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In Australia, trifluralin is one of the commonly used herbicides to manage annual grasses and some broadleaf weeds. However, it may have some ecosystem impacts such as high toxicity to terrestrial and aquatic life, so it is vital to monitor the degradation of trifluralin for a considerable period for environmental safety. For risk assessment purposes, it is necessary to estimate the half-life of trifluralin, which is often evaluated using derived mathematical dissipation models. In the literature, bi-exponential (BEXP) and gamma models were suggested for modelling the dissipation of trifluralin in soil. Both models provide the half-life estimate without discussing the uncertainty of the estimate, which is a shortcoming in the literature. In this paper, we used simulation to illustrate the importance of estimate's uncertainty (standard error) and demonstrated a method to compute the standard error for the half-life estimate mathematically for kinetic dissipation models. Later, we evaluated the performance of the two suggested models using statistical indices. The computation of the half-life and the standard error of the half-life estimate were discussed. This allows us to describe the inference of the half-life parameter and determine whether the half-life estimates are significantly different against the co-variate (moisture) levels. We demonstrated the method to calculate the standard error of the half-life of trifluralin, which allows us to determine the statistical difference between the estimates. In this study, we found that the half-life of trifluralin in soil tends to increase with increasing moisture levels, and the half-life of trifluralin in soil with 100% moisture level is significantly greater than 40% and 70% moisture levels. Our findings suggest that soil moisture levels should be carefully considered before trifluralin application to minimize the non-target environmental damage. [Display omitted] • BEXP and gamma models have been considered to investigate the trifluralin dissipation. • A simulation study illustrated the importance of the standard error of half-life. • Provided mathematical computation of the standard error of the half-life. • The soil moisture levels influenced the half-life estimates of trifluralin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the reasons why many people are reticent about travelling in a COVID-adapted world. It reports on a study of residents of Southeast Queensland, Australia conducted in mid-2022, up to six months after borders reopened after a prolonged COVID-19 shutdown. About one quarter of respondents were less interested in travel in a COVID-adapted world than they were before the pandemic struck. They were a diverse group whose reasons for their reticence could be categorised into four broad risk groups of: ongoing anxiety; fear of catching the disease; satisfaction risk, and; travel risk as reflected by an overall loss of interest in travel. Each group displayed different COVID-adapted travel patterns that reflect the operationalisation of different risk categories. A follow-up survey conducted in August 2023 confirmed that up to one in four people still have less desire to travel as a result of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation systems present spatial heterogeneity across regions within states or provinces, posing a need for regional and state efficiency analysis. Yet existing efficiency models focus only on national and sub-national levels, inhibiting the analysis of resource misallocation across regions within each state. This paper aggregated region-level efficiency into state-level efficiency measures. We constructed a new measure of state-level overall efficiency and decomposed it into technical and allocative efficiency. We implemented these aggregation and decomposition strategies using a new slack-based dynamic network data envelopment analysis model. Using data from 316 regions across Australia from 2012 to 2018, our empirical application showed that the misallocation of resources across regions within states was one significant factor explaining low state-level overall efficiency. Using Spatial Durbin Models, we found evidence for spatial agglomeration effects and the crowding out effects on regional technical efficiency (RTE) in relation to population and business density. Net business entry is one important driver of RTE. Regions having a smaller proportion of the manufacturing sector and a bigger proportion of the service sector are found to have lower RTE, reflecting the shift towards service industries in the Australian economy during the period 2012–2018. • We construct state-level efficiency measures and decomposes them into technical and allocative efficiency components. • We use a slack-based dynamic network model in aggregation and decomposition strategies. • We provide the first empirical application to analyse regional innovation efficiency across Australian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors experience considerable uncertainty when developing and realizing mobility innovations that can contribute in the transition to a sustainable transport system. Although the role of uncertainty and its handling is mentioned as important in the literature on transitions and innovations, there is a lack of understanding how uncertainty affects decision-making processes and actors themselves. This paper investigates the interplay of uncertainty competencies and governance settings in four innovation cases of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Our findings demonstrate it is difficult to sustain MaaS beyond a research trial, because actors experience too much uncertainty about governance questions of long-term responsibilities and role distribution. Although individual actors possess effective project management skills and willingness to innovate in a trial context, they are unable to bring MaaS to a next level because MaaS is not seen as a part of a larger design quest in which stakeholders experiment and play with uncertainty through different institutional configurations. • Exploring innovation processes through actors' experience of uncertainty enables to explain why they (do not) move forward. • In uncertain innovation trials, uncertainty is often translated by actors as risk that should be reduced. • Innovation