Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "Cornish in New South Wales"

Abstract Aragonite is a minor secondary mineral in many limestone caves throughout the world. It has been claimed that it is the second-most common cave mineral after calcite (Hill & Forti 1997). Aragonite occurs as a secondary mineral in the vadose zone of some caves in New South Wales. Aragonite is unstable in fresh water and usually reverts to calcite, but it is actively depositing in some NSW caves. A review of current literature on the cave aragonite problem showed that chemical inhibitors to calcite deposition assist in the precipitation of calcium carbonate as aragonite instead of calcite. Chemical inhibitors work by physically blocking the positions on the calcite crystal lattice which would have otherwise allowed calcite to develop into a larger crystal. Often an inhibitor for calcite has no effect on the aragonite crystal lattice, thus aragonite may deposit where calcite deposition is inhibited. Another association with aragonite in some NSW caves appears to be high evaporation rates allowing calcite, aragonite and vaterite to deposit. Vaterite is another unstable polymorph of calcium carbonate, which reverts to aragonite and calcite over time. Vaterite, aragonite and calcite were found together in cave sediments in areas with low humidity in Wollondilly Cave, Wombeyan. Several factors were found to be associated with the deposition of aragonite instead of calcite speleothems in NSW caves. They included the presence of ferroan dolomite, calcite-inhibitors (in particular ions of magnesium, manganese, phosphate, sulfate and heavy metals), and both air movement and humidity. Aragonite deposits in several NSW caves were examined to determine whether the material is or is not aragonite. Substrates to the aragonite were examined, as was the nature of the bedrock. The work concentrated on Contact Cave and Wiburds Lake Cave at Jenolan, Sigma Cave, Wollondilly Cave and Cow Pit at Wombeyan and Piano Cave and Deep Hole (Cave) at Walli. Comparisons are made with other caves. The study sites are all located in Palaeozoic rocks within the Lachlan Fold Belt tectonic region. Two of the sites, Jenolan and Wombeyan, are close to the western edge of the Sydney Basin. The third site, Walli, is close to a warm spring. The physical, climatic, chemical and mineralogical influences on calcium carbonate deposition in the caves were investigated. Where cave maps were unavailable, they were prepared on site as part of the study. %At Jenolan Caves, Contact Cave and Wiburds Lake Cave were examined in detail, %and other sites were compared with these. Contact Cave is located near the eastern boundary of the Late Silurian Jenolan Caves Limestone, in an area of steeply bedded and partially dolomitised limestone very close to its eastern boundary with the Jenolan volcanics. Aragonite in Contact Cave is precipitated on the ceiling as anthodites, helictites and coatings. The substrate for the aragonite is porous, altered, dolomitised limestone which is wedged apart by aragonite crystals. Aragonite deposition in Contact Cave is associated with a concentration of calcite-inhibiting ions, mainly minerals containing ions of magnesium, manganese and to a lesser extent, phosphates. Aragonite, dolomite and rhodochrosite are being actively deposited where these minerals are present. Calcite is being deposited where minerals containing magnesium ions are not present. The inhibitors appear to be mobilised by fresh water entering the cave as seepage along the steep bedding and jointing. During winter, cold dry air pooling in the lower part of the cave may concentrate minerals by evaporation and is most likely associated with the ``popcorn line'' seen in the cave. Wiburds Lake Cave is located near the western boundary of the Jenolan Caves Limestone, very close to its faulted western boundary with Ordovician cherts. Aragonite at Wiburds Lake Cave is associated with weathered pyritic dolomitised limestone, an altered, dolomitised mafic dyke in a fault shear zone, and also with bat guano minerals. Aragonite speleothems include a spathite, cavity fills, vughs, surface coatings and anthodites. Calcite occurs in small quantities at the aragonite sites. Calcite-inhibitors associated with aragonite include ions of magnesium, manganese and sulfate. Phosphate is significant in some areas. Low humidity is significant in two areas. Other sites briefly examined at Jenolan include Glass Cave, Mammoth Cave, Spider Cave and the show caves. Aragonite in Glass Cave may be associated with both weathering of dolomitised limestone (resulting in anthodites) and with bat guano (resulting in small cryptic forms). Aragonite in the show caves, and possibly in Mammoth and Spider Cave is associated with weathering of pyritic dolomitised limestone. Wombeyan Caves are developed in saccharoidal marble, metamorphosed Silurian Wombeyan Caves Limestone. Three sites were examined in detail at Wombeyan Caves: Sigma Cave, Wollondilly Cave and Cow Pit (a steep sided doline with a dark zone). Sigma Cave is close to the south east boundary of the Wombeyan marble, close to its unconformable boundary with effusive hypersthene porphyry and intrusive gabbro, and contains some unmarmorised limestone. Aragonite occurs mainly in a canyon at the southern extremity of the cave and in some other sites. In Sigma Cave, aragonite deposition is mainly associated with minerals containing calcite-inhibitors, as well as some air movement in the cave. Calcite-inhibitors at Sigma Cave include ions of magnesium, manganese, sulfate and phosphate (possibly bat origin), partly from bedrock veins and partly from breakdown of minerals in sediments sourced from mafic igneous rocks. Substrates to aragonite speleothems include corroded speleothem, bedrock, ochres, mud and clastics. There is air movement at times in the canyon, it has higher levels of CO2 than other parts of the cave and humidity is high. Air movement may assist in the rapid exchange of CO2 at speleothem surfaces. Wollondilly Cave is located in the eastern part of the Wombeyan marble. At Wollondilly Cave, anthodites and helictites were seen in an inaccessible area of the cave. Paramorphs of calcite after aragonite were found at Jacobs Ladder and the Pantheon. Aragonite at Star Chamber is associated with huntite and hydromagnesite. In The Loft, speleothem corrosion is characteristic of bat guano deposits. Aragonite, vaterite and calcite were detected in surface coatings in this area. Air movement between the two entrances of this cave has a drying effect which may serve to concentrate minerals by evaporation in some parts of the cave. The presence of vaterite and aragonite in fluffy coatings infers that vaterite may be inverting to aragonite. Calcite-inhibitors in the sediments include ions of phosphate, sulphate, magnesium and manganese. Cave sediment includes material sourced from detrital mafic rocks. Cow Pit is located near Wollondilly Cave, and cave W43 is located near the northern boundary of the Wombeyan marble. At Cow Pit, paramorphs of calcite after aragonite occur in the walls as spheroids with minor huntite. Aragonite is a minor mineral in white wall coatings and red phosphatic sediments with minor hydromagnesite and huntite. At cave W43, aragonite was detected in the base of a coralloid speleothem. Paramorphs of calcite after aragonite were observed in the same speleothem. Dolomite in the bedrock may be a source of magnesium-rich minerals at cave W43. Walli Caves are developed in the massive Belubula Limestone of the Ordovician Cliefden Caves Limestone Subgroup (Barrajin Group). At the caves, the limestone is steeply bedded and contains chert nodules with dolomite inclusions. Gypsum and barite occur in veins in the limestone. At Walli Caves, Piano Cave and Deep Hole (Deep Cave) were examined for aragonite. Gypsum occurs both as a surface coating and as fine selenite needles on chert nodules in areas with low humidity in the caves. Aragonite at Walli caves was associated with vein minerals and coatings containing calcite-inhibitors and, in some areas, low humidity. Calcite-inhibitors include sulfate (mostly as gypsum), magnesium, manganese and barium. Other caves which contain aragonite are mentioned. Although these were not major study sites, sufficient information is available on them to make a preliminary assessment as to why they may contain aragonite. These other caves include Flying Fortress Cave and the B4-5 Extension at Bungonia near Goulburn, and Wyanbene Cave south of Braidwood. Aragonite deposition at Bungonia has some similarities with that at Jenolan in that dolomitisation of the bedrock has occurred, and the bedding or jointing is steep allowing seepage of water into the cave, with possible oxidation of pyrite. Aragonite is also associated with a mafic dyke. Wyanbene cave features some bedrock dolomitisation, and also features low grade ore bodies which include several known calcite-inhibitors. Aragonite appears to be associated with both features. Finally, brief notes are made of aragonite-like speleothems at Colong Caves (between Jenolan and Wombeyan), a cave at Jaunter (west of Jenolan) and Wellington (240\,km NW of Sydney).

