NARU Theses
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Item Open Access Appropriate planning for Aboriginal self determination(University of New South Wales, 1995)This thesis investigates the practice of Aboriginal community planning in order to establish how planning by Aboriginal people can empower them to pursue aspirations for collective self determination. Planning empowers people if it adds to the information, knowledge and control they have over decisions that affect their lives. However, much of the planning that is undertaken by governments acts to perpetuate Aboriginal oppression. The study used action research methods through which the researcher worked as planning facilitator with Irrwanyere, a large extended Aboriginal family whose ancestors lived in the Simpson Desert, and Wallaga, a smaller group of Aboriginal people who live on the far south coast of New South Wales. Investigation of the basis for community self definition was a necessary starting point for establishing how planning can be appropriate to each group's aspirations for self determination. 'Country and culture' provided a central structuring principle for the vision, goals and strategies articulated in each planning process and for addressing issues related to sustainable development. Each case study implemented a participatory, developmental planning process and also documented community plans for use in communication and negotiation with stakeholders. The study found that planners need a wide variety of skills to be effective in such contexts but foremost the capacity to work with the authority and skills of community members. It confirms that planning needs to be an ongoing, flexible and adaptive process, integrally linked to management, if it is to achieve its potential for Aboriginal empowerment. The study establishes the difficulties that Aboriginal people have in obtaining long term support from governments for their planning and particulalry for implementing approaches to community development that are structured around sustaining their relationships to land and natural resources. It concludes by proposing a strategy for improved government support for community based planning by Aboriginal people which would also facilitate Aboriginal participation in government planning processes and the negotiation of regional agreements about Aboriginal rights, aspirations and resources for self determination.Item Open Access The Aboriginal way forward: reverse discrimination or self-determination?(The Australian National University, 1988-01) Ditton, Pamela MaryThis sub-thesis utilises three case studies concerning contemporary Aboriginal1 issues in Central Australia as vehicles for an examination of whether the existing anti-discrimination regime, both within Australia and internationally, provides adequate and appropriate protection for the Aboriginal groupsItem Open Access Wik: Aboriginal society, territory and language at Cape Keerweer, Cape York Peninsula, Australia(University of Queensland, 1978) Sutton, PeterThis thesis is essentially ethnographic in the sense that it is a description of the sociolinguistic character of a particular human population in a remote part of northern Australia, rather than a theoretical investigation drawing widely on other substantive studies.Item Open Access The Wik region: economy, territoriality and totemism in western Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland(University of Queensland, 1978) Von Sturmer, John RichardThe Wik peoples of Western Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland, have not been subject to any general systematic review since the pioneering work of McConnel and Thomson, conducted almost 50 years ago. Nonetheless, the Wik-Mungkana, one of the component "tribes", have achieved a prominent place in anthropological literature. The thesis aims at establishing the position of the Wik-Mungkana among the other Wik "tribes". This is attempted by acrit ical review of the data available on the Wik-Mungkana of the Archer River (Part I of the thesis), and the presentation of a new body of data from a previously undescribed society generally held to form part of the Wik "nation" (Part II) . I refer to this society as the Kugu-Nganychara. In Part III the two societies (or subregions) are compared in detail. The comparison focuses on three main topics: economy and environment; territoriality and local organization; and totemism and social life. The thesis establishes that there are no major differences in social organization and cultural l i f e between the Wik-Mungkana of the Archer River, and the Kugu-Nganychara of the Kendall-Hoiroyd River system. However, it is established that McConnel's and Thomson's accounts are deficient in a number of respects. Neither reporter paid sufficient attention to observing living social situations. They concentrated on concepts and models articulated by informants rather than on social action. Thus they were unable to establish the true relations between the ideal and the actual, and, by ignoring (or failing to observe or record) certain facts, they were able to fit the Archer River data conveniently