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International literature has recognised the importance of education research with Pacific learners. In an Australian context, the early years learning framework for Australia and the Australian curriculum emphasise that education sectors should work towards cultivating respect for cultural diversity and to develop intercultural understanding and intercultural capabilities. As such, the call to better understand the cultural complexities that underpins Pacific learners and their interactions with educational processes remains pertinent. This scoping review offers an important synthesis of empirical research on the educational successes and challenges of Pacific learners in Australian educational settings from 2010 to 2021. While this study offers critical insights for teacher education and research, the findings also revealed paucities in education research with Pacific learners. Thereby, propositions for future and ongoing education research with Pacific learners in Australia are offered in this article.

There is a growing consensus in early childhood education and care (ECEC) that intentional teaching is pivotal for deep level learning, especially when teaching scientific concepts. However, intentional teaching alone does not always account for how educators communicate their intentions with children. To bridge this gap, we explore the possibilities of integrating the concepts of learning intentions and success criteria in play-based learning. Learning intentions and success criteria are practised in schools and are considered effective in enhancing learning outcomes and assessment. In ECEC, an emergent body of literature has started to examine how formative assessments could be incorporated into teaching to support children's self-regulation through play. To extend this research area, we investigate Australian early childhood educators' perspectives on implementing learning intentions and success criteria as a practice of intentional teaching focusing on mathematics. Based on the initial findings from a Design-based research project, we propose an integrated pedagogical framework for play-based environments. Implications for practice are discussed.

This study aimed to investigate how international students draw on their own cultural identity to reflect on their teaching practice in a simulated classroom in the Australian context. Each simulated teaching session that the students participated in was recorded and sent to the pre-service teachers for later review and reflection. The pre-service teachers were required to produce a 1000 word written reflection of their teaching practice with an explicit focus on how they supported culture, difference and diversity of need in their lesson. Using the Rodger's framework, these reflections were analyzed using the Leximancer software, a lexical semantic tool, to identify the shared and unique experiences that pre-service teachers from the diverse backgrounds face in refining and developing their teaching practice. By highlighting such similarity and difference, it is anticipated that higher education institutions will be in an informed position with regard to the impact of cultural background to teaching practice especially in relation to international pre-service teachers.

The recent introduction of a personal literacy and numeracy test (LANTITE) has been part of tighter accreditation of Initial Teacher Education programs across Australia. This article focuses on pre-service teachers' experiences, beliefs and feelings about the new high-stakes testing regime. The data are drawn from a six-month project intended to evaluate students' experience in a first-year university mathematics unit. The focus in the present article is on students' responses to open-ended questions about their expectations of the unit, their level of confidence in areas of using and teaching mathematics and their thoughts and feelings about their own skill level being assessed. Results from 85 participants indicate that alongside experiencing high levels of mathematics related anxiety, positive and hopeful attitudes towards testing strongly appeared. Individual differences and self-regulated learning processes were also dominant in participants' responses as reported in this article. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on the importance of growth mindset and instilling hope and optimism in pre-service teachers.

Neoliberal reform of the university sector has resulted in increasing numbers of academics employed on casual or fixed-term contracts. While there is an emergent body of literature on issues of precarity in the academy, relatively little attention has been paid to the roles and responsibilities of those tenured academics who employ and "manage" non-tenured researchers. The work involved in hiring and managing a contract researcher is rarely acknowledged or supported, and managers receive little to no training. In this paper, we draw on Dorothy Smith's feminist sociological approach to analyse interviews with 22 non-tenured researchers to examine how managerial relationships shape the employment experiences of those working precariously. We argue that tenured academics have ethical responsibilities to provide a working environment that is fair, supports the ongoing development and wellbeing of non-tenured staff, and challenges dominant discourses of precarious academics as 'other'.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically disrupted schooling around the world. Social distancing requirements have resulted in many countries closing physical school buildings or remaining open but delivering a hybrid model of off-site and on-site teaching and learning. This poses a variety of challenges for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs situated in Higher Education (HE) contexts, particularly in meeting practicum requirements. This paper provides insight into a study examining the viability of a technology-based simulated classroom to support the practicum experience of ITE students. Early investigations suggest that technology-based simulated environments may supplement and support the ITE practicum experience, and now particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study reported in this paper was conducted in Australia and was situated in the context of starting school. The focus of the inquiry was on determining and understanding the processes that adults engage with when coming together to support children making the transition to school. The theoretical lens of the cultural interface was used as a tool for analysis. Findings suggest that as adults come together to support the learning of young children they engage in specific processes. These processes are embedded in the action of locating the contextual self, and they take place at different times in the establishment and maintenance of adult relationships, and the formation of a working partnership. In this paper, these findings are shared and future research directions in family-educator partnership work are offered.