Abstract Aragonite is a minor secondary mineral in many limestone caves throughout the world. It has been claimed that it is the second-most common cave mineral after calcite (Hill & Forti 1997). Aragonite occurs as a secondary mineral in the vadose zone of some caves in New South Wales. Aragonite is unstable in fresh water and usually reverts to calcite, but it is actively depositing in some NSW caves. A review of current literature on the cave aragonite problem showed that chemical inhibitors to calcite deposition assist in the precipitation of calcium carbonate as aragonite instead of calcite. Chemical inhibitors work by physically blocking the positions on the calcite crystal lattice which would have otherwise allowed calcite to develop into a larger crystal. Often an inhibitor for calcite has no effect on the aragonite crystal lattice, thus aragonite may deposit where calcite deposition is inhibited. Another association with aragonite in some NSW caves appears to be high evaporation rates allowing calcite, aragonite and vaterite to deposit. Vaterite is another unstable polymorph of calcium carbonate, which reverts to aragonite and calcite over time. Vaterite, aragonite and calcite were found together in cave sediments in areas with low humidity in Wollondilly Cave, Wombeyan. Several factors were found to be associated with the deposition of aragonite instead of calcite speleothems in NSW caves. They included the presence of ferroan dolomite, calcite-inhibitors (in particular ions of magnesium, manganese, phosphate, sulfate and heavy metals), and both air movement and humidity. Aragonite deposits in several NSW caves were examined to determine whether the material is or is not aragonite. Substrates to the aragonite were examined, as was the nature of the bedrock. The work concentrated on Contact Cave and Wiburds Lake Cave at Jenolan, Sigma Cave, Wollondilly Cave and Cow Pit at Wombeyan and Piano Cave and Deep Hole (Cave) at Walli. Comparisons are made with other caves. The study sites are all located in Palaeozoic rocks within the Lachlan Fold Belt tectonic region. Two of the sites, Jenolan and Wombeyan, are close to the western edge of the Sydney Basin. The third site, Walli, is close to a warm spring. The physical, climatic, chemical and mineralogical influences on calcium carbonate deposition in the caves were investigated. Where cave maps were unavailable, they were prepared on site as part of the study. %At Jenolan Caves, Contact Cave and Wiburds Lake Cave were examined in detail, %and other sites were compared with these. Contact Cave is located near the eastern boundary of the Late Silurian Jenolan Caves Limestone, in an area of steeply bedded and partially dolomitised limestone very close to its eastern boundary with the Jenolan volcanics. Aragonite in Contact Cave is precipitated on the ceiling as anthodites, helictites and coatings. The substrate for the aragonite is porous, altered, dolomitised limestone which is wedged apart by aragonite crystals. Aragonite deposition in Contact Cave is associated with a concentration of calcite-inhibiting ions, mainly minerals containing ions of magnesium, manganese and to a lesser extent, phosphates. Aragonite, dolomite and rhodochrosite are being actively deposited where these minerals are present. Calcite is being deposited where minerals containing magnesium ions are not present. The inhibitors appear to be mobilised by fresh water entering the cave as seepage along the steep bedding and jointing. During winter, cold dry air pooling in the lower part of the cave may concentrate minerals by evaporation and is most likely associated with the ``popcorn line'' seen in the cave. Wiburds Lake Cave is located near the western boundary of the Jenolan Caves Limestone, very close to its faulted western boundary with Ordovician cherts. Aragonite at Wiburds Lake Cave is associated with weathered pyritic dolomitised limestone, an altered, dolomitised mafic dyke in a fault shear zone, and also with bat guano minerals. Aragonite speleothems include a spathite, cavity fills, vughs, surface coatings and anthodites. Calcite occurs in small quantities at the aragonite sites. Calcite-inhibitors associated with aragonite include ions of magnesium, manganese and sulfate. Phosphate is significant in some areas. Low humidity is significant in two areas. Other sites briefly examined at Jenolan include Glass Cave, Mammoth Cave, Spider Cave and the show caves. Aragonite in Glass Cave may be associated with both weathering of dolomitised limestone (resulting in anthodites) and with bat guano (resulting in small cryptic forms). Aragonite in the show caves, and possibly in Mammoth and Spider Cave is associated with weathering of pyritic dolomitised limestone. Wombeyan Caves are developed in saccharoidal marble, metamorphosed Silurian Wombeyan Caves Limestone. Three sites were examined in detail at Wombeyan Caves: Sigma Cave, Wollondilly Cave and Cow Pit (a steep sided doline with a dark zone). Sigma Cave is close to the south east boundary of the Wombeyan marble, close to its unconformable boundary with effusive hypersthene porphyry and intrusive gabbro, and contains some unmarmorised limestone. Aragonite occurs mainly in a canyon at the southern extremity of the cave and in some other sites. In Sigma Cave, aragonite deposition is mainly associated with minerals containing calcite-inhibitors, as well as some air movement in the cave. Calcite-inhibitors at Sigma Cave include ions of magnesium, manganese, sulfate and phosphate (possibly bat origin), partly from bedrock veins and partly from breakdown of minerals in sediments sourced from mafic igneous rocks. Substrates to aragonite speleothems include corroded speleothem, bedrock, ochres, mud and clastics. There is air movement at times in the canyon, it has higher levels of CO2 than other parts of the cave and humidity is high. Air movement may assist in the rapid exchange of CO2 at speleothem surfaces. Wollondilly Cave is located in the eastern part of the Wombeyan marble. At Wollondilly Cave, anthodites and helictites were seen in an inaccessible area of the cave. Paramorphs of calcite after aragonite were found at Jacobs Ladder and the Pantheon. Aragonite at Star Chamber is associated with huntite and hydromagnesite. In The Loft, speleothem corrosion is characteristic of bat guano deposits. Aragonite, vaterite and calcite were detected in surface coatings in this area. Air movement between the two entrances of this cave has a drying effect which may serve to concentrate minerals by evaporation in some parts of the cave. The presence of vaterite and aragonite in fluffy coatings infers that vaterite may be inverting to aragonite. Calcite-inhibitors in the sediments include ions of phosphate, sulphate, magnesium and manganese. Cave sediment includes material sourced from detrital mafic rocks. Cow Pit is located near Wollondilly Cave, and cave W43 is located near the northern boundary of the Wombeyan marble. At Cow Pit, paramorphs of calcite after aragonite occur in the walls as spheroids with minor huntite. Aragonite is a minor mineral in white wall coatings and red phosphatic sediments with minor hydromagnesite and huntite. At cave W43, aragonite was detected in the base of a coralloid speleothem. Paramorphs of calcite after aragonite were observed in the same speleothem. Dolomite in the bedrock may be a source of magnesium-rich minerals at cave W43. Walli Caves are developed in the massive Belubula Limestone of the Ordovician Cliefden Caves Limestone Subgroup (Barrajin Group). At the caves, the limestone is steeply bedded and contains chert nodules with dolomite inclusions. Gypsum and barite occur in veins in the limestone. At Walli Caves, Piano Cave and Deep Hole (Deep Cave) were examined for aragonite. Gypsum occurs both as a surface coating and as fine selenite needles on chert nodules in areas with low humidity in the caves. Aragonite at Walli caves was associated with vein minerals and coatings containing calcite-inhibitors and, in some areas, low humidity. Calcite-inhibitors include sulfate (mostly as gypsum), magnesium, manganese and barium. Other caves which contain aragonite are mentioned. Although these were not major study sites, sufficient information is available on them to make a preliminary assessment as to why they may contain aragonite. These other caves include Flying Fortress Cave and the B4-5 Extension at Bungonia near Goulburn, and Wyanbene Cave south of Braidwood. Aragonite deposition at Bungonia has some similarities with that at Jenolan in that dolomitisation of the bedrock has occurred, and the bedding or jointing is steep allowing seepage of water into the cave, with possible oxidation of pyrite. Aragonite is also associated with a mafic dyke. Wyanbene cave features some bedrock dolomitisation, and also features low grade ore bodies which include several known calcite-inhibitors. Aragonite appears to be associated with both features. Finally, brief notes are made of aragonite-like speleothems at Colong Caves (between Jenolan and Wombeyan), a cave at Jaunter (west of Jenolan) and Wellington (240\,km NW of Sydney).

Glenbrook Lagoon, an 8 hectare lake receiving rainfall runoff from a residential catchment, is experiencing nutrient enrichment problems expressed as excessive aquatic plant presence. This study aims to assess the relative nutrient contribution of the total system compartments, including catchment loading, water column, aquatic plants and surface sediment. This information is utilised in the formulation of management strategies which may produce a sustainable nutrient reduction and general improvement in the system. The total nutrient content of the aquatic system was determined to be high in comparison with the present nutrient loading from the catchment. The ideal management case considers nutrient reduction of the surface sediment compartment firstly, followed by the aquatic plant community, with the water column and catchment influence as relatively low priority compartments. Various strategies for managing these are proposed. The total system benefits of the ideal management case are reductions in nutrients, aquatic plant biovolume and suspended solid loading. Unavoidable constraints placed upon the ideal management case include the excessive aquatic plant presence restricting accessability to the surface sediment for dredging. The resulting best management case requires aquatic plant eradication prior to sediment management, with the total system benefits associated with the ideal management case being retained.
Master of Science (Hons)

Over the last 60 years, grass tetany has been recognised as a significant lethal condition in sheep and cattle.Outcomes from this study include documentation of the likely precursors to grass tetany, ways to recognise these precursors, and long term practices that will enable producers to minimise livestock deaths. The benefit of this research to beef producers is that the environmental circumstances thought to be associated with outbreaks of grass tetany have been identified, along with remedial action that can be taken to prevent deaths occurring.Recommendations to industry on best practice to be adopted by leading producers to minimise outbreaks of grass tetany are made.This study provides an alternate strategy for the management of grass tetany in beef cattle, to the more clinical approaches previously recommended. It is suggested that losses from this economically important metabolic disease can be minimised if management practices of beef cattle producers in eastern Australia can incorporate a more holistic approach to farm management, which takes account of the soil/plant/animal/climate inter-relationships.
Master of Science (Hons)

In the years between 1960 and 1975 in NSW there emerged a loosely connected network of women interested in modern or creative embroidery. The Embroiderers' Guild of NSW served as a focus for many of these women, providing opportunities for them to exhibit their work, and to engage in embroidery education as teachers or as learners. Others worked independently, exhibited in commercial galleries and endeavoured to establish reputations as professional artists. Some of these women were trained artists and wanted embroidery to be seen as 'art'; others were enthusiastic amateurs, engaged in embroidery as a form of 'serious leisure'. They played a significant role in the development of creative embroidery and textile art in NSW and yet, for the most part, their story is absent from the narratives of Australian art and craft history. These women were involved in a network of interactions which displayed many of the characteristics of more organised art worlds, as posite d by sociologist Howard Becker. They produced work according to shared conventions, they established co-operative links with each other and with other organisations, they organised educational opportunities to encourage others to take up creative embroidery and they mounted exhibitions to facilitate engagement with a public audience. Although their absence from the literature suggests that they operated in isolation, my research indicates that there were many points of contact between the embroidery world, the broader craft world and the fine art community in NSW. This thesis examines the context in which creative embroiderers worked, discusses the careers of key individuals working at this time, explores the interactions between them, and evaluates the influence that they had on later practice in embroidery and textiles in NSW.

