Дисертації з теми "Newcastle and Northern New South Wales"

Issues arising from climate change and long-term natural climate variability have become the focus of much recent research. In this study, we specifically explore the impacts of long-term climate variability and climate changes upon flood frequencies. The analyses of the flood frequencies are carried out in a comparative manner in catchments located in semiarid-temperate and tropical landscapes in Australia, namely Perth, Newcastle and Darwin, using a process-based derived flood frequency approach. The derived flood frequency analyses are carried out using deterministic rainfall-runoff models that capture the intrinsic water balance variability in the study catchments, and driven by temporal rainfall event sequences that are generated by a stochastic rainfall model that incorporates temporal variabilities over a multiplicity of time scales, ranging from within-event, between-event to seasonal, multi-annual and multi-decadal time scales. Six climate scenarios are considered for Newcastle, that combine the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and IPO (Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation) modes of variability, and six different climate scenarios are considered for Perth and Darwin that combine these different ENSO modes and step changes in climate (upwards or downwards) that occurred in 1970 in both regions, which were identified through statistical analysis. The results of the analyses showed that La Niña years cause higher annual maximum floods compared to El Niño and Neutral years in all three catchments. The impact of ENSO on annual maximum floods in the Newcastle catchment is enhanced when the IPO is negative and for Perth, the impact of ENSO weakens in the post-1970 period, while it strengthens in Darwin in the same period. In addition, the results of sensitivity and scenario analyses with the derived flood frequency model explored the change of dominant runoff generation processes contributing to floods in each of the study catchments. These analyses highlighted a switch from subsurface stormflow to saturation excess runoff with a change of return period, which was much more pronounced in Perth and Darwin, and not so in Newcastle. In Perth and Darwin this switch was caused by the interactions between the out-of-phase seasonal variabilities of rainfall and potential evaporation, whereas the seasonality was much weaker in Newcastle. On the other hand, the combination of higher rainfall intensities and shallower soil depths led to saturation excess runoff being the dominant mechanism in Newcastle across the full range of return periods. Consequently, within-storm rainfall intensity patterns were important in Newcastle in all major flood producing events (all return periods), where they were only important in Perth and Darwin for floods of high return periods, which occur during wet months in wet years, when saturation excess runoff was the dominant mechanism. Additionally, due to the possibility of a change of process from subsurface stormflow to saturation excess when conditions suited this switch, the estimates of flood frequency are highly uncertain especially at high return periods (in Darwin and Perth) and much less in Newcastle (when no process change was involved).

The proposition that this thesis investigates is that the Northern Rivers region of NSW, the area from Grafton to Tweed Heads, is growing as a lifestyle and learning region with the potential for audiovisual industry activity to develop as a series of networked industry clusters. The cluster model is explored as an alternative approach to industry development that offers new opportunities for enterprise building and new options for government intervention in the cultural industries in the region. The concept of creative industries is also applied to scope new collaboration and economic development options for the cultural industries, creative arts, media and communications sectors and a new agenda for collective action amongst industry players in the region. The thesis confirms that audiovisual and creative industries' activity in the Northern Rivers region has reached a significant level in terms of representation in the workforce and economic and social benefit to the region. The research identified a total of 1,621 people involved in audiovisual industries in the region, representing a growth of 214% since 1996. The total number of people involved in creative industries in the region in 2000 was conservatively estimated to be 3,500, which is 4.1 % of the local work force, a significant figure for a non-metropolitan region. The thesis questioned the usefulness of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data in providing an accurate picture of creative industries, and the research may be considered a pioneering work in its method of collecting data on creative industry cluster developments in Australia. The thesis concludes that the Northern Rivers region has an active, significant and growing audiovisual industry within the creative milieu of a lively and growing creative industries' sector, and has the potential to develop as a series of networked creative industries' clusters. However, considerable barriers and difficulties exist at both the local and national levels for these industries, and specific measures need to be taken urgently to support this developing sector and to provide the infrastructure and mechanisms needed to ensure that the current growth is sustainable.

