australian community broadcasting - professionalism and community development, with the former gaining prominence as the sector expands into rural and regional communities. The ascendancy of professional and quasi-commercial practices is of concern as it can undermine the community development potential of community broadcasting, a function that appears to be little understood and one which has attracted little research. -- The study presents a case study of three regional and remote rural community radio stations and compares them from a social capital perspective. Social capital is a framework for understanding the relationship between the individual and the community and explores this relationship in terms of participation in networks, reciprocal benefits among groups and individuals and the nature of active participation. Demographic and organisational structures of the three stations are also compared. By taking this approach, each station's capacity for community development and empowerment is addressed. -- The results of the fieldwork reveal that the success of a community radio station is related to 'community spirit' and demographic structure. They reveal that the community radio station in the smallest community with the lowest per capita income was best able to meet the needs of its community and its volunteers.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Arts, Media and Culture
Full Text

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia
In tropical savannas, one of the most fire-prone biomes on Earth, fire management is a continuous and iterative process that can only be effectively achieved with thorough consideration of fire regimes. Based on remotely sensed imagery and in-situ field data, key fire regime components were assessed for tropical savannas of northern Australia (frequency, patchiness, intensity, and severity) and Brazil (frequency). The discrete lognormal model was found to be the best method for modelling fire frequency in tropical savannas, and demonstrated that fire frequency is very high in both countries. In northern Australia, fire patchiness was lower in the late dry season, characterized by shorter and fewer unburned patches, than in the early dry season. Fire intensity and severity were highest in the late dry season. The observed temporal differences are consistent with the hypothesis that climate is the main driver of fire regime seasonality. Fuel load and fuel continuity explained fire regime differences between vegetation types. Fire season was bimodal, with peaks in May and October, related to periods of anthropogenic fire and optimal fire weather conditions. Prescribed burning in the early dry season can increase the patchiness and reduce the intensity of late dry season fires, with substantial benefits for biodiversity and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

Many teachers working in remote and regional areas have limited access to collegial support networks. This research aimed to examine the existing strategies that were being undertaken by the Department of Education in Western Australia, to provide professional learning to teachers in regional and remote areas. It was important to establish the perceptions of teachers’ access to professional learning from those working at the coalface in geographically dispersed areas. Consequently, the possible opportunity for improving the amount and variety of professional learning, through the application of both synchronous and asynchronous technologies was proposed. The study was guided by the primary research question: “In what ways might technology be used to support professional development of regional and remote teachers in Western Australia?” Generating descriptions of current practice of professional learning along with the teacher perceptions were central to this research endeavour.The study relied on a mixed method research approach in order to attend to the research question. The data were collected in phases, referred to as an explanatory mixed methods design. Quantitative data were collected from 104 participants to provide a general picture of the research problem. To further refine this general picture, qualitative data were collected through interviews and e-interviews of 10 teachers. Participants in the study included graduate teachers, teachers who had taught more than two years, senior teachers and Level Three teachers from seven teaching districts within Western Australia. An investigation into current practice was included in this phase and technologies available to support a professional learning community over distance were documented. The final phase incorporated the formulation of a conceptual framework where a model was developed to facilitate the successful implementation of a professional learning community through the application of synchronous and asynchronous technologies.The study has identified that travel time in order to access professional development is significant and impacts on teachers’ personal time. There are limited relief teachers available in these isolated areas which impacts on the opportunities to access professional development. Teachers face inequities, in terms of promotion, because professional development is explicitly linked to promotional opportunities. Importantly, it was found that professional learning communities are valued, but are often limited by small staff numbers at the geographic locality of the school. Teachers preferred to undertake professional learning in the local context of their district, school or classroom and this professional learning must be established at the need of the individual teacher in line with the school priorities. Teachers reported they were confident in using technology and accessing professional development online if required, however, much uncertainty surrounded the use of web 2.0 technologies for this purpose. The recommendations made from the study are intended to identify how a professional learning community might be enhanced through synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

Aim: To determine if the current rural graduate programs in Western Australia adequately support new graduate nurses transitioning into rural and remote practice. Background: Graduate nurse transition to employment is a time of significant change and challenges often results in periods of transition shock. These challenges are magnified in rural areas when graduates have limited rural nursing experience and move to commence their career. Supportive graduate nursing programs are essential for enabling nursing transition to practice and assist in reducing attrition rates. Graduate programs were developed to smooth the transition for university trained bachelor’s degree registered nurses into the workforce. Design: A parallel convergent mixed method design which was informed by Duchscher’s Stages of Transition Theory, the conceptual framework chosen to guide the study. Method: Through a purposive sample of graduate and senior nurse participants were invited from rural and remote Western Australia during 2015 to mid-2016. The quantitative tool was applied three times to new graduate registered nurses of which a total of 34 completed the survey. The survey was applied once to senior nurses, 40 of whom completed the survey. Semi structured interviews were conducted for both cohorts at three separate time intervals. Ten new graduate registered nurses and 15 senior nurses were interviewed throughout the 12-month timeframe. Braun and Clarke thematic analysis was applied to analyse the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyse the surveys. Results: In the first three months new graduates cycled through both transition shock and honeymoon periods resulting in a high level of satisfaction overall, however less satisfaction with the preceptorship. The level of satisfaction dropped significantly at seven months resulting in transition crisis before the adjustment period began. The transition occurred in a linear manner over three distinct timeframes. Limited resources were highlighted as an obstacle to providing adequate support in the rural graduate programs. Conclusion: Graduate programs need to be structured but flexible to allow for individual differences in graduates and clinical situations. The honeymoon stage coexisted with transition shock which may hide the need for adequate support to continue. Inadequate and/or a lack of preceptorship was evident throughout the Western Australian rural graduate programs. Relevance to clinical practice: Graduate programs need to be structured but flexible to allow for individual differences in graduates and clinical situations. New graduate nurses would benefit from a break midway through their transition year to assist and overcome the transition crisis stage. Development of the preceptor role through education is required to deliver adequate support to graduate nurses and decrease transition shock. Emphasis on the transition journey is required in undergraduate final semesters to help better prepare new graduates to manage the change from students to registered nurse.