Injuries to people living and working on farms in New South Wales continue to be a significant burden on the health system, Workers’ Compensation system, agricultural industries and farming families. Strategies to reduce the number and severity of injuries suffered by farmers and people working on farms rely on accurate information. Unfortunately there is no one dataset available to describe the circumstances surrounding farm injuries and the size of this burden in Australia. Hence, a number of different data sources are required to provide a picture of farm injuries. To date, there has been very little critical examination of what value each of these datasets provides to describing farm injuries. This Thesis aimed to: • Undertake surveillance of injuries occurring to people on farms or during agricultural production in NSW using data from an Emergency Department, NSW Hospital Separations information, NSW Workers’ Compensation Claims, and ABS Deaths data. • Critically examine the utility of Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths Data for the surveillance of farm injuries in NSW. • Critically examine data classification systems used in Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths data collections to describe the breadth of farm injuries in NSW. • Define the priority areas for farm injury prevention initiatives in NSW based on the information obtained from the examination of the data from Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths. • Evaluate the effectiveness of the NSW Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) rebate scheme and examine the utility of the data currently available in NSW to measure the performance of the program. Four datasets, Tamworth Emergency Department, Hospital Separations, Workers’ Compensation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Deaths data were used to provide information on the surveillance of farm injuries, describe the breadth of classifications used to describe farm injuries, and define priorities for the prevention of farm injuries. There were 384 farm-related injuries which presented to the Emergency Department at the Tamworth Base Hospital between 1 September 1997 and 31 August 1998. Emergency Department data collected in this study used the Farm Injury Optimal Dataset (FIOD) for classification, which allowed for a comprehensive picture of the circumstances surrounding the injury event. The three most common external causes of injury were related to horses, motorcycles, and animals. Commonly people were working at the time of injury. Children represented 21% of the people injured. The average number of injuries per 100 farms per annum was 34.7. An examination of hospital discharge data for NSW was undertaken for the period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 2000 where the location of the injury was a farm. Classification of cases in this dataset conformed to the International Classification of Disease (ICD) versions 9 and 10. There were 14,490 people who were injured on a farm during the study period. The three most common external causes of injury were motorcycles, animals being ridden and agricultural machinery. Children represented 17% of all farm injury cases. The rate per 1,000 farms ranged from 19 to 42 per annum. An examination of Workers’ Compensation claims for agricultural industries in NSW between 1 July 1992 and 30 June 2001 was undertaken. The ‘Type of Occurrence’ classification system was used to code the claims. There were 24,332 claims of which the majority were males (82%). The incidence of injury / disease in agriculture per annum varied from 37 per 1,000 workers to 73 per 1,000 workers. The rate per 1,000 agricultural establishments varied from 54 to 76. The average cost of a claim was $10,880 and the average time lost per claims was 9.2 weeks. There were 81 deaths and 3,158 permanent disabilities. The three most common agents were sheep / goats (5%), ferrous and non-ferrous metals (5%), crates / cartons / boxes / etc (5%). Using ABS deaths data to examine the deaths of people working and living on farms was limited to males whose occupation was recorded as ‘farmer and farm manager’ and ‘agricultural labourer and related worker’. There were 952 deaths over the period 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2000. The information provided a consistent series of cases over time. Areas where prevention should be directed included motor vehicle accidents; falls; agricultural machinery; other machinery; firearms; poisoning; and drowning. Using any one of the datasets alone to examine people injured on farms not only underestimates the number of people injured, but also misses particular types of agents involved in farm injuries. Each of the datasets used in this Thesis provides a different perspective of farm injury in NSW. By examining the information together, there are a number of areas which are consistently represented in each dataset such as falls and agricultural machinery. While no one dataset provided all the information that would be useful for the prevention of injuries, the available information does provide direction for the development of prevention strategies. The overall weakness of the information provided is that it misses a number of risk factors that contribute to farm injuries such as fatigue and training. The lack of appropriate denominator information also makes it difficult to directly compare the datasets and estimate the size of the problem. There are a number of additional coding categories that could be included in each dataset that would provide a better understanding of the different groups at risk of sustaining an injury on a farm or during agricultural work. These coding categories include activity at time of injury, admission to hospital, and occupation. An example of the use of data to determine the effectiveness of a farm injury prevention program is the ‘NSW Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) Rebate Scheme’ evaluation. Tractor rollover deaths have been identified as an issue for prevention by Farmsafe Australia; however, such deaths were not identified in any of the datasets used in this Thesis due to coding limitations in the ABS data. In this Thesis information about the evaluation of the ‘NSW ROPS Rebate Scheme’ is presented. The scheme was successful in fitting 10,449 ROPS to tractors and the following lessons were learnt: when providing a rebate, the administration (i.e. sending the cheque) needs to be done well; advertising is important and should be co-ordinated, increase the awareness of the risk(s) the intervention is aiming to prevent and effectiveness of subsequent solution (s); the program should ensure there is an increased awareness of the outcome the intervention is aiming to prevent; if regulation is part of the program, enforcement needs to undertaken; and should address any barriers to uptake. The information provided in this Thesis highlights the substantial burden that farm injury places on the agricultural and rural sector of NSW. While there is no one data source that can describe the circumstances and the burden of farm injuries, the currently available datasets do provide an insight into the circumstances of farm injuries and the burden these injuries place on health, Workers’ Compensation, agricultural industries and farming families.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Injuries to people living and working on farms in New South Wales continue to be a significant burden on the health system, Workers’ Compensation system, agricultural industries and farming families. Strategies to reduce the number and severity of injuries suffered by farmers and people working on farms rely on accurate information. Unfortunately there is no one dataset available to describe the circumstances surrounding farm injuries and the size of this burden in Australia. Hence, a number of different data sources are required to provide a picture of farm injuries. To date, there has been very little critical examination of what value each of these datasets provides to describing farm injuries. This Thesis aimed to: • Undertake surveillance of injuries occurring to people on farms or during agricultural production in NSW using data from an Emergency Department, NSW Hospital Separations information, NSW Workers’ Compensation Claims, and ABS Deaths data. • Critically examine the utility of Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths Data for the surveillance of farm injuries in NSW. • Critically examine data classification systems used in Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths data collections to describe the breadth of farm injuries in NSW. • Define the priority areas for farm injury prevention initiatives in NSW based on the information obtained from the examination of the data from Emergency Department, Hospital, Workers’ Compensation, and ABS Deaths. • Evaluate the effectiveness of the NSW Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) rebate scheme and examine the utility of the data currently available in NSW to measure the performance of the program. Four datasets, Tamworth Emergency Department, Hospital Separations, Workers’ Compensation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Deaths data were used to provide information on the surveillance of farm injuries, describe the breadth of classifications used to describe farm injuries, and define priorities for the prevention of farm injuries. There were 384 farm-related injuries which presented to the Emergency Department at the Tamworth Base Hospital between 1 September 1997 and 31 August 1998. Emergency Department data collected in this study used the Farm Injury Optimal Dataset (FIOD) for classification, which allowed for a comprehensive picture of the circumstances surrounding the injury event. The three most common external causes of injury were related to horses, motorcycles, and animals. Commonly people were working at the time of injury. Children represented 21% of the people injured. The average number of injuries per 100 farms per annum was 34.7. An examination of hospital discharge data for NSW was undertaken for the period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 2000 where the location of the injury was a farm. Classification of cases in this dataset conformed to the International Classification of Disease (ICD) versions 9 and 10. There were 14,490 people who were injured on a farm during the study period. The three most common external causes of injury were motorcycles, animals being ridden and agricultural machinery. Children represented 17% of all farm injury cases. The rate per 1,000 farms ranged from 19 to 42 per annum. An examination of Workers’ Compensation claims for agricultural industries in NSW between 1 July 1992 and 30 June 2001 was undertaken. The ‘Type of Occurrence’ classification system was used to code the claims. There were 24,332 claims of which the majority were males (82%). The incidence of injury / disease in agriculture per annum varied from 37 per 1,000 workers to 73 per 1,000 workers. The rate per 1,000 agricultural establishments varied from 54 to 76. The average cost of a claim was $10,880 and the average time lost per claims was 9.2 weeks. There were 81 deaths and 3,158 permanent disabilities. The three most common agents were sheep / goats (5%), ferrous and non-ferrous metals (5%), crates / cartons / boxes / etc (5%). Using ABS deaths data to examine the deaths of people working and living on farms was limited to males whose occupation was recorded as ‘farmer and farm manager’ and ‘agricultural labourer and related worker’. There were 952 deaths over the period 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2000. The information provided a consistent series of cases over time. Areas where prevention should be directed included motor vehicle accidents; falls; agricultural machinery; other machinery; firearms; poisoning; and drowning. Using any one of the datasets alone to examine people injured on farms not only underestimates the number of people injured, but also misses particular types of agents involved in farm injuries. Each of the datasets used in this Thesis provides a different perspective of farm injury in NSW. By examining the information together, there are a number of areas which are consistently represented in each dataset such as falls and agricultural machinery. While no one dataset provided all the information that would be useful for the prevention of injuries, the available information does provide direction for the development of prevention strategies. The overall weakness of the information provided is that it misses a number of risk factors that contribute to farm injuries such as fatigue and training. The lack of appropriate denominator information also makes it difficult to directly compare the datasets and estimate the size of the problem. There are a number of additional coding categories that could be included in each dataset that would provide a better understanding of the different groups at risk of sustaining an injury on a farm or during agricultural work. These coding categories include activity at time of injury, admission to hospital, and occupation. An example of the use of data to determine the effectiveness of a farm injury prevention program is the ‘NSW Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) Rebate Scheme’ evaluation. Tractor rollover deaths have been identified as an issue for prevention by Farmsafe Australia; however, such deaths were not identified in any of the datasets used in this Thesis due to coding limitations in the ABS data. In this Thesis information about the evaluation of the ‘NSW ROPS Rebate Scheme’ is presented. The scheme was successful in fitting 10,449 ROPS to tractors and the following lessons were learnt: when providing a rebate, the administration (i.e. sending the cheque) needs to be done well; advertising is important and should be co-ordinated, increase the awareness of the risk(s) the intervention is aiming to prevent and effectiveness of subsequent solution (s); the program should ensure there is an increased awareness of the outcome the intervention is aiming to prevent; if regulation is part of the program, enforcement needs to undertaken; and should address any barriers to uptake. The information provided in this Thesis highlights the substantial burden that farm injury places on the agricultural and rural sector of NSW. While there is no one data source that can describe the circumstances and the burden of farm injuries, the currently available datasets do provide an insight into the circumstances of farm injuries and the burden these injuries place on health, Workers’ Compensation, agricultural industries and farming families.