The three-dimensional thermal maturity pattern has been investigated and the hydrocarbon generation potential assessed for the Permian and Triassic sequences of the southern Bowen and northern Gunnedah Basins and the lower part of the overlying Jurassic Cretaceous Surat Basin sequence in northern New South Wales. An oil-source rock correlation also has been investigated in the Gunnedah Basin. Vitrinite reflectance measurements were conducted on 256 samples from 28 boreholes. A total of 50 of these samples were subjected to Rock-Eval pyrolysis analysis, and 28 samples extracted for additional organic geochemical studies (GCMS). A re-evaluation of the stratigraphy in the southern Bowen Basin and a stratigraphic correlation between that area and the northern Gunnedah Basin was also included in the study. An overpressured shaly interval has been identified as a marker bed within the lower parts of the Triassic Moolayember and Napperby Formations, in the Bowen and Gunnedah Basins respectively. Suppressed vitrinite reflectance in the Permian sequence was used as another marker for mapping the stratigraphic sequence in the southern Bowen Basin. The Permian sequence in the Bowen Basin thins to the south, and probably pinches out over the Moree High and also to the west. The coal-bearing Kianga Formation is present in the north and northeastern parts of the study area. A disconformity surface between Digby and Napperby Formations in the Gunnedah Basin is probably time-equivalent to deposition of the Clematis Group and Showgrounds Sandstone in the Bowen Basin. The Clematis Group is absent in the study area, and the Moolayember Formation considered equivalent to the Napperby Formation. Although in many cases core samples were not available, handpicking of coal or shaly materials from cuttings samples where geophysical log signatures identify these materials helped in reducing contamination from caved debris. Histogram plots of reflectance also helped where the target and caved debris were of similar lithology. Vertical profiles of the vitrinite reflectance identified suppressed intervals in the study area due to marine influence (Back Creek Group and Maules Creek Formation) and liptinite rich source organic matter (Goonbri Formation). The suppression occurs due to the perhydrous character of the preserved organic matter. High reflectance values were noted within intrusion-affected intervals, and two types of igneous intrusion profiles were identified; these are simple and complex profiles. An isoreflectance map for the non-suppressed interval at the base of the Triassic sequence in the southern Bowen Basin shows that the organic matter is mature more towards the east close to the Goondiwindi Fault, and also towards the west where the Triassic sequence directly overlies the basement. High values also occur over the Gil Gil Ridge in the middle, to the south over the Moree High, and to the north where the sequence is thicker. The reflectance gradient in the suppressed intervals is higher than in the overlying non-suppressed sequences, especially when the rank has resulted from burial depth. Tmax from Rock-Eval pyrolysis was found to be lower in the perhydrous intervals, and was high in mature and igneous intrusion-affected intervals. Based on the source potential parameters, the Permian Back Creek Group is a better source than the Kianga Formation, while the Goonbri Formation is better than the Maules Creek Formation. The Triassic Napperby Formation has a fair capacity to generate oil, and is considered a better source rock than the equivalent Moolayember Formation. The Jurassic Walloon Coal Measures is a better source than Evergreen Formation, and has the best source rock characteristics, but is immature. The Rock-Eval S1 value shows better correlation with extracted hydrocarbon compounds (saturated and aromatics) than the total extractable organic matter. This suggests that solvent extraction has a greater ability to extract NSO compounds than temperature distillation over the Rock-Eval S1 interval. Terrestrial organic matter is the main source input for the sequences studied. This has been identified from organic petrology and from the n-alkane distributions and the relatively high C29 steranes and low sterane/hopane ratios. The absence of marine biomarker signatures in the Permian marine influenced sequence, could be attributed to their dilution by overwhelming amounts of non-marine organic matter. A mainly oxic to suboxic depositional environment is inferred from trace amounts of 25-NH, BNH and TNH. This is further supported by relatively high pr/ph ratios. Although C29/C30 is generally regarded as an environmental indicator, high values were noted in intrusion-affected samples. The 22S and 20S ratios were inverted ????reaches pseudo-equilibrium???? in such rapidly heated, high maturity samples. The ratio of C24 tetracyclic terpane to C21-C26 tricyclic terpanes decreases, instead of increasing, within the Napperby Formation close to a major igneous intrusive body. The 22S ratio, which is faster in reaction than the other terpane and sterane maturity parameters, shows that the Permian sequence lies within the oil generation stage in the Bowen Basin, except for a Kianga Formation sample. The Triassic sequence is marginally mature, and the Jurassic sequence is considered immature. In the Gunnedah Basin, the Permian sequence in Bellata-1 and Bohena-1, and the Triassic sequence in Coonarah-1A, lie within the oil generation range. In the intrusion-affected high maturity samples, the ratio is reaches pseudo-equilibrium. This and other terpane and sterane maturity parameters are not lowered (suppressed) in the perhydrous intervals. The ???????? sterane ratio, however, is slowest in reaction to maturity, and variations in low maturity samples are mainly due to facies changes. Diasterane/sterane ratios, in the current study, increase with increasing TOC content up to 5% TOC, but decrease in rocks with higher TOC contents including coals. Highly mature samples, as expected, in both cases are anomalous with high ratios. Calculated vitrinite reflectance based on the method of Radke and Welte (1983), as well as MPI 1 and MPI 2, shows the best comparison to observed values. These