into the Kariera model put forward by Radcliffe-Brown. Moreover, McConne! and Thomson failed to come to grips with an important division between coast and inland. The Wij<, themselves see this as a major dichotomy. My own research indicates that the coastal division is characterized, among other features, by a wide (but regularly disposed) variety of environments, marked seasonal variation in resources and subsistence strategies, high population density, high linguistic diversity, small estates differing markedly in size, and by low correspondence of "increase sites" and totems. By contrast, the inland division exhibits a restricted range of environments, less marked seasonal variation in resources and subsistence strategies, low population density, little linguistic diversity, large estates with less significant variations in size, and a high correspondence of "increase sites" and totems. McConnel and Thomson choose to treat the latter situation as typically Australian, representing the coastal situation as being an aberrant case. Their reasons are unconvincing. Their claim that the Wik-Mungkana are politically (and culturally ) dominant is unsubstantiated by field investigation. It appears to relate to the necessity of aligning their material with the general Kariera model. It is clear from my investigations that neither the Kariera nor the Wik-Mungkana should occupy a privileged position in the Australian literature . I argue that the task of establishing a general pattern of Australian social (and local) organization wll need to elucidate principles which will account for the whole of the Wik region, not simply one of its sub-regions. I argue, too, that these principles are more likely to be based on social processes rather than on features of social organization. It is clear from my Kugu-Nganychara material that individual aspirations and other factors l i m i t the realization of the static universe posited by local ideology.Item Open Access Estimating regional input-output multipliers in Australia: a methodological study.(University of New South Wales, 1985-01) Phibbs, Peter J.The objectives of this study are to review the existing methodologies for estimating regional input-output multipliers, test the regional input-output model, and recommend changes to multiplier estimation techniques if appropriate. The study reveals that the input-output model, after a number of adjustments are made to its structure, can produce accurate estimates of regional impacts. This conclusion provides support for a model that has achieved widespread use, but little rigorous empirical testing. Secondly, the study concludes that there is no one preferred method for generating regional input-output tables in order to generate multipliers. A GRIT-type model is considered the preferred alternative, but the final specifications of the model depend on the amount of data that needs to be acquired by survey. It is suggested that the amount of survey work necessary depends on a number of factors, including: . the amount of available published data; . the type of region being examined; . the number and type of industries being analysed. It is considered that use of survey-based sum of intermediate coefficients is a cost-efficient data gathering technique. The third major finding of the thesis is that the accuracy of impact forecasts are improved if Service sector impacts are estimated using a simple Service employment-population model, rather than the traditional input-output model. In order to achieve consistency in impact forecasts, it is necessary to nest this Service employment-population model within a demo-economic model.Item Open Access Localism, dominance and local government(University of New South Wales, 1987) Mowbray, Martin.This study is one of historical and contemporary social policy, focussing specifically on local government. Policy relating to local government is identified as part of a broader administrative and ideological genre, localism, and is elucidated by use of the notion of hegemony. Alternative perceptions in the existing discourse on localism and local government are elaborated, before turning to the history of the establishment of local government systems in various colonial settings. After a brief review of local government's roots in Britain, the examination turns in more detail to its application in former colonies New South Wales, in British Africa, and Papua New Guinea in the years immediately before their respective political independence. Major attention is then paid to local government's development in a contemporary colonial situation - the remote Aboriginal settlements of the Northern Territory of Australia. Questions about which interests the system of Aboriginal community government services are raised and discussed, in relation to the official state policy of fostering Aboriginal self-determination. The study demonstrates that the major considerations informing the establishment of systems of local government in colonial settings have been: education of the citizenry for what is seen by the colonizing authority as a proper and responsible role in government; as a means