Australian historical scholarship has traditionally neglected public employment services as an area of research. However, in recent years as the State has repositioned itself in the labour market the role of public employment services has become a popular area of debate. While contemporary scholars have contributed to these debates, their historical counterparts have been slower to follow suit. In overcoming this neglect, this thesis provides an historical examination of one of the earliest forms of state intervention into the Australian labour market: public employment services. This study examined the establishment and operations of public employment services in NSW from 1887 until 1942, when they were transferred across to the Federal Department of Labour and National Service, to comply with Commonwealth Wartime legislation. Within the Australian contemporary scholarship, public employment services have been conceptualised according to three dominant economic traditions: neo-classical economics, Keynesian economics and the writings of W.H. Beveridge. However, these traditions are predicated on inherent assumptions and predetermined outcomes, all of which fail to identify the origins and development of public employment services in Australia. Neo-classical economists have been the most critical arguing that the public provision of employments services is both inefficient and ineffective. Within the historical literature, Institutional economists in the United States have been influential in identifying the socio-economic factors that led to the development of the public employment services: asymmetrical labour market information and fraudulent acts perpetrated by private employment registries, all of which distorted the functioning of the labour market. By adopting the institutional economic approach, this thesis found that it was these socio-economic concerns that led to the introduction of the public employment service in NSW. This thesis disputes the claims of the neo-classical economists that the public employment services were both inefficient and ineffective, instead it argues that the public employment service played a pivotal role in the development of the NSW economy performing the role of labour market intermediary: channelling information and bringing together those wishing to buy and sell labour; while safeguarding those vulnerable in the labour market: the unemployed.

The MPOC Study was a population-based study of the clinical management of melanoma patients in NSW. It included data on all melanoma diagnoses notified to the cancer registry during a 12-month period, and questionnaire data from treating doctors. Data were analysed for 1,889 patients with invasive, localised melanoma to determine doctors’ knowledge of patients’ melanoma risk and to identify factors associated with better identification and clinical management of this risk. Three-quarters of patients had doctors who were aware of their risk factor status with respect to personal and family history of melanoma and the presence of many moles. Doctors working in general practice, skin cancer clinics and dermatology settings had better knowledge of patients’ risk factors than plastic surgeons. Doctors were 15% more likely to know the family history of younger patients (<40 years) than of those ≥80 years. Early detection-related follow-up advice was more likely to be given to younger patients, by doctors aware of their patients’ risk status, by doctors practising in plastic surgery, dermatology and skin cancer clinic settings, and by female doctors. Patient-related and doctor-related factors were associated with doctors’ recognition and management of patients’ risk and could be the focus of strategies for improving care.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003.
Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 8, 2009) Degree awarded 2003; thesis submitted 2002. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Government and International Relations, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Aims To describe variation in caesarean section (CS) and induction of labour (IOL) rates and outcomes; determine ways of classifying IOL; describe variation in current IOL methods. Methods A systemic review examined different methods of IOL classification. Variation in hospital CS and IOL rates and outcomes used two linked population datasets and multilevel logistic regression models. To understand clinical decision-making around IOL, interviews were conducted in New South Wales (NSW) hospitals. Midwifery unit managers completed surveys for current IOL methods. Results  For nulliparae at term in NSW, overall variation in hospital CS rates decreased by 78% for prelabour CS, 52% for intrapartum CS following spontaneous labour and 9% following IOL after adjustment. Severe maternal and neonatal morbidity rates were not significantly different between hospitals.  A 10 group classification system for IOL was developed based on parity, previous CS, gestational age, number and presentation of the fetus.  In NSW 2010-2011, there was high unexplained variation in hospital IOL rates despite adjusting for patient factors. The greatest variation was for hospital rates of IOL among nulliparae at full term. There was generally no relationship between hospital IOL rate and adverse outcomes or intrapartum CS rates.  Variation in decision-making was based on the obstetrician’s perception of risk, their relationship with the woman, and resource availability. There was wide variation in clinical decision-making practices of obstetricians and less accountability for decision-making in hospitals with high IOL rates.  From 2008 to 2014, for district hospitals, there was an increase in balloon catheter use for cervical ripening and a significant increase in use of postmaturity protocols for IOL but no difference in use of prostaglandin protocols. For both district and tertiary hospitals, there was a reduction in the variation in the minimum and maximum oxytocin dosages. Conclusion There was much unexplained variation in hospital CS and IOL rates in NSW, which did not appear to result in differences in adverse outcomes. A novel classification system for women having an IOL was developed to allow similar populations of women having an IOL to be compared for research and quality improvement. Increased accountability and less variation in decision-making were associated with a lower hospital IOL rate. Increased use of protocols was associated with a reduction in practice variation, but it is uncertain whether it translates to better outcomes for mothers and babies.

Wiradjuri Aboriginal people in Peak Hill, a small economically-declining town in central rural New South Wales, have been subjected to a century of government policies included segregation, assimilation, and forced relocations. Despite this local, colonial history Peak Hill Wiradjuri continue to experience daily life in a distinctively Wiradjuri way. To ‘be Wiradjuri’ is to be embedded within a complex web of close relationships that are socially, morally and emotionally developed with both kin and friends, human and non-human subjects. Despite dramatic social and cultural transformations in Wiradjuri meanings and practices of relatedness, the Wiradjuri social world and their ways of self-experience remain informed by past practices. To understand contemporary socialities, and thus the significance of these transformations, this thesis is an examination of the ways in which the moral and emotional order of relatedness governs relatedness, where daily lived experience of shared emotional states can be understood in terms of a language for the self and moral framework. Specifically, this thesis is an exploration of how Wiradjuri people negotiate relatedness in a space in which shared and contrasting Wiradjuri and non-Wiradjuri inter-subjectivities are experienced. This study draws on historical research and ethnographical fieldwork to move beyond an analysis of kinship in terms of structures, roles or values to explore the deeper foundations of emotions and states of being in everyday life.

Responsible Government began in New South Wales in 1856. Direct participation by women began 70 years later in 1925 with the election of Millicent Preston-Stanley. Her first speech questioned whether Parliament was a fit place for women. Another significant milestone was reached after another 70 years when female MLAs in the Fifty-first Parliament constituted 15% of the Legislative Assembly and female MLCs made up 33% of the Legislative Council. In the 1990s there was no formal barrier to the participation of persons on the basis of their sex but no scholarly study had addressed the question of whether the Parliament’s culture was open to all gender orientations. This study examines the hypothesis that the Parliament informally favoured some types of gender behaviour over others. It identifies ‘gender’ as behaviour rather than a characteristic of persons and avoids the conflation of gender with sex, and particularly with women exclusively. The research used interviews, observation and document study for triangulation. The thesis describes the specific context of New South Wales parliamentary politics 1995-1999 with an emphasis on factors that affect an understanding of gender. It explores notions of representation held by MPs, analyses their personal backgrounds and reports on gender-rich behaviours in the chambers. The study concludes that gender was a significant factor in the behaviour of Members of the Parliament. There were important differences between the ways that male and female MPs approached their roles. Analysis of the concept of gender in the Parliament shows that some behaviours are more likely to bring political success than are others. The methodology developed here by adapting literature from other systems has important strengths. The data suggest that there is a need for many more detailed studies of aspects of gender in parliaments.

Doctor of Philosophy
Responsible Government began in New South Wales in 1856. Direct participation by women began 70 years later in 1925 with the election of Millicent Preston-Stanley. Her first speech questioned whether Parliament was a fit place for women. Another significant milestone was reached after another 70 years when female MLAs in the Fifty-first Parliament constituted 15% of the Legislative Assembly and female MLCs made up 33% of the Legislative Council. In the 1990s there was no formal barrier to the participation of persons on the basis of their sex but no scholarly study had addressed the question of whether the Parliament’s culture was open to all gender orientations. This study examines the hypothesis that the Parliament informally favoured some types of gender behaviour over others. It identifies ‘gender’ as behaviour rather than a characteristic of persons and avoids the conflation of gender with sex, and particularly with women exclusively. The research used interviews, observation and document study for triangulation. The thesis describes the specific context of New South Wales parliamentary politics 1995-1999 with an emphasis on factors that affect an understanding of gender. It explores notions of representation held by MPs, analyses their personal backgrounds and reports on gender-rich behaviours in the chambers. The study concludes that gender was a significant factor in the behaviour of Members of the Parliament. There were important differences between the ways that male and female MPs approached their roles. Analysis of the concept of gender in the Parliament shows that some behaviours are more likely to bring political success than are others. The methodology developed here by adapting literature from other systems has important strengths. The data suggest that there is a need for many more detailed studies of aspects of gender in parliaments.