aromatic maturity parameters are lowered within the reflectance-suppressed intervals. Oil stains in the Jurassic Pilliga Sandstone in the Bellata-1 well have been identified as being indigenous and not due to contamination. The vitrinite reflectance calculated to the oil stain suggests that the source rock should be within a late mature zone. Such high maturity levels are only recognised within intrusion-affected intervals. A close similarity between the oil stain sample and the intruded interval of the Napperby Formation is evident from the thermal maturity and biomarker content. Hydrocarbon generation and expulsion from the lower part of the Napperby Formation as a result of igneous intrusion effects is suggested as the source of the oil in this particular occurrence. Terpane and sterane maturity parameters increase with increasing burial depth in the intervals with suppressed (perhydrous) vitrinite reflectance. The generation maturity parameters also increase through intervals with perhydrous vitrinite, which suggests that hydrocarbons continue to be generated and the actual amount is increasing even though traditional rank ????????????stress???????????? maturity parameters are lowered. Accordingly, the Permian sequences in the lower part of the Bowen Basin are at least within the peak oil generation zone, and probably within late oil generation in the north and northeast of the study area. To generate significant amounts of hydrocarbon, however, the thickness of the shaly and coaly intervals in the Permian sequence is probably a critical parameter. In the Gunnedah Basin, a significant amount of hydrocarbon generation is probably only possible as a result of igneous intrusions.

Masters Research - Master of Arts (Economics)
This research thesis traces the development of peak union organisation in the Hunter Valley from its beginnings in 1869 through to 1980, with a postscript covering the more recent years. The study is placed in a political and economic context with the early developments culminating in the formation of the Newcastle Trades Hall Council (NTHC) in 1926. The following chapters trace in some detail the fortunes of that organisation from then on. Although it is a chronological study, it addresses the various themes to emerge from the literature as important to peak union organisations and their historical development. These themes are discussed in the first chapter and they encompass the relationship of the NTHC to the broader labour movement within which it was operating, the degree to which authority and independence were able to be exercised and the critical inter-relationship with community. As well, it also looks at where such a peak union council was placed in respect of the competing ideologies 'socialism' and 'laborism' and the associated struggles to win the hearts and minds of the region's working class. In order to achieve this, the study takes into account the totality of the regional organisation including its industrial, cultural, community, and political involvement. Although it is primarily the history of a peak union organisation, in the process of understanding it, important aspects of the political and cultural life of the working class in the region comes to the surface and allows us a small insight into the social history of the labour movement and of the Hunter Valley's working class as a whole.

In this thesis I explore the conflicts which have arise between middle class' conservationists and working class timber communities. I examine the New South Wales rainforest controversy as a case study and seek to place the animosity and hostility which arose there within the context of class analysis. At the same time, I integrate other important dimensions of social life, particularly rural ideologies and ideologies of masculinity, into an overall analysis of class power. I show that important cultural divisions underlaid the political conflict, particularly differing conceptions of nature and history, and that these had their roots in different labour processes. After introducing my theoretical framework, I provide an economic context for my cultural analysis by examining the restructuring of the north coast hardwood timber industry during the 1960s and 1970s. This is followed by two chapters which analyse the labour process in the timber industry. Here I explore both class struggles on the shop-floor and cultural productions which arise within the workplace and in rural communities. The subsequent chapters focus more closely on environmental politics. I analyse the New South Wales rainforest campaign by offering a critique of 'pluralist' political strategies and I then locate this campaign within a wider context by briefly overviewing the anti -uranium and green bans campaigns of the 1970s. One of my major conclusions is that environmental politics is flawed by the neglect by activists of the class effects of their political activities. Assessments of political campaigns solely in terms of ecological goals are seriously deficient because they fail to register how conservationists' actions facilitate capitalist strategies of industry restructuring and thereby further entrench capitalist class power. Theoretically, my thesis is based on principles of 'realist' methodology and I use concepts drawn from labour process theory, class analysis, and the theory of ideology. The thesis is heavily weighted toward oral history material, gathered during field work interviews on the north coast of New South Wales. I analyse this material using 'popular memory' theory and other studies of working class culture. In so doing, the thesis provides timber workers with a voice in a debate which has largely been dominated by 'middle class' conservationists. Politically, the thesis is an intervention into current debates about new social movements and their relationship to the left. I argue that an effective alliance between socialists and environmentalists entails a rejection of wilderness politics in favour of urban environmental issues. I conclude that 'pluralist' political strategies of lobbying for state- conferred concessions should be rejected in favour of strategies which develop alternative economic programmes at local and regional levels.