trials are good at resolving uncertainties on a project level. • Full implementation of mobility innovations requires broader experimentation with actor responsibilities and legislative configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings on Middle Eastern immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. The extent to which perceived discrimination and acculturation influence their social and psychological capital, and the effects of social and psychological capital on their firm performance, are explored. We found that such immigrants, who are highly acculturated to the mainstream culture, not only tend to have many social interactions outside their community but also possess strong psychological capital. Although perceived discrimination has been associated with low social involvement outside an immigrant community, we found that perceived discrimination does not exert a statistically significant effect on psychological capital. Importantly, both social and psychological capital are found to exert positive effects on firm performance. The findings have implications for enhancing the capacity of policy makers to provide high impact to immigrant entrepreneurs. Specific interventions are suggested to assist such entrepreneurs to leverage their social and psychological capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are central to international conservation frameworks and public support has been recognised as critical to their effective implementation. Accordingly, measures of public attitudes to MPAs are routinely undertaken. Public opinion research frequently indicates high levels of public support for MPAs despite low levels of public understanding of the tools and the protections offered by existing MPA systems. Nonetheless, studies indicating public support enhance the social licence of the actors responsible for designing and managing MPAs. To date, there has been little scrutiny of who conducts public opinion research. Using Australia as a case study, this paper presents the results of a systematic review of primary public opinion research on MPAs in Australia between 2000 and 2022 (n = 68). The review focusses on the upstream phase of research production and identifies the academic, government, and commercial or civil society actors who contribute to primary attitudinal data via authorship, funding, and/or named support. The overwhelming majority of the research reviewed (78%) was contributed to by government actors while academics contributed to 68%. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and communication studies literature and theories, we consider our results in the context of the non-neutral production of knowledge and its communication. The substantial contribution of governments to the research which reports overwhelming public support for Australian MPAs and, in turn, provides the social license that legitimises how government actors have applied the management tool in the Australian context, is a finding that invites further exploration. • Systematic literature review of the production of Australian public opinion research reporting attitudes to MPAs. • MPA public opinion research is contributed to predominately by government (78%) and academic institutions (68%). • Seventy six percent (76%) of the research is directly authored and/or funded by government. • Concentrated research production may entrench biases in the assessment of social license for marine management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous-derived boundaries have been existent since time immemorial in Australia. The landmark Mabo decision recognised the continued existence of Indigenous customary title under the common law and the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) codified the processes for recognition and extinguishment. After thirty years of ongoing recognition, Australia is moving into the implementation and leveraging phases of legislative Native Title. This paper considers how the boundaries of these interests can be unambiguously identified on the ground if required. To do this we first discuss Indigenous customary title itself, how boundaries were understood in pre-European Australia and the nature of evidence relied on by the Federal Court to make Native Title determinations. By examining all litigated Native Title determinations made under the NTA we analyse the decisions in light of the well-established common law boundary determination principles. Similarities are drawn between the hierarchy of evidence used to reinstate typical cadastral and Native Title boundaries. From this, an elementary framework was constructed to allow a surveyor to better understand the Court's decision-making. We conclude that it is too early to be definitive as to how the courts will resolve Native Title boundary disputes, if they ever eventuate, but there is sufficient evidence to make preliminary evaluations of the relative merit of Native Title boundary evidence. ● Native Title interests need to be unambiguously definable on the ground. ● Native Title boundaries are different in nature to conventional boundaries. ● Traditional evidence hierarchies are not valid for Native Title boundaries. ● Ambiguity in determination boundary descriptions need their own agreed resolution framework. ● Litigated Native Title determinations are the only source in determining the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximising the growth and productivity of commercial plantations is critical for meeting global demands for wood and paper products, without resorting to unsustainable harvesting of native forests or increasing the plantation estate at the expense of other primary production systems. In Australia, productivity of plantation eucalypts is often limited by low nutrient availability and maintaining high growth rates is dependent on external nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs. Therefore, an important management tool for maximising productivity is optimising fertiliser use. To do this, an improved mechanistic understanding of the productivity response to nutrient supplementation is needed. Here, we used three large-scale fertiliser experiments in Eucalyptus nitens plantations in Tasmania, Australia, to test the effects of six levels of N fertiliser (0, 300, 450, 600, 1200 and 2200 kg/ha) and two levels of P fertiliser (0 and 200 kg/ha) on annual diameter increment and annual wood volume increment over a two-year period. We found that trees responded strongly to N application both at the individual tree level (diameter) and at the stand level (volume), but not until the second growing season post fertiliser application. The application of N fertiliser increased stand volume increment but not linearly, highlighting the existence of an optimal N application rate to maximise productivity, which was remarkably consistent between sites. Further, we found the relationship between N application rate and daily DBH growth followed a predictable seasonal pattern, indicating an influence of abiotic conditions on the response of tree growth to N application. In general, phosphorous application had no impact on growth at either the tree- or stand-level. These results show that applying mid-rotation N fertiliser can boost wood growth, and that amounts greater than those currently applied could be beneficial on many sites, if it is economically and environmentally feasible to do so. • Response of wood growth to N fertilizer application rate peaked at ∼450 kg/ha. • All three plantations responded similarly to fertiliser despite differing in age. • Responses of wood growth to N application were not detected until the second year. • Response of DBH increment to N application varied seasonally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of medical errors, or adverse events caused within a health care context or by a health care provider, is largely under-researched. While the experience and perspective of health care professionals regarding medical errors have been explored, little attention is paid to the health care consumers regarding their perceptions and experiences. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the public's views on medical errors to enhance patient safety and quality care. The current study sought to examine Australian public perceptions and experiences, especially concerning what errors had occurred, the perceived sources of the errors, and if the errors had been reported. This paper reports the qualitative findings of an online survey for Australian residents who have accessed or received medical services at any time in Australia. Responses from 304 surveys were analyzed and discussed, including demographic information and key themes about medical errors, which were categorized into engagement and patients' voices being heard, the quality of care being provided, and the system's accountability. Based on the findings, the study highlights the importance of effective health professional–patient communication, enhanced capacity to deliver high quality care, and improved mechanism for error reporting and resolution where patients feel safe and confident about positive changes being made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Vehicle-to-grid is viewed as a sub-niche of electric vehicles and distributed energy. • Vehicle-to-grid is in an embryonic stage of development in Australia. • Proponents hold strong long-term visions, but are unsure how to get there. • Learning has focused on problem solving; other types of learning are lacking. • More experimentation, involvement of new actors and embedding are required. Vehicle-to-grid is a promising source of the shallow storage needed for Australia's energy transition. However, it is a niche innovation dependent on other new technologies. The paper describes the Australian vehicle-to-grid niche via examination of a trial and sets an agenda for niche development. The multi-level perspective provides understanding of the processes of socio-technical transitions and strategic niche management provides a tool for facilitating development and linking with policy. The study found that the Australian vehicle-to-grid niche is at an embryonic stage and is yet to stabilise into a dominant form. Variety and non-technical learning are lacking and expectations underestimate the significance of existing infrastructures and user factors as well as the scope of complementary technologies. Greater experimentation with users and installation premises are recommended, plus engaging more actors and intermediaries. The study concludes with directions for further research in multi-system interactions and transitions in importer countries like Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, as elsewhere, there has been continuing interest in understanding questions regarding unequal employment opportunities. While aggregate patterns provide a useful overview, it is insightful to consider employment outcomes across segmented markets. One such segmented market is between men and women, where it is widely understood that labour market engagement opportunities will differ. This paper provides an investigation of these uneven labour market outcomes. It presents an analysis of labour underutilisation for men and women using panel data, taking account of both individual-level supply-side factors together with the strength of the local labour market (demand side) and the performance of the broader macroeconomic environment. The result is an analysis that accounts for the impact of changing macroeconomy, local labour market conditions and men and women's employability assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition from secondary school to postschool life, education, and employment can be difficult for young people who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). This population's postschool outcomes, particularly in employment, continue to lag behind those of the general population. The transition education, planning, and practices that these students experience while at secondary school are important to their achievement of optimal postschool outcomes. This paper reviews recent literature relating to the postschool transition of young people who are DHH, including studies that have investigated specific transition practices and student characteristics and their associations with positive postschool outcomes. Taking into consideration evidence-based best practices for students with disability in general and students who are DHH in particular, the authors propose a model of targeted transition planning and practice for adolescents who are DHH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1899, the Australian colonies sent