of meeting increasing demands for services and a role in decision making, in dependent economic and political relationships; as a means of incorporating disparate groups and claims within a framework of government controlled from the centre but appearing otherwise; and as an administrative vehicle for the raising of revenue to support particular state and commercial infrastructure. The underlying theme in these considerations is one of dominance, rather than self-determination. The strong tendency to represent centralized control as local self -determination is identified as a manifestation of what appears to be a deeply rooted hegemonic propensity of local government and localist policy generally.Item Open Access With a whole heart : nurturing an ethic of caring for nature in the education of Australian planners(Murdoch University, 13/9/1996) Sarkissian, WendyThis interdisciplinary dissertation addresses one aspect of the education of Australian urban planners: an ethic of caring for Nature, conceived as a deeply grounded, contextual, ethic based on a sense of connection with the natural world. It articulates what an ethic of caring entails, explores the current state of and' potential for the teaching of environmental ethics within Australian planning schools, examines from an ethical standpoint the educational implications of direct connection with Nature, and proposes the foundations for a radical curriculum for planning education to nurture an ethic of caring for Nature. Three pivotal assumptions underpin this research: that Australian urban development is contributing to both local and global ecological crises; that the activities of urban planners help to determine the form and style of urban development and, by implication, the ecological impacts; and that the education of urban planners influences their practice. I argue that a complete revisioning of Australian urban planning education is necessary to counter the entrenched anthropocentrism and utilitarianism which underpin both planning practice and education. The dissertation sets out to address three questions: What is the current situation in Australian planning schools with respect to the relationship between planning education in general and education in environmental! ethics, in particular?; HOW might the education of urban planners in Australia be changed to contribute to the solution of ecological problems?; and How important to the educator and the student who ultimately becomes the practitioner is a direct experience of Name in giving substance and energy to the formation of environmental ethics? The study employs two primary research approaches or paths, the path of explanation and the path of expression, the first with a quantitative emphasis, and the second being primarily qualitative research; both are within the interpretive research paradigm. It addresses the educational origins of what appears to be planners' continued unquestioning participation in Australian urban development ad their resistance to embracing more realistic formulations of a relationship with Nature. It offers the first articulation of a learning model upon which an undergraduate or postgraduate curriculum could be based. The dissertation begins by asking, via an exploration of secondary sources in feminist epistemology and ethics, what an ethic of caring could involve. The current situation with respect to environmental ethics education in Australian schools of. planning is then thoroughly examined, yielding the tentative conclusion that virtually nothing is happening, that there is little to build on. Asking what could be the potential for direct experience of Nature to nourish an ethic of caring, the next section chronicles my personal experience of a year spent consciously attempting to do this: a journey to my ecological self. The last sections of the dissertation summarise the lessons learned from all aspects of the investigation, particularly the direct experience of Nature. Following examination of problems inherent in emancipatory and technocratic liberal educational philosophies, I propose the elements of a radical curriculum for planning education to nurture an ethic of caring for Nature. In the learning model which emerges, the T.EN.C.E.L. model, I argue for a curriculum which contains components of the following elements: teamwork; direct experience of Nature; grounding in community processes and experiences; the formal study of ethics, by means of environmental ethics courses; and attention to the aspects of professional literacy necessary to understand environmental issues related to planning practice. The dissertation also includes, as an appendix, a videotape, "Beginning Again with Nature: Environmental Ethics," designed to communicate those qualities of my journey to the ecological self which are better expressed in sound and images.Item Open Access From sewerage systems to septic tanks : Federal-State financial relations and urban and regional development, 1972-1977(James Cook University of North Queensland, 1980) Nettle, Rodney AlanThe period 1972-77 marked a watershed in Australian political and economic approach, commencing