Many teachers working in remote and regional areas have limited access to collegial support networks. This research aimed to examine the existing strategies that were being undertaken by the Department of Education in Western Australia, to provide professional learning to teachers in regional and remote areas. It was important to establish the perceptions of teachers’ access to professional learning from those working at the coalface in geographically dispersed areas. Consequently, the possible opportunity for improving the amount and variety of professional learning, through the application of both synchronous and asynchronous technologies was proposed. The study was guided by the primary research question: “In what ways might technology be used to support professional development of regional and remote teachers in Western Australia?” Generating descriptions of current practice of professional learning along with the teacher perceptions were central to this research endeavour. The study relied on a mixed method research approach in order to attend to the research question. The data were collected in phases, referred to as an explanatory mixed methods design. Quantitative data were collected from 104 participants to provide a general picture of the research problem. To further refine this general picture, qualitative data were collected through interviews and e-interviews of 10 teachers. Participants in the study included graduate teachers, teachers who had taught more than two years, senior teachers and Level Three teachers from seven teaching districts within Western Australia. An investigation into current practice was included in this phase and technologies available to support a professional learning community over distance were documented. The final phase incorporated the formulation of a conceptual framework where a model was developed to facilitate the successful implementation of a professional learning community through the application of synchronous and asynchronous technologies. The study has identified that travel time in order to access professional development is significant and impacts on teachers’ personal time. There are limited relief teachers available in these isolated areas which impacts on the opportunities to access professional development. Teachers face inequities, in terms of promotion, because professional development is explicitly linked to promotional opportunities. Importantly, it was found that professional learning communities are valued, but are often limited by small staff numbers at the geographic locality of the school. Teachers preferred to undertake professional learning in the local context of their district, school or classroom and this professional learning must be established at the need of the individual teacher in line with the school priorities. Teachers reported they were confident in using technology and accessing professional development online if required, however, much uncertainty surrounded the use of web 2.0 technologies for this purpose. The recommendations made from the study are intended to identify how a professional learning community might be enhanced through synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

Satellite-based remote sensing of total suspended sediment (TSS) concentration is studied for highly turbid waters of northern Western Australia. A robust multi-sensor red band semi-analytic sediment model was developed for coastal waters, and the implications of using a wide range of sensors with different spatial resolutions were also explored. In addition, historical TSS models were critically compared, and the feasibility of the geostationary satellite sensor AHI was also explored with respect to mapping TSS.

Science is one of seven-mandated Key Learning Areas (KLAs) Foundation to Year 10 of the new Australian National Curriculum (ACARA, 2012). Not only, therefore, is science to be offered in every school as part of the curriculum, there is also the expectation that science is to be taught well to all students regardless of location, gender, cultural background or socio-economic status (ACARA, 2012). Studying science provides benefits to individuals by developing their scientific literacy skills (Goodrum, Hackling & Rennie, 2001; Hackling & Prain, 2008). Its study also benefits the national economy by equipping students with the innovative, inventive, and creative skills to generate and apply new ideas as knowledge workers in an interconnected and interdependent global economy (Marginson, Tytler, Freeman & Roberts, 2013; Productivity Commission, 2007). A study of recent literature, including the national and international data on the middle years of school (ACARA, 2012; ACER, 2011, 2013; Goodrum et al., 2001; Goodrum, Druhan, & Abbs, 2012; Hackling & Prain, 2007; Marginson et al., 2013; Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012; Productivity Commission, 2007), could reasonably be expected to show rural and remote students doing well in science if not at least as well as their metropolitan counterparts. Sadly, this is not the case. Science performance in national and international assessments overall is flat-lining (ACARA, 2011; ACER, 2011, 2013) and the gap between metropolitan, rural and remote students in some assessment data indicates as much as 18 months of difference in schooling in favour of metropolitan students and with the gap increasing with increasing remoteness. What are the causes of this inequity and how can it be addressed? Science teachers hold the key (Australian Council of Deans of Science, 2005; Dow, 2003a; Goodrum et al., 2001). Improving the effectiveness of science teachers helps improve science learning outcomes for students. One way to improve the effectiveness of science teachers is to improve their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Kind, 2009b; Magnusson, Krajcik & Borko, 1999; Loughran, 2010; Loughran, Berry & Mulhall, 2006; Shulman, 1986) through professional learning experiences. However, improving teachers’ science PCK in the middle-school years in rural and remote settings through traditional face-to-face professional learning activities poses a number of challenges. These include lack of casual relief teachers, difficulties in attracting and retaining science teachers, the provision of experienced mentors and coaches and, the provision of fewer professional learning opportunities compared with metropolitan areas (Australian Council of Deans of Science, 2005; Australian Secondary Principal’s Association, 2006; National Centre of Science, Information and Communication Technology, and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia, 2006). Educative curricula designed to improve teachers’ science PCK as well as learning outcomes for students provide an alternative to traditional face-to-face professional learning for teachers in rural and remote locations (Davis & Krajcik, 2005). Can educative curricula help address the inequity in student science outcomes in rural and remote areas? The Middle Years Astronomy Project (the Project) is an example of one educative curriculum currently in use in the middle years of some rural and remote schools (McKinnon, 2005). This educative curriculum is aligned with the Australian Science Curriculum. It comprises access to telescopes and digital cameras located in NSW (Australia) and Wyoming (USA) that students can control remotely to take photographs of many astronomical phenomena, which can form the basis of further investigations. It also comprises a teachers’ guide designed to improve teachers’ science PCK by providing guidance on designing instructional strategies for science projects with knowledge of five factors in mind. These factors are knowledge of the science content, knowledge of students’ alternative conceptions, knowledge of instructional strategies and the most appropriate assessment strategies to employ, knowledge of the science curriculum, and knowledge of personal beliefs and orientations toward science teaching and learning. This thesis explores the potential for this educative curriculum to improve the PCK of teachers of science in the middle school years in rural and remote settings. It does this by employing a Type IV multiple-case, embedded mixed-methods design (Yin, 2014) over two phases in two states of Australia collecting a range of data from four remote sites in Western Australia and four rural sites in Victoria. Participants comprised 12 teachers, four principals, four teaching principals, one Science KLA Consultant, one Cluster Coordinator and over 200 students. Data were gathered from interviews; archival records; researcher direct observations; an astronomy diagnostic test; student artifacts; and school based documents. A framework, developed from the works of Davis & Krajcik (2005), Kind (2009b) and Magnusson et al. (1999), is used to analyse the data for evidence of changes in teachers’ science PCK. The results of this research indicate that the Project improved teachers’ science PCK for most teachers. Reasons for this are presented. An emerging phenomenon from the research was the ability of experienced science teachers to move holistically and fluidly between components of PCK to make in the moment pedagogical decisions to improve student learning. This has been referred to as ‘pinball pedagogical reasoning’ (Mitchell, Pannizon, Keast & Loughran, 2015). The findings of this research have implications for both current practice and future research, providing guidance to teachers and designers of professional learning experiences, including educative curriculum designers, on the areas to target when seeking to develop components of PCK for experienced teachers and on assisting less experienced teachers to acquire the ‘pinball pedagogical reasoning’ skills of experienced teachers. The findings also suggest that PCK development takes time and requires a planned and systematic approach to teacher career development with support from the employer. This thesis suggests further areas for research and concludes by arguing that a poor science education, which results in poorer scientific literacy skills and a reduced ability to contribute to, and thrive in, the national and international knowledge economies, adds to the education disadvantage students in rural and remote locations experience relative to their metropolitan peers. It advocates a moral imperative to ensure this does not happen. It also suggests that using educative curricula to improve the PCK of rural and remote science teacher, as well as science student learning outcomes, is a strategy worthy of pursuit.