military contingents to South Africa to support the British in fighting the Boer enemy. While some questioned the justice of the conflict, the public reaction to the war was akin to a 'national insanity'. British victories in the first half of the war, particularly the relief of Mafeking in May 1900, saw noisy jingo crowds filling the streets of capital cities in celebration, resulting in public drunkenness and damage to property, behaviour typically deemed 'mad'. Colonial society, faced with increases in lunacy rates, was not only in the process of comprehending madness, but also ideas about Australian nationalism in the period approaching Federation of 1901. These factors, added to popular involvement in a British war in South Africa, shaped political, police and press responses to the new manifestation of jingoism. The press, a site of both the production and advancement of public conceptions of insanity, drew upon the social language of madness to communicate the acceptability or unacceptability of specific jingoistic behaviour. This paper examines the metaphorical use of mad vocabularies by the colonial press during this period to explore the 'arbitrary boundary' between madness and sanity in Federation era Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on developments related to the paper industry as of February 2004. Plan of Caraustar Industries Inc. to close its mill in Cedartown, Georgia; Plan of Graphic Packaging Corp. to close its folding carton plant in Garden Grove, California; Plan of Australia-based Griffin Energy to build a pulp and paper mill in Australia.

• Municipal authorities' nature-based urban sustainability strategies include composting household food waste. • Deleuze and Guattari's assemblage thinking is employed to better understand why households compost. • A composting sensory ethnography mapped the affective intensities that enhanced or diminished composting. • Pleasures of composting were enhanced by following scientific guidelines of the nutrient cycle and ecosystems. • Experimentation arose from a heightened sense of self from the discomforting sensations of breaking scientific guidelines. This paper seeks to better understand urban sustainability experimentation with reference to the bodily sensations of composting household food waste. Taking our lead from Deleuze and Guattari, we argue that experimentation is not just the result of the scientific knowledge of how to compost, but the sensations of bringing together materials, human, non-humans, and ideas into a working arrangement. We draw on Deleuze and Guattari's notion of molar, molecular and rupture lines to offer a way to envisage experimentation as an affective dimension that emerges from the opposing forces that dissolve and support bodily capacities to care for compost as working socio-material arrangements that make, remake, and unmake composting bodies and spaces. Based on a sensory composting ethnography conducted with 21 individuals of European ancestry and tertiary education in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, we provide two significant insights. First, we argue that implications for the bodily capacity to care for compost are discerned from the sensations of molar lines of scientific household food waste management. The subjectivities and backyard territories created by the affective intensities of composting occur along molar lines of environmental citizenship that are narrated as pleasure, satisfaction, and love. Second, we illustrate how composting experimentation involves a heightened sensation of the self in backyards, through molecular lines generated by the presence of certain smells, temperatures, food waste, plants or animals that challenged the liveable order of backyards. We advance geographical scholarship by bringing new ways of approaching household sustainability transitions by conceiving of experimentation from the perspective of molar and molecular lines and how these may be used to apprehend sensations which stabilise, or undo, a sense of self and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, Australia has taken several measures to tackle the increasing trend of energy use in residential buildings. Recently, the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings has been endorsed aiming to reduce energy usage in residential buildings. However, the primary focus of this trajectory is on decreasing operational energy without considering the embodied energy of the building and systems. This paper aims to address one primary question; 'can the continued exclusion of embodied energy from the energy efficiency regulations effectively lead to reducing energy consumption in Australian residential buildings?'. The findings indicate that embodied energy becomes a dominating factor as buildings' thermal performances increase according to the Australian energy efficiency regulations. In transitioning from a standard 6.0-star building to a highly energy-efficient 8.7-star building, the proportion of embodied energy significantly increases from 20–40% to 50–75%. This study recommends establishing minimum mandatory requirements for buildings' embodied performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently released 2021 Australian Census data (ABS2022) provide a useful profile of the dynamism and diversity of languages currently spoken at home in Australia. This paper reviews the 2021 Census data to explore trends in linguistic and cultural diversity across states and territories and contrasts that with provision of languages education in schools. It considers the implications of current language policy (or lack thereof) in supporting languages used in the community, and in actively promoting broader community understanding of these languages and their speech communities through language education in schools. The need for a more inclusive and diverse offering of languages in the school education sector in particular is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Cohort-component models incorporating directional migration are conceptually robust demographic models which are widely employed to forecast the populations of large subnational regions. However, they are difficult to apply at the local area scale. Simpler models, such as the Hamilton--Perry model, have modest input data requirements and are much quicker, cheaper, and easier to implement, but they offer less output detail, suffer from some conceptual and practical limitations, and can be less accurate. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to describe and evaluate the synthetic migration cohort-component model -- an approach to implementing the bi-regional model for local area population forecasts without the need for any locally specific migration data. METHODS The new approach is evaluated by creating several sets of 'forecasts' for local areas of Australia over past periods. For comparison, forecasts from two types of Hamilton--Perry model are also evaluated. Error is measured primarily with an alternative Absolute Percentage Error measure for total population which takes into account how well or poorly the population age--sex structure is forecast. RESULTS In the evaluation for Australian local areas, the synthetic migration model generated more accurate forecasts that the two Hamilton--Perry models in terms of median, mean, and 90th percentile Absolute Percentage Errors. CONTRIBUTION The synthetic migration model combines the conceptual and practical advantages of the bi-regional cohort-component model with the light data requirements and ease of calculation of simpler cohort models. It allows the bi-regional model to be applied in circumstances where local area migration data are unavailable or unreliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The life-course perspective has become one of the main paradigms in migration research, providing a rich and fruitful framework for understanding migration behavior. Despite a large literature on the association between internal migration and life-course transitions, little effort has been made to understand the impact of increasing diversity in the lifecourse trajectory of young adults on heterogeneity in migration behavior. OBJECTIVES To address this gap, this paper seeks to establish intra- and inter-cohort variation in the occurrence, order, and timing of reasons for migrating among young adults. METHODS We apply sequence and cluster analysis to self-reported reasons for migrating collected from 2002 to 2019 as part of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and follow two cohorts of young adults born between 1982--1984 and 1990--1992 over 10 years. We distinguish between education, employment, family, housing, amenity, lifestyle, and health migration. RESULTS Sequence analysis reveals diversity in individual migration trajectories, shaped by the number and timing of migrations and the type of reason. Intra-cohort variation is manifested by the delineation of five distinct migration clusters, while inter-cohort change is most visible in the growing share of young adults that follow diverse and delayed migration trajectories. CONCLUSIONS Sequence analysis is a promising tool to advance understanding of migration behavior, which can now find greater usage thanks to the maturation of longitudinal surveys. CONTRIBUTION Analyzing migration histories over a sustained period reveals greater heterogeneity in migration behavior than focusing on single migration events. This reinforces the importance of conceptualizing and analyzing migration as a life-course trajectory that unfolds over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly articles on international academics have been weighted towards understanding their broad personal and professional challenges related to teaching. Limited research is conducted with international women academics in Australia in, especially, exploring their leadership-related challenges and opportunities. Using an intersectionality lens, this paper addresses this gap by exploring key related challenges and opportunities for international women academics in gaining leadership positions at Australian universities. It draws on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with seven international women academics. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in exploring two major challenges faced by international women academics in Australia: 1) administrative-related interruption impacting their research performance; and 2) lack of understanding of university policies and processes. International women academics also cited the opportunities provided to them or gained by them for their overall professional growth at Australian universities. The practical implications of these findings for international women academics and higher education institutions are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nursing workforce constitutes the largest professional health workforce in Australia. Nursing is traditionally a female dominated profession. This study reviewed Australian universities that provide entry to practice nursing education. The study identified the distribution of females and males in leadership in nursing education, the positioning of the discipline in the university, and where nurses occupy leadership roles above the nursing discipline (faculty/college). Of the 37 universities that offered entry to practice nursing, more females were evident. However, more men were evident in academia than the proportion of men in nursing outside of the academic setting. Leadership nomenclature varied within each nursing discipline group reviewed. This study demonstrated that the number of nursing academics has decreased since the late 1990’s. The nursing workforce is still a significant contributor to the academic workforce and yet numbers of nurse academics working in roles senior to their discipline were few. This paper discusses how the nursing workforce as predominantly female, has implications to both females and males, and may impact opportunities for leadership and promotion to senior roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, the nominate subspecies of the Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles miles usually occurs in northern Australia. There have been only two reports of this taxon in Victoria: at Mildura, in 1968; and at the Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme, from 1 January to 24 May 1981. This paper details, with a photograph and field notes, the latter record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home educators are one of the fastest growing educational movements in Australia, and one of the most misunderstood. In this paper, we examine policies affecting the school and