Background: The use of subtalar arthroereisis as an adjunct to the surgical treatment of stage 1 flexible progressive collapsing foot deformity (PCFD) is controversial. The aim was to investigate the clinical outcomes and report the implant removal rate of subtalar arthroereisis as an adjunct for stage 1 PCFD. Methods: A retrospective study of 212 consecutive feet undergoing operative management of stage 1 PCFD with adjunctive subtalar arthroereisis between October 2010 and April 2018. The primary outcome was the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS). Secondary outcomes included Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI), Euroqol-5D-5L Index and implant removal rate. Results: Post-operative clinical FAOS outcomes were collected for 153 feet (72.2%). At mean 2.5-year follow-up, the mean ± standard deviation FAOS for each domain was as follows; Pain: 81.5 ± 18.5, Symptoms: 79.5 ± 12.9, Activities of Daily Living: 82.5 ± 15.4 and Quality of Life: 64.2 ± 23.7. EQ-5D-5L Index was 0.884 ± 0.152. Pre-operative scores were available for 20 of these feet demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in all FAOS, FADI and EQ-5D-5L domains (p < 0.05). The implant removal rate for persistent sinus tarsi pain was 48.1% (n = 102). Conclusion: Use of a subtalar arthroereisis implant as an adjunct to conventional procedures in stage 1 flexible PCFD can result in significant improvement in pain and function. Patients should be counselled as to the relatively frequent rate of subsequent implant removal. Level of evidence: IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate predictions of animal occurrence in time and space are crucial for informing and implementing science-based management strategies for threatened species. Methods: We compiled known, available satellite tracking data for pygmy blue whales in the Eastern Indian Ocean (n = 38), applied movement models to define low (foraging and reproduction) and high (migratory) move persistence underlying location estimates and matched these with environmental data. We then used machine learning models to identify the relationship between whale occurrence and environment, and predict foraging and migration habitat suitability in Australia and Southeast Asia. Results: Our model predictions were validated by producing spatially varying accuracy metrics. We identified the shelf off the Bonney Coast, Great Australian Bight, and southern Western Australia as well as the slope off the Western Australian coast as suitable habitat for migration, with predicted foraging/reproduction suitable habitat in Southeast Asia region occurring on slope and in deep ocean waters. Suitable foraging habitat occurred primarily on slope and shelf break throughout most of Australia, with use of the continental shelf also occurring, predominanly in South West and Southern Australia. Depth of the water column (bathymetry) was consistently a top predictor of suitable habitat for most regions, however, dynamic environmental variables (sea surface temperature, surface height anomaly) influenced the probability of whale occurrence. Conclusions: Our results indicate suitable habitat is related to dynamic, localised oceanic processes that may occur at fine temporal scales or seasonally. An increase in the sample size of tagged whales is required to move towards developing more dynamic distribution models at seasonal and monthly temporal scales. Our validation metrics also indicated areas where further data collection is needed to improve model accuracy. This is of particular importance for pygmy blue whale management, since threats (e.g., shipping, underwater noise and artificial structures) from the offshore energy and shipping industries will persist or may increase with the onset of an offshore renewable energy sector in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International literature has recognised the importance of education research with Pacific learners. In an Australian context, the early years learning framework for Australia and the Australian curriculum emphasise that education sectors should work towards cultivating respect for cultural diversity and to develop intercultural understanding and intercultural capabilities. As such, the call to better understand the cultural complexities that underpins Pacific learners and their interactions with educational processes remains pertinent. This scoping review offers an important synthesis of empirical research on the educational successes and challenges of Pacific learners in Australian educational settings from 2010 to 2021. While this study offers critical insights for teacher education and research, the findings also revealed paucities in education research with Pacific learners. Thereby, propositions for future and ongoing education research with Pacific learners in Australia are offered in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the use of coastal and offshore environments expands, there is a need to better understand the exposure of marine megafauna to anthropogenic activities that potentially threaten their populations. Individual satellite telemetry studies are often hampered by small sample sizes, providing limited information on spatiotemporal distributions of migratory animals and their relationships to anthropogenic threats. We addressed this issue by synthesising satellite tracking data from 484 individuals of three taxonomic