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In summary I applaud the authors for their research and writing, and for presenting the often confronting schism that occurred between the First Nations and the colonisers within the western third of the continent. Mokare was to share this same strong bond with Barker's successor, medical officer Alexander Collie, whose friendship was so strong that he requested to be buried next to Mokare upon his death. Charting Two Cultures: First Nations and Europeans in Western Australia: By Bill and Jenny Bunbury. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Evidence suggests that Aboriginal babies in Western Australia are not receiving adequate primary health care in their first 3 months of life, leading to questions about enablers and constraints to delivering such care. This paper presents findings from a qualitative research project investigating health providers' perceptions and experiences of best and current practice in discharge planning, postnatal care and health education for Aboriginal mothers and their newborn babies. Methods: Constructivist grounded theory guided this research involving 58 semi-structured interviews conducted with health providers who deliver care to Aboriginal mothers and infants. Participants were recruited from hospital-based and primary health sites in metropolitan Perth, and regional and remote locations in Western Australia. Results: Structural factors enabling best practice in discharge planning, postnatal care, and health education for mothers included health providers following best practice guidelines and adequate staffing levels. Organisational enablers included continuity of care throughout pregnancy, birth and postnatally. In particular, good communication between services around discharge planning, birth notifications, and training in culturally respectful care. Structural and organisational constraints to delivering best practice and compromising continuity of care were identified as beyond individual control. These included poor communication between different health and social services, insufficient hospital staffing levels leading to early discharge, inadequate cultural training, delayed receipt of birth notifications and discharge summaries received by Aboriginal primary health services. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of examining current policies and practices to promote best practice in postnatal care to improve health outcomes for mothers and their Aboriginal babies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the World Wide Web becomes an integral part of higher education, universities must determine the viability of using the Internet for their student evaluation systems. This chapter highlights important online-student-rating issues raised in this volume and in other research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines whether corporate governance enhances the financial and social business performance of three-to five-star hotels in Western Australia (WA) through the three dimensions of market orientation (i.e. customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-function coordination) as mediators. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from managers of hotels in the WA capital city of Perth and its surrounding areas using a questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data. Findings: The overall result shows interesting findings of market orientation's mediating role. It is found that corporate governance may lead to better financial business performance through competitor orientation but not through customer orientation and inter-function coordination. Complementary, corporate governance may lead to better social business performance through customer orientation and inter-function coordination but not through competitor orientation. Originality/value: This paper offers contributions to both literature and practice on what dimensions of market orientation are important to enhance the performance of hotels when corporate governance is applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To assess the degree to which timely audiological assessment of congenital hearing loss is achieved at our institution ‐ Perth Children's Hospital, Western Australia, and to review cases which breached this timeframe in order to address barriers to timely assessment. The benchmark used to determine timely assessment is that set out by The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) in which diagnostic audiological testing occurs by three months of age for those who do not pass newborn hearing screening. Methods: A retrospective chart review of infants who underwent diagnostic auditory assessment at Perth Children's Hospital between 2016‐2019. A total of 151 children were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria and their medical files were reviewed. Time to first dABR was the time point for whether testing was achieved within the 3 month timeframe. Results: Of the 151 children who underwent dABR assessments, 1 was identified as having breached the 90 day time limit (tested on day 91) for which no valid reason for delay could be identified. The timely delivery of dABR assessments in 99.3% of cases within this cohort compares favourably with the literature. Conclusions: Conclusion Timely diagnostic audiological assessment is achievable for children with congenital hearing loss. The reasons for patients breaching this timeframe are explored in the paper along with factors which may help avoid delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues Addressed: To explore adolescents' experiences of access to and continued use of mental health services, and identify factors influencing their perceived satisfaction with their care. This paper focusses on the role of organisational and policy-level factors in the mental health system.Method: Qualitative semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 22 adolescents aged 14-18 years living in Perth, Western Australia.Results: Adolescents identified key policy, systemic and service-based factors which influenced their access to and continued use of mental health services. These were strongly related to the processes of service intake, level of orientation towards person-centred care and adequacy of service resourcing and funding. Areas of concern for adolescents included, complex service intake procedures, suboptimal mental health service environments, lack of client-centred care and the quality of mental health support provided in school settings.Conclusions: Our research has identified a wide spectrum of factors influencing mental health service access and use amongst adolescents. The findings further support the growing national consensus for major reform to address the mental health needs of this age group. The current strengths within mental health services and the system identified by adolescents need to be supported and extended. SO WHAT?: Although there have been numerous recommendations on ways to improve mental health service access and ongoing engagement for Australian adolescents, a