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.

In previous histories of Western Australia, pre-dominantly written from a male Eurocentric viewpoint, scant attention has been drawn to the everyday lives of country women. The study described in this dissertation explores the responses of women to the challenges of relocation and settlement within a remote locality in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Registered Nurses (RNs) play a critical role in very remote Australia (VRA), where they enable timely access to medicines. This mixed-methods study examined legislation, knowledge, attitudes, and practices of RNs regarding the use of medicines and the law in VRA. Current legislation is inconsistent and confusing regarding authorised roles for RNs, and most have likely practised outside the law in the provision of medicines. There is a lack of evidence regarding the safety, quality, and consumer perspectives on RNs working throughout the complete medicines management cycle in VRA. Significant legislative and workforce reform is required to enable lawful practice.

Invasive plants pose serious threats to economic, social and environmental interests throughout the world. Developing strategies for their management requires a range of information that is often impractical to collect from ground based surveys. In other cases, such as retrospective analyses of historical invasion rates and patterns, data is rarely, if ever, available from such surveys. Instead, historical archives of remotely sensed imagery provides one of the only existing records, and are used in this research to determine invasion rates and reconstruct invasion patterns of a ca 70 year old exotic mesquite population (Leguminoseae: Prosopis spp.) in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, thereby helping to identify ways to reduce spread and infill. A model was then developed using this, and other, information to predict which parts of the Pilbara are most a risk. This information can assist in identifying areas requiring the most vigilant intervention and pre-emptive measures. Precise information of the location and areal extent of an invasive species is also crucial for land managers and policy makers for crafting management strategies aimed at control, confinement or eradication of some or all of the population. Therefore, the third component of this research was to develop and test high spectral and spatial resolution airborne imagery as a potential monitoring tool for tracking changes at various intervals and quantifying the effectiveness of management strategies adopted. To this end, high spatial resolution digital multispectral imagery (4 channels, 1 m spatial resolution) and hyperspectral imagery (126 channels, 3 m spatial resolution) was acquired and compared for its potential for distinguishing mesquite from coexisting species and land covers.These three modules of research are summarised hereafter. To examine the rates and patterns of mesquite invasion through space and time, canopies were extracted from a temporal series of panchromatic aerial photography over an area of 450 ha using unsupervised classification. Non-mesquite trees and shrubs were not discernible from mesquite using this imagery (or technique) and so were masked out using an image acquired prior to invasion. The accuracy of the mesquite extractions were corroborated in the field and found to be high (R2 = 0.98, P<0.001); however, accuracy varied between classes (R2 = 0.55 to 0.95). Additional sampling may be required in some of the wider class intervals, particularly the moderate density class (30 to 90%) as sampling frequency was poor within the range of 60 to 90%. This is a direct result of there being relatively few quadrats available to be randomly selected in this class. That is, quadrats with between 60-90% cover were only evident in 4% of the test area. A more robust approach would, therefore, be to split this class into two (e.g. 30-60% and 60-90%) and select an additional 15 quadrats in the 60-90% range. The resolution of the imagery (1.4 m) precluded mapping shrubs smaller than 3 m2. Rates and patterns were compared to mesquite invasions in its native range.It was determined that: (i) the shift from grass to mesquite domination had been rapid, with rates of increase in canopy cover comparable to invasive populations where it is native; (ii) rate of patch recruitment was high in all land types (stony flats, red-loamy soils and the riparian zone), but patch expansion and coalescence primarily occurred over the riparian zone and redloamy soils; (iii) mesquite had been spread by sheep and macropods and the recent switch to cattle is likely to exacerbate spread as it is a far more effective dispersal vector; and (iv) early successional patterns, such as high patch initiation followed by coalescence of existing stands are similar to where mesquite is native, but patch mortality did not occur. A knowledge based model was used to predict which parts of the Pilbara region are most at risk. Several limitations of models often employed in predicting suitability ranges of invasive plants were identified and include: (i) an inability to incorporate the notion that within a suitability range there is likely to be a scale of favourability; (ii) an inability to assign greater importance to evidence that is likely to have more importance in defining the areas suitable for invasion; and (iii) an inability to control the level of conservatism in the final results. These three shortcomings were mitigated through the use of: (i) fuzzy membership functions to derive a range of favourability from poor to best; (ii) pairwise comparison to derive higher weights for layers perceived to be more important and vice versa; and (iii) the use of ordered weighted averaging to directly control the level of conservatism (or risk) inherent in the models produced.Based on the outcomes of the historical reconstruction of spatial rates and patterns, data sources included land types, land use, and the derivation of a steady state wetness index from spot height data. Model outputs were evaluated using two methods: the area under the curves (AUC) produced from relative operating characteristic (ROC) plots and by the maximum Kappa procedure. Both techniques agreed that the model most representative of the validation data was the one assuming the most risk. To create a Boolean output representing areas suitable/not suitable for invasion, optimal cut-points were derived using the point closest to the top left hand corner of the ROC plot and by the maximum Kappa method. Both methods obtained identical cut-points, but it is argued that the coefficient produced by the maximum Kappa method is more easily interpreted. The highest AUC was found to be 0.87 and, based on the maximum Kappa method, can be described as good to very good agreement with the validation records used. Digital multispectral imagery (DMSI), acquired in the visible and near infrared portions of the spectrum (3 visible bands, 1 near infrared) with a spatial resolution of 1 m and hyperspectral imagery (126 bands, 3 m spatial resolution) was acquired to assess the potential of developing a reliable and repeatable mapping tool to facilitate the monitoring of spread and the effects of control efforts. Woody vegetation was extracted from the images using unsupervised classification and grouped into patches based on contiguity. Various statistics (e.g. maximum, minimum, median, mean, standard deviation, majority and variety) were assigned to these patches to garner more information for species separation.These statistics were explored for their ability to separate mesquite from coexisting species using Tukey’s Honestly Significantly Different (HSD) test and, to reduce redundancy, followed by linear discriminant analysis. Two approaches were taken to select the patch statistics offering the best discrimination. The first approach selected patch statistics that best discriminated all species (named “overall separation”). This was compared to a second approach, which selected the best patch statistics that separated each species from mesquite on a pairwise basis (named “pairwise separation”). The statistics offering the best discrimination were used as input in an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to assign class labels. An incremental cover evaluation, whereby producer’s accuracy was computed from mesquite patches grouped into various size-classes, showed that identification of mesquite patches smaller than 36 m2 was relatively low (43-51%) regardless of the method used for choosing between the patch statistics or image type. Accuracy improved for patches >36 m2 (66-94%) with both approaches and image types. However, both approaches used on the hyperspectral imagery were more reliable at capturing patches >36 m2 than the DMSI using either approach. The lowest omission and commission rates were obtained using pairwise separation on the hyperspectral imagery, which was significantly more accurate than DMSI using an overall separation approach (Z=2.78, P<0.05), but no significant differences were found between pairwise separation used on either media.Consequently, all methods and imagery types, except for DMSI processed using overall separation, are capable of accurately mapping mesquite patches >36 m2. However, hyperspectral imagery processed using pairwise separation appears to be superior, even though not statistically different to hyperspectral imagery processed using overall separation or DMSI processed using pairwise separation at the 95% confidence level. Mapping smaller patches may require the use of very high spatial resolution imagery, such as that achievable from unmanned airborne vehicles, coupled with a hyperspectral instrument. Alternatively, management may continue to rely on visual airborne surveys flown at low altitude and speed, which have proven to be capable at mapping small and isolated mesquite shrubs in the study area used in this research.