groups and six species; three marine turtle, two whale and one shark. The spatial overlap between taxa distributions and multiple anthropogenic activities was assessed as a proxy for the cumulative exposure of these taxa to anthropogenic threats (coastal modification, vessel strike, underwater noise, oil spill, bycatch, entanglement, and artificial light) across an area totalling 2,205,740 km[sup 2] off north-western Australia. Core exposure areas (top 50% of the distribution) encompassed ecologically important sites for all taxa, such as the Ningaloo and Pilbara regions, migratory routes for whales and sharks in offshore waters beyond Ningaloo Reef, and marine turtle nesting beaches at Barrow Island and Cape Lambert. Although areas of high exposure represented <14% of taxa distributions, we showed that no taxa occurred in the absence of threats and that even areas with existing spatial protections are experiencing high levels of exposure. Importantly, we developed a robust approach for documenting the potential exposure of marine species to a range of human activities at appropriate spatial scales to inform conservation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Satellite tags were deployed on 50 east Australian humpback whales (breeding stock E1) between 2008 and 2010 on their southward migration, northward migration and feeding grounds in order to identify and describe migratory pathways, feeding grounds and possible calving areas. At the time, these movements were not well understood and calving grounds were not clearly identified. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset details all long-term, implantable tag deployments that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1. As such, these data provide researchers, regulators and industry with clear and valuable insights into the spatial and temporal nature of humpback whale movements along the eastern coastline of Australia and into the Southern Ocean. As this population of humpback Background Satellite tags were deployed on 50 east Australian humpback whales (breeding stock E1) between 2008 and 2010 on their southward migration, northward migration and feeding grounds in order to identify and describe migratory pathways, feeding grounds and possible calving areas. At the time, these movements were not well understood and calving grounds were not clearly identified. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset details all long-term, implantable tag deployments that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1. As such, these data provide researchers, regulators and industry with clear and valuable insights into the spatial and temporal nature of humpback whale movements along the eastern coastline of Australia and into the Southern Ocean. As this population of humpbackwhales navigates an increasingly complex habitat undergoing various development pressures and anthropogenic disturbances, in addition to climate-mediated changes in their marine environment, this dataset may also provide a valuable baseline. New information: At the time these tracks were generated, these were the first satellite tag deployments intended to deliver long-term, detailed movement information on east Australian (breeding stock E1) humpback whales. The tracking data revealed previously unknown migratory pathways into the Southern Ocean, with 11 individuals tracked to their Antarctic feeding grounds. Once assumed to head directly south on their southern migration, five individuals initially travelled west towards New Zealand. Six tracks detailed the coastal movement of humpback whales migrating south. One tag transmitted a partial southern migration, then ceased transmissions only to begin transmitting eight months later as the animal was migrating north. Northern migration to breeding grounds was detailed for 13 individuals, with four tracks including turning points and partial southern migrations. Another 14 humpback whales were tagged in Antarctica, providing detailed Antarctic feeding ground movements. Broadly speaking, the tracking data revealed a pattern of movement where whales were at their northern limit in July and their southern limit in March. Migration north was most rapid across the months of May and June, whilst migration south was most rapid between November and December. Tagged humpback whales were located on their Antarctic feeding grounds predominantly between January and May and approached their breeding grounds between July and August. Tracking distances ranged from 68 km to 8580 km and 1 to 286 days. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset compiles all of the long-term tag deployments that have occurred to date on breeding stock E1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of a learning culture on organisational change in small to medium-sized regional manufacturing enterprises following a review of the related literature, and a qualitative study of 10 manufacturing SMEs in the Riverina region of New South Wales. The research confirmed that key learning culture factors as identified in the literature were significant in the regional manufacturing firms studied. These included a strong commitment to a learning culture within the organisation, employee involvement in the development of the learning culture, demonstrating the tangible benefits of a learning culture to senior managers, and strong leadership support for organisational learning.