number of the major challenges faced by this high-risk population have shown little improvement. The findings of this research indicate the importance of now moving towards implementing meaningful plans for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster social capital in civil society has been duly acknowledged, few studies have empirically explored the ICT-social capital nexus in the context of com-munity organizations. Huysman and Wulf (2004) consider the lack of interest in the area of 'ICT and social capital' as worri-some in today's increasingly network-centric society. Since the prospect of ICT furthering social capital is simply too significant to ignore, this paper responds to this gap by reporting on one aspect of a 2008 survey of environmental community organizations (ECOs) undertaken to develop a broader understanding of the linkages between organizational social capital and information and communication technologies in the Perth region of Western Australia. By exploring the trend of ICT uptake, pattern of intra-organizational as well as inter-organizational interactions, and the association between ICT uptake and organizational interactions, this paper critically engages in the 'ICT and social capital' debate and discusses the implications of ICT-social capital nexus in the context of environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial Board Note: In 2006, the Discipline Group of Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia hosted a symposium, 'Anthropology in the West: 1956-2006', to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the then Department of Anthropology by the late Ronald Berndt and his wife, Catherine, whose contributions to anthropology were a major focus of the symposium. Symposium participants also documented contributions made by UWA staff and students from Anthropology and Sociology within and beyond Australian social science. A notable theoretical focus on kastom in the work of Robert Tonkinson, who in 1984 succeeded Professor Berndt in the Departmental Chair, was the topic of Lamont Lindstrom's paper, published here in a fuller, revised and fully refereed version. We intend to publish further papers from the symposium in later issues of Anthropological Forum. If Ronald and Catherine Berndt are ancestral spirits haunting Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia some 50 years after the founding of the Department of Anthropology, their student, Bob Tonkinson, still happily with us, is their intellectual descendant and institutional heir. As in the case of the Berndts, issues relating to social change, religion and values, and, in particular, the politics of tradition have loomed large in Tonkinson's career. I trace, in this retrospective essay, the rise to prominence of an anthropology of Melanesian tradition and, more specifically, Tonkinson's contribution, notably his analyses of tradition's 'symbiotic' relations with Christianity, its identity functions, its local versus its national significance, and its relations with evolving anthropological theories of culture in a shrinking world. Tonkinson's Vanuatu research, which began among Ambrym Island emigrants, has spanned, over the past forty years or so, many notable transformations: from New Hebrides to Vanuatu; from modernisation theory to world systems and globalisation; and from tradition to kastom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Western Australian Liveable Neighbourhoods Design Code is an ambitious and internally acclaimed initiative to introduce sustainable neighbourhood design principles into the design of new suburban subdivisions. This paper explores the issues surrounding its implementation over the period 1998–2002, examining the debates and further research undertaken on each of the design principles. A broad assessment is made of its significant impact on suburban design in the Perth Metropolitan Region, and note is taken of its arguably greater impacts on redevelopment and revitalisation projects in existing urban areas. The key barriers to its wider adoption have been both procedural (slowness in processing applications and deficiencies in the skills of development controllers and engineers) and substantive (issues of appropriate densities, lot sizes, retail and service provisions, culs-de-sac and biodiversity). The paper illustrates how debates about each of these issues have met developer resistance, which has dogged the implementation of the Code. More positively, however, it illustrates that where the Code accords with market trends there has been significant progress in developing potentially more sustainable patterns of development. However, the achieved densities remain low by all but Australian and North American standards, and have not increased significantly over the lifetime of the Code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper charts major changes in the locational distribution of female prostitution in the Perth metropolitan area during the twentieth century, and aims to explain why these changes took place. The study confirmed that there is a positive relationship between changes to law enforcement policy and changes to the spatial distribution of the sex industry. Factors that affect law enforcement policy (and thus the location of prostitution) include the social stigma associated with prostitution, economic forces that compete for urban space and political pressures to contain and occasionally relocate the trade. At the same time, and despite a number of major spatial redistributions caused by changes to law enforcement policy in Perth, the central city area has remained the sex industry's geographical focus throughout the twentieth century. This strong preference to be centrally located is related to the sex industry's primary locational imperatives, being access to major client catchments and availability of appropriate operational premises. The paper argues that a complex set of endogenous and exogenous factors contribute to the locational behaviour of prostitution, and that these forces and their associated dynamics need to be understood in order to successfully integrate the sex industry into an equitable and orderly town planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Later theatre makers as varied as David Donnellan and Suzuki Tadashi have suggested that the theatre is a I place of life-and-death struggle i , a site where a battle for survival is conducted by both characters and the actors themselves. For the forthcoming I Stanislavski and Place i symposium, we call for submissions for academic papers, artist presentations, and panels, which consider the I places of theatre arising from or existing alongside Stanislavskian performance and acting praxis i . Presents a symposium B The S Word: Stand in Place/Stanislavski and Place b 4th to 6th April 2024 Stanislavski was clear that the actor must I take their place i in the theatre. [Extracted from the article]