[Truncated abstract] The assessment of rehabilitation success is time consuming and costly for bauxite miners because large areas of land (~550 ha per year) are involved. In some cases, rehabilitation results in patches of bare or sparsely vegetated soil. This study uses remote sensing imagery to evaluate the growth of vegetation in rehabilitated bauxite mines in the Darling Range, W.A. This work has five aims, which are to (1) compare vegetation biomass within rehabilitated areas and nearby native forest; (2) analyse temporal changes in vegetation growth within the selected rehabilitated areas, in particular rehabilitated areas with patches of bare soil; (3) compare vegetation growth pre- and post- mining; (4) identify the best type of remotely sensed data for this particular study area, and (5) develop an index, which can classify the degree of vegetation patchiness within rehabilitated mine sites. This information will enable rehabilitation workers to identify patches in rehabilitated areas that may require further remediation. The study used RADARSAT, nine years of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps (extracted from LANDSAT TM multivariate imagery and Quickbird imagery) and aerial photographs to evaluate forty-seven ~1 ha study sites. Image and map analyses were conducted mainly using ESRI’s software ArcGIS 8.3 and ER Mapper 6.4. Ground truthing was carried out to confirm and recognise the causes of bare patches within the rehabilitated mine sites ... The results indicate that differences in rehabilitation management do not affect this index but the extent of bare patches does. Due to the sensitivity of radar imagery to surface roughness, rehabilitated areas cannot be distinguished from the native forest using radar images. A building (crusher) appears to be the same as mature vegetation. Knowledge of the features in an area is therefore crucial when utilising RADARSAT. The beam elevation angle and profile of the RADARSAT image used, made superimposition of radar and optical imageries impossible. Speckle noise in RADARSAT images made it impossible to detect relatively small bare patches. In addition, the many cloud free days in Western Australia make optical imaging possible so that the ability of radar imagery to penetrate cloud is redundant for this type of study.

Background Few studies with Indigenous communities around the world evaluate the consent process for research. Lack of informed consent impacts research findings and is unethical. The Picture Talk Project was invited by Australian Aboriginal leaders of the Fitzroy Valley to explore the community engagement and consent process for research with Aboriginal communities. Methods Aboriginal leaders and academic researchers formed a leadership team. Community Navigators were employed for language and cultural guidance. Publications detailing the consent process with Indigenous populations were reviewed. Australian Aboriginal leaders (n=20) were interviewed and community members (n=26) participated in focus groups (n=6) yarning about community engagement and the consent process for research. Themes were defined through qualitative analysis. Aboriginal artists were commissioned to paint themes. Results Key themes from interviews: 1. Research – finding knowledge Research needs to benefit the community 2. Being respectful of Aboriginal people, working on country and being flexible with time 3. Working together with good communication 4. Reciprocity – two-way learning 5. Reaching consent The community needs to be consulted and approval sought at each stage. Key themes from focus groups: 1. Reputation and trust is essential 2. The Community Navigator is key 3. Pictures give the words meaning – milli milli versus pictures 4. Achieving consensus in circles 5. Signing for consent 6. Research is needed in the Valley The painting captured the artists’ impression of the current state of research. Research findings were used to advocate for change in research guidelines. Conclusion When conducting research with remote Aboriginal communities of Australia, researchers should: • form respectful partnerships • address community priorities • use interpreters and pictures when seeking consent • have flexible timelines • share authorship for publications • report results back to the community

