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The diurnal cycle of precipitation and its associated land‐sea breeze circulation over coastal northern Australia are investigated using surface wind speed and enthalpy (latent and sensible heat) fluxes from the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System. Composite results during the austral summer of 2018–2022 show that diurnal precipitation propagates westward from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The diurnal cycle of precipitation and surface wind speed are strongly coupled, with the wind speed maximum slightly leading the precipitation maximum. Additionally, analysis of the moist static energy budget shows that surface fluxes help support the westward‐propagation of diurnal precipitation. These results—based on novel satellite data and reanalysis—are consistent with previous studies that have examined the impact of the land‐sea breeze on the diurnal cycle of precipitation. The results provide a benchmark for model representation of this important atmosphere‐ocean‐land interaction. Plain Language Summary: The modulation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation over coastal northern Australia by surface winds was studied using the recently launched NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). Results show a strong connection between the daily cycles of precipitation and surface wind speed, with an offshore wind speed maximum leading the precipitation maximum by a few hours. Westward propagation of diurnal precipitation and wind speed signals occurs from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria. A thermodynamic analysis supports the importance of the wind speed signal and associated surface fluxes for fostering offshore precipitation propagation. The novelty of this paper lies in the use of the new CYGNSS retrievals, which provide better space and time coverage of surface wind speed than previous satellite‐based measurements and are not as negatively affected by precipitation contamination. Key Points: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System wind speeds and latent heat fluxes are used to study the diurnal cycle over the northern Australia coastal regionEnhanced diurnal precipitation is associated with enhanced surface wind speed and convergenceDiurnal precipitation and surface wind speed signals propagate westward in tandem from the Cape York Peninsula [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on remote nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Indigenous missions in northern and central Australia point to their often tenuous existence and the complex nature of engagements between Christian Missionaries and Indigenous people. This paper explores the contribution and significance of Indigenous production of wild foods in the context of one such settlement located at Weipa on Cape York Peninsula, north eastern Australia. It is premised on the assertion that investigation of the economies of these often remote settlements has the potential to reveal much about the character of cross-cultural engagements within the context of early mission settlements. Many remote missions had a far from secure economic basis and were sometimes unable to produce the consistent food supplies that were central to their proselytizing efforts. In this paper it is suggested that Indigenous-produced wild foods were of significant importance to the mission on a day-to-day basis in terms of their dietary contribution (particularly in terms of protein sources) and were also important to Indigenous people from a social and cultural perspective. We develop this argument through the case study of culturally modified trees that resulted from the collection of wild honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bauxite mining operations are increasingly sited on Indigenous-owned land, particularly in tropical areas, including northern Australia. The environmental impacts of bauxite mining are significant. Native vegetation, including commercially valuable forests, is cleared and typically windrowed and burnt. For many Indigenous Australians, mining of their land creates much concern about biocultural, community health and livelihood impacts from the loss of access to traditional lands and resources, and the ability to 'care for country'. Improved pre-mining utilisation of forest resources and effective mine rehabilitation can mitigate some of these impacts and it is important to Indigenous communities that they are engaged in these processes. But Indigenous peoples' expectations are rarely considered or adequately addressed in site clearing activities or mine completion criteria, and there is limited guidance on how their expected outcomes can be monitored and evaluated for mine closure and relinquishment. This paper reports on a case-study of the Western Cape York Peninsula bauxite mining region in northern Australia. The paper reviews mine rehabilitation in the case-study region, including related Indigenous forest livelihoods initiatives, presents local Indigenous peoples' expectations for pre- and post-mining forest and landscape management as an integrated mining-community forestry 'vision', and discusses implications for mine completion criteria, mine closure and relinquishment. The findings highlight the need for Indigenous peoples' full and transparent free, prior and informed consent participation in all aspects of mine closure planning, and for further