The Wybong Creek catchment is located in the upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia, and contains award winning beef and wine producing operations. Solute concentrations in Wybong Creek are often too high for irrigation use, however, with previous research showing that the saline and Na-Cl dominated water discharged from Wybong Creek decreases water quality in both the Goulburn and Hunter Rivers into which it flows. This study therefore aimed at identifying the source of solutes to the Wybong Creek catchment and the processes which cause salinisation of surface water, soil (regolith) and groundwater. Surface water was sampled at ten sites along Wybong Creek over three years, while groundwater was sampled from most of the bores and piezometers occurring in the Wybong Creek valley. Surface and groundwater in the upper catchment were dominated by Na-Mg-HCO3. Ratios of 87Sr/86Sr and cation/HCO3 indicated these facies were due to silicate weathering of the Liverpool Ranges, with localised groundwater bodies recharging in the Liverpool Ranges and discharging in the upper Wybong Creek valley. Wybong Creek became saline, and Na-Mg-Cl dominated in the mid-catchment area, with salinity doubling between the 55 and 60 km sample sites on some dates. Changes in surface water chemistry occurred independently of surface water input from tributaries, with abrupt salinity increases within a pool between these sites attributed to groundwater input via fractures beneath the Creek. One of two salt scalds in the Wybong Creek catchment also occurs adjacent to this stretch of river. A field site was established at the mid-catchment locality of Manobalai, therefore, in order to constrain the relationship between surface water, regolith and groundwater salinity. Ten piezometers were established at Manobalai, including three piezometer nests. Most regolith at Manobalai was found to be non-saline, including that within the salt scald, with the most saline and Na-Cl dominated regolith samples occurring in some of the most moist and coarse sandy/gravel layers. Groundwater sampled from piezometers installed in the holes drilled for regolith samples had salinities up to 20 times higher than the regolith on a per weight basis, and were similarly dominated by Na-Cl. A lack of carbonate and sulfate minerals within the soils and no indication of Ca-Mg/HCO3- SO4 dominated facies within alluvial soil solutions indicated groundwater did not evolve from rainwater to Na-Cl dominated facies while infiltrating the regolith. Groundwater samples from Manobalai were instead found to be amongst the most fresh and the most saline within the Wybong Creek catchment, and changed salinity abruptly down-gradient along a transect. Groundwater flow occurred through fractures in the Narrabeen Group sandstones and conglomerates, with vertical groundwater flow via fractures causing abrupt changes in salinity. Ratios of Na/Cl, Cl/Br and 87Sr/86Sr indicated saline groundwater at Manobalai and in the lower catchment was influenced by a marine endmember and halite dissolution. A poor relationship between salinity and d18O indicated this marine endmember was not evapoconcentrated rainwater. The occurrence of saline surface and groundwater in the Wybong Creek catchment was instead attributed to discharge from the regional groundwater system occurring in the Wittingham Coal Measures, with the abrupt increases in salinity at Manobalai indicating mixing between local, intermediate and/or regional groundwater systems. Salinity is likely to function similarly to this in the rest of the Hunter Valley also. The occurrence of salinity in both the Hunter River and Wybong Creek catchments is a naturally occurring phenomenon with salinity mitigation difficult due to the regional extent of the saline groundwater systems. Living with salt strategies are therefore recommended, such as limiting irrigation using both saline and fresh water and continuing with restrictions on saline discharge from coal mines.