This study was conducted in the context of health service planning in an environment of changing government strategies for regional, rural and remote area health care and telecommunications infrastructure planning in Western Australia. The study provides an account of the State Government of Western Australia’s planning for the implementation of a telecommunications network infrastructure, and specifically the Telehealth Project, conducted between 1998 and 2002. The purpose of this study was to examine influences on community participation in planning within the dynamic political, economic and social forces that impact on the development of regional, rural and remote area health services. Specifically, the study outlines the issues and barriers in providing for significant local participation in projects that are centrally initiated and controlled. It examines the influences in planning for projects that incorporate local community based beliefs and needs, the requirements of collaborating with multiple state and national government departments, and the private sector. This study was situated within the interpretive paradigm, and is conceptualised within Donabedian’s (1969) framework for assessing and assuring quality in health care. The methodological approach is bound within a case study and consists of a participatory action research approach. The research method uses the single case to undertake in-depth interviews, observations and a survey to collect data from community, government and industry members as a basis for reflection and action. The findings of the study clearly indicated that there was consensus between all rural, remote and metropolitan area participants that telecommunications did offer the opportunity to provide increased, improved or alternative health services. However, there were a number of obstacles to the success of the planning process, including a lack of local community inclusion in planning committees, poor communication within central government agencies, overuse of external consultants, a bias toward the medical view, a limited scope of invitation to contribute, and local information being overlooked in the final implementation plan. Analysis of planning for the Telehealth Project reveals the implications of organisational and political stakeholders making final decisions about outcomes; and provides a reminder of the importance of engaging communities authentically when planning for health and telecommunications services which involve the public and private sectors. The originality and significance of this study stems from understanding how technology can advance community health; through measures such as the use of community participation strategies, through authentic community based leadership, truly representative participants, decentralised decision making, a focus on community based health needs and change management strategies that include all of these. Consequently, the study advances knowledge of community participation in planning, and the evidence suggests implications for practice, education and further research.

All surveillance systems are based on an effective general surveillance system because this is the system that detects emerging diseases and the re-introduction of disease to a previously disease free area. General surveillance requires comprehensive coverage of the population through an extensive network of relationships between animal producers and observers and surveillance system officers. This system is under increasing threat in Australia (and many other countries) due to the increased biomass, animal movements, rate of disease emergence, and the decline in resource allocation for surveillance activities. The Australian surveillance system is state-based and has a complex management structure that includes State and Commonwealth government representatives, industry stakeholders (such as producer bodies) and private organisations. A developing problem is the decline in the effectiveness of the general surveillance system in the extensive (remote) cattle producing regions of northern Australia. The complex organisational structure of surveillance in Australia contributes to this, and is complicated by the incomplete capture of data (as demonstrated by slow uptake of electronic individual animal identification systems), poorly developed and integrated national animal health information systems, and declining funding streams for field and laboratory personnel and infrastructure. Of major concern is the reduction in contact between animal observers and surveillance personnel arising from the decline in resource allocation for surveillance. Fewer veterinarians are working in remote areas, fewer producers use veterinarians, and, as a result, fewer sick animals are being investigated by the general surveillance system. A syndrome is a collection of signs that occur in a sick individual. Syndromic surveillance is an emerging approach to monitoring populations for change in disease levels and is based on statistical monitoring of the distribution of signs, syndromes and associations between health variables in a population. Often, diseases will have syndromes that are characteristic and the monitoring of these syndromes may provide for early detection of outbreaks. Because the process uses general signs, this method may support the existing (struggling) general surveillance system for the extensive cattle producing regions of northern Australia. Syndromic surveillance systems offer many potential advantages. First, the signs that are monitored can be general and include any health-related variable. This generality provides potential as a detector of emerging diseases. Second, many of the data types used occur early in a disease process and therefore efficient syndromic surveillance systems can detect disease events in a timely manner. There are many hurdles to the successful deployment of a syndromic surveillance system and most relate to data. An effective system will ideally obtain data from multiple sources, all data will conform to a standard (therefore each data source can be validly combined), data coverage will be extensive (across the population) and data capture will be in real time (allowing early detection). This picture is one of a functional electronic data world and unfortunately this is not the norm for either human or animal heath. Less than optimal data, lack of data standards, incomplete coverage of the population and delayed data transmission result in a loss of sensitivity, specificity and timeliness of detection. In human syndromic surveillance, most focus has been placed on earlier detection of mass bioterrorism events and this has concentrated research on the problems of electronic data. Given the current state of animal health data, the development of efficient detection algorithms represents the least of the hurdles. However, the world is moving towards increased automation and therefore the problems with current data can be expected to be resolved in the next decade. Despite the lack of large scale deployment of these systems, the question is becoming when, not whether these system will contribute. The observations of a stock worker are always the start of the surveillance pathway in animal health. Traditionally this required the worker to contact a veterinarian who would investigate unusual cases with the pathway ending in laboratory samples and specific diagnostic tests. The process is inefficient as only a fraction of cases observed by stock workers end in diagnostic samples. These observations themselves are most likely to be amenable to capture and monitoring using syndromic surveillance techniques. A pilot study of stock workers in the extensive cattle producing Lower Gulf region of Queensland demonstrated that experienced non-veterinary observers of cattle can describe the signs that they see in sick cattle in an effective manner. Lay observers do not posses a veterinary vocabulary, but the provision of a system to facilitate effective description of signs resulted in effective and standardised description of disease. However, most producers did not see personal benefit from providing this information and worried that they might be exposing themselves to regulatory impost if they described suspicious signs. Therefore the pilot study encouraged the development of a syndromic surveillance system that provides a vocabulary (a template) for lay observers to describe disease and a reason for them to contribute their data. The most important disease related drivers for producers relate to what impact the disease may have in their herd. For this reason, the Bovine Syndromic Surveillance System (BOSSS) was developed incorporating the Bayesian cattle disease diagnostic program BOVID. This allowed the observer to receive immediate information from interpretation of their observation providing a differential list of diseases, a list of questions that may help further differentiate cause, access to information and other expertise, and opportunity to benchmark disease performance. BOSSS was developed as a web-based reporting system and used a novel graphical user interface that interlinked with an interrogation module to enable lay observers to accurately and fully describe disease. BOSSS used a hierarchical reporting system that linked individual users with other users along natural reporting pathways and this encouraged the seamless and rapid transmission of information between users while respecting confidentiality. The system was made available for testing at the state level in early 2006, and recruitment of producers is proceeding. There is a dearth of performance data from operational syndromic surveillance systems. This is due, in part, to the short period that these systems have been operational and the lack of major human health outbreaks in areas with operational systems. The likely performance of a syndromic surveillance system is difficult to theorise. Outbreaks vary in size and distribution, and quality of outbreak data capture is not constant. The combined effect of a lack of track record and the many permutations of outbreak and data characteristics make computer simulation the most suitable method to evaluate likely performance. A stochastic simulation model of disease spread and disease reporting by lay observers throughout a grid of farms was modelled. The reporting characteristics of lay observers were extrapolated from the pilot study and theoretical disease was modelled (as a representation of newly emergent disease). All diseases were described by their baseline prevalence and by conditional sign probabilities (obtained from BOVID and from a survey of veterinarians in Queensland). The theoretical disease conditional sign probabilities were defined by the user. Their spread through the grid of farms followed Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) principles (in herd) and by mass action between herds. Reporting of disease events and signs in events was modelled as a probabilistic event using sampling from distributions. A non-descript disease characterised by gastrointestinal signs and a visually spectacular disease characterised by neurological signs were modelled, each over three outbreak scenarios (least, moderately and most contagious). Reports were examined using two algorithms. These were the cumulative sum (CuSum) technique of adding excess of cases (above a maximum limit) for individual signs and the generic detector What’s Strange About Recent Events (WSARE) that identifies change to variable counts or variable combination counts between time periods. Both algorithms detected disease for all disease and outbreak characteristics combinations. WSARE was the most efficient algorithm, detecting disease on average earlier than CuSum. Both algorithms had high sensitivity and excellent specificity. The timeliness of detection was satisfactory for the insidious gastrointestinal disease (approximately 24 months after introduction), but not sufficient for the visually spectacular neurological disease (approximately 20 months) as the traditional surveillance system can be expected to detect visually spectacular diseases in reasonable time. Detection efficiency was not influenced greatly by the proportion of producers that report or by the proportion of cases or the number of signs per case that are reported. The modelling process demonstrated that a syndromic surveillance system in this remote region is likely to be a useful addition to the existing system. Improvements that are planned include development of a hand-held computer version and enhanced disease and syndrome mapping capability. The increased use of electronic recording systems, including livestock identification, will facilitate the deployment of BOSSS. Long term sustainability will require that producers receive sufficient reward from BOSSS to continue to provide reports over time. This question can only be answered by field deployment and this work is currently proceeding.