research to trial the development and assessment of mine completion criteria linked to local biocultural landscape restoration and Indigenous livelihoods. The findings can inform mining policymakers, regulators and industry professionals on the design, implementation and monitoring of mine completion criteria and associated pre- and post-mining management that will improve environmental outcomes and socio-cultural benefits for Indigenous communities impacted by mining. • Bauxite mining impacts Indigenous Traditional Owners (TOs). • TOs expect improved pre- and post-mining forest and landscape management. • Mine rehabilitation via Indigenous community forestry can support TO livelihoods. • Mine completion criteria must consider biocultural landscape restoration. • How to evaluate successful biocultural landscape restoration and livelihood outcomes? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Miltotranes Zimmerman, 1994 is a genus of weevils pollinating Bowenia cycads belonging to two small endemic Australian species included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and CITES Appendix II. We provide the first taxonomic revision of Miltotranes resulting in the identification of two previously described species and a newly recognised species, M. wilsoni sp. n. from the McIlwraith Range of the Cape York Peninsula. Morphological comparison reveals its affinity to Tranes, whose species are the pollinators of Macrozamia and Lepidozamia cycads. It appears that the association of Miltotranes with Bowenia may represent a secondary host switch in the Tranes group due to a closer relationship between Macrozamia, Lepidozamia and African Encephalartos than with Bowenia. The coincidence of the geographic ranges of Miltotranes weevils with distribution of their cycad hosts indicates that the isolated Bowenia population in the McIlwraith Range may represent a distinct, third species of Bowenia. Likely, the conspecificity of the Miltotranes weevils occurring in the Wet Tropics also suggests that several morphologically enigmatic localised populations represent B. spectabilis, confirming earlier botanical conclusions. The present study highlights the significance of systematic study of tightly plant-associated insects and its relevance for the taxonomy of their host plants. The Australian endemic weevils of the genus Miltotranes Zimmerman, 1994 (Curculionidae: Molytinae: Tranes group), comprising two species, M. prosternalis (Lea, 1929) and M. subopacus (Lea, 1929), are highly host-specific and the only known pollinators of Bowenia cycads, which comprise two CITES-protected species restricted to Tropical Queensland in Australia. In the present study, the taxonomy of Miltotranes is reviewed, a lectotype for the name Tranes prosternalis Lea, 1929 is designated and a new species associated with the Bowenia population in the McIlwraith Range is described as M. wilsoni sp. n. The descriptions and diagnoses of all species are supplemented with illustrations of their habitus and salient structures, and an identification key to all species and a distribution map are provided. Potential implications of the new species and of the taxonomy and biogeography of Miltotranes overall on the systematics and conservation of Bowenia are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six weather types (WTs) are computed for tropical Australia during the wet season (November–March 1979–2015) using cluster analysis of 6-hourly low-level winds at 850 hPa. The WTs may be interpreted as a varying combination of at least five distinct phenomena operating at different time scales: the diurnal cycle, fast and recurrent atmospheric phenomena such as transient low pressure, the intraseasonal Madden–Julian oscillation, the annual cycle, and interannual variations mostly associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The WTs are also strongly phase-locked onto the break/active phases of the monsoon; two WTs characterize mostly the trade-wind regime prevalent either at the start and the end of the monsoon or during its breaks, while three monsoonal WTs occur mostly during its core and active phases. The WT influence is strongest for the frequency of wet spells, while the influence on intensity varies according to the temporal aggregation of the rainfall. At hourly time scale, the climatological mean wet intensity tends to be near-constant in space and not systematically larger for the monsoonal WTs compared to other WTs. Nevertheless, one transitional WT, most prevalent around late November and characterized by weak synoptic forcings and overall drier conditions than the monsoonal WTs, is associated with an increased number of high hourly rainfall intensities for some stations, including for the interior of the Cape York Peninsula. When the temporal aggregation exceeds 6–12 h, the mean intensity tends to be larger for some of the monsoonal WTs, in association with more frequent and also slightly longer wet spells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the capability approach as an evaluative tool for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy and programs in developing countries, in particular at a grass-roots community level, is an emerging field of application. However, one of the difficulties with ICT for development (ICT4D) evaluations is in linking what is often no more than a resource, for example basic access, to actual outcomes, or means to end. This article argues that the capability approach