home education populations to see if Covid health policy mandating the closure of public life during the 2020 outbreak was borne by both groups equitably. We find, rather than equitably affecting all young people, restrictions disproportionally fell onto the home educated who experienced between 100 and 200 longer days of restrictions than their schooled peers. We argue that, for educational equity to be experienced by all students in Australia, consideration needs to be given to the home educated who are a growing cohort and may experience more vulnerabilities due to their complex needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide an evaluative description and report of the various aspects of teaching and learning Greek as a heritage and/or foreign language in the Northern Territory of Australia. Initially, we focus on the importance of the formation of dynamic learning communities through interdisciplinary collaboration. The main purpose of Charles Darwin University's Greek In-Country Study Program is to support the learning of Greek language and culture through language lessons as well as concurrent cultural activities that are delivered while students are in Greece. After thirteen years of successful implementation of the program, the purpose of this report is to highlight the learning activities that have been completed over these years through a discussion of the research outcomes of the students' experiences that we believe will underscore the important roles that language, literature, and culture play in the strengthening of one's Greek identify while living within Australia. Within this framework, basic principles of design and the use of cross-university teaching and learning programs for the Greek language are presented, as well as foregrounding the advantages of current information technology for instructional purposes and, in particular, the maintenance, and perhaps even revival of heritage languages as well as reinforcing their contributions to the role of education in the diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Animal-based experiences are a significant feature of the attractions profile of many tourist destinations. The koala is an iconic species that plays an important role in Australian tourism, both symbolically and materially. Due to the species being endemic to Australia and its human baby-like qualities together with numerous and long-standing representations in popular culture, the koala has become an integral component of Australia's destination identity and subsequently deployed by government and industry bodies to promote Australia as an international tourist destination. The koala continues to play a major role in a variety of tourist experiences, with captive presentations the predominant form of contemporary koala-based tourism. Drawing on Beardsworth and Bryman's (2001) four modes of engagement with wild animals and utilising a historical and socio-cultural analytical approach, the paper examines the involvement of the koala in tourism through (i) representation via texts and images, (ii) presentation through captive exhibits, (iii) quasification through museum exhibits, souvenirs and koala sculpture trails and (iv) encounters in the wild. Anthropomorphic renderings of the koala appear to have been important in the construction of the koala as a tourist attraction as well as in its continued symbolic and material involvement in tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of children are notoriously elusive in the sources on which historians traditionally rely. This paper will discuss several projects in which Trove has expanded the history of childhood in Australia, uncovering a nation-wide trade in children through adoption advertisements, and enriching our knowledge of out-of-home care, and the many inquiries into its failings. Trove has democratised the practice of history – allowing care leavers and abuse survivors to research their own histories – and enabled new avenues for identifying microhistories. However, this article also argues that Trove-focused history without an understanding of context can be misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture policies in Australia have long encouraged productivist agriculture that aims to maximise yields through intensive production. Many have argued Australian farmers are trapped on the productivist treadmill as a result and there is evidence of an Australian farming culture where productivism is internalised as the standard of good farming. In this paper, I share the stories and experiences of commercial farmers in two regions of rural Australia who view good farming as production that moves them away from extractive productivism and towards a way of producing food that lets them and their non-human counterparts survive well. • Australian farmers have historically been impelled to productivist agriculture • In contrast to dominant notions of good farming as productivist agriculture, interviews with commercial farmers in Australia suggest that 'good farming' means suriving well. • Good farmers pay attention to the complexity of ecological systems and adopte a view of nature as integral to production. • More research is needed to determine how and to what extent notions of stewardship as anchored in control of nature are being untethered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how the atmospheres of place act upon bodies, provoking thought and mediating the emergence of a more-than- human politics for living in the urban Anthropocene. Taking-place in a remote urban town, it explores the conditioning geographies of Indigenous-led activisms that harness the potential of place in recent political projects. Central to this is a thinking-with Indigenous felt approaches to place, specifically the work of Country as: a concept that maps geographies of belonging, co-existence and reciprocity; a living body that has the capacity to affect and be affected; and, an force that is felt as a diffuse-yet-palpable atmosphere. Through the narratives of Indigenous activists, this paper describes spacetimes of being-with- Country that dwell in the atmospheres and apprehend capacities to act upon and imagine other present-futures. To think of an environmental agent animated by the force of liveliness, is to work through the political status of the non-human, all the while