Distances travelled by feral horses in ‘outback’ Australia

Reasons for performing study: The distance travelled by Australian feral horses in an unrestricted environment has not previously been determined. It is important to investigate horse movement in wilderness environments to establish baseline data against which the movement of domestically managed horses and wild equids can be compared. Objectives: To determine the travel dynamics of 2 groups of feral horses in unrestricted but different wilderness environments. Methods: Twelve feral horses living in 2 wilderness environments (2000 vs. 20,000 km2) in outback Australia were tracked for 6.5 consecutive days using custom designed, collar mounted global positioning systems (GPS). Collars were attached after darting and immobilising the horses. The collars were recovered after a minimum of 6.5 days by re-darting the horses. Average daily distance travelled was calculated. Range use and watering patterns of horses were analysed by viewing GPS tracks overlaid on satellite photographs of the study area. Results: Average distance travelled was 15.9 ± 1.9 km/day (range 8.1–28.3 km/day). Horses were recorded up to 55 km from their watering points and some horses walked for 12 h to water from feeding grounds. Mean watering frequency was 2.67 days (range 1–4 days). Central Australian horses watered less frequently and showed a different range use compared to horses from central Queensland. Central Australian horses walked for long distances in direct lines to patchy food sources whereas central Queensland horses were able to graze close to water sources and moved in a more or less circular pattern around the central water source. Conclusions: The distances travelled by feral horses were far greater than those previously observed for managed domestic horses and other species of equid. Feral horses are able to travel long distances and withstand long periods without water, allowing them to survive in semi-arid conditions.

Designing schools as effective 21st C learning spaces : a review

The Queensland Centre for Social Science Innovation was formed in 2012 to develop collaborations among the Queensland Government and five Queensland universities—The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University and Central Queensland University. Three priorities for initial projects were established by the Queensland Government with response by the participating universities. This project addressed the identified priority area: factors affecting educational achievement and investigation of the link between school design, refurbishment and educational outcomes. The proposal for this project indicated that a Review of research literature would be undertaken that linked school and classroom design with educational outcomes for learners in the 21st century. Further, research would be examined for impact of technology on staff and students, as well as learning spaces that addressed the diversity of student learners. Specific investigation of research on effective design to enhance learning outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students was to be undertaken. The project therefore consists of a Review of research literature to provide an evidence base on the impact of school and classroom on educational outcomes. The original proposal indicated that indicators of successful school and classroom design would be student learning outcomes on a range of variables, with input, the specific architectural design elements. The review was undertaken during the period July 2012 to June 2013. A search was undertaken of journals, databases, and websources to identify relevant material. These were examined for evidence-based statements and design of learning spaces to enhance learning. The Review is comprehensive, and representative of issues raised in research, and conceptualisations and debates informing modern educational design. Initial findings indicated two key findings central to reading this Review. The first key finding is that the predominant focus of modern design of learning space is on process and the engagement of stakeholders. Schools are social institutions and development of a school as a learning space to suit 21st century learning needs necessarily involves the staff, students and other members of the community as key participants. The concept of social aspects of design is threaded throughout the Review. The second key finding is that little research explicitly examined the relationship between the design of learning spaces and educational outcomes. While some research does exist, the most explicitly-focused research uses narrow test-based achievement as the learning outcomes. These are not sympathetic to the overall framings of the research on 21st century learning, future schooling and the needs of the new generation of learners and society.

1950s made in Brisbane : Italian tailors and the continental suit

During the 1950s and 1960s, when the French couturiers Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Chanel dominated the fashion industry, the Italian community in Brisbane, Australia, was very active in the local industry through retail, dress-making and tailoring. Australia is geographically at the margins of the developed countries and has been dependent on European trends and taste. In the 1950s, communication was based on magazines and especially newsreels and film; each ethnic group dressed as they liked and according to their custom. Moreover, ‘Made in Italy’ was not yet the prestigious concept that revolutionized ready-to-wear design from the 1970s. However, Italian tailors and demi-couturiers brought to Brisbane their trans-national sense of elegance (the Italian style) and the taste in fashion that influenced new generations in England and elsewhere in Europe from the 1950s. They brought quality and workmanship, offering excellence through the use of quality fabrics from prestigious English and Italian brands. These tailors and dress-makers also contributed towards the local industry through passing on the skills that they brought from Italy. This article is based on a project that seeks to understand the connection between fashion, history and place. The area under examination is the Valley, short for Fortitude Valley, an area adjacent to the Brisbane CBD. Fundamental to this connection between place and fashion was the presence of many Italian migrants in the area. Through archival research and oral history, the aim of this ethnographic project is to bring to the fore an untold story about the economic and aesthetic contribution of Italian migrants to Queensland. Central to the understanding of this aesthetic change is the Italian suit. This research is innovative in that it opens a new area of study in Australian fashion history, connected to the history of migrants and their identity.