provides a framework for evaluating the strength of this linkage and that the latter is a key determinant of whether or not communities sustain ICT4D programs beyond the initial start-up phase. The argument is made by describing an evaluative application of the capabilities approach to community ICT4D programs using two Indigenous community case studies conducted in Cape York, in the far north-east of Australia. Key to the evaluative approach is the identification of community defined, context specific concepts of well-being and constitutive valued functionings and the derivation from this of required capabilities. This move away from normative definitions of capabilities or capability types to a definition that reflects the Indigenous culture, history, circumstances, and well-being aspirations of each community is intended to give a voice to the people and at the same time provide a deeper informational base-through narrative-for policy and program design than has previously been available. The article concludes that by operationalising the capability approach in a context and purpose specific way, policy and program design can be improved so as to include more communities on the margin and thereby achieve more socially inclusive ICT based development. A process is also outlined for using the evaluative application of the capability approach for community ICT4D within a policy feedback loop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a linguistic perspective on the structure and the interpretation of a key historical narrative in Umpithamu (a Pama-Nyungan language of Cape York Peninsula, Australia), against the background of a larger corpus of narrative texts in Umpithamu. The analysis focuses on the role of participant tracking devices in the macro-structure of the narrative, and the role of case marking in the build-up of narrative motifs. It is argued not only that marked types of participant tracking serve to mark the boundaries of episodes, as often noted in the literature, but also that some types have additional functions within episodes, which leads to a proposal for refinement of Fox's (1987) Principle of Morphosyntactic Markedness. On a micro-structural level, it is shown how a rare system of case marking is used by the narrator to construe white-Aboriginal interactions as events in which the Aboriginal participants experience an extreme lack of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the debate about the processes of coastal dune initiation in Australia. A review of the dates published so far on coastal dunes in Australia indicates that these belong to identifiable process regions. Those to the north and northeast seem to be largely derived from the deflation, at low sea levels, of exposed deltaic sediments, which are subsequently reworked by episodes of active transgressive dune development. In the southeast, the dunes, like other coastal depositional features, are largely derived from the alongshore sediment transport system, which is active along this coast at times of higher sea level. Apart from during glacial maxima, episodes of dune transgression, where a source is identifiable, seem to be initiated along the shoreline, strongly suggesting that marine disturbance is the trigger. Although, in many cases, these are also at times when climate is favourable to active transgressive dune development, the eastern Cape York dune fields make it clear that this is not a necessary condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-resolution cloud model is used to explore in detail the generation of the morning glory, a low-level nonlinear atmospheric internal wave observed on the southwestern side of Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The model is two-dimensional and nonhydrostatic and simulates an east–west cross section of the southern part of Cape York Peninsula at a horizontal resolution of 200 m. Most of the numerical experiments are initialized at sunrise with a 5 m s-1 easterly flow and a sounding taken upstream from the peninsula. The sea breezes that develop over Cape York Peninsula are highly asymmetric with the east-coast sea breeze being both deeper and warmer than its western counterpart. When the sea breezes meet, the east-coast sea breeze rides over that from the west coast and in the process produces a series of waves that propagate on the west-coast sea breeze. The model calculations show that when the phase speed of these waves matches the westward propagation speed of the east-coast sea breeze, the waves grow to large amplitude, thus forming the morning glory. When the east-coast sea breeze propagates too fast relative to the waves, the waves do not amplify. In this sense the morning glory is generated by a resonant coupling between the east-coast sea breeze and the disturbances that propagate on the shallow stable layer produced by the west-coast sea breeze. The number of waves produced depends on the stability of the west-coast sea breeze and the strength of the east-coast sea breeze. These numerical experiments have for the first time explicitly modeled the generation of morning glory waves through the interaction of two sea breezes. The inclusion of orography representative of Cape York Peninsula does not change the overall result with a morning glory forming in much the same way as in the case without orography. The main difference is that the sea breezes meet earlier when orography is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]