This work was supported by ARC Linkage grant number LP05060743. Scholarship funding was provided by The Australian National University Faculty of Science and Research School of Earth Sciences, with project funding and support also provided by Hunter Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority and the New South Wales Office of Water.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The study of place was often divided between the spatial interests of geographers and local historians intent on constructing heroic lineages. In the period of accelerated globalization however, discrete discourses on time and space are no longer tenable. Histories of place engage the transdisciplinary approach of recent scholarship in understanding the complexities and fluidity of the world in which we live. Places are constructed out of the enmeshing of the material, social and cultural. The reasons why people migrate both within and to particular places are also critical to the ongoing perceptions of that place, and the dynamics by which local communities operate within global networks. This thesis is an historical study of a recent sewage ocean outfall dispute between residents and the local council at Emerald Beach, in the Coffs Harbour region of New South Wales' Mid-North Coast. Alongside documentary sources, it uses oral testimony to examine the factors that contributed to people's understanding of their place, and the processes that resulted in the public contestation over that place. It argues that the positions taken in the sewage dispute cannot simply be perceived as a function of individual residents' responses within a bounded local context, but were a result of the complex processes of internal migration to the region since colonisation, and especially since the 1970s, that brought competing visions for the same place. In exploring the historical traces of the dispute, the thesis examines the first wave of non-Aboriginal migration to the coastal hinterland before turning attention to the second intensive wave of migration in the postwar period. Attention shifted away from the hinterland to the coast, and the chapters examine competing uses for the coast as local born residents, tourists and the influx of new settlers from the 1970s brought diverse dreams for the warm North Coast. In particular, the sewage conflict that grew into the direct-action protests at Emerald Beach provides clear insights into the flows of migration and settlement that led to the particular mix of people who fought for their divergent conceptions of place as critical to their lifestyle and residency. Without examining historical representations of places and events, conflict situations such as the sewage dispute at Emerald Beach cannot be fully illuminated. By demonstrating the force of internal migration on perceptions of, and contestation within place, this thesis provides one framework from which other places might be investigated.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Despite all that has been written about the history of Australian education, there is little to show about how schools were experienced by the students for whom they were built. This thesis is an attempt to recover students’ experiences of schooling at one place in one type of schooling, from the 1930s to the 1950s. The study is situated in Newcastle, the largest provincial city in Australia. The analysis concentrates on the memories of forty female and male informants about their experiences at two state secondary schools which were selective and single sex. The schools were Newcastle Girls High School and Newcastle Boys High School. The thesis employs a blended oral history methodology developed for the study called ‘history-in-the round’. The analysis is multi layered. First, the thesis aims to increase knowledge about secondary education in the past from the students’ point of view. Second, utilising the analytic lens of gender, schools are examined as places where students were constructed as young women and men. Third, the thesis includes reflections upon the nature of personal and social memory. The history-in-the-round study produced a portrait of student experiences of their schooling during the period. It traced students’ progress through their schooling from the time of their selection and transition from the primary schools until their exits at various points from the secondary system. It exposed the micro practices of the schools to scrutiny with regard to such areas as students’ experiences of curriculum, teachers and extra curricula activities. Furthermore, the research affirmed the importance of factors outside of the ambit of the schools, in particular family, in the experience of secondary schooling and transition out of the schools into the workforce. The fundamental differences in the women’s and men’s stories were not at first apparent as they recalled their experiences of transition into high school. Both groups recounted similar stories, filled with anxiety about the move from primary to secondary school. The deeper the analysis moved into their experiences of high school, the greater the divergences based upon gender that were displayed. By the time both groups were ready to leave school, they were set on radically different courses arising in the first instance from their sex role differentiation. Although race was not a variable in the analysis since all of the students were European, the research did reveal the power of economic and social class to produce divergent educational experiences and outcomes for both females and males. The thesis underscores the importance of awareness of class in gendered analyses. One of the basic findings was that the boys school operated within the wider society’s hegemonic view of masculinity. The school offered no challenges to the existing social order. Instead it supported that order. The school articulated its role as producing young men who would be breadwinners, social leaders, and soldiers should the society need them. The ideal model of masculinity held up to the students was ‘the gentleman’. On the whole, the male interviewees were less conscious of the forces exerted by gender formation than were the women. On the other hand, the girls school occupied an ambivalent position. Its project was deeply subversive of traditional gender roles for women, especially for high achieving girls. This subversion happened directly and indirectly. In the direct way, for example, female students were encouraged to think in terms of careers. Indirectly unmarried professional women teachers modelled an alternative life path for women outside of the domestic norm. At the same time as it was subverting the gender order, the school was advocating and reinforcing a strict normative model of femininity based on the concept of ‘the lady’. These basic differences in orientation formed the foundation for the variations in the cultures of each school. In the final section the women and the men reflected upon the differences between the education they received and education as they perceive it now. Their conclusions form the basis for an analysis of educational mythologies that exist today and which shape ideas about schools now. In this way the past ‘lives’ and informs the politics of schooling in New South Wales.