with the election of the first Labor Federal government for more than two decades, ending with the reelection of a conservative government virtually indistinguishable from its predecessors in the 1950's and 1960's.Item Open Access Aboriginal women: gender and employment relations in contemporary Australia(University of Bath, 1987-04) Bradley, CarolThis paper is about Australian Aboriginal women and their position in contemporary Australian society.Item Open Access Darwin reconstructed : a domestic architecture for keeps(Western Australian Institute of Technology, 1978-11) Ball, AnneIN THIS REPORT, THE ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN DETERMINANTS OF DARWIN, AND THE ARCHITECTURAL FORMS WHICH HAVE EVOLVED WITHIN THESE DETERMINANTS, HAVE BEEN OUTLINED. THE STRUCTURAL AND SOCIAL DETERMINANTS WHICH EMERGED AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE DEVASTATION INCURRED BY CYCLONE TRACY, ARE SUMMARIZED. THESE DETERMINANTS ARE THEN ANALYSED COLLECTIVELY TO REVEAL THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO AN UNPRECEDENTED DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, DISTINTIVE IN THE DARWIN CONTEXT. THE RESULTANT HOUSING FABRIC IS ANALYSED IN TERMS OF ITS MEANING TO THE OCCUPANT, ITS STRUCTURAL SUCCESS AND ITS IMPACT UPON THE RESIDENTIAL SETTING NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. -Item Open Access The effects of isolation on the aspirations and expectations of secondary school students in north-western Queensland(University of New England) Buchan, Dianne K.As a potent source of inequality geographic isolation is a concept with significant connotations for society, particularly in the Australian context since a very large part of our continent might be defined as geographically isolated.Item Open Access Outback or at home?: environment, social change and pastoralism in central Australia(University of New South Wales, 2000-01) Gill, Nicholas.This thesis examines the responses of non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australian rangelands to two social movements that profoundly challenge their occupancy, use and management of land. Contemporary environmentalism and Aboriginal land rights have both challenged the status of pastoralists as valued primary producers and bearers of a worthy pioneer heritage. Instead, pastoralists have become associated with land degradation, biodiversity loss, and Aboriginal dispossession. Such pressure has intensified in the 1990s in the wake of the Native Title debate, and various conservation campaigns in the arid and semi-arid rangelands. The pressures on pastoralists occur in the context of wider reassessments of the social and economic values of rangelands in which pastoralism is seen as having declined in value compared to 'post-production' land uses. Reassessments of rangelands in turn are part of global changes in the status of rural areas, and of the growing flexibility in the very meaning of 'rural'. Through ethnographic fieldwork among largely non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australia, this thesis investigates the nature and foundations of pastoralists' responses to these changes and critiques. Through memory, history, labour and experience of land, non-indigenous pastoralists construct a narrative of land, themselves and others in which the presence of pastoralism in Central Australia is naturalised, and Central Australia is narrated as an inherently pastoral landscape. Particular types of environmental knowledge and experience, based in actual environmental events and processes form the foundation for a discourse of pastoral property rights. Pastoralists accommodate environmental concerns, through advocating environmental stewardship. They do this in such a way that Central Australia is maintained as a singularly pastoral landscape, and one in which a European, or 'white', frame of reference continues to dominate. In this way the domesticated pastoral landscapes of colonialism and nationalism are reproduced. The thesis also examines Aboriginal pastoralism as a distinctive form of pastoralism, which fulfills distinctly Aboriginal land use and cultural aspirations, and undermines the conventional meaning of 'pastoralism' itself. The thesis ends by suggesting that improved dialogue over rangelands futures depends on greater understanding of the details and complexities of local relationships between groups of people, and between people and land.Item Open Access Multilingualism and lingua francas among Australian aborigines : a case study of Maningrida(1977-11) Elwell, Vanessa M.R.A major determinant of socio-cultural interaction amongst different groups of people is the range of their linguistic capabilities and the extent to which there is a common language available.Item Open Access Visual memory in Australian Aboriginal children and children of European descent : experimental report(1979-03-24) Knapp, Pamela-AnneThe aim of this research was to carry out using Aboriginal children from Alice Springs a replication with variations of a study by Kearins (1974; 1977), which reported superior visual memory skills among Aboriginal children