Doctor of Philosophy
All surveillance systems are based on an effective general surveillance system because this is the system that detects emerging diseases and the re-introduction of disease to a previously disease free area. General surveillance requires comprehensive coverage of the population through an extensive network of relationships between animal producers and observers and surveillance system officers. This system is under increasing threat in Australia (and many other countries) due to the increased biomass, animal movements, rate of disease emergence, and the decline in resource allocation for surveillance activities. The Australian surveillance system is state-based and has a complex management structure that includes State and Commonwealth government representatives, industry stakeholders (such as producer bodies) and private organisations. A developing problem is the decline in the effectiveness of the general surveillance system in the extensive (remote) cattle producing regions of northern Australia. The complex organisational structure of surveillance in Australia contributes to this, and is complicated by the incomplete capture of data (as demonstrated by slow uptake of electronic individual animal identification systems), poorly developed and integrated national animal health information systems, and declining funding streams for field and laboratory personnel and infrastructure. Of major concern is the reduction in contact between animal observers and surveillance personnel arising from the decline in resource allocation for surveillance. Fewer veterinarians are working in remote areas, fewer producers use veterinarians, and, as a result, fewer sick animals are being investigated by the general surveillance system. A syndrome is a collection of signs that occur in a sick individual. Syndromic surveillance is an emerging approach to monitoring populations for change in disease levels and is based on statistical monitoring of the distribution of signs, syndromes and associations between health variables in a population. Often, diseases will have syndromes that are characteristic and the monitoring of these syndromes may provide for early detection of outbreaks. Because the process uses general signs, this method may support the existing (struggling) general surveillance system for the extensive cattle producing regions of northern Australia. Syndromic surveillance systems offer many potential advantages. First, the signs that are monitored can be general and include any health-related variable. This generality provides potential as a detector of emerging diseases. Second, many of the data types used occur early in a disease process and therefore efficient syndromic surveillance systems can detect disease events in a timely manner. There are many hurdles to the successful deployment of a syndromic surveillance system and most relate to data. An effective system will ideally obtain data from multiple sources, all data will conform to a standard (therefore each data source can be validly combined), data coverage will be extensive (across the population) and data capture will be in real time (allowing early detection). This picture is one of a functional electronic data world and unfortunately this is not the norm for either human or animal heath. Less than optimal data, lack of data standards, incomplete coverage of the population and delayed data transmission result in a loss of sensitivity, specificity and timeliness of detection. In human syndromic surveillance, most focus has been placed on earlier detection of mass bioterrorism events and this has concentrated research on the problems of electronic data. Given the current state of animal health data, the development of efficient detection algorithms represents the least of the hurdles. However, the world is moving towards increased automation and therefore the problems with current data can be expected to be resolved in the next decade. Despite the lack of large scale deployment of these systems, the question is becoming when, not whether these system will contribute. The observations of a stock worker are always the start of the surveillance pathway in animal health. Traditionally this required the worker to contact a veterinarian who would investigate unusual cases with the pathway ending in laboratory samples and specific diagnostic tests. The process is inefficient as only a fraction of cases observed by stock workers end in diagnostic samples. These observations themselves are most likely to be amenable to capture and monitoring using syndromic surveillance techniques. A pilot study of stock workers in the extensive cattle producing Lower Gulf region of Queensland demonstrated that experienced non-veterinary observers of cattle can describe the signs that they see in sick cattle in an effective manner. Lay observers do not posses a veterinary vocabulary, but the provision of a system to facilitate effective description of signs resulted in effective and standardised description of disease. However, most producers did not see personal benefit from providing this information and worried that they might be exposing themselves to regulatory impost if they described suspicious signs. Therefore the pilot study encouraged the development of a syndromic surveillance system that provides a vocabulary (a template) for lay observers to describe disease and a reason for them to contribute their data. The most important disease related drivers for producers relate to what impact the disease may have in their herd. For this reason, the Bovine Syndromic Surveillance System (BOSSS) was developed incorporating the Bayesian cattle disease diagnostic program BOVID. This allowed the observer to receive immediate information from interpretation of their observation providing a differential list of diseases, a list of questions that may help further differentiate cause, access to information and other expertise, and opportunity to benchmark disease performance. BOSSS was developed as a web-based reporting system and used a novel graphical user interface that interlinked with an interrogation module to enable lay observers to accurately and fully describe disease. BOSSS used a hierarchical reporting system that linked individual users with other users along natural reporting pathways and this encouraged the seamless and rapid transmission of information between users while respecting confidentiality. The system was made available for testing at the state level in early 2006, and recruitment of producers is proceeding. There is a dearth of performance data from operational syndromic surveillance systems. This is due, in part, to the short period that these systems have been operational and the lack of major human health outbreaks in areas with operational systems. The likely performance of a syndromic surveillance system is difficult to theorise. Outbreaks vary in size and distribution, and quality of outbreak data capture is not constant. The combined effect of a lack of track record and the many permutations of outbreak and data characteristics make computer simulation the most suitable method to evaluate likely performance. A stochastic simulation model of disease spread and disease reporting by lay observers throughout a grid of farms was modelled. The reporting characteristics of lay observers were extrapolated from the pilot study and theoretical disease was modelled (as a representation of newly emergent disease). All diseases were described by their baseline prevalence and by conditional sign probabilities (obtained from BOVID and from a survey of veterinarians in Queensland). The theoretical disease conditional sign probabilities were defined by the user. Their spread through the grid of farms followed Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) principles (in herd) and by mass action between herds. Reporting of disease events and signs in events was modelled as a probabilistic event using sampling from distributions. A non-descript disease characterised by gastrointestinal signs and a visually spectacular disease characterised by neurological signs were modelled, each over three outbreak scenarios (least, moderately and most contagious). Reports were examined using two algorithms. These were the cumulative sum (CuSum) technique of adding excess of cases (above a maximum limit) for individual signs and the generic detector What’s Strange About Recent Events (WSARE) that identifies change to variable counts or variable combination counts between time periods. Both algorithms detected disease for all disease and outbreak characteristics combinations. WSARE was the most efficient algorithm, detecting disease on average earlier than CuSum. Both algorithms had high sensitivity and excellent specificity. The timeliness of detection was satisfactory for the insidious gastrointestinal disease (approximately 24 months after introduction), but not sufficient for the visually spectacular neurological disease (approximately 20 months) as the traditional surveillance system can be expected to detect visually spectacular diseases in reasonable time. Detection efficiency was not influenced greatly by the proportion of producers that report or by the proportion of cases or the number of signs per case that are reported. The modelling process demonstrated that a syndromic surveillance system in this remote region is likely to be a useful addition to the existing system. Improvements that are planned include development of a hand-held computer version and enhanced disease and syndrome mapping capability. The increased use of electronic recording systems, including livestock identification, will facilitate the deployment of BOSSS. Long term sustainability will require that producers receive sufficient reward from BOSSS to continue to provide reports over time. This question can only be answered by field deployment and this work is currently proceeding.