Background: People are increasingly using the Internet to retrieve health information about chronic musculoskeletal conditions, yet content can be inaccurate and of variable quality. Objective: To summarise (i) comprehensiveness, (ii) accuracy and clarity, iii) quality of information about treatment choices, (iv) credibility and (v) readability of online information about knee osteoarthritis. Method: Systematic appraisal of website content. Searches for "knee osteoarthritis" and "knee arthritis" were performed using Google and Bing (October 2020). The top 20 URLs of each search were screened for eligibility. Comprehensiveness, accuracy and clarity of content were matched against 14 pre-defined topic descriptors. DISCERN and HONcode were used to measure quality of information about treatment choices and website credibility, respectively. Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level tests were used to assess readability. Results: Thirty-five websites were included. Websites were generally comprehensive (median, range = 12, 0–14/14) with descriptors available for 67% (n = 330/490) of topics across all websites, but only 35% (n = 116/330) were accurate and clear. Quality of information about treatment choices was generally low (median DISCERN score, range = 40, 16–56/80). Credibility descriptors were present for 65% (n = 181/280) of items, with 81% (n = 146/181) of descriptors being clear. Median Flesch reading ease was 53 (range = 21–74), and Flesch-Kincaid grade level was 8 (range = 5–11). Conclusion: Few websites provide accurate and clear content aligned to key research evidence. Quality of information about treatment choices was poor, with large variation in comprehensiveness, credibility and readability. Implications: Careful consideration is required by clinicians to identify what online information people with knee osteoarthritis have accessed and to address misinformed beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the effects of cyberbullying in relation to a school's duty of care. By examining the impact of cyberbullying through an increasingly common scenario, it becomes apparent that the strategies for Australian schools in maintaining their duty of care may be unclear and uncommunicated. Findings suggest that Australian law in its current form has failed to keep up with the advances in technology and does not effectively deal with the problems surrounding cyberbullying, both within society and within our schools. Such findings suggest that this lack of direction within Australia could be potentially detrimental to the perceptions of the value and use of the internet both within Australian schools and within Australian households, and support the need for global unity in the development of risk management strategies to deal with this growing phenomenon.