from the Western Desert; and to explore further the implications of Kearins' results. The experimental task used by Kearins was a spatial version of Kim's game. Three working hypotheses were stated based on a genetic-ecological demand theory proposed by Kearins. The third hypothesis related Kearins' theory to the Aborigines' superior 'cognitive mapping' ability as described by Lewis (1976). Hypothesis 1: As a result of ecological demand Aboriginal children from Alice Springs (a desert habitat) will be superior to a matched sample of European children from Canberra on a visual memory task; and Aboriginal children will use different coding strategies in memorizing arrayed objects than will European children. Hypothesis 2: If Aboriginal children are superior to European children on a visual memory task where objects are arrayed on a matrix, this ability should be enhanced if the objects are arrayed on the ground. Hypothesis 3: Aborigines will also demonstrate superior performance if the visual memory task involves a mental rotation. Europeans were found to make significantly more correct replacements than Aborigines in experiment 1; otherwise, no significant difference of race were found in either experiments 1 or 2. On the basis of these results, an 'environmental experience' hypothesis (Drinkwater, 1976) was accepted in preference to Kearins' genetic-ecological demand hypothesis. In experiment 3, Europeans performed significantly better than the Aborigines. It was suggested that the experimental task did not adequately reflect the Aborigines' 'cognitive mapping' ability. In conclusion, these data support an explanation that any differences found between Europeans and Aborigines in visual memory skill will likely result from a complex interaction of factors largely of an environmental natureItem Open Access 'Cognitive mapping' : a cross-cultural perspective(1979-03-24) Knapp, Pamela-Anne.This review is concerned with 'cognitive mapping' (spatial cognition) in a cross-cultural perspective with particular reference to the Australian Aborigines and Australians of European descent. A 'cognitive map' is defined as a schematized representation that the individual carries in his head and refers to when moving around in his spatial environment. The process of 'cognitive mapping' is explored in terms of a model of human information processing and the general conclusions which emerge are: 1. 'Cognitive mapping' may be conceived as a dymanic process whereby selected information is integrated into a meaningful structure (a 'cognitive map') in relation to the individual's current schemata; his knowledge; and his 'world view'. 2. The 'cognitive map’ may be a visual and/or a verbal representation and its structure will likely contain the topological; projective; and possibly the euclidean relationships inherent in the landscape. 3. The major integrative processes involved in 'cognitive mapping' may be described as simultaneous and/or successive synthesis. It is suggested that there is considerable scope for cultural differences in 'cognitive mapping' at all stages in the human information processing model. This thesis is developed by comparing Aboriginal and European cultures with the emphasis on the Aborigines as the ethnographically unfamiliar culture . Three features of Aboriginal 'cognitive mapping' are outlined: 1. a highly developed bushcraft; 2. the ability to use dynamic mental maps; and 3* an indelible knowledge of spiritually significant landmarks and Dream-time tracks. Aboriginal 'cognitive mapping' is discussed in view of the human ifnormation processing model previously developed, and possible cross-cultural research hypotheses are presented. - In conclusion, it is emphasised that an ethnographic approach, the nature of which is discussed, is the only viable approach to a crosscultural investigation of large-scale 'cognitive mapping'.Item Open Access Perceptual and adaptational basis for the management of indoor climate : a study in warm Australian environments.(University of Queensland, 1985-08) De Dear, Richard JThe study examines thermal perception in office buildings and the potential for energy conservation in the practice of air conditioning. The specific objective of the study was to assess the degree of control that the body-environment heat balance exerts on thermal sensation, comfort, acceptability and preference. The setting also provided the opportunity to explore affective, cognitive and behavioural aspects of indoor-climate-related attitudes and their relationships with processes of thermal perception. Six separate field studies were conducted in a total of 23 air-conditioned and 8 non-air-conditioned buildings, involving 1163 respondents and 3290 complete sets of data. Two surveys in air-conditioned buildings were conducted in tropical Darwin; one in the "Dry" season, the other in the build-up to the "Wet" season. There were two surveys in sub-tropical Brisbane's summer; one in air-conditioned, the other in non-air-conditioned buildings, while there were also air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned building surveys conducted in mid-latitude Melbourne's