This thesis examines mortality rates among adults who experienced full-time imprisonment in New South Wales between January 1988 and December 2002, by record linkage to the Australian National Death Index. The cohort included 76383 men and 8820 women. Over a mean follow-up of 7.7 years, 5137 deaths (4724 men, 423 women) were identified. Three hundred and three deaths (295 men, eight women) occurred in custody. The median age at death was 36.6 years for men and 32.7 years for women. The prominent causes of death were drug overdose, suicide, accidental and cardiovascular disease. The crude mortality rate was 797 per 100000 person-years for men and 685 per 100000 person-years for women. Risk of mortality was 3.7 times greater in male and 7.8 times greater in female prisoners than the standard population. The excess mortality was substantially raised following release from prison in both men (standardised mortality ratio 4.0 vs 1.7) and women (standardised mortality ratio 8.2 vs 2.1). The period of highest risk of death was the first two weeks after release. Drug overdose was the main cause of death, responsible for 68% of the deaths in the first two weeks for men and for 90% of the deaths in this period for women. In men, there was also a clustering of suicide directly after release. Prisoners admitted to prison psychiatric hospital, repeat offenders and those in the early stage of followup were at increased risk of mortality. Violent offenders were overrepresented in suicide figures and property offenders in death from overdose. Minority groups, in particular men, had a lower risk of death than white people. The above findings reinforce how disadvantaged prisoners are, measured by mortality as the most fundamental scale of human wellbeing. Prison represents a potential opportunity for treatment and public health intervention to address some of the health problems underlying the high mortality found in this study. The key challenge is, however, to provide a continuum of care between the prison and community.

This research conducts a conceptual and qualitative investigation into the practices, rationales and functions of imprisonment in NSW. A specific system of imprisonment, in this case the prisons operated by the NSW Department of Corrective services, is explored in order to examine the practices, processes and justifications for incarceration. The various purposes, theories, rhetorics, practices and contradictions of the prison system in NSW and the ways in which the people who are responsible for the administration of this system make sense of its operations and its incoherencies, are central to this analysis. This research utilises a hybrid methodology involving aspects of content analysis and grounded theory. At the centre of this research are eight interviews with senior NSW Corrective Services staff. This analysis is supplemented by interview with ex-prisoners, and other people familiar with, but not working for Corrective Services. In addition a documentary analysis of both Corrective Services documents, and external literature examining NSW prison is carried out. The findings of these analyses are then explored with reference to both their internal coherency, as well as their relationship to a range of theoretical frameworks. The thesis connects abstract and philosophical questions of punishment and penalty with the logistics of running the prison system in NSW. This research found a diversity of practices, understandings and justifications of imprisonment which connected to particular cultural, social philosophical and structural trends. These included victimary discourses, the rhetoric of progress, the influence of managerialism, the faith in ???objective??? professionals, the increasing emphasis on empiricism, the conflicts between coercive practices and individual responsibility, the construction of prisoners as dangerous, and an ongoing struggle for purpose. Imprisonment in NSW was found to be characterised by discrepancies between the intentions of its administrators and pragmatics of its practice, conflicts between internal explanations of its purpose, as well as contradictions between internal Corrective Services accounts and external expectations about the roles, functions and practices of imprisonment. Theoretical perspectives explaining why these characterise imprisonment in NSW were developed. These perspective include the ???ought/is??? confusion of penal administrators, the inhumanity of humane containment, the myth of technocratic amorality, and the sedimentation of purpose.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Environmental & Life Sciences, Graduate School of the Environment, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references: p. 228-232.
Geomorphology, archaeology and geoarchaeology: introduction and background -- Surface stone artefact scatters: why can we see them? -- Geomorphic controls on spatial patterning of the surface stone artefact record -- A temporal framework for interpreting surface artefact scatters in Western NSW -- Synthesis: stone artefact scatters in a dynamic landscape.
Surface scatters of stone artefacts are the most ubiquitous feature of the Australian Aboriginal archaeological record, yet the most underutilized by archaeologists in developing models of Aboriginal prehistory. Among the many reasons for this are the lack of understanding of geomorphic processes that have exposed them, and the lack of a suitable chronological framework for investigating Aboriginal 'use of place'. This thesis addresses both of these issues. -- In arid western NSW, erosion and deposition accelerated as a result of the introduction of sheep grazing in the mid 1800s has resulted in exposure of artefact scatters in some areas, burial in others, and complete removal in those parts of the landscape subject to concentrated flood flows. The result is a patchwork of artefact scatters exhibiting various degrees of preservation, exposure and visibility. My research at Stud Creek, in Sturt National Park in far western NSW, develops artefact and landscape survey protocols to accommodate this dynamic geomorphic setting. A sampling strategy stratified on the basis of landscape morphodynamics is presented that allows archaeologists to target areas of maximum artefact exposure and minimum post-discard disturbance. Differential artefact visibility at the time of the survey is accommodated by incorporating measures of surface cover which quantify the effects of various ephemeral environmental processes, such as deposition of sediments, vegetation growth, and bioturbation, on artefact count. -- While surface stone artefact scatters lack the stratigraphy usually considered necessary for establishing the timing of Aboriginal occupation, a combination of radiocarbon determinations on associated heat-retainer ovens, and stratigraphic analysis and dating of the valley fills which underlie the scatters, allows a two-stage chronology for huntergatherer activity to be developed. In the Stud Creek study area, dating of the valley fill by OSL established a maximum age of 2,040±100 y for surface artefact scatters. The heatretainer ovens ranged in age from 1630±30 y BP to 220±55 y BP. Bayesian statistical analysis of the sample of 28 radiocarbon determinations supported the notion, already established from analysis of the artefacts, that the Stud Creek valley was occupied intermittently for short durations over a relatively long period of time, rather than intensively occupied at any one time. Furthermore, a gap in oven building between about 800 and 1100 years ago was evident. Environmental explanations for this gap are explored, but the paiaeoenvironmental record for this part of the Australian arid zone is too sparse and too coarse to provide explanations of human behaviour on time scales of just a few hundred years. -- Having established a model for Stud Creek of episodic landscape change throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene, right up to European contact, its veracity was evaluated in a pilot study at another location within the region. The length of the archaeological record preserved in three geomorphically distinct locations at Fowlers Gap, 250 km south of Stud Creek, is a function of geomorphic dynamics, with a record of a few hundred years from sites located on channel margins and low terraces, and the longest record thus far of around 5,000 years from high terrace surfaces more remote from active channel incision. But even here, the record is not continuous, and like Stud Creek, the gaps are interpreted to indicate that Aboriginal people moved into and out of these places intermittently throughout the mid to late Holocene. -- I conclude that episodic nonequilibrium characterizes the geomorphic history of these arid landscapes, with impacts on the preservation of the archaeological record. Dating of both archaeological and landform features shows that the landscape, and the archaeological record it preserves, are both spatially and temporally disjointed. Models of Aboriginal hunter-gatherer behaviour and settlement patterns must take account of these discontinuities in an archaeological record that is controlled by geomorphic activity. -- I propose a new geoarchaeological framework for landscape-based studies of surface artefact scatters that incorporates geomorphic analysis and dating of landscapes, as well as tool typology, into the interpretation of spatial and temporal patterns of Aboriginal huntergatherer 'use of place'.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
vii, 232 p. ill., maps

The history of immigration into Australia is central to the history of European Australia itself. This thesis presents the results of a study of migration from Wales to New South Wales in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The primary data for this study are New South Wales colonial immigration, shipping and census records. The records from the years 1875 to 1885 have proved to be a rich source of information about the migration of people from counties in Wales to New South Wales. A major purpose of this study has been to determine what sort of information about patterns of migration is recoverable and what questions can be asked and answered using the data retrieved. This thesis challenges the assumption, implicit or explicit in previously published work on the Welsh in Australia, that little in the way of useful statistical data was recoverable due to the historic and official submergence of Wales into England. It has been shown that accurate and detailed data on assisted immigrants from Wales can be recovered from the colonial records. Significant findings are presented regarding counties of origin, occupations, places of settlement, evidence of chain and stage migration, family group and individual male and female migration patterns and evidence of links between communities in Wales and New South Wales. Interpretation of these findings provides valuable evidence relevant to long-standing debates about whether Welsh migration patterns were distinctly different from the rest of the British Isles. The urban and industrial background of the majority of immigrants from Wales argues against widely accepted views about factors influencing internal movement from rural to industrial areas and the conclusion that there was little emigration overseas from industrial Wales. The recovered data about the Welsh immigrants to New South Wales demonstrate a need to re-examine traditional assumptions about Welsh migration in general and to Australia in particular.

This study examines how the New South Wales (NSW) club industry attained and retained the privilege to operate gaming machines, and how it has maintained a position of relative advantage over other operators in the gaming industry through favourable government regulation and concessional taxation. This favourable treatment has had a major impact on public policy and government finances. The history over five decades of the club industry’s privileged access to gaming machine operations and concessional tax treatments, serves as background to recent events — an effort in 2003 by the NSW Government to remove the preferential tax treatment. This occurred after a period of 'softening up' by policy entrepreneurs within the public service. Predictably, the initiative was strongly resisted by the club industry, which undertook a well-resourced and multi-faceted campaign to overturn the tax increases. The account of these events is based on documentary evidence and interviews with government ministers and their advisers, other public officials, participants from the club industry, and media representatives. It is concluded that the classic model of agenda building, issue expansion and issue containment does not fully explain the course of events. The issue was directly propelled on to the government's formal agenda by gatekeepers. The club industry's subsequent campaign followed all the basic steps countenanced by the model, and failed, as Government ministers effectively contained opposition from interest groups and backbenchers. The media lost interest and the issue was no longer on the formal agenda of the NSW Government. Then key players left politics, and there was a change of ‘gatekeeper’ in the form of a new Premier. This triggered a new policy cycle, and the club industry's lobbying substantially prevailed. It is suggested that the key factors in this turnaround were the political obligations and personal incentives facing the new gatekeeper.