Forced amalgamation is a ubiquitous feature of Australian local government reform - compulsory council consolidation programs have occurred in all states and territories, with the sole exception of Western Australia. However, the Final Report of the Metropolitan Local Government - released in October 2012 - called for a reduction of about 60 per cent of the local authorities in the Greater Perth metropolitan area. The Western Australian Government responded by announcing that the number of Perth councils will fall from 30 to 14 from 1 July 2015. The Final Report recommended amalgamation on seven main counts, including scale economies. However, apart from citing work on Tasmania by commercial consultants Deloitte Access Economics (DAE) (2011), no econometric evidence was produced in support of claims on scale economies. This paper seeks to remedy this deficiency by estimating a number of econometric models on the impact of amalgamation on Perth local government. The results of our empirical modelling suggest that scale economies, cost savings and other pecuniary gains are largely illusory. Indeed, only two of the ten main local government functions provide evidence to suggest potential economies of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is sometimes easier to understand the chimeric experience of mental disorder by accessing individual episodes and incidents. This paper will review the lives of three strong-willed, charismatic individuals who all had influential and very public brushes with mental disorder in the small outpost city of Perth, Western Australia, between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. This opens up questions of retrospective diagnosis, the challenges of being mad in a small town, how print media has preserved these precarious individual narratives, and how individual histories of mental disorders can help to cast light on other aspects of mainstream Australian histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of observations, reanalysis, and model simulations, including those using machine learning methods specifically designed for regime identification, has revealed changes in aspects of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) circulation and Australian climate and extremes over the last half-century that indicate transitions to new states. In particular, our analysis shows a dramatic shift in the metastability of the SH climate that occurred in the late 1970s, associated with a large-scale regime transition in the SH atmospheric circulation, with systematic changes in the subtropical jet, blocking, zonal winds, and storm tracks. Analysis via nonstationary clustering reveals a regime shift coincident with a sharp transition to warmer oceanic sea surface temperatures and increased baroclinicity in the large scales of the Antarctic Circumpolar Circulation (ACC), extending across the whole hemisphere. At the same time, the background state of the tropical Pacific thermocline shoaled, leading to an increased likelihood of El Niño events. The SH climate shift in the late 1970s is the first hemispheric regime shift that can be directly attributed to anthropogenic climate change. These changes in dynamics are associated with additional regional tipping points, including reductions in mean and extreme rainfall in south-west Western Australia (SWWA) and streamflow into Perth dams, and also with increases in mean and extreme rainfall over northern Australia since the late 1970s. The drying of south-eastern Australia (SEA) occurred against a background of accelerating increases in average and extreme temperatures across the whole continent since the 1990s, implying further inflection points may have occurred. Analysis of climate model simulations capturing the essence of these observed shifts indicates that these systematic changes will continue into the late 21st century under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Here, we review two decades of work, revealing for the first time that tipping points characteristic of regime transitions are inferred to have already occurred in the SH climate system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper invokes the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a diagnostic tool to explain an existing public education program's limited success at improving river water quality in the City of Perth, Western Australia. A reflective, client-driven research approach was used. A facilitated expert workshop defined an environmental problem (excess nutrients leaving gardens and entering waterways) and a desired behavior (residents purchasing environmentally sensitive fertilizer) to address the problem. A TPB-based belief elicitation survey captured respondents' beliefs regarding the desired behavior. The findings suggest respondents were aware of the links between purchasing environmentally sensitive fertilizer and river water quality. However, this behavior is compromised by the challenges in identifying appropriate products, product quality concerns, and cost. Viewing the content of a public education program through the lens of the TPB reveals insights into how and why the program fell short in achieving one of its key behavioral change goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a personal history of the Science and Mathematics Education Center (SMEC) in Perth, Australia, during my time there as a student. I make use of narratives to express what I see as the impact on my professional practice of having attended SMEC. I am grateful to SMEC, but what is being grateful really? In this paper I try to illustrate it, agreeing that while it is easy to start a thanksgiving text, I feel handicapped to capture all the greatness I am full of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communicative planning scholars often claim that forms of participatory planning centred on public deliberation can facilitate more equitable decision-making by overcoming power differentials between citizens and stakeholders. This paper draws upon the communicative planning understanding of Habermasian 'communicative action' in order to evaluate the argument that deliberation removes power differences between participants of participatory processes. A case study of a deliberative plan-making process – the Western Australian government's 'Dialogue with the City' – is undertaken to assess this claim. The author argues that there are both deliberate (avoidable, strategic) and inevitable (unavoidable, unintentional) ways in which power differences can arise between participants of deliberative plan-making. Planners who are charged with the responsibility of moderation may find it difficult to identify and mediate power differences in participatory processes; in fact, they may act to reinforce existing power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which the language of family is used to define the relationship between advocates and the refugees they are helping to settle. Using extracts from interviews with members of the community of Albany, a rural centre 400 kms south of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, terms such as 'child', 'the boys', and 'mother', are identified and their functions explored. The use of the terms simultaneously constructs and