summer. Subjective thermal assessments were recorded from each respondent on three separate occasions, and these were accompanied by full sets of microc1imatological data necessary to define the body-environment heat balance. These measurements were used in two mathematical models of thermal comfort; 1) Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), and 2) Standard Effective Temperature (SET), which were used to standardise thermal environments for between-group comparisons. Each respondent on their first interview was also questioned on various aspects of their thermal history. Attitudes and beliefs were assessed by means of free-answer questions, checklists, rating scales and successive interval attitude scales. Mean levels of standardised warmth were generally similar in all four air-conditioned surveys, whereas the mean thermal sensations, comfort and temperature preference assessments elicited by those envionments were significantly different between these surveys. Furthermore, the standard effective temperatures associated with optimal comfort and 20% warmth dissatisfaction were both found to vary significantly between the six surveys; the highest values being recorded in the Darwin "Dry" air-conditioned and Brisbane non-air-conditioned surveys, while the lowest values were observed in Melbourne. These data are broadly consistent with the notion of thermal experience, comprising both indoor and outdoor components, exerting an influence on thermal perceptual set points, as predicted by adaptation level theory. Further suppcrt for this interpretation was obtained from the between-survey comperisons of thermal sensitivity, with the highest values being obse'ved in the surveys where microc1imatological parameters were most homogeneous. Also, respondents who had recently arrived in Darwin from cooler locations had significantly cooler comfort set points than did long-term residents of the tropics, and exposure to home air conditioning in Dirwin lowered comfort set points further. The attitudinal data indicated that indoor climatic factors were ranked by occupants among the most important determinants of buil;-environmental quality. All air-conditioned buildings surveyed had exteisive concern among their occupants that mechanical air cooling had adverse health effects. The "sick building" syndrome possibly represents an exagerated form of this background malaise. Belief in adverse health effects was closely associated with disaffection for air conditioning, and a preference for passive designs. A majority of non-air-conditioned building occupants preferred such buildings, while the reverse was true of the air-conditioned building occupants. Preference for mechanical cooling was highest in the build-up to Darwin's "Wet" season, but for six months of the year, a majority preferred non-air-conditioned buildings in that city. Overall thermal impressions of indoor seasonal conditions, and the general level of thermal satisfaction with the survey buildings were both dissociated from prevailing mean microc1imatological Conditions. The notion of a universally optimal climate, advanced originally by climatic determinists, and subsequently promulgated by the HVAC industry, ignores both the physiological and psychological adaptability of building occupants. Recognition of this perceptual plasticity facilitates energy conservation in HVAC sytem operation by reductions of outdoor/indoor thermal gradients, temperature drifts and ramps, and broadened set temperature control deadbands. Furthermore, a greater reliance on human adaptation instead of mechanical adjustment, combined with widespread concern about the side-effects of air conditioning, enhance the viabiliItem Open Access A survey of the Kimberley pastoral industry from 1885 to the present(University of Western Australia, 1953-10) Bolton, Geoffrey CurgenvenThe Kimberley District is the northernmost portion of Western Australia. It is bounded on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the east by the border-line with the Northern Territory.Item Open Access The pearl-shellers of Torres Strait : a study of resource use, development and decline, 1860s-1960s(Griffith University, 1991-05) Ganter, ReginaThe history of human use of the Great Barrier Reef harbours a recurrent pattern of intensive use and consequent resource exhaustion.Item Open Access The impact and management of birds on the Ord river development in Western Australia(University of New England, 1977-02) Beeton, Robert. J. S.This study deals with the impact and management of birds on a new agricultural development in the remote north-east of the state of Western Australia (figure 1.1). A range of problems occurred which could be attributed to a number of species of bird, however no problem was exclusive to any one species.Item Open Access Factors influencing cropping in a tropical environment : some factors affecting the yield of peanuts and sorghum, under natural rainfall at Katherine, Northern Territory(University of Sydney, 1956-11) Stern, W. R.The history of agricultural endeavour in the Northern Territory has fluctuated between the extremes of optimism and despair.