This sociological investigation examines the changing role of parents in the education of their children in Catholic schools in New South Wales over the twentieth century. Catholic Church documents specifically state primary parental responsibility for their children???s religious education. Catholic schools were established to inculcate faith, and assist parents??? role. This thesis asks, to what extent that role has been realised? It unravels the processes that determined and defined the changing role of Catholic parents during this period, and identifies significant shifts in institutional thinking and practices related to parents and resultant shifts in cultural and social perceptions. After half a century of conformity and comfort, a significant era followed as the Australian Church responded to challenges, including financial crisis for Catholic schools, reform in the Australian education system, and the impact of the Second Vatican Council. Cohorts from three generations were selected. Interviews and focus groups elicited memories that were recorded and analysed, in terms of the integral questions; the role and involvement of parents in Catholic schools. Participants recalled their own childhood in Catholic schools and, where applicable, as parents educating their own children, or as religious teachers. The analysis was theoretically informed by the work of Durkheim, Greeley, Coleman and Bourdieu. A review of Church documents and commentaries through the twentieth century, bearing on the education of children, showed the official Church position. Despite numerous rhetorical statements issued by Catholic authorities, emphasising the role of parents as ???primary educators???, the practical responses ranged from active encouragement to dismissal. Teachers in Catholic schools and related bureaucracies were, seemingly, reluctant to initiate a more inclusive partnership role. Gradually, and in a piecemeal fashion, the Catholic Church and its schools have been responding to growing parental consciousness of their role and responsibilities. A significant shift was signalled by the New South Wales Bishops in establishing the Council of Catholic School Parents, to be supported by a full-time, salaried Executive Officer, in 2003. But any accommodation to new understandings of parent/teacher, or family/school relation is complex and not to be oversimplified as a simple sharing, or ceding of authority.

This thesis examines cancer and mortality rates among people diagnosed with hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) infection in New South Wales (NSW) from 1990 through 2002, by linking hepatitis notifications with the NSW Central Cancer Registry (CCR) and National Death Index. Of the 39101 HBV, 75834 HCV and 2604 HBV/HCV co-infection notifications included 1052, 1761 and 85 were linked to cancer notifications and 1233, 4008 and 186 were linked to death notifications respectively. Of 2072 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) notifications to the CCR 323, 267 and 85 were linked to HBV, HCV and HBV/HCV co-infection notifications. Incidence of HCC was 6.5, 4.0 and 5.9 per 1000 person years for HBV, HCV and HBV/HCV co-infected groups. Risk of HCC in those diagnosed with hepatitis was 20 to 30 times greater than the standard population. There was a marginally statistically significant increased risk of immunoproliferative malignancies associated with HCV infection (SIR=5.6 95% CI 1.8 ???17.5). Risk of death for those with hepatitis was significantly greater, 1.5 to 5 fold, than the general population with the greatest risk among those with HBV/HCV co-infection. The primary cause of HBV deaths was liver related, particularly HCC, whereas in the HCV groups drug related deaths were most frequent. Among people with HCV, risk of dying from drug related causes was significantly greater than from liver related causes (p=0.012), with the greatest increased risk in females age 15- 24 years (SMR 56.9, 95%CI 39.2???79.9). Median age at diagnosis of HCC varied markedly by country of birth and hepatitis group: HBV 66, 63 and 57years ; HCV 51, 68 and 71 years; unlinked 69, 70 and 64 years for Australian, European, and Asian-born groups, respectively (P<0.0001 for all groups). While the risk of cancer, particularly HCC, is elevated among people with HBV and HCV infection, the absolute risk remains low. Young people with HCV face a higher mortality risk from continued drug use than from liver damage related to their HCV infection. The influence of IDU in the epidemiology of HCC in New South Wales was possibly reflected in the varying distributions of age and country of birth.

An intensive study was conducted on Posidonia australis (Brown) Hook f in south east Australia. Three sites were studied intensively (16 times a year for two years) these being in Quibray Bay (sites 1 & 2) and Port Hacking (Site 3). Site 4 in Jervis Bay and site 5 at Bonna Point in Quibray Bay were studied less intensively (four times a year for two and one year respectively). Variables examined included shoot density, leafing rate, leaf number, unit leaf weight, leaf biomass per shoot as well as biomass production of leaf, sheath, rhizome, root and reprod'u'ctive structures. Correlations between seasonal variations in these parameters were established with water temperature, light intensity and rainfall. A procedure was developed and employed which estimated net leaf production without causing major damage to the study populations. This procedure also allowed estimation of several leaf production variables for the first time. The effects of stress and disturbance on meristem activity were examined. The correlation between leaf production and standing stock was established and the suitability of using seasonal changes in leaf standing stock or biomass values to estimate production seasonality was examined. The applicability to P. australis of two procedures that indirectly estimate the plastochron was also investigated. Among the P. australis studied, significant seasonal variation occurred in unit leaf weight (mg * cm'l), total leaf biomass, leaf and rhizome biomass production, plastochron interval, and leaf and non-leaf production. The rates of most production variables peaked in late spring with minimal values recorded in early to mid-winter. Seasonal changes in relative leaf growth rate, leaf and rhizome production of P. australis shoots, highly correlated with changes in water temperature and light intensity. Mean total shoot biomass production ranged from 2.33 to 4.74 g * m'2 * day".

Doctor of Philosophy
This work was digitised and made available on open access by the University of Sydney, Faculty of Dentistry and Sydney eScholarship . It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. Where possible, the Faculty will try to notify the author of this work. If you have any inquiries or issues regarding this work being made available please contact the Sydney eScholarship Repository Coordinator - ses@library.usyd.edu.au

Doctor of Philosophy
This work was digitised and made available on open access by the University of Sydney, Faculty of Dentistry and Sydney eScholarship . It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. Where possible, the Faculty will try to notify the author of this work. If you have any inquiries or issues regarding this work being made available please contact the Sydney eScholarship Repository Coordinator - ses@library.usyd.edu.au

Intertidal wetland habitats in southeastern Australia have changed significantly during the past sixty years. Mangrove habitats have expanded both seawards and landwards, the latter being at the expense of saltmarsh habitats. This relatively common phenomenon is generally suggested to be an outcome of sea-level rise. Several factors potentially responsible for this change are examined, including changes in mean sealevel during the past 50 to 100 years, changes in climate, population growth, catchment landuse, and estuary type. A protocol for mapping estuarine habitats was developed and implemented, incorporating the application of geographic information systems. Spatial and temporal coastal wetland habitat changes at nine sites along the New South Wales coast are illustrated. These habitat dynamics were shown to not correlate between sites. The results demonstrate that sea-level rise in this region cannot solely account for the extent of change during the past sixty years. With the exception of one site (Careel Bay), there have been no correlations between contemporary mean sea-level rise and mangrove incursion of the saltmarsh habitats at the study sites, or with rainfall patterns, at the scale of observation in this study, which was largely decadal. The only correlations determined during this study have been between population growth and coastal wetland habitat dynamics in some sites. In spite of saltmarsh habitat loss being a regional phenomenon, local factors appear to have a profound bearing on the rates of change. Neither contemporary mean sea-level rise, rainfall patterns, estuary type, catchment landuse, catchment natural cover nor population pressure can account solely for the patterns in the spatial and temporal dynamics of the coastal wetlands of New South Wales. It seems apparent that regional factors create preconditions favourable for mangrove incursion, but that localised conditions have been responsible for the extent of these incursions from site to site. That is, despite higher sea-level and greater rainfall, the extent of change has been determined by the unique characteristics of each site. The results have important implications for current estuary management practices in the state of New South Wales. The lack of spatial and temporal trends in coastal wetland habitat dynamics point to the need for management to be conducted on a localised, rather than regional scale. Additionally, anthropogenic influences must be carefully managed, since the extent of mangrove habitat expansion into saltmarsh areas is unlikely to be a natural occurrence.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or human orthopneumovirus is a major cause of acute respiratory infections in infants and young children. RSV, a RNA virus, undergoes mutation. The genetic diversity seen in RSV globally has demonstrated differences, with potential phenotypic variation, compared with the prototype virus used in most vaccine research. The recent advances in whole genome (WG) sequencing technologies can help in identifying RSV evolutionary dynamics and variations associated with selective immune evasion. Molecular surveillance using WG sequencing of RSV has technical challenges characterised by extensive sequence variability among, and between, RSV A and RSV B which co-circulate during a particular season or outbreak. The phylogenomic analysis I conducted on publicly available RSV genomes demonstrated the limitations of G protein gene sequence analysis in identifying and discriminating between RSV genotypes. I developed and optimised a reproducible WG-based sequencing and bioinformatics protocol to characterise RSV strains in clinical settings. I investigated 106 RSV isolates circulating in children in NSW between 2016 and 2018 to compare with global molecular epidemiology. Whole genome phylogenetic analysis demonstrated the co-circulation of a few major RSV clades with RSV A ON1 and RSV B BA9 being predominant. Glycosylation analyses demonstrated wide diversity of N- and O-linked glycosylation sequons in the G gene that correlated with the RSV subgroups. This study has several limitations including short duration, limited population diversity, and use of archived specimens that impaired the linkage of demographic data. It has highlighted the need to establish robust global RSV surveillance to overcome the current highly biased sampling that hinders the accurate detection of the transmission dynamics of RSV. Further research is required into, and understanding of, the relationship between genome characterisation, pathobiology and clinical features.

My aim in this thesis is to develop and apply measures of low-value care (where expected benefits do not outweigh the potential harm) based on hospital administrative data in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Measurement is a prerequisite for understanding the drivers of and exploring remedies for low-value care. I developed low-value care measures for 27 procedures. In 2016-17, between 4487 and 8986 hospital episodes involved low-value care, accounting for 10% to 20% of all episodes involving these 27 procedures. However, my results almost certainly underestimate low-value care for these procedures. The proportion of low-value care varied considerably between hospitals. Multilevel modelling analysis confirmed that most variation is between hospitals; Local Health District and residential area have little association with low-value care. None of the (limited) hospital variables available were associated with low-value care. Further exploration of inter-hospital variation will require more detailed hospital data, including attitudes of individual clinicians within hospitals. Low-value care is also a patient safety issue. I used 16 hospital-acquired complications (HACs) to examine some immediate adverse consequences of low-value care. Across seven procedures where recommended care would not normally involve hospital admission, HAC rates ranged from 0.1% to 15.0% of the low-value episodes. To the best of my knowledge, these patients only entered hospital for the low-value procedure; therefore, the HACs can be attributed to the low-value care. This project occurred in partnership with the NSW Ministry of Health. Two other states commissioned analyses using their own data, and a peak private health insurance industry body commissioned an analysis using private health fund data. State health departments are using these methods to provide feedback to clinicians and hospital managers and may in future incorporate the indicators into funding and performance agreements.