Background: Neuroscience patients can present with agitation due to a number of factors such as the presence of cerebral abnormalities, tumours, trauma, or medications. Agitation among neuroscience patients that escalates to violence and aggression appears to be increasing and highly challenging for neuroscience nursing practice across Australasia. Neuroscience wards or units endeavour to effectively manage patients who are affected by agitation and provide appropriate training for clinical and non-clinical staff. Following a workshop through Australasian Neuroscience Nurses' Association (ANNA), a group of neuroscience nurses, passionate about improving the care of neuroscience patients presenting with agitation and the safety of the staff; collaborated and researched the most effective prevention and management strategies that can be used to ensure that care delivery for these patients is therapeutic and effective. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share recommendations that can guide the prevention and management of agitation among neuroscience patients from the perspective of neuroscience nurses in Australasia. Discussion: These recommendations have been discussed from hospitals across Australasia including Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Wellington in the hope that other cities can make changes in their own hospitals to inform neuroscience nurses and allied clinicians, improve guidelines and provide effective education for staff members that interact with neuroscience patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a significant increase in the number of peer-reviewed publications, critical reviews and searchable web-based databases, since the first substantial tsunami database for Australia was published in 2007. This review represents a complete reorganization and restructuring of previous work coupled with the addition of new data that takes the number of events from 57 (including 2 erroneous events) to 145. Several significant errors have been corrected including mistaken run-up heights for the event of 19 August 1977, Sumba Island, Indonesia, that suggested it was the largest tsunami in Australia’s history. The largest historical event in the database is now the 17 July 2006, Java, Indonesia, tsunami that had a run-up height of 7.90 m at Steep Point, Western Australia. Although estimated wave heights of 40 ft (∼13 m) were noted for the 8 April 1911 event at Warrnambool, Victoria, no run-up data were provided. One of the more interesting findings has been the occurrence of at least 11 deaths, albeit for events that are generally poorly defined. Data gathered during the construction of this database were rigorously reviewed and as such several previous palaeotsunami entries have been removed and other potentially new ones discarded. The reasons for inclusion or exclusion of data are discussed, and it is acknowledged that while there has been an almost three-fold increase in the number of entries the database is still incomplete. With this in mind the database architecture has been brought in line with others in the region with the ultimate goal of merging them all in order to provide a larger, interrogatable and updatable data set. In essence, the goal is to enhance our understanding of the national and regional tsunami hazard (and risk) and to move towards an open-source database. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins a process of addressing a significant gap in knowledge about people's responses to being caught in rip currents. While rip currents are the primary hazard facing recreational ocean swimmers in Australia, debate exists about the best advice to give swimmers caught in rip currents. Such surf rescue advice -- on what to do and how to respond when caught in a rip -- relies on empirical evidence. However, at present, knowledge about swimmers reactions and responses to rip currents is limited. This gap is a considerable barrier to providing effective advice to beach goers and to understanding how this advice is utilised (or not) when actually caught in the rip current. This paper reports the findings of a pilot study that focussed on garnering a better understanding of swimmers' experiences when caught in rip currents. A large scale questionnaire survey instrument generated data about rip current survivors' demographics, knowledge of beach safety and their reactions and responses when caught in a rip current. A mix of online and paper surveys produced a total of 671 completed surveys. Respondents were predominantly an informed group in terms of rip current knowledge, beach experience and had a high self-rated swimming ability. Preliminary insights from the survey show that most respondents recalled a "swim across the rip/parallel to the beach" message when caught in the rip and most escaped unassisted by acting on this message. However, while nearly a quarter of respondents recalled a message of "not to panic", short answer responses revealed that the onset of panic inhibited some respondents from recalling or enacting any other type of beach safety message when caught in the rip current. Results also showed that despite the research sample being younger, competent and frequent ocean swimmers, they were more likely to swim at unpatrolled beaches and outside of the red and yellow safety flags. Moreover, they were still caught in a rip current and they panicked. The findings of this study have significant implications for a range of demographic groups of differing beach safety knowledge and swimming ability who may be caught in rip currents behave, we know very little about how beach goers may respond to being caught in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the role and the political deposition of the law officers of England in comparison to the law officers of Australia and Canada. England consists of two law officers who act as the chief legal advisors for the Crown in both the federal and the state government. Information on the role of the Solicitor-General and the Attorney-General of England is also presented.