The objective of this study was to study mangrove response (impact and recovery) from extreme climatic events such as tropical cyclones, marine heatwaves, and drought events on the eastern shores of Exmouth Gulf. Mangroves in arid regions, like those in Exmouth, are considered the most sensitive to disturbances due to already existing at their physiological limits. Projected increase in frequency, severity and duration of climate extremes is also considered a major challenge for mangroves in the future. Mangroves are critically important communities providing a wide variety of essential ecosystem services and coastal protection, making it important to monitor them from these events and assess recovery. This study used satellite remote sensing and a multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) to detect and quantify impact and track recovery of mangroves from 1998 to 2021. This study found that greater impacts on mangroves were associated with cyclone and drought events, whereas marine heatwaves did not cause much impact. It was also demonstrated that cyclones tended to result in increases in mangrove cover. A cyclone associated with rainfall occurring before a drought event may have ameliorated extreme drought conditions, potentially reducing the disturbance of this event on mangroves. In addition, recovery from one cyclone was particularly slow, however this may be attributed to an extreme drought event that occurred four years later which also resulted in high impact and slow recovery. This raises the concern of compound impacts slowing recovery of mangroves in the area. Impacts associated with one marine heatwave, considered due to other causes, which resulted in lower magnitudes of negative impact resulted in more rapid mangrove recovery. This study has found additional impacts on mangroves in Exmouth Gulf that had previously gone unreported, demonstrating the importance of remote sensing in monitoring these communities. In addition, demonstrating the need for further long-term monitoring of these mangroves.