experimenting and making a call for attention to the felt reality of human connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making space and place for innovation and knowledge-intensive activities has been an important task for urban administrators in order to foster, attract and retain talent and investment in the age of global knowledge economy. The paper sets out to derive the efficient approaches for practical integration of place making as a multidimensional strategy for the successful and sustainable generation and dissemination of knowledge in contemporary knowledge and innovation spaces. This research embraces a multidimensional conceptual framework to carry out the investigation in three case studies from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (Australia). As the methodological approach an interview-based qualitative analysis method, by involving a range of key stakeholders, is adopted. The study finds that, considering the challenges these locations are exposed to, the role of place making extends from merely physical aspects to holistic economic, social, cultural, spatial and organisational outcomes. This paper makes a contribution to the literature by generating insights from the Australian knowledge and innovation space context with the application of an innovative multifaceted approach for fruitful place making. • Investigates the Australian context of innovation and knowledge-intensive clusters • Adopts a place making framework for examining knowledge and innovation clusters • Highlights the importance of place making for innovation and knowledge activities • Underlines the processes and perceptions in successful place making for innovation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lacuna in the research about LGBTIQ+ people's relationships to family, and in particular, their experiences of family violence and how these experiences vary for people who also identify as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD). In this paper, we explore the impact of the 2017 Australian Marriage Equality vote on CALD LGBTIQ+ people residing in Greater Western Sydney (GWS), which is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas of Australia, and where there was a significant 'no' vote. The 14-week campaign before the Marriage Equality vote resulted in significant social and individual trauma and damage to existing, fraught family relationships for LGBTIQ+ Australians (Ecker & Bennett, 2017). The findings from this research highlight that while CALD LGBTIQ+ people experience high levels of family violence at the time of coming out and during events such as the Marriage Equality vote, families are also an incredible source of support when CALD LGBTIQ+ are accepted by their families and wider communities. This paper documents the experiences of CALD LGBTIQ+ people's relationships and reports on the findings from a survey with CALD LGBTIQ+ people in GWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opioid epidemic in North America has attracted considerable international concern because of the scale of the problem and the high rate of overdose deaths. This paper explores the factors that have contributed to the opioid epidemic in the United States and Canada, and reviews the current situation in Australia. There is little evidence that Australia is on the same trajectory as the United States or Canada, or that fentanyl, particularly illicit fentanyl, has penetrated the Australian drug market as it has overseas. There is, however, evidence of an increase in harm associated with pharmaceutical opioids and heroin, despite a fall in heroin use. This paper highlights the importance of being vigilant about the potential for similar problems in Australia, and continuing to monitor key indicators of opioid availability, use and harm. Responses to opioid misuse and overdose must be relevant to the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Requirements Engineering (RE) activities are inherently collaborative, requiring software stakeholders to have intensive communication to identify users' requirements. As the stakeholders' culture might heavily impact on the way how they collaborate and communicate, RE might be significantly influenced by their cultural background. To analyse stakeholders' culture, we use one of the most adopt and comprehensive cultural studies in software engineering: Hofstede's cultural model. Hofstede's model has six cultural dimensions, where one of them is Power Distance (PD). The aim of this study is to explore the influence of PD cultural aspects on RE activities. We conducted 32 interviews with software developments/requirements engineer practitioners from two different cultures: Saudi Arabia and Australia. Our results revealed that PD significantly affect RE collaboration among software stakeholders. In this paper, we address the core identified cultural aspects as well as the ways to overcome them. The results that we present in this paper would help to increase awareness of the influence of PD, and thus, improve collaboration within RE activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and justifies the protocol for a research project investigating regional secondary school consolidation reforms in New South Wales, Australia. The study is designed to describe the experiences of those directly involved in the transition to a consolidated school in a way that has so far eluded educational leadership researchers. Identifying five themes from the international literature on school consolidation (leadership and governance; staff and student wellbeing; teaching and learning; curriculum and pathways; community satisfaction), the paper then articulates a systematic research protocol for examining the transition from individual schools through to a consolidated school. Previous studies have not systematically examined this transition and how it shifts practices and perceptions from different stakeholder perspectives. Using a purposeful merger of quantitative and qualitative forms of evidence, this study protocol has the potential to play a defining role in the area of school consolidation reforms. The applicability of the study design holds promise as an adaptable, focused, and sustainable protocol for generating understanding of school consolidation transitions and developing an empirical evidence base that is