reproduces ideas about what 'family' should be, while making sense of an otherwise dominant/subordinate relationship between the advocates and refugees. As a corollary, the use of this language has a political function, signifying the possibilities for very close relationships between mainstream Australians and newcomers, which contrasts with widespread negative constructions of refugees as alien 'Others'. Using a broadly ethnomethodological approach, which utilizes Goffman's notion of framing and Sacks' 'membership categorization analysis', this paper focuses on the positive functions of the use of the language of family in a non-familial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on the related notions of 'teaching for understanding' and 'exemplary teaching' tends to be interpreted as prescribing certain classroom approaches. These are usually the strategies often identified with constructivist teaching, which involve a redefinition of the teacher's role: rather than being seen as a source of knowledge and control, the teacher is described as the facilitator of a largely student-directed search for understanding. More 'transmissive', teacher-centred approaches are held to lead to poor student understanding, low cognitive engagement and rote learning. This paper reports a case study of physics teaching in a government high school in Perth, Western Australia. This case study is part of a larger project spanning 5 years and eight case investigations in Perth schools. While the pedagogical style of the teacher studied could be labelled as 'transmissive', we tentatively assert that his practice exemplified high-quality physics teaching and led to high-quality understanding on the part of the students. The study suggests that prescriptions for quality teaching must be sensitive to issues of context and content, and that further study in a variety of school contexts is required to expand our understanding of what constitutes good teaching and learning in physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late in 1996, Kalgoorlie College and the Western Australian School of Mines in Western Australia were merged to form an expanded campus of Curtin University, based in the state capital city of Perth. This paper uses a frame analytical approach to examining how differing and competing interpretations and commitments affected how the merger was played out. Three important frames, each of which had a major influence on the merger for periods of time are identified: one that emphasised regional social and economic development, another centred on education for industry and a third based on economic rationalism. This analysis connects changes in the direction of the merger to shifts in the way the merger was framed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the attempt by mining management in Western Australia's Pilbara to replace mining unions--quite literally--by removing them from the processes of representation and bargaining. It analyses the way in which those unions have tried to re-place themselves, in the senses of transforming themselves in those spaces in which they were already operating and reviving themselves where they were not. Where unionists have succeeded in these engagements, it has been by working at a range of geographical scales, using the 'power of place' in the Pilbara and reshaping traditional geographies of union organisation. It is suggested here that many of these emergent outcomes are the result of the embeddedness of geographically specific historical structures along with new intersections of nationally and locally scaled labour politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is an enregistered contact-based variety spoken by 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This paper offers an overview of some of the features that characterise AAE as recorded in our corpus of naturally occurring interactions in Nyungar country, Southwest Western Australia. Led by Nyungar researcher Glenys Collard, our fieldwork rests on three pillars: (1) the data originate from group recording sessions, as culturally appropriate in the community; (2) speakers are recruited in venues such as medical centres and Perth city parks; (3) data collection is based on 'yarning': 'a process of [...] communicating and passing on history and knowledge' (Terszak, 2008, p. 90). Our approach is strongly grounded in indigenous knowledge-sharing practices. We discuss how the traditional underpinnings of yarning as a culturally entrenched modality have made it possible to tap into the community's vernacular and to capture the urgent concerns and silenced histories of Aboriginal English speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1992, a Federal discussion paper generated widespread concern among some academics that the Australian Government might attempt to introduce the England and Wales model of school-based teacher education. So far that has not occurred. An increasing number of universities in Australia, however, are establishing their own school-based programs. Edith Cowan University in Western Australia provides one such example, called SBS (School Based Semester). In principle, many students regard SBS very highly. In practice most refuse to join it. This article examines the reasons for this anomaly and some of the issues it raises for school-based teacher education more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the most traumatic injuries a child can experience is a severe burn. Despite improvements in medical treatments which have led to better physical outcomes and reduced mortality rates for paediatric burns patients, the psychological impact associated with experiencing such a traumatic injury has mostly been overlooked. This is concerning given the high incidence of psychopathology amongst paediatric burn survivors. Objectives: This project will aim to pilot test and evaluate a co-designed trauma-focused intervention to support resilience and promote positive mental health in children and adolescents who have sustained an acute burn injury. Our first objective is to collect pilot data to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention and to inform the design of future trauma-focussed interventions. Our second objective is to collect pilot data to determine the appropriateness of the developed intervention by investigating the changes in mental health indicators pre- and post-intervention. This will inform the design of future interventions. Methods: This pilot intervention study will recruit 40 children aged between 6–17 years who have sustained an acute burn injury and their respective caregivers. These participants will have attended the Stan Perron Centre of Excellence for Childhood Burns at Perth Children's Hospital. Participants will attend a 45-minute weekly or fortnightly session for six weeks that involves building skills around information gathering, managing reactions (behaviours and thoughts), identifying, and bolstering coping skills, problem solving and preventing setbacks. The potential effects and feasibility of our intervention will be assessed