Invasive plants pose serious threats to economic, social and environmental interests throughout the world. Developing strategies for their management requires a range of information that is often impractical to collect from ground based surveys. In other cases, such as retrospective analyses of historical invasion rates and patterns, data is rarely, if ever, available from such surveys. Instead, historical archives of remotely sensed imagery provides one of the only existing records, and are used in this research to determine invasion rates and reconstruct invasion patterns of a ca 70 year old exotic mesquite population (Leguminoseae: Prosopis spp.) in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, thereby helping to identify ways to reduce spread and infill. A model was then developed using this, and other, information to predict which parts of the Pilbara are most a risk. This information can assist in identifying areas requiring the most vigilant intervention and pre-emptive measures. Precise information of the location and areal extent of an invasive species is also crucial for land managers and policy makers for crafting management strategies aimed at control, confinement or eradication of some or all of the population. Therefore, the third component of this research was to develop and test high spectral and spatial resolution airborne imagery as a potential monitoring tool for tracking changes at various intervals and quantifying the effectiveness of management strategies adopted. To this end, high spatial resolution digital multispectral imagery (4 channels, 1 m spatial resolution) and hyperspectral imagery (126 channels, 3 m spatial resolution) was acquired and compared for its potential for distinguishing mesquite from coexisting species and land covers.
These three modules of research are summarised hereafter. To examine the rates and patterns of mesquite invasion through space and time, canopies were extracted from a temporal series of panchromatic aerial photography over an area of 450 ha using unsupervised classification. Non-mesquite trees and shrubs were not discernible from mesquite using this imagery (or technique) and so were masked out using an image acquired prior to invasion. The accuracy of the mesquite extractions were corroborated in the field and found to be high (R2 = 0.98, P<0.001); however, accuracy varied between classes (R2 = 0.55 to 0.95). Additional sampling may be required in some of the wider class intervals, particularly the moderate density class (30 to 90%) as sampling frequency was poor within the range of 60 to 90%. This is a direct result of there being relatively few quadrats available to be randomly selected in this class. That is, quadrats with between 60-90% cover were only evident in 4% of the test area. A more robust approach would, therefore, be to split this class into two (e.g. 30-60% and 60-90%) and select an additional 15 quadrats in the 60-90% range. The resolution of the imagery (1.4 m) precluded mapping shrubs smaller than 3 m2. Rates and patterns were compared to mesquite invasions in its native range.
It was determined that: (i) the shift from grass to mesquite domination had been rapid, with rates of increase in canopy cover comparable to invasive populations where it is native; (ii) rate of patch recruitment was high in all land types (stony flats, red-loamy soils and the riparian zone), but patch expansion and coalescence primarily occurred over the riparian zone and redloamy soils; (iii) mesquite had been spread by sheep and macropods and the recent switch to cattle is likely to exacerbate spread as it is a far more effective dispersal vector; and (iv) early successional patterns, such as high patch initiation followed by coalescence of existing stands are similar to where mesquite is native, but patch mortality did not occur. A knowledge based model was used to predict which parts of the Pilbara region are most at risk. Several limitations of models often employed in predicting suitability ranges of invasive plants were identified and include: (i) an inability to incorporate the notion that within a suitability range there is likely to be a scale of favourability; (ii) an inability to assign greater importance to evidence that is likely to have more importance in defining the areas suitable for invasion; and (iii) an inability to control the level of conservatism in the final results. These three shortcomings were mitigated through the use of: (i) fuzzy membership functions to derive a range of favourability from poor to best; (ii) pairwise comparison to derive higher weights for layers perceived to be more important and vice versa; and (iii) the use of ordered weighted averaging to directly control the level of conservatism (or risk) inherent in the models produced.
Based on the outcomes of the historical reconstruction of spatial rates and patterns, data sources included land types, land use, and the derivation of a steady state wetness index from spot height data. Model outputs were evaluated using two methods: the area under the curves (AUC) produced from relative operating characteristic (ROC) plots and by the maximum Kappa procedure. Both techniques agreed that the model most representative of the validation data was the one assuming the most risk. To create a Boolean output representing areas suitable/not suitable for invasion, optimal cut-points were derived using the point closest to the top left hand corner of the ROC plot and by the maximum Kappa method. Both methods obtained identical cut-points, but it is argued that the coefficient produced by the maximum Kappa method is more easily interpreted. The highest AUC was found to be 0.87 and, based on the maximum Kappa method, can be described as good to very good agreement with the validation records used. Digital multispectral imagery (DMSI), acquired in the visible and near infrared portions of the spectrum (3 visible bands, 1 near infrared) with a spatial resolution of 1 m and hyperspectral imagery (126 bands, 3 m spatial resolution) was acquired to assess the potential of developing a reliable and repeatable mapping tool to facilitate the monitoring of spread and the effects of control efforts. Woody vegetation was extracted from the images using unsupervised classification and grouped into patches based on contiguity. Various statistics (e.g. maximum, minimum, median, mean, standard deviation, majority and variety) were assigned to these patches to garner more information for species separation.
These statistics were explored for their ability to separate mesquite from coexisting species using Tukey’s Honestly Significantly Different (HSD) test and, to reduce redundancy, followed by linear discriminant analysis. Two approaches were taken to select the patch statistics offering the best discrimination. The first approach selected patch statistics that best discriminated all species (named “overall separation”). This was compared to a second approach, which selected the best patch statistics that separated each species from mesquite on a pairwise basis (named “pairwise separation”). The statistics offering the best discrimination were used as input in an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to assign class labels. An incremental cover evaluation, whereby producer’s accuracy was computed from mesquite patches grouped into various size-classes, showed that identification of mesquite patches smaller than 36 m2 was relatively low (43-51%) regardless of the method used for choosing between the patch statistics or image type. Accuracy improved for patches >36 m2 (66-94%) with both approaches and image types. However, both approaches used on the hyperspectral imagery were more reliable at capturing patches >36 m2 than the DMSI using either approach. The lowest omission and commission rates were obtained using pairwise separation on the hyperspectral imagery, which was significantly more accurate than DMSI using an overall separation approach (Z=2.78, P<0.05), but no significant differences were found between pairwise separation used on either media.
Consequently, all methods and imagery types, except for DMSI processed using overall separation, are capable of accurately mapping mesquite patches >36 m2. However, hyperspectral imagery processed using pairwise separation appears to be superior, even though not statistically different to hyperspectral imagery processed using overall separation or DMSI processed using pairwise separation at the 95% confidence level. Mapping smaller patches may require the use of very high spatial resolution imagery, such as that achievable from unmanned airborne vehicles, coupled with a hyperspectral instrument. Alternatively, management may continue to rely on visual airborne surveys flown at low altitude and speed, which have proven to be capable at mapping small and isolated mesquite shrubs in the study area used in this research.