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This paper critically examines the ways ageing migrants perceive and experience a sense of belonging in a mediascape during the pandemic. It underscores how 15 elderly people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia stayed connected among their networks in and beyond Australia by accessing and consuming COVID-19 information via traditional and digital channels. By analysing the data based on conducting remote interviews in 2020 and 2021, the findings highlight the paradoxical nature of mediated belonging. On the one hand, ageing migrants forged connections at a distance with their familial and social networks by circulating and consuming COVID-19 information. This practice provided ageing migrants an assurance of their safety and their networks. On the other hand, differentiation and racialisation stirred frustrating, polarising and exclusionary-mediated environments. In this case, they deployed connective strategies to negotiate connections and belonging. In sum, this paper reveals the possibilities and politics of mediated belonging fuelled by intersecting structural and technological divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to diverse manifestations of racism in Australia, from everyday attacks against Asian Australians to discriminatory policies towards temporary migrants. Since the start of the pandemic, considerable knowledge on pandemic-related racism has been produced. This knowledge has yet to be consolidated, leaving questions about the nature, forms, impacts and trajectories of racism during the pandemic. This paper presents a systematic review and synthesis of research on racism during the pandemic, with an emphasis on pandemic-specific racism. We searched the databases Scopus, MEDLINE and PsycINFO for research published between January 2020 and July 2022. Eighteen research studies were included in the review, along with reports of routine data collection by five organisations. The research reviewed collected data mainly around the pandemic's 'second wave' in Australia (June-October 2020), focusing largely on Asian Australians and temporary migrants nationally and in Victoria. Widely studied forms of COVID-racism were verbal abuse, physical attacks, exclusion and Othering, and institutional racism involving governments, media and employers. We examined the pandemic's health and socio-economic impacts, and variations in experiences of racism over time between ethnic groups. As Australia emerges from the pandemic, we consider the review's implications for pandemic response, anti-racism practice and policy, and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the next three decades, Australia's large cities are expected to experience major population growth, while many regional areas will likely be faced with shrinking and ageing populations. This paper asks how official population projections are considered in strategic spatial policy frameworks for Victoria and South Australia, and what land use planning responses are proposed to address increasing spatial disparities. The analysis shows that policy priorities are overwhelmingly focused on growth, whereas the needs of declining regions are largely ignored. There is a worrisome lack of strategic policy thinking on how to manage existing and likely intensifying spatial imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, there have been several efforts in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to increase the opportunities and improve the experiences of women cyclists in recreational and racing contexts. However, cycling in Victoria and Australia more broadly continues to be a male dominated sport. This study incorporates a digital ethnography of two Melbourne-based women's cycling Facebook groups including 11 interviews with stakeholders over the period of 2017–2018 to analyse how women and girls are harnessing social media to create counter sports spaces to enhance women's cycling. The paper explores the emergence of the "virtual clubhouse" which operates as a digitally networked counterpublic, providing a space for women and gender diverse cyclists to connect, coproduce and engage in knowledge sharing practices, and build a more inclusive culture for cycling that challenges dominant, mainstream narratives of women's sport. The "virtual clubhouse" addresses a gap in the physical bicycle landscape in which cycling and cycling knowledge (including bicycle maintenance) is largely mediated by men and cycling clubs are configured as masculine spaces within Australia. This research adds further depth into a specific localised network of women cyclists to consider how physical and online sports cultures and communities are intertwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Intercultural understanding' (ICU) and its core concept 'interculturality', was introduced in the new national curriculum, implemented across Australia from 2013 (Australian Curriculum, ACARA. [2013]. Australian curriculum V.60. Retrieved from ). This paper draws on a study conducted in Victoria, Australia, which asked: how history teachers conceptualise interculturality for history teaching and learning? The study used two methods to gather data: textual analysis and focus group interviews. This paper only reports on specific findings from the focus group interviews, analysed through a methodology of crystallisation and discourse analysis, framed by four modes of historical thinking; traditional, exemplary, critical and transformative. The paper argues that interculturality is a significant challenge to history education often located in discourses constructed over time which disrupt how things have always been taught. By analysing the teachers' talk through a lens whereby the construction of language reveals the educational problematic, the research looks for a way in for interculturality into history teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reported in this paper is an evaluation of structural and functional performance of heavy duty and light duty pavements by addressing the effects of several factors on the rate of pavement deterioration. The sample used herein is a network of freeways and arterials from Victoria/Australia covering four road classes, namely M, A, B and C. The first two road classes represent heavy duty pavement and the last two road classes represent light duty pavements. These road classes differ in qualities, functions, duties, geometric standards, and traffic volumes and loadings. This paper aims to assess the performance of the four road classes by comparing their pavement conditions and environmental factors affecting the rate of pavement deterioration. More than 2300 kilometers of road length was selected from 40 highway sections to reflect Victoria's network conditions. The parameters considered for assessing road performance were traffic loading, pavement strength, and environmental factors. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to explore the significance of different predictor variables for all road classes. The study confirms that the rate of roughness and rutting progression per year for all road classes is very close, and the environmental factors affect roughness and rutting progressions for light duty pavements only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, like many high-income countries, food insecurity is associated with increased risks of chronic diseases, sub-optimal development outcomes in children, and mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. Food insecure households employ a range of strategies, including the use of food charity, to help alleviate hunger and meet cost of living pressures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the lived experience of food insecurity for welfare-dependent households, and to examine these experiences within a structural violence framework. Structural violence investigations seek to understand the distal causal factors that can help explain poor health patterns and inequities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with customers (n = 78) of food pantries, soup kitchens, and community development programs (June 2018 to January 2019) in the state of Victoria, Australia. Thematic analysis established evidence of controlling, demeaning and depriving practices in the interactions between the participants and the services and staff at national welfare providers and food charities. The same providers and charities nominally set up to address the exact situations in which participants found themselves. The findings of this study suggest that food and social services are an on-the-ground setting through which structural violence is enacted and experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland fires are a serious problem in Victoria, Australia due to large quantity of dry grass. Grassland curing degree (GCD) measures the dryness of the grass and is an important factor for assessing grassland fire danger. Grassland curing maps (GCMs) display the spatial distribution of GCDs, but the quality of GCMs varies depending on the spatial resolution of the observing satellite remote sensing system. The higher the spatial resolution, the finer the GCD details and more spatial variations the GCM can reveal. In this study, GCD calculation algorithm named MapVictoria based on MODIS data is tested for Landsat 8 Sentinel 2; GCMs generated from these three satellites are contrasted by their GCD differences, defined here as inter-satellite variability (ISV). ISV is used to identify areas where higher resolution satellite GCMs should be used. Results show that spatial resolution difference (ΔSR), seasonality and geographical locations affect the magnitude of the ISV. Based on these findings, this paper provides recommendations to decision makers on where and when to use which satellite for grassland observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]