through a range of age-appropriate screening measures which will assess social behaviours, personal qualities, mental health and/or resilience. Assessments will be administered at baseline, immediately post-intervention, at 6- and 12-months post-intervention. Conclusion: The results of this study will lay the foundation for an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach to clinical care for paediatric burn survivors and their families in Western Australia. This will have important implications for the design of future support offered to children with and beyond burn injuries, and other medical trauma populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Eimeria sp. from a captive‐bred bilby (Macrotis lagotis Reid, 1837) has been identified in Western Australia. The bilby was bred at the Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Perth, as part of the National Bilby Recovery Plan. Oocysts (n = 31) irregular blunt ellipsoidal, 17–18 × 11–12 (17.2 × 11.3); length/width (L/W) ratio 1.4–1.5 (1.5). Wall bi‐layered, 0.8–1.0 (0.9) thick, outer layer smooth, c.2/3 of total thickness. Micropyle barely discernible. Oocyst residuum is absent, but 2–3 small polar granules are present. Sporocysts (n = 31) ovoidal, 7–8 × 5–6 (7.8 × 5.7); L/W ratio 1.3–1.4 (1.4). Stieda, sub‐Stieda and para‐Stieda bodies absent or indiscernible; sporocyst residuum present, usually as an irregular body consisting of numerous granules that appear to be membrane‐bound or sometimes diffuse among sporozoites. Sporozoites vermiform with a robust refractile body. Further molecular characterization was conducted on the sporulated oocysts. At the 18S locus, it sat in a large clade of the phylogenetic tree with two isolates of Eimeria angustus from quendas (Isoodon obesulus Shaw, 1797) and the Choleoeimeria spp. It shared the highest identity with E. angustus (KU248093) at 98.84%; at the COI gene locus, it was unique and most closely related to Choleoeimeria taggarti, which is hosted by another species of marsupial, the yellow‐footed antechinus (Antechinus flavipes flavipes), with 90.58% genetic similarity. Based on morphological and molecular data, this isolate is a new species and named as Choleoeimeria yangi n. sp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Dermatological Association of Australia in Perth, Western Australia concerning certain features of the leprosy which should be looked at to establish its diagnosis. The objective is to refresh the memory of the medical practitioner to bear in mind the possibility of leprosy when dealing with skin lesions. Leprosy cannot be controlled and eradicated if missed cases are allowed because of its long incubation period and insidious onset.

The importance of characterizing kerogen type in evaluating source rock and the nature of hydrocarbon yield is emphasized. However, traditional laboratory geochemical assessments can be time-intensive and costly. In this study, an innovative approach was taken to bridge this gap by utilizing machine learning techniques to ascertain key parameters—Organic Oxygen Index (OI), Hydrogen Index (HI), and kerogen type—from petrophysical logs of a well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. This approach assembled geochemical data from 138 cutting samples of the Kockatea and Woodada formations and petrophysical log data. Subsequently, six machine learning algorithms were applied to predict the OI and HI parameters. The efficacy of these methods was assessed using statistical parameters, including Coefficient of Determination (R2), Average Percentage Relative Error, Average Absolute Percentage Relative Error, Root Mean Square Error, and Standard Deviation. The Support Vector Machines method emerged as the standout performer, with an R2 of 0.993 for the OI and 0.989 for the HI, establishing itself as an optimal tool for predicting these indices. Additionally, six classifiers were employed to determine kerogen types, with accuracy tested using precision, recall, F1-Score, and accuracy parameters.The study's findings highlight the superiority of the Gradient Boosting method in kerogen-type classification, achieving an impressive accuracy rate of 93.54%. It is concluded that when utilized with petrophysical logs, machine learning methodologies offer a powerful, efficient, and cost-effective alternative for determining OI, HI, and kerogen type. The novelty of this approach lies in its ability to accurately predict these crucial parameters using readily available well-log data, potentially revolutionizing traditional geochemical analysis practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of potential climate change on groundwater-dependent vegetation largely depends on the nature of the climate change (drying or wetting) and the level of current ecosystem dependence on groundwater resources. In south-western Australia, climate projections suggest a high likelihood of a warmer and drier climate. The paper examines the potential environmental impacts by 2030 at the regional scale on groundwater-dependent terrestrial vegetation (GDTV) adapted to various watertable depths, on the basis of the combined consideration of groundwater modelling results and the framework for GDTV risk assessment. The methodology was tested for the historical period from 1984 to 2007, allowing validation of the groundwater model results' applicability to such an assessment. Climate change effects on GDTV were evaluated using nine global climate models under three greenhouse gas emission scenarios by applying the climate projections to groundwater models. It was estimated that under dry climate scenarios, GDTV is likely to be under high and severe risk over more than 20% of its current habitat area. The risk is also likely to be higher under an increase in groundwater abstraction above current volumes. The significance of climate change risk varied across the region, depending on both the intensity of the change in water regime and the sensitivity of the GDTV to such change. Greater effects were projected for terrestrial vegetation dependent on deeper groundwater (6-10 m). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of factors that impinge on managerial decision-making processes regarding employee access to structured training and development (T&D) opportunities that are at least partially funded by the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews incorporating the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) were conducted with 14 managers of medium-sized enterprises based in Perth, Western Australia. The interviews explored decisions managers have actually made regarding employee access to T&D and yielded 42 useable critical incidents that served as the unit of analysis. Findings – There were three key findings: first, employee access to T&D was initiated primarily by managers; employees did not exhibit developmental proactivity. Regulatory requirements and performance deficits were the main factors triggering T&D. Second, decisions regarding employee access to T&D were influenced by a wider range of factors than the decision making factors that commonly feature in literature that discusses "barriers" to T&D in SMEs. Third, decision makers tended to neglect the evaluation phase of the decision making process and engaged in post-decisional justification. Research limitations/implications – The study holds a number of lessons that are based on an analysis of the authors' experiences of using the CIT. The lessons are potentially important for researchers who will be using the technique to study similar topics in the years ahead. Originality/value – This study addresses the lack of research into factors that affect managers' decisions when they consider providing employee access to firm-sponsored structured T&D opportunities. It also assesses the effectiveness of the CIT as a tool for studying managerial decision-making processes regarding employee access to T&D opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the similarities and possible convergence between public relations and cultural diplomacy in the work of the Indonesian Consulate General in Perth, Western Australia. Using a qualitative research approach, interviews were held with Consulate staff and heads of Indonesian organizations based in Western Australia. The findings show that the Consulate General does perform a public relations role through its culturally based communication practices. Indonesian community organisations liaise with the Consulate General and its publics, and effectively serve as a communication channel to the Indonesian citizens in Perth. Balai Bahasa Indonesia Perth, is an example of an international actor performing cultural diplomacy on behalf of Indonesia. The research concludes that cultural diplomacy is another form of public relations, in which two-way symmetrical communication and mutual understanding are pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s Perth, capital city of Western Australia, stood on the cusp of major development which would transform it from a nineteenth-century European city to a modern commercial city dominated by international-style skyscrapers and surrounded by sprawling suburbs. Gordon Stephenson was engaged by the state government as consultant in 1953 to prepare a plan for the metropolitan area that would guide and shape this transformation. Drawing on a range of primary sources, this paper critically examines the plan, prepared with Alastair Hepburn, focusing especially on its vision for Perth's city centre and the port city of Fremantle, and summarises Stephenson's career in Perth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1Plans are among the most durable products of planning, and as such offer a revealing window into the worlds of the planners of their time. In this paper we set out a methodology for viewing those worlds using critical discourse analysis (CDA). This method focuses on four key textual features of plans: construal of substance, construction of agency, generic structure, and presentation. Together they enable the investigator to go beyond thematic discourses and uncover the institutional, political and ideological role of planning during the time period in which plans are produced. We use this method to interrogate the changing rationalities governing planning in Western Australia (WA) since the Second World War by analysing the four major city plans for Perth, covering a period from 1955 to 2010. This longitudinal analysis suggests that planning in WA mirrors concurrent trends in international planning theory, and highlights the significance of “the plan” as an object of inquiry for revealing the changing nature of planning and planners over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invaluable use of ethnography in researching educational settings has been demonstrated through many studies and furthered by many passionate researchers. One of such leading lights is Geoffrey Walford. In this paper, Walford's discussion of groups in two public schools, as depicted in his book Life in public schools, serves as a basis for my investigation of the 'lived experiences' of Southeast Asian boarders in St Andrew's School, a private all boy's boarding school in Perth, Western Australia. This article introduces this group of boarders and examines their perceptions that maintained their group identity in the boarding house environment. Interviews conducted with the boarders are drawn into this inquiry, underlining their views that group identity is important to living in a boarding school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: This article explores the recreational use of diverted dexamphetamine, a pharmaceutical stimulant, amongst a social network of young adults (aged 18–31 years) in Perth, Western Australia (WA). Prior epidemiological research indicates that there are high levels of dexamphetamine prescription, and use of diverted dexamphetamine, in this jurisdiction. Little research exists on the social contexts of diverted dexamphetamine use in Australia or overseas. Methods: Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted over 18 months amongst a network of approximately 60 young adults who regularly used psychostimulants. Data collection involved participant observation conducted in natural settings including nightclubs and private parties. In-depth interviews were also conducted with 25 key contacts which explored drug use histories and themes emerging from fieldwork. Results: The use of diverted dexamphetamine, or ‘dexies’, was prevalent amongst the social network and integrated into local drug practices. The paper explores the ways in which dexamphetamine use is rationalised, negotiated and represented in the context of the use of alcohol and other psychostimulants such as methamphetamine and ecstasy. Two key aspects are emphasised. First, dexamphetamine use is seen as insignificant by network members and is positioned as ‘safer’ in relation to the use of other drugs by virtue of its pharmaceutical status. Second, dexamphetamine plays an instrumental role in facilitating the pursuit of ‘controlled pleasure’ via the heavy consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Conclusion: The findings of the paper have implications for harm reduction policy. In particular, dexamphetamine use facilitates heavy drinking and polydrug use amongst young adults, which may increase the harms associated with such use. Further, current interventions targeting young psychostimulant users, which emphasise their adulterated and illegal nature, may inadvertently contribute to the cultural construction of dexamphetamine as a relatively ‘safe’ drug. