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Much is speculative - as Karskens explains, there is too little evidence to be otherwise - but where other authors have retreated because of the fear that they would be seen to be speaking I for i Aboriginal people, Karskens has taken up the challenge. People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia: By Grace Karskens. Karskens refuses to accept the assumption so widely made that Indigenous and settler cultures were incompatible and so displacement of Indigenous life was rapid and complete. [Extracted from the article]

Dino Hodge recently produced an interesting study of how Dunstan's personal beliefs and sexuality influenced his political life, but it was much more limited in scope than Woollacott's contribution. (xii-xiii) Dunstan's biographer, Angela Woollacott, set herself the task of rekindling the brightness of the light, and she succeeds admirably in this comprehensive biography of one of South Australia's - and the Australian Labor Party's - most progressive figures. Don Dunstan: The Visionary Politician Who Changed Australia: By Angela Woollacott. [Extracted from the article]

Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia's Honours System: By Karen Fox. For this reader, the most interesting and insightful chapters were six, where Fox outlines the Whitlam government's campaign for an Australian honours system, and seven, which explores the fierce debates over the nature of the system from 1975 to 1990. Fox is more nuanced in her reading of the saga and places it in the longer context of Australia's messy use of honours to find an identity in a post-imperial world. [Extracted from the article]

I Shooting the Picture i is an outcome of an Australian Research Council-funded Linkage research project conducted by the Walkley Foundation, the National Library of Australia and a group of scholars led by Fay Anderson and Sally Young. In addition to further visual analysis of images, the understanding of the unique communication power of press photography would be further enhanced by a more detailed exploration of the manner in which images sit on the printed page. Shooting the Picture: Press Photography in Australia: By Fay Anderson and Sally Young with Nikki Henningham. [Extracted from the article]

As Fitzpatrick notes, most of the Russians who came to Australia after the war did so "accidentally" (151). In this book, her first book-length foray into Australian migration history, Fitzpatrick unravels the mystery of why migrants to Australia had to become adept at masking their identities, not only from Australians but from each other. White Russians, Red Peril: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia: By Sheila Fitzpatrick. [Extracted from the article]

While social histories of the war have hardly failed to note the significance of state power, Catherine Bond's study of the use of Australian law as an instrument in this process offers a precise means of studying the subject. Readers' responses to this moral intent may vary but many cases are certainly an apt reminder of the power wielded by law and the legal system. Buttressing the sense that the dynamics under review resonate beyond the war, the concluding chapter considers some of the war's legal legacies in Australian statutes, politics and lives. [Extracted from the article]

The article reviews the book "The Paper War: Morality, Print Culture and Power in Colonial New South Wales," by Anna Johnston.

A timeframe of glacial and nonglacial intervals in the Carboniferous and Permian systems of eastern Australia was published by Fielding et al. (2008a). In this scheme, eight discrete intervals (four in the Carboniferous: C1-C4, and four in the Permian: P1-P4) in which indicators of glacial activity and cold climate were preserved alternated with intervals in which no such evidence is preserved. The timeframe has been widely used both to better understand the time-space distribution of glacial events in eastern Australia and as a basis for comparison with late Palaeozoic glacial events in other regions of the world. In the period since publication of that paper, a large inventory of new, radiogenic isotope ages has become available for the late Palaeozoic strata in eastern Australia, and the time ranges of the global stages of the Carboniferous and Permian have also been adjusted in the light of new age data. Accordingly, this paper presents a reappraisal of the Fielding et al. (2008a) timeframe, based on the much-improved chronostratigraphic database. Of the Carboniferous glaciations, only C1 has changed significantly, expanding in time range downward. Of the Permian glaciations, P1 and P2 remain as in the previous evaluation, whereas P3 and P4 become significantly younger in absolute time. Indeed, the close of P4, supported by a large number of high-precision ages, is now estimated to have occurred at 254.5 Ma, only 2.6 m.y. before the end-Permian biotic crisis and extinction event. Carbon isotopic records from Permian marine strata reveal that alternating glacial and nonglacial conditions in eastern Australia corresponded to changes in the global carbon cycle. Palaeoweathering proxies show that the intensity of chemical weathering during the late Palaeozoic in eastern Australia changed in response to climate swings, with nonglacial intervals likely becoming warmer and more humid through the course of the Permian. There are broad coincidences between the timing of glaciations in eastern Australia and those recorded elsewhere on Gondwana, but sufficient differences to support the conclusion that glaciations were not synchronized across the ancient landmass. The eastern Australian record persists in being the best-constrained in time anywhere in the world. • Time-space framework for late Palaeozoic glaciation in eastern Australia is revised. • C1 to C4 and P1 to P4 glaciations are retained. • P3 and P4 glaciations are younger than previously thought. • Close of P4 is at 254.5 Ma, only 2.6 m.y. before the end-Permian biotic crisis. • Despite some commonality, glaciations across Gondwana were not fully synchronized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book 'Australian Archaeologist. Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen,' edited by Atholl Anderson and Tim Murray.

This short paper discusses Barry Morris's account of the 'riot' at Brewarrina, New South Wales, in 1987 and its legal aftermath, which continued for some years. An iconic event in Australian race relations, much can be learnt from its various dimensions, a fact that Morris amply demonstrates. Notwithstanding, this discussion questions a related narrative in his book, which interprets capitalism's impact on self-determination simply in terms of neoliberalism's 'political effects'. The paper seeks to broaden the discussion of the relations between the state and self-determination, and between capitalism and race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Sandbelters: Memories of Middle Australia," by Robert Murray.

This paper investigated the prospective predictors of mental health after breast cancer diagnosis among mid-aged Australian women (initially aged 45–50 years). Two waves of data collected 2 years apart from a longitudinal population-based survey of 12,177 women identified a group of 63 women who reported onset of BC between T1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2). The measures of interest in the current analysis were the sub-scales of the SF-36, a standard self-report measure of health-related quality of life, and three demographic variables (having a partner, speaking English at home, and having paid employment). Multivariate regression analysis with T2 mental health as the outcome variable revealed that both T1 mental health and bodily pain contributed significantly to mental health at T2, with mental health being the greatest contributor. It was concluded that the experience of breast cancer is not damaging to mental health per se, but such a life stressor is likely to impact most on the mental health of women who already had less robust mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Doing Something for Australia: George Robertson and the Early Years of Angus and Robertson, Publishers 1888–1900," by Jennifer Alison.

Reviews the book 'A Study of Colonial Editions in Australia, 1843-1972,' by Graeme Johanson.

The aim of the position statements, as mentioned in the article, is to identify key issues and outline policies and strategies designed to reduce drug problems in Australia. The statements have been developed from literature produced by ACDA over a number of years and has been informed by communication with ADCA members and other people with interest and expertise in the field. The papers include a summary of drug use in Australia, and an outline of the principles that inform policy development, as well as brief position statements on specific drugs. To have an impact on the drug problem, ADCA also stresses the need to strengthen the alcohol and other drugs field, and includes in this discussion funding issues, the role of information, professional development and career structure, and international cooperation.

The article reviews several exhibitions in Australia in 2011 including "Experimental Gentlemen" at The University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum of Art on September 25, colonial art on paper at NGV International on September 25 and at NGV Australia on November 27, and The Garden of Ideas traveling exhibition of the Australian Garden History Society on October 4.