Search

One of the greatest challenges for the juvenile justice system is to successfully reintegrate young offenders back to their communities so that they do not re-offend and return to detention. This challenge is even greater for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth who are over-represented in the Queensland juvenile justice system in terms of interactions with the police, the courts and in detention settings. This paper presents the outcomes of a two-year-longitudinal study which tracked 40 young Indigenous males as they made the transition from detention in North Queensland back to their communities. Over this period the majority of youth arrived at 'undesirable' destinations by re-offending and returning to detention, compared to a smaller cohort who arrived at 'desirable' destinations and desisted from crime. The paper presents qualitative data from the research which focused on gaining the perceptions of these young males by asking them to identify the risks which prevented them from making a successful re-entry back to their communities compared to those who desisted from further offending behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is part of a larger study carried out in North Queensland, Australia, between 1999 and 2001. The original study focused on the perceptions of 15 women who each have (or had) a child who was medically, educationally and socio-culturally constituted as having a disability. Qualitative methods were used for research design and to gather data. Poststructural and feminist perspectives were added to provide additional methods of data analysis. The primary focus in this paper is the spatiality of inclusive education with/in the discursive site of (special) education. It also considers the binary of regular/special education in relation to the spaces of educational discourse through the perspectives of the mothers, covering a temporal frame of 40 years. The mothers' perceptions provide a historical lens on the changes that occurred in special education in North Queensland over this time, while at the same time offer an insight into the spaces disability occupies in education discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a growing number of disasters have affected the tourism industry on scales that range from regional to global. Although there have been a number of significant disasters including SARS, the September 11 attack on the US in 2001, coups in Fiji and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/98 the impacts on the tourism industry in the affected regions and/or countries have been surprisingly short-term. There is still much to learn from how crisis events were managed by the various industry and government authorities involved. This paper focuses on aspects of the impact of Cyclone Larry on the North Queensland tourism industry by examining the impact on visitor flows in the short term and recording the views of visitors who had travelled to the region several months alter the event. The research identifies aspects of visitor behaviours and expectations that may be of use to industry and government to better inform managers and policy makers in their planning and management functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the study about the fundamental landscapes for the conceptualization of several interactions between children and the environments where they grow up and live. Accordingly, it discusses the concept on empirical research which is directed in the field of human geography and on how people learn and adapt on their corresponding environments. In addition, the research has employed a qualitative inductive methodology and consisted several interviews with 40 participants across two rural case studies in North Queensland. It highlights the three main outcomes for environmental education including the relevance of experiential learning, the significance of the elders and family in environmental education, and the opportunities for adult place-based environmental education.

Environmental and natural resource management agencies routinely encounter the task of setting priorities. Limited time, staff and financial resources result in some projects, programmes or issues being given greater attention than others. In multi-stakeholder and multi-objective settings the decision-making process is complex. The task is often made harder by incomplete or inaccurate datasets. Decision makers will aim to adopt a procedure that is analytically robust, auditable, transparent and understandable. This paper presents the assets, threats and solvability (ATS) model for structuring an environmental priority-setting problem. A brief illustration of its use for setting priorities in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland is given. The ATS model provides a structured decision procedure applicable with limited information in a multi-objective policy environment. It helps guide the selection and application of priority-setting criteria under these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses coexistence among aboriginal people, social change and land rights in Northern Queensland. Factors affecting negotiations between aborigines and pastoralists over land use agreements; Provisions of the Aborigines Protection and Control of Opium Act 1897; Developments related to native titles.

Many authors have suggested that Indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change, yet there remains a paucity of fine-grained geographic data on the particular impacts of climate change on specific places and on local communities, especially Australian Indigenous communities. While there are some recent studies being undertaken with Australia's Torres Strait Island people, our research takes up the issues of vulnerability and resilience with two Indigenous communities from different environments on the mainland in North Queensland. They are the Aboriginal peoples of the rainforest and reef environments of the Wet Tropics and the Aboriginal people of the discontiguous rainforest, grasslands, dry forests and marine environments of Cape York. The results demonstrate variability in their understandings of climate change and in their capacities to anticipate and manage its impacts, while at the same time illustrating some common held themes about environmental and cultural values, observed environmental change, attributions of cause and effect, and of climate in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the coastal development of North Queensland. It states that the coastal development in the country has been started on the Gold Coast wherein developers and entrepreneurs recognized two potential markets such as homeowners and holiday makers. It states that the Sunshine Coast was developed following Gold Coast in which developers and business operators moved in to cater for tourists.

This study reports on the source, evolution, reactions and environmental impacts of F-rich thermal water at Innot Hot Springs, north Queensland. Thermal water of the Innot Hot Springs has a surface temperature of 71°C, alkaline pH (8.1), low dissolved oxygen (0.61 mg/L) and low total dissolved solids (652 mg/L). The main chemical composition is Na - Cl, with F concentrations (16 mg/L) being comparatively high. Concentrations of alkali and alkali-earth metals (Cs, Li, Rb, Sr) are elevated, while those of other trace elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Cr, Cu, Ga, Mn, Mo, U, Zn) are significantly less. Hydrochemical and stable isotope data of hot spring water show that the fluid is meteoric in origin and has undergone significant water - granite interaction. Common geothermometers suggest temperatures of water - rock interaction at depth in the 119 - 158°C range (corresponding to a depth of <3.9 - 5.2 km). Solubility modelling of the thermal fluid demonstrates that the evolution of F concentrations in spring waters at the discharge site can be accounted for by fluid - rock interaction of a H2O - NaCl solution with fluorite - calcite-bearing granite assemblages between 150 and 200°C and subsequent granite-buffered cooling. Modelling also indicates that the F concentration in the hydrothermal system is largely controlled by interactions with fluorite, with less evidence for the significant involvement of F-topaz. Speciation calculations demonstrate that F speciation in the fluid is dominated by F- (99.4%), followed by minor CaF+ (0.5%) and NaF(aq) (0.1%), and traces of other F complexes. Thus, the F-rich Innot Hot Springs result from meteoric water circulating through fluorite-bearing granitic rocks and are the surface expression of a low-temperature, non-volcanic geothermal system. Discharge of the hot spring water occurs into an ephemeral stream located in a seasonally wet - dry tropical climate. As a result, the F content of local surface waters is distinctly elevated (max. 18 mg/L) during the dry season, making them unsuitable for stock water supplies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its focus on the regions of Tasmania and Far North Queensland, this exhibition (30 August – 20 September 2002) examines the objects and artworks collected today in the tradition of the Wunderkammer. It brings together artists and craft people who, in some way, have engaged with the tourist aesthetic and economy of souvenirs. Central to this project is a study of the representation of place culture and heritage through the agency of tourist art and souvenirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]