Thesis (PhD)-- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science. 2006.
Bibliography: p. 229-249.
Ch. 1. Introduction -- ch. 2. An ethnobotanical study with the Kamilaroi and Muruwari Aboriginal communities and relationship building -- ch. 3. Biological assay methods and optimisation -- ch. 4. Ethnopharmacological study of Eremophila sturtii -- ch. 5. Ethnopharmacological study of Exocarpos aphyllus -- ch. 6. General conclusions -- Appendices.
This study covered the documentation of first-hand medicinal plant knowledge of Aboriginal communities in northern New South Wales through the isolation and characterisation of bioactive compounds from Aboriginal medicinal plants.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xx, 249 p. col. ill., maps, ports

Masters Research - Master of Philosophy
This exegesis is a supportive document to the Sculptural Installation works produced in response to a visual exploration of the tall timber forests of northern NSW. Personal lived experience of the forest environment underpins this investigation and adds to the final presentation of the creative works of art. This particular landscape in the valley of Tanban, Eungai Creek in the Nambucca Shire holds the marks and traces of past human endeavor and is one of many coastal forest sources of the magnificent timber tree – red cedar, and the mythic tales of cedar getters who worked the forests. This place of trees is imbued with memories deeply seated in the cultural identity of the region and is a site of conflict, survival and settlement. Past and present timber practices have left their mark and the landscape bears the scars. Today Indigenous peoples within the region are reclaiming once lost sacred sites within the forest landscape and the once contested forestry practices and blockades have made way for the preservation of old growth, rainforests and cultural sites of significance into reserves and national parks. The sculptural installation works presented here are a reflection of my personal connection to this landscape of trees and the deeply embedded histories the forest contains.

Masters Research - Master of Philosophy
This exegesis is a supportive document to the Sculptural Installation works produced in response to a visual exploration of the tall timber forests of northern NSW. Personal lived experience of the forest environment underpins this investigation and adds to the final presentation of the creative works of art. This particular landscape in the valley of Tanban, Eungai Creek in the Nambucca Shire holds the marks and traces of past human endeavor and is one of many coastal forest sources of the magnificent timber tree – red cedar, and the mythic tales of cedar getters who worked the forests. This place of trees is imbued with memories deeply seated in the cultural identity of the region and is a site of conflict, survival and settlement. Past and present timber practices have left their mark and the landscape bears the scars. Today Indigenous peoples within the region are reclaiming once lost sacred sites within the forest landscape and the once contested forestry practices and blockades have made way for the preservation of old growth, rainforests and cultural sites of significance into reserves and national parks. The sculptural installation works presented here are a reflection of my personal connection to this landscape of trees and the deeply embedded histories the forest contains.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The second half of the twentieth century was a period of major reform in the administration of mental health in Western democracies, when the orientation of state mental health services turned from legally certified to voluntary patients and psychiatric treatment moved from hospital to community settings. This thesis tells the story of reform of the administration of mental health during the development of community mental health services from 1960 to 1980. It positions the changing role of the patient as crucial to these reforms. I argue that Newcastle and the surrounding Hunter Valley region in New South Wales, Australia, was a site of particular importance in genealogies of patients. Newcastle, an industrial, regional city, was undergoing shifts representative of wider demographic and economic trends in the West during this period, and was the location for experimentation in the administration of mental health. These developments were linked to the emergence of patient rights and obligations, and developments influenced psychiatry and medical education. While the changing authority of patients in the administration of mental health has received little scholarly attention, in this study I argue that it has a central place in mental health histories. I demonstrate this by reconstructing the rollout of voluntary patient and community mental health services for implied patients in New South Wales in 1960-1980, with particular reference to Newcastle. I read source material against the grain to bring social and cultural perspectives to developments that shaped, and were negotiated by, patients. I draw on material from academic, health administration and community sectors, held in the David Maddison Collection in the University of Newcastle Archives, New South Wales, Australia; oral history interviews with former mental health staff and family members of patients; government reports; and interviews and published material by patients available in the public domain. In doing so I expose the lineage of twenty-first century mental health patient roles. I argue that changes in patients and services reflected an expansion in what mental health services were seen to address, and that approaches trialled in the administration of mental health have had a powerful influence on public health policy over time.