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are frequent diagnoses made of refugee clients by health professionals attempting to deal with patients having settlement difficulties. However, this focus on psychological diagnosis and intervention tends to ignore political, economic, cultural and racial aspects of the settlement experience which affect well-being. This paper reports the findings of two studies of ex-Yugoslav and Horn of Africa refugee settlement experiences in Perth, Western Australia, which demonstrate the links, in the perceptions of refugees at least, between well-being and two closely related factors: employment and 'culture shock'. It reports data from questionnaires, interviews and focus groups with over 200 people from refugee backgrounds—including Bosnians, Croatians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese and Somalis—which indicate their perception that post-migration experiences are more important in undermining well-being than pre-migration physical and psychological trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the racial identity of Indigenous children and youth who attended urban, state and private primary and secondary schools in the Noongar[i] region of urban Perth in Western Australia. Thirty five Australian Indigenous children aged 8-12 were interviewed and 120 youth aged 13-17 participated in focus groups. Transcripts were analysed and common themes were identified by extracting relevant responses and their meanings. The components of racial identity for children aged 7-12 and youth were very similar such that culture, family, language and appearance featured. The most reported element of racial identity for young children was culture which comprised of eight sub-elements. Young people however, reported that a strong sense of self was the most important contributor to their racial identity and it comprised of ten sub-elements. Indigenous youth perceived that their racial identity is exposed to others' attitudes, values and behaviours because according to them 'identity is about what you look like and how others see you'. [i] Noongar can be spelled in a number of ways and this paper has adopted the above spelling. Noongar is a collective term that denotes Aboriginal people of the south-west of Western Australia (Palmer & Collard 1993). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on a review of interlibrary loan and document delivery activity by academics and postgraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analysed statistical data and requests made over a one-year period. Findings - The analysis identified who used the service and for what purpose. Although there was a decline in the use of the service overall, there was an increase in activity in the Faculty of Arts. Many of the items requested via interlibrary loan fitted within the scope of the Library collection. Originality/value - The paper provides evidence that monographs remain integral to scholars in the arts and that this type of analysis can contribute to effective collection development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apparent simplicity of ethnographic methods - studying people in their normal life setting, going beyond what might be said in surveys and interviews to observe everyday practices - is deceptive. Anthropological knowledge is gained through fieldwork and through pursuing a reflexive flexible approach. This study carried out in a non-government primary school in Perth, Western Australia focused on the processes used by the teachers to implement reporting policy. The focus of this paper is not on the data of the research, but on the experiences of a researcher in the field for the first time. Despite being aware of what Schweder (1997) describes as the need to be open to the surprise of ethnography, the events which followed my first hours in the field still managed to disturb my equilibrium as they proceeded to unfold in unexpected ways. The factors which influenced the outcome of the research were serendipitous and for the researcher were vital in my initiation into ethnographic methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A four-year Bachelor of Education (Kindergarten through Primary) Program was established in 2002 at the Edith Cowan University, Joondalup Campus, Perth, Western Australia. In establishing the program the brief was to build mutually productive relationships with partner schools. Since 2002, the development of these university-school partnerships has provided authentic opportunities for prospective teachers to learn in the continually changing and evolving context of practice, whilst also contributing to school priorities and children's learning. The central premise of partnerships at ECU Joondalup, is the belief that teaching is a collegial process and teachers, teacher educators and pre-service teachers learn in the context of 'interdependent relationships'. This has involved all stakeholders finding meaningful ways to develop collegiality and professional interaction from a position of trust, respect and sense of contribution to the whole (Marlow and Nass-fuka, 2000). Working together as 'learning partners' in the authentic context of schools, to better understand and enhance teaching and learning is central to developing these interdependent relationships. Sustaining the principles, processes and relationships on which partnerships have been developed is however, a consistent challenge. This paper outlines the key successes and future challenges of the ECU, Joondalup partnerships program, in relation to the role of professional practice, the development of professional relationships with schools, the provision of service to schools through intensive teaching units and the central role of professional practice in the course, with explicit links between practice and theory. A key element in the development of relationships is the interdependency of all stakeholders in the school-university partnership program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perth has seen strong investment in public transport infrastructure compared with its past approach of a city designed for mobility by car. Designing a transport system to compete with the car in a low-density city has raised significant challenges. The planning and routing of Perth's newest passenger railway has been strongly grounded in land use planning with active pursuit of opportunities for transit-oriented development (TOD). This has resulted in different models of integration from TODs designed around walk-on patronage, to TODs designed to calm hostile car-based environments, to transit-transfer stations relying on state transit agency coordination between transport modes to maximize the attractiveness of the public transport travel. This paper examines the opportunities and constraints presented by each model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a two-round Delphi study undertaken to identify the research priorities of midwives at five public maternity hospitals in Western Australia's metropolitan area of Perth. In round one, 117 midwives identified 64 different problems or issues for research. Using thematic content analysis, these problems were grouped together and then collapsed to develop 17 specific research topics within four major categories. In round two, 152 midwives were asked to rank how important each of the topic statements were to women, their families and midwives. Research focusing on ‘the postnatal experience’ was ranked by midwives as the most important to the care of women and their families. From a midwife's perspective, the highest ranked topic was ‘examining the professional issues