This thesis is about the genesis and development of the first pidgin English in Australia, called here New South Wales Pidgin. It presents a detailed analysis of the history of the language and a diachronic analysis of developments in the grammar and lexicon of the language. 'Melaleuka' refers to the model devised for the purposes of this thesis to explain the hypothesis on which the work is premised—that NSW Pidgin existed in two dialect forms. The time frame addressed is from the late eighteenth century when the language had its inception to the middle of the nineteenth century when it was consolidated. The geographical area of study encompasses the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The area was known as the colony of New South Wales until the middle of the nineteenth century.

This thesis is about the genesis and development of the first Pidgin English in Australia, called here New South Wales Pidgin. It presents a detailed analysis of the history of the language and a diachronic analysis of developments in the grammar and lexicon of the language. 'Melaleuka' refers to the model devised for the purposes of this thesis to explain the hypothesis on which the work is premised—that NSW Pidgin existed in two dialect forms. The time frame addressed is from the late eighteenth century when the language had its inception to the middle of the nineteenth century when it was consolidated. The geographical area of study encompasses the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The area was known as the colony of New South Wales until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Ovine footrot is a contagious disease of sheep caused by Dichelobacter nodosus which results in production losses and compromises the welfare of animals. The severity of disease which develops is on a spectrum, with benign, intermediate and virulent forms of disease described. The pathogenicity of three aprV2-positive D. nodosus field isolates were tested in a pen trial. Foot lesions typically associated with benign or intermediate footrot developed in the animals inoculated with the arV2- positive isolates. The efficacy of a serogroup specific bi-valent vaccine against benign and intermediate footrot was tested in four sheep farms in NSW. The use of the serogroup-specific vaccine can be effective at controlling some intermediate strains of D. nodosus. The antibody concentrations for the serogroups included in the vaccine at each farm were generally above concentrations required for protective immunity. The utility of pooled sample testing was examined using 572-foot swabs samples collected from six sheep farms in Tasmania and one farm in NSW. The test sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of the three multiplex PCR assays differed between sample types, individual serogroups and each of the three multiplex PCR assays. The pooling of five DNA samples may improve the cost effectiveness of diagnostic testing. A questionnaire survey was developed and completed by 43 sheep farmers in NSW. Risk factors associated with footrot and other hoof diseases were identified and it was determined sheep farmers in NSW consider benign and intermediate footrot an important disease which negatively affects the health and welfare of affected animals. The association between the aprV2 gene and virulence has not been established in Australian strains of D. nodosus. A method was developed to examine gene expression levels and when incubated for 5 days, the level of gene expression of isolates classified as virulent was higher than isolates classified as benign.

This dissertation offers a narrative account of the evolution of psychiatric services in the general hospitals of New South Wales (NSW) and then compares that account with published accounts concerning the evolution of psychiatric services in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). At the start of the twentieth century, to improve the early identification and treatment of mental symptoms and to prevent their advancement to overt insanity, some leading psychiatrists proposed that persons who had incipient mental disorders and who wished to avoid legal certification to mental hospitals, should be admitted to general hospitals. It will be demonstrated in this dissertation that, in NSW, between 1900 and 1960, psychiatry gained a small but significant foothold in the general hospitals. The advent of powerful new biological treatments for psychosis between 1938 and 1955, made possible the commencement of a second phase of general hospital psychiatry (GHP) in the 1960s, during which there was a massive migration of acute psychiatric services into the general hospitals. In the 1970s, public psychiatric services in NSW split into community-oriented services and consultation-liaison services, each of which had a secure base in the general hospitals. The evolution of GHP followed similar but non-identical pathways in NSW, in the UK, and in the USA. The pathway adopted in NSW was initially like that followed in the UK but started to diverge from it after 1948. After 1960, psychiatry in NSW became even less reliant on British influences and more open to ideas from the USA concerning preventive psychiatry, community psychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry. By 1994, psychiatric services in NSW were following a trajectory that was determined by local experience and expertise and were no longer greatly dependent on influences beyond the Australian shores.

Field peas have been under evaluation in the northern cropping region of Australia for the past five years and have been shown to offer growers advantages in terms of soil fertility, weed control and a disease break for following winter cereal crops. The advanced lines identified with attributes suitable for reliable production of the crop in the region have all been semileafless types, and of either semi dwarf or tall plant height. Before the crop can be successfully delivered to the regional growers, information on planting time, planting rate and the effect of the crop on soil moisture availability for subsequent crops is needed. In this way, growers can evaluate if peas will fit into their farming system. The work reported in this thesis addresses the issues of row spacing and plant density as they determine planting rate as well as the effect of growing peas on soil moisture content during the growing season. This was done using six field pea genotypes varying for leaf type and plant height grown for three years in a three replicate randomised complete block design experiment, split for row spacing and plant density. Choice of row spacings were 13, 25 and 50 cm, while plant density treatments were 15, 30, 60 and 120 plants/m2

Aims to investigate obstetric blood transfusion practice at maternity hospitals in NSW with a range of geographical locations, clinical settings and obstetric transfusion rates including the antepartum use of intravenous (IV) iron and postpartum use of single unit red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. Methods A qualitative research study using semi-structured interviews was conducted. Nine maternity hospitals were chosen to cover a range of clinical settings and obstetric transfusion rates in NSW. Interviews were conducted in person with haematologists, obstetricians and midwives. Results There were 5 high-transfusing and 4 low-transfusing hospitals. 125 interviews were conducted, 61 with doctors: 42 with obstetric training and 19 with haematology training. High-transfusing hospitals were more likely to be rural or geographically isolated, have fewer staff numbers, smaller blood inventories and less stringent blood product regulation. Hospital/pharmaceutical, clinician and patient factors influenced the decision to use IV iron. Clinician-based and external factors influenced single unit transfusion use. Most doctors with obstetric training (54%) would initiate transfusion with two RBC units. Conclusion Hospital, clinician and patient-level factors influenced obstetric transfusion practice. Clinical context, resource availability, clinician knowledge and experience, and perceptions of utility of specific interventions were important. The findings have implications for clinician education, blood product provision and inventory management.

In this thesis I explore the emerging concept of and existing approaches for, Sustainability Management Systems (SMS), and consider their relevance and potential application to the context of landfill facilities in New South Wales. The methods I employ for this research are literature review and analysis supported by an illustrative desktop case study. The first part of my literature review provides an understanding of universal sustainability characteristics, including the three widely recognised dimensions of sustainability: environmental protection, social or community well-being, and economic viability; along with stakeholder engagement, intra and inter-generational equity, and innovation. The literature review then explores existing approaches for developing SMS, and the context of landfills in New South Wales. Through the review and analysis of existing SMS approaches in light of the New South Wales landfill context, I identify the ‘Expansion of Environmental Management Systems (EMS)’ approach as the most appropriate to follow. I develop a SMS framework based on the ‘Expansion of EMS’ approach specifically for landfills in New South Wales. The framework follows the Plan, Do, Check, Act continual improvement cycle utilised by EMS and expands the typical scope of an environmental management system at each stage of the cycle to include sustainability characteristics identified earlier through the literature review. In applying my SMS framework to a real-life New South Wales landfill in a desktop case study I provide an example of how the framework can be interpreted to design and develop a landfill sustainability management system. Overall my study demonstrates that the emerging field of SMS is indeed relevant to landfills in New South Wales and provides a framework and guidance to the waste management industry for SMS design and development.

This survey represents the first detailed report evaluating the effects of reproductive management and farmer demographics on reproductive performance in New South Wales dairy herds. Univariate analysis (Chapter 4) found no overwhelming factor or factors determining reproductive performance, but rather a number of different and sometimes infrequent events that influenced the outcome. Not surprisingly, herds with a longer interval for 75% of cows to recalve had a longer perceived time to first mating, a longer target time to first mating and a longer number of estimated days to first service. Other differences between groups associated with poor reproductive performance included use of embryo transfer programs; younger managers; fewer breedings per day; Holstein-Friesian herds; a greater number of people detecting heats; fewer hours spent detecting heats while handling the cows; and a failure to vaccinate bulls for vibriosis. In addition, managers of herds with poor reproductive performance were not as active in seeking veterinary assistance or advice and were attempting to treat reproductive diseases and disorders themselves.