localised, internationally benchmarked, and critical for school decisions about investments and outcomes for educators, students, and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The criminal law has a fundamental role in protecting bodily integrity and specifically the value of human life. This paper examines the role which the criminal law has played in addressing life-threatening and fatal abuse of older persons by others. It does so in light of the recent recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Western Australian Parliamentary Inquiry Report on this issue. These reports acknowledge that elder abuse takes a variety of forms, but is commonly characterised by the breach of trust in an existing relationship. The paper reviews existing criminal protections in Western Australian criminal law and reflects upon several coronial inquiries. It submits that the moral distinctions characterising abuse which involve a life-threatening or fatal harm to an older person requires that the criminal law responds specifically to this abuse, and that such a response could be led by the inclusion of provisions in the Criminal Code (WA) which target those who facilitate this form of abuse of older persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the extensive literature on the role of government in the economy scant attention has been paid to the influence of the relative size of government on an economy's rate of growth. This paper canvasses perspectives on why the size of government has grown, how this affects the wider economy, and why a trade-off exists between increased government size and economic growth beyond some optimal level, as conveyed by the so-called BARS curve. The paper next examines in-depth trends in government spending in Australia which has grown to a historically high level of 37 per cent of national income post GFC before econometrically estimating the optimal size of government on Australia's BARS curve using the ARMAX approach. The results suggest the share of government spending in Australia consistent with maximising economic growth is 31 per cent of national income, significantly below the current level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper connects critical legal geography and coastal climate change adaptation. It is particularly interested in the role that complex political ecologies and legal geographies have played in underpinning a decade of idealised integrated coastal management in New South Wales, Australia. In attending to the political-legal nature of coastal management through the lens of legal geography, this paper illustrates the complexities of law's role as both a driver and a barrier to coastal climate change adaptation, through a detailed review and analysis of repeated legislative reform between 2009–2018. This not-yet-documented analysis serves to highlight a shifting legal landscape and the politics of coastal climate change adaptation. It also illustrates how private property rights have been used as both a sword and a shield to advance dominant interests. The paper offers specific examples of ways private property discourses have been used to muddy the waters of adaptation responses, and how private property discourses can pervade, dissuade, and undermine land use management policies even as such policies aim to achieve more harmonious coastal management. • Integrated Coastal Management can balance competing interests on developed coastlines. • These interests are increasingly contested by climate change and the need for adaptation. • This contestation is usefully represented as between property rights and land use planning. • Law's role is also contested where law attempts, through land use planning, to curtail private property rights. • The lens of legal geography offers unique insights into the spatiality of law and is relevant to coastal adaptation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recent coastal legislative and policy reform in Australia reflects the changing focus of coastal management studies in the international scientific literature indicating a move towards systems perspectives, cross-boundary management strategies and an integration of marine and terrestrial environments. Significant global and national reports on integrated coastal management and climate change set the stage for a 21st Century wave of coastal reform in Australia. Given the absence of Australian national coastal legislation or coastal policy the reforms were initiated by a number of state governments such as in New South Wales and Victoria where new pieces of state-based coastal legislation came into law in 2018. This paper examines new coastal legislation, policies, manuals, and government documents and the rationale and triggers behind these reforms. These are discussed in the context of Australian governance structures and the international coastal management literature. The paper concludes that the latest wave of coastal reform in Australia represents a non-uniform stateled push for a more integrated approach to coastal management including, adaptation to climate change, sustainable development, a systems-based approach to coastal processes and inclusion of both marine and terrestrial environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2012, the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department issued a discussion paper which flagged the possibility of codifying or otherwise reforming the Australian law of contract. Half a decade later, it seems distinctly improbable that the initiative will yield anything of substance. The result is that would-be reformers of the Australian law of contract might well feel frustrated at the uncertainty as to how the cause of reform ought to be prosecuted. The object of this article is to offer up some suggestions in this regard. It seeks to identify some practical steps which might be taken by way of reform of the Australian law of contract. It seeks in particular to identify those reforms which are sufficiently uncontroversial as to attract support on the part of government. The article also grapples with the question of whether the more radical options set out in the 2012 discussion paper - including the prospect of codification - were ever suitable responses to the challenges facing the Australian law of contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]