that impact on midwives’ clinical practice’ (e.g. midwifery and medical collaboration, potential litigation and horizontal violence in the workplace). The results of the study show that Western Australian midwives, like their national and international colleagues, are concerned about the delivery and organization of maternity services, the invisibility of the postnatal experience and how to operationalize evidence-based care in the clinical area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of a survey of destinations for students from librarianship and records management courses at Curtin University of Technology for the period 1998-2002. The survey includes the type of work currently being undertaken by graduates, the security of tenure in their position, the level of professionalism in their employment, and their general employment history since completing their qualifying course. Further data records respondents' perceptions of the importance of their qualification in gaining their current employment, the relationship between the skills acquired during the course and their employment, and their general level of satisfaction with the course. The results are compared with similar data previously recorded for the graduating classes of 1988-1992 and 1993-1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is seen by many as a form of cyberspace or environment in which to interact and socialise. This research project drew from the data of a quantitative and qualitative study of gay men in Perth, Western Australia. We examined gay men's usage patterns of chat rooms and other social aspects of the Internet to meet sexual partners. We then reviewed in detail the meanings gay men have for the various Internet environments, and the range of friendship, relationship, casual, or esoteric sex-seeking goals. We argue that gay men view and engage with the Internet differently from how they view and engage with other more traditional gay spaces. This different approach influences how interaction between the men, either online or face-to-face, progresses and how assumptions and expectations are built. This has implications for how sexual health promotion interventions determine the appropriate role and relationship they have with these online social spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emission of Platinum-group elements (PGE) from automobile catalytic converters has led to rapid increases in Pt, Pd and Rh concentrations in roadside media. This paper examines the temporal variability of PGE levels in road dusts and roadside soils on a seasonal basis over a 12 month period. Road dust and roadside soil samples were analysed by ICP-MS following microwave digestion and cation exchange. Concentrations of PGE in all road dust and roadside soil samples are elevated above local background concentrations with maximum levels of Pt-440 ng g-1, Rh-91 ng g-1 and Pd-440 ng g-1. Systematic seasonal variations in PGE levels are observed in both sample types and the temporal distribution of PGE levels is affected by a number of factors including surface morphology and rainfall. PGE ratios in road dusts and soils are consistent with known catalytic converter composition throughout the sampling period indicating the PGE remain associated during mobilisation and transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology (IT) projects are implemented in organizations to provide benefits. This paper reports the research findings into the process of benefits management by project managers in IT projects in Perth, Western Australia. It was found that IT project managers have a strong propensity towards efficiency benefits rather than effectiveness benefits. A significant majority of IT project managers do not assign Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to project benefits, which makes it difficult to assess if benefits have been delivered. Project managers tend to focus on managing deliverables rather than the benefits that should result from utilization of the deliverables. Many of the findings indicate that there is significant room for improvement in the formal effective application of project benefits management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an investigation is undertaken into the impact and effects, on both boys and girls, of implementing single-sex classes—but particularly as a strategy for engaging boys in the English classroom at one particular Catholic coeducational school in Perth, Western Australia. Semi-structured interviews with seven English teachers at this school, where the strategy was implemented, were used both to analyse teachers' perceptions of single-sex classes in the coeducational context and to gain some insight into their pedagogical approaches. The study found that particular assumptions and knowledges about gender informed specific pedagogical approaches adopted by the teachers in single-sex English classes. These assumptions and knowledges and the way they informed the pedagogical practices of the teachers, even in the same school, varied radically. It is concluded that single-sex classes as a strategy per se do not necessarily produce enhanced social and educational outcomes for students. Rather, as indicated in the research, there needs to be more attention directed to the particular effects of pedagogy and the normalising assumptions about gender that inform the implementation of curriculum in both single-sex and coeducational classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether pricing size effects as observed in securities markets exist in housing markets. A large transaction data set for the city of Perth, Western Australia is used to construct market aggregate and price quartile repeat-sales and hedonic indexes for the period 1988–96. Methodologies for the identification of pricing size effects are proposed and significant pricing size effects are observed. Cheaper properties exhibit higher rates of real price change in the short term but the lowest rates in the longer term. These results are consistent for tests with index models and individual property price changes. These results are shown to cause bias in transaction based indexes. A number of potential areas for future research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There has been recent widespread enthusiasm for curriculum revision and innovative teaching methods in medical schools throughout Australasia. As a new specialty, emergency medicine has the opportunity to be at the forefront of these changes. A restructuring of the medical undergraduate curriculum at the University of Western Australia medical school has given us such an opportunity. As part of a fifth year option program we have developed an intensive 2-week course in wilderness emergency medicine. The course consists of pre-reading, classroom and expedition phases. The focus in all phases is case-scenario based teaching with participants playing a range of roles including teacher, literature reviewer, victim, rescue leader and debriefer. This paper describes the course in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]