Five separate studies were undertaken in order to assess the menus and food service systems used in Australian hospitals. In the first study, a survey of 270 food service departments in New South Wales (NSW) hospitals was carried out in 1986 using a mailed questionnaire. The results revealed that in almost half of the hospitals the head of department had no formal qualifications. Few hospitals used cook/chill catering systems; 94% used conventional food production with patient meals being plated in a central kitchen location. A significant proportion of hospitals did not satisfy the Australian Council on Hospital Standards recommendations on meal times and in 23% of hospitals the gap between the evening meal and breakfast was 15 hours or longer. To enable some evaluation of the acceptability of hospital menus, the food preferences of hospital patients were investigated in the second study. A written questionnaire was used to measure the food preferences for 197 different foods of 500 inpatients in a Sydney teaching hospital, using a nine-point hedonic rating scale. The mean preference score of each food was determined as well as the percentage of patients who had never tried each item. The most popular foods were fresh fruits, poultry and red meat. The least popular foods were pulses and offal. The food preferences of Australian inpatients showed significant differences from those found in American studies. Patient menus in Australian hospitals were assessed in the third study using two methods: (1) a written questionnaire completed by food service managers from 270 NSW hospitals, and (2) an examination of the printed menus collected from 128 of those hospitals. Ninety-six percent of hospitals used a fixed menu cycle (usually 14 days) and 89% allowed patients to select their own menu choices. Most hospitals did not offer more than two hot choices at meals, but larger hospitals provided a wider range of choices than smaller ones. Twenty four percent of hospitals with less than 50 beds used polyunsaturated oil for cooking, while only 7% of larger hospitals did so. Almost all hospitals offered high fibre breakfast cereals and wholemeal bread on their menus and 66% had polyunsaturated margarine as an alternative to butter, but only 25% routinely provided a low-fat milk option. Highly salted foods made up 13% of main menu items and one in five main meal choices could be classified as high in fat. The percentage of unpopular food items included on menus ranged from 12% for soups to 21% for desserts. Ten recommendations to improve the standards of hospital menus and a set of seventeen assessment criteria were suggested. In the fourth study, thirty hospitals were surveyed to compare the normal cooking methods and warm-holding conditions of vegetables prepared in cook/chill and cook/hot-hold food service systems. Times and temperatures during cooking, holding and service were measured for one day in each hospital. in most hospitals steamers were used to cook potatoes. pumpkin and carrots, but other vegetables were usually boiled. ln hospitals using cook/chill systems, the vegetables were held at high temperatures (above 50°C) for significantly shorter times than in hospitals with cook/hot-hold systems (49 vs 72 min; p<0.001). In cook/chill systems the vegetables underwent longer periods of holding between 10°C and 50°C during cooling and plating (mean 157 min compared with 16 min in cook/hot-hold hospitals; p<0.001). ln 9 of the 11 hospitals using a cook/chill food service temperatures of chilled food rose above the recommended maximum of 10°C before reheating. In four of the hospitals chilled food was not adequately reheated before service to patients. Many of the practices noted in this study could compromise food safety and nutrient retention. The final experiment was designed to measure the impact of typical food service handling practices in hospitals on vitamin retention. lt examined the losses of vitamin C and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in seven common vegetables, in simulated cook/hot-hold or cook/chill food services, using infra-red and conduction reheating of bulk or plated food. The results showed that the nutritional quality of vegetables will be better with a conventional catering system than in a cook/chill food service provided warm-holding times in the former are restricted to less than 90 minutes. This study also showed that the different reheating systems appear comparable in their effect on nutrient retention and that folate is highly sensitive to destruction during food service handling. Holding chilled food for up to 2 hours at room temperature did not lead to significant losses of either vitamin C or folate. The results from these studies indicate that there are many commendable aspects of the menus and food service systems employed in Australian hospitals today. However, more needs to be done to raise the level of qualifications of food service managers, to make meal times and the styles of service more flexible to meet patient needs, to use information on patient food preferences in menu planning, and to ensure that newer cook/chill food service systems do not lead to a nutritionally inferior food supply for patients.

The decline and extinction of amphibian species over the past three decades is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest biodiversity crises of modem time. Providing convincing data to support hypotheses about these declines has proved difficult, which has greatly restricted the development and implementation of management actions that may prevent further amphibian declines and extinctions from occurring. In this thesis, I present research that was undertaken as part of the recovery programs for the southern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree), and the Booroolong frog (Litoria booroolongensis); two species that underwent very rapid declines in distribution and abundance during the 1980's. More specifically, I investigated potential causal factors in the declines of both species using experimental and correlative studies, and examined the mechanisms by which one threatening process (chytridiomycosis) may be causing continued decline and extinction in P. corroboree. I also examined the implications of population dynamics for monitoring L. booroolongensis, and suggest a possible monitoring strategy that may reliably facilitate the implementation of recovery objectives for this species. I also tested one possible reintroduction technique aimed at preventing the continued decline and extinction of P. corroboree populations. In Chapters 2 and 3, I present the results from a series of experiments in artificial enclosures designed to examine whether the tadpoles of L. booroolongensis are susceptible to predation by co-occurring introduced predatory fish species; brown trout (Salmo trutta), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), European carp (Cyprinus carpio), redfin perch (Percafluviatilis), and mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki). I demonstrated that the tadpoles of L. booroolongensis, and a closely related species Litoria lesueuri, were palatable to non-native trout species, but not to two native predatory fish species, Gadopsis bispinosus and Galaxias olidus. A pond breeding frog species included in this experiment, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis, was palatable to both the native and non-native fish species. In a separate experiment I also demonstrated that the tadpole of L. booroolongensis is palatable to the three other introduced fish species examined in this study; C. carpio, P. fluviatilis, and G. holbrooki. In three of the experiments, the provision of rock within enclosures as a potential refuge habitat did not afford protection to L. booroolongensis tadpoles from predation by any of the five introduced fish species examined. While all the introduced fish species tested here did consume L. booroolongensis tadpoles, the results also suggested that chemical unpalatability might afford some level of protection against some of these fish species. Firstly, the addition of alternative prey items in one of the experiments reduced the proportion of tadpoles consumed, suggesting that L. booroolongensis may not be a preferred prey item. Secondly, the proportion of tadpoles consumed varied greatly among the different fish species examined, suggesting differing levels of palatability. Overall, this study supports previous research in suggesting that chemical unpalatability may be an important strategy for the tadpoles of riverine frog species in south-eastern Australia to avoid predation by native fish species, and that this strategy is less effective against introduced fish species. While L. booroolongensis currently persists in streams inhabited by a number of introduced fish species, this study supports the likelihood that these species are having a negative impact on populations of L. booroolongensis in the wild. In Chapter 4, I present the results of a study aimed at examining potential monitoring techniques for L. booroolongensis. The results of a mark-recapture exercise demonstrated that L. booroolongensis may exhibit large fluctuations in abundance from one year to the next, and through a prospective power analysis approach, I demonstrated that it would be difficult to confidently identify population trends of interest using either indices or estimates of abundance for this species. An assessment of the capacity to identify the presence or absence of L. booroolongensis using nighttime spotlight surveys demonstrated the high detectability of this species using this technique, at both the scale of 300-meter sections of stream and individual breeding areas (typically less than 10-meters of stream). This study suggests that the monitoring objectives of the L. booroolongensis recovery program would be most effectively achieved using presence/absence surveys at different scales. In Chapter 5, I present the results of a field survey aimed at determining the current distribution and habitat requirements of L. booroolongensis in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales. Of the 163 sites I surveyed across 49 streams,I located L. booroolongensis along 77 of these sites from 27 streams. Based on population and habitat connectivity, this study identified 18 populations of L. booroolongensis that are likely to be operating as independent populations. Twelve of these populations are not represented in conservation reserves, but rather occur along streams that flow through the agricultural landscape. A broad scale habitat analysis identified a positive relationship between extent of rock structures along the stream and the occurrence of L. booroolongensis, and a negative relationship between the proportion of canopy cover and this species' occurrence. At the breeding habitat scale, this study identified a positive relationship between the presence of breeding males and; number of rock crevices in the aquatic environment, extent of emergent rocks, and proportion pool. This analysis also detected a negative relationship between occupancy and water depth. These results confirm previous work suggesting the importance of rocky stream habitats to the persistence of L. booroolongensis, but also suggest how disturbance processes, such as increasing sedimentation and weed invasion, may reduce the suitability of rocky structures as breeding sites. In Chapter 6, I investigated current levels of amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) infection in corroboree frog populations, and used retrospective screening of museum specimens to assess the possibility that this pathogen was implicated in the initial decline of the corroboree frogs. Using histology, I did not detect any B. dendrobatidis infections in corroboree frog populations prior to their decline, however using the same technique, moderate levels of infection were detected in post-decline populations of both species. Real-time PCR screening of skin swabs identified much higher overall infection rates in post-decline populations of P. corroboree (between 44% and 59%), while significantly lower rates of infection were observed in P. pengilleyi populations (14%). These results suggest that the initial and continued decline of the corroboree frogs may well be attributed to the emergence of B. dendrobatidis in populations of these species. In Chapter 7, I investigated how B. dendrobatidis may be causing the continued decline of P. corroboree through the presence of an abundant reservoir host for this pathogen. I found that populations of adult C. signifera in sub-alpine bogs carry high B. dendrobatidis infection rates (86%), but appear unaffected by this infection. An experiment involving the release of P. corroboree tadpoles into 15 natural pools resulted in metamorphs from seven of these pools testing positive for B. dendrobatidis, with all these individuals dying soon after metamorphosis. These results support the possibility that B. dendrobatidis infection in P. corroboree populations is being facilitated by the presence of large numbers of infected C. signifera in the shared environment. Chapter 8 presents the results of a population augmentation study for P. corroboree. I investigated the extent to which increasing recruitment to metamorphosis may result in population recovery in this species. This was undertaken by harvesting eggs from the field and rearing them through to mid stage tadpoles over the winter period prior to being released back to their natal ponds in spring. While I was able to increase recruitment to metamorphosis by an average of 20 percent, this did not result in a noticeable influence on the subsequent adult population size, as both manipulated and non-manipulated sites declined over the course of this study by an average of 80 percent. I observed a positive relationship between natural recruitment to a late tadpole stage and subsequent adult male population size, however there was considerable variation associated with this relationship. The relationship between recruitment and subsequent population size at the augmentation sites was consistent with the relationship observed at the non-manipulated sites. These results suggest that recruitment to metamorphosis may not be the most important life stage restricting the population recovery of P. corroboree, but that mortality during post-metamorphic stages may be more important in regulating current population size. Hence, further attempts to use captive rearing to increase P. corroboree populations in the wild should focus on the release of post-metamorphic frogs. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the value of quantitative research to the implementation and progress of threatened species recovery programs. While this research will specifically contribute to the recovery programs for L. booroolongensis and P. corroboree, it more broadly contributes to the understanding and capacity to respond to the concerning levels of amphibian extinctions currently occurring throughout the world.