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This research presents a case study of the Super Radio Network, the largest regional radio network in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Since the 1920s when radio, as a broadcast medium, was introduced to Australia the industry was highly regulated. This regulation extended to licensing, ownership limits, foreign investment and content. However, in 1992 the Keating Labor government further deregulated the radio industry through the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 giving licensees more freedom by removing ownership limits. Deregulation was meant to create a more diverse and localised radio industry. However, from 1992 onward, there has been an increase in the number of radio stations networking their programmes to regional Australia resulting in a perceived loss of local content and locally hosted programmes. This research examines the development of networking and the provision of local content and diversity in those networked environments. It examines, through interviews with radio practitioners, in particular programme-makers and managers within the Super Radio Network, how the role of radio practitioners as choice making agents work within the structures of legislation and radio formats to develop programme content for a local audience within a radio station’s licence area. Underlying this research is the focal theory of structuration developed by Anthony Giddens. The features of social systems and social production can be explained, according to Giddens, through the theory of structuration, specifically the notion of the duality of structure, which proposes that social systems, such as radio networks, exist through structural properties that consist of rules and resources that are both allocative (available material such as technology) and authoritative (non-material or human) and expressing the ‘mutual dependence’ of structure and agency. Interviews with radio practitioners show how these agents work within the structures in which the radio industry operates and the analysis shows how programme content is compiled and whether it relates to the local licence area. This analysis considers whether regulating local content and having locally hosted programmes adds to the localness of regional radio. Finally, as the thesis will demonstrate there is some confusion over the term ‘local’ and this confusion occurs not only in its use by programme-makers but also in its lack of definitional precision in broadcasting legislation and government policy statements. This results in problems for both the network operators and the communities they service. This research directly interrogates the question of what constitutes the local and localism by putting forward a definition of these terms to reflect the nature of regional radio as it competes with a burgeoning and fluid set of industry structures that streams audio content over the Internet.

The cycling of biogenic volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) within marine and terrestrial ecosystems has been shown to play an integral role in atmospheric chemistry; by influencing global climate change through the creation of cloud condensation nuclei and controlling acid-base chemistry; as well as influencing sediment chemistry including the interactions with trace metals, particularly regarding iron sulfide formation. Despite this, the examination of VSCs within Australian coastal acid sulfate soils (ASS) is an unexplored area of research. As ASS in Australia occupy an area in excess of 9 M ha, there is a clear need for a greater understanding of the cycling of these compounds within such systems. This thesis looks at the concentrations of several VSCs within agricultural and undisturbed ASS on the east coast of Australia. Initial measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) were made using passive diffusion samplers, which were followed by two detailed field-based studies looking at the concentrations and fluxes of both SO2 and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using flux-gradient micrometeorological techniques. These novel results indicated that this agricultural ASS was a substantial source of atmospheric H2S (0.036-0.056 gSm-2yr-1), and SO2 (0.095-0.31 gSm-2yr-1), with flux values equating to many other salt- and freshwater marshes and swamps. The flux data also suggested that the ASS could be a continual source of H2S which is photo-oxidised during the daytime to SO2. Measurements of both compounds showed separate, inverse correlations to temperature and moisture meteorological parameters indicating possible contributing and / or causal release factors. Further identification of these and other VSCs within ASS samplers was undertaken in the laboratory using gas chromatography in combination with solid-phase microextraction. Although SO2 and H2S were not discovered within the headspace samples, two other VSCs important in atmospheric sulfur cycling and trace metal geochemistry were quantified; dimethylsulfide (DMS; > 300??g/L) and ethanethiol (ESH > 4??g/L). The measurements of H2S, DMS and ESH are the first quantifications with Australian ASS, and they may be important for refining regional or local atmospheric sulfur budgets, as well as interpreting previous SO2 emissions from ASS. Ultimately this thesis further enhances our understanding of the cycling of VSCs within acid sulfate systems.