Investigating survivors' behaviour prior to, during and after a disaster provides emergency management agencies with greater understanding of the complexities which influence public response. This information can then be used to develop better community-based disaster risk-reduction strategies. In this paper, we review three post-tsunami disaster case studies: the Indian Ocean tsunami (IOT) on 26 December 2004, the Java tsunami on 17 July 2006 and the South Pacific tsunami on 29 September 2009. The 2004 IOT and 2006 Java tsunami surveys involved delayed-response post-disaster research using video interviewing. The 2009 South Pacific tsunami entailed rapid-response post-disaster research using questionnaire interviews. We highlight the major outcomes of each case study and, based on these, make recommendations for improving tsunami education programs in Australia. These include educating the public about tsunami risk, natural warning signs of tsunamis and regionally specific behavioural response. To help facilitate improvements to future post-disaster research, discussion on survey-related issues from each case study is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tsunamis are known to deposit boulders but it is not clear if they are transported solely as bed load or whether suspended load can be involved. It has been reported that numerous individual boulders and imbricated boulder stacks at elevations above normal storm tide levels along the New South Wales (NSW) coast of SE Australia, have been deposited out of suspension by tsunamis. The NSW coast therefore provides an important natural laboratory to test the hypothesis that tsunamis can deposit large boulders from suspension. Using standard hydrodynamic equations to formulate the relationship between boulder transport and flow depth, we provide a test of the suspension hypothesis. We show that the tsunami flow depths required for deposition from suspension are most probably physically unrealistic. The NSW boulders are therefore not indicative of deposition from suspension and an alternative explanation must be sought for their mechanism of emplacement. This analysis has important implications for the emerging sub-branch of tsunami boulder geology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Palaeotsunami databases are now available for both Australia and New Zealand. They indicate that there is a distinct disjunct between relatively small historic events and their larger prehistoric counterparts. Historically, several tsunamis have affected both the Australian and New Zealand coasts and it would therefore seem logical to assume that larger, prehistoric events would leave a recognisable geological signal. A review of the two datasets indicates up to five possible contemporaneous Holocene palaeotsunamis. A more critical examination of some of the underpinning research however, indicates that there are significant differences between the approaches adopted for establishing the chronology of individual events, and also in the nature and extent of the physical evidence used. We conclude that there are two key steps that need to be taken to ascertain whether or not these Holocene events are contemporaneous. First, a consistent methodology for the calibration of radiocarbon dates needs to be adopted across both datasets. Second, the physical characteristics used to define the Holocene palaeotsunamis listed in the Australian database need to be critically reviewed. Once completed a more constructive investigation of possible contemporaneous trans-Tasman or Australasian palaeotsunamis can be made that will help to shed light on the nature of the regional risk from tsunamis. Globally, similar precautions should be taken prior to attempting comparisons between any palaeotsunami databases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article examines the decision of New Zealand to intervene in the Solomon Islands. New Zealand and Australia at first resisted calls to send personnel to restore order but decided to intervene which led to the creation of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). It cites RAMSI's success in pulling Solomon Islands back from the brink of economic, social and political collapse but the issues underlying the tensions continue to be potential triggers for violence.

The Australian megatsunami hypothesis has been developed over two decades. It charts repeated inundation of the South East Australian coast during the Holocene by bolide impact megatsunamis. The most enigmatic evidence for these proposed events are high elevation cliff-top boulders. There is however an absence of known sources for these megatsunamis, and as such we question whether the researchers may have the correct mechanism but the wrong events. Given the low denudation rates of this passive, intraplate environment, we suggest that boulder emplacement may have been solely the result of the much older Eltanin asteroid tsunami about 2.5Ma ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National economies are becoming increasingly dependent on the global telecommunications system - and in particular, its submarine cable infrastructure. We note that a variety of natural hazard processes are capable of damaging and destroying this infrastructure, both in deep water and at the coast. Some places within the global telecommunications system are already known to be bottlenecks or "choke points". Hawaii is just such a choke point and interestingly, Hawaii is also affected by numerous large magnitude natural hazard processes. Any damage to the submarine telecommunications infrastructure routed through Hawaii could result in significant impacts on the electronic flow of data and voice traffic, negatively affecting dependent economies such as Australia. We propose that proper risk assessments be undertaken at all bottlenecks in the global telecommunications system affected by natural hazards (such as tsunami). We use Hawaii as an example of the sort of research that should be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pilbara coast is affected by both intense tropical cyclones directing storm surges and high waves from the N and NW, and tsunamis generated off Indonesia. Wrack lines of shell and other skeletal material commonly occur not only 2-5 m above Australian Height Datum (AHD) but also up to 10 m AHD. They occur in distinct bands and may be continuous for several kilometres but are usually disjunct for tens of kilometres. This study assesses the potential use of wrack lines to identify extreme high water levels preserved on the coast. Elevated wrack lines occur on open coast dunes, storm bars, cheniers and spits and along lagoonal shores. Twelve wrack line assemblages were identified for the last 2500 years, with eight reported at more than one site and ≥ 5 m AHD. Six sites contain wrack lines ≥ 8 m AHD, and three reach 10 m AHD, higher than any historical tsunami inundation in the region. Ten wrack lines are found at 5-8 m AHD, and extend beyond the upper end of any reported storm and cyclone wave heights. Prehistoric wrack lines were also identified at 2-5 m AHD and are within the range of marine inundation by surges associated with present day tropical cyclones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research reports on a synthesis of radiocarbon (14C) dates and the organic content from a variety of depositional sites in a relatively small region in humid eastern Australia centred on Sydney. We focused on basal dates, changes in accumulation rates and the organic content of these sediment records in the period post-dating 21 thousand years ago to make inferences about past environmental conditions, or to infer the timing of past environmental change. We found that low rates of sediment and organic accumulation at the Last Glacial Maximum continued well into the late Pleistocene. The average rate of sediment deposition and organic content increased from about 14.5 calibrated kiloanni before present (cal ka BP), perhaps coincident with Meltwater Pulse 1A, but this was then checked by dry conditions during the Antarctic Climatic Reversal chronozone. An abrupt increase in the average rate of sediment accumulation coincided with the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary (at 11.7 cal ka BP), and this continued until about 9.2 cal ka BP, largely coinciding with the Antarctic thermal maximum, and probably reflecting reduced moisture availability in the Sydney region. Indication of depressed temperature and a more positive moisture availability, from about 9 to 7.6 cal ka BP, witnessed the fastest increase in the number of sites than at any other time. An overall drier early Holocene abruptly altered at about 7.5 cal ka BP and a mid-Holocene 'optimum' in moisture availability extended to 6.2 cal ka BP. The compilation of organic contents of the mid-late Holocene suggests environmental variability, but El Niño frequency or strength is not implicated as a driving force. Increased organic productivity, especially after 2.8 cal ka BP, corresponded to a peak in summer insolation, and associated seasonality of insolation and this is likely to have resulted in increased, or more consistent, summer rainfall and easterly air flow into the Sydney region. In contrast to previous generalisations about changes in south-eastern Australia during the Holocene, which have often relied on palaeoenvironmental records from further south, the southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone during the Holocene had vastly different synoptic outcomes in the Sydney region, with the early Holocene drier as continental air dominated, and the late Holocene wetter, as the synoptic conditions saw more tropical and easterly airflow. This work demonstrates the danger in making generalisations across regions and highlights the utility of the compilation of data at a homoclimatic, regional scale. • New syntheses of sediment accumulation and organic content from sites centred on the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. • Challenging conditions continued well after the LGM, and this included a dry Antarctic Climatic Reversal. • The region was drier in the early and wetter in the late Holocene, reflecting the interplay between moisture sources. • The drier early Holocene abruptly ended at ∼7.5 cal ka BP and enhanced moisture availability then extended to 6.2 cal ka BP. • In the late Holocene insolation likely drove increased summer rainfall and easterly air flow into the Sydney region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]