Mapping the ethical journey of experienced nurses now practising in rural and remote hospitals in central and south-west Queensland and in domiciliary services in Brisbane : a grounded theory approach

The aim of this thesis has been to map the ethical journey of experienced nurses now practising in rural and remote hospitals in central and south-west Queensland and in domiciliary services in Brisbane. One group of the experienced nurses in the study were Directors of Nursing in rural and remote hospitals. These nurses were “hands on”, “multi-skilled “ nurses who also had the task of managing the hospital. Also there were two Directors of Nursing from domiciliary services in Brisbane. A grounded theory method was used. The nurses were interviewed and the data retrieved from the interviews was coded, categorised and from these categories a conceptual framework was generated. The literature which dealt with the subject of ethical decision making and nurses also became part of the data. The study revealed that all these nurses experienced moral distress as they made ethical decisions. The decision making categories revealed in the data were: the area of financial management; issues as end of life approaches; allowing to die with dignity; emergency decisions; experience of unexpected death; the dilemma of providing care in very difficult circumstances. These categories were divided into two chapters: the category related to administrative and financial constraints and categories dealing with ethical issues in clinical settings. A further chapter discussed the overarching category of coping with moral distress. These experienced nurses suffered moral distress as they made ethical decisions, confirming many instances of moral distress in ethical decision making documented in the literature to date. Significantly, the nurses in their interviews never mentioned the ethical principles used in bioethics as an influence in their decision making. Only one referred to lectures on ethics as being an influence in her thinking. As they described their ethical problems and how they worked through them, they drew on their own previous experience rather than any knowledge of ethics gained from nursing education. They were concerned for their patients, they spoke from a caring responsibility towards their patients, but they were also concerned for justice for their patients. This study demonstrates that these nurses operated from the ethic of care, tempered with the ethic of responsibility as well as a concern for justice for their patients. Reflection on professional experience, rather than formal ethics education and training, was the primary influence on their ethical decision making.

Central Queensland Mining Supplies Pty Ltd v Columbia Steel Casting Co Ltd

In Central Queensland Mining Supplies Pty Ltd v Columbia Steel Casting Co Ltd [2011] QSC 183 Applegarth J considered complaints made by the defendant about the approach the plaintiff had taken in its endeavour to comply with its disclosure obligation under r 211 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld). The judgment also provides an indication of the direction the court is taking in relation to disclosure and document management in matters involving large numbers of documents.

Limestone and speleothem trace element geochemistry as tools for palaeoclimatic reconstruction, Mount Etna region, central-coastal Queensland

This study investigated potential palaeoclimate proxies provided by rare earth element (REE) geochemistry in speleothems and in clay mineralogy of cave sediments. Speleothem and sediment samples were collected from a series of cave fill deposits that occurred with rich vertebrate fossil assemblages in and around Mount Etna National Park, Rockhampton (central coastal Queensland). The fossil deposits range from Plio- Pleistocene to Holocene in age (based on uranium/thorium dating) and appear to represent depositional environments ranging from enclosed rainforest to semi-arid grasslands. Therefore, the Mount Etna cave deposits offer the perfect opportunity to test new palaeoclimate tools as they include deposits that span a known significant climate shift on the basis of independent faunal data. The first section of this study investigates the REE distribution of the host limestone to provide baseline geochemistry for subsequent speleothem investigations. The Devonian Mount Etna Beds were found to be more complex than previous literature had documented. The studied limestone massif is overturned, highly recrystallised in parts and consists of numerous allochthonous blocks with different spatial orientations. Despite the complex geologic history of the Mount Etna Beds, Devonian seawater-like REE patterns were recovered in some parts of the limestone and baseline geochemistry was determined for the bulk limestone for comparison with speleothem REE patterns. The second part of the study focused on REE distribution in the karst system and the palaeoclimatic implications of such records. It was found that REEs have a high affinity for calcite surfaces and that REE distributions in speleothems vary between growth bands much more than along growth bands, thus providing a temporal record that may relate to environmental changes. The morphology of different speleothems (i.e., stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstones) has little bearing on REE distributions provided they are not contaminated with particulate fines. Thus, baseline knowledge developed in the study suggested that speleothems were basically comparable for assessing palaeoclimatically controlled variations in REE distributions. Speleothems from rainforest and semi-arid phases were compared and it was found that there are definable differences in REE distribution that can be attributed to climate. In particular during semiarid phases, total REE concentration decreased, LREE became more depleted, Y/Ho increased, La anomalies were more positive and Ce anomalies were more negative. This may reflect more soil development during rainforest phases and more organic particles and colloids, which are known to transport REEs, in karst waters. However, on a finer temporal scale (i.e. growth bands) within speleothems from the same climate regime, no difference was seen. It is suggested that this may be due to inadequate time for soil development changes on the time frames represented by differences in growth band density. The third part of the study was a reconnaissance investigation focused on mineralogy of clay cave sediments, illite/kaolinite ratios in particular, and the potential palaeoclimatic implications of such records. Although the sample distribution was not optimal, the preliminary results suggest that the illite/kaolinite ratio increased during cold and dry intervals, consistent with decreased chemical weathering during those times. The study provides a basic framework for future studies at differing latitudes to further constrain the parameters of the proxy. The identification of such a proxy recorded in cave sediment has broad implications as clay ratios could potentially provide a basic local climate proxy in the absence of fossil faunas and speleothem material. This study suggests that REEs distributed in speleothems may provide information about water throughput and soil formation, thus providing a potential palaeoclimate proxy. It highlights the importance of understanding the host limestone geochemistry and broadens the distribution and potential number of cave field sites as palaeoclimate information no longer relies solely on the presence of fossil faunas and or speleothems. However, additional research is required to better understand the temporal scales required for the proxies to be recognised.

Critical success factors in distance learning construction programs at Central Queensland University : students’ perspective

Distance education has gone through rapid expansion over the years. Many Australian universities are pushing the use of distance education in delivering construction education programs. However, the critical success factors (CSFs) in distance learning construction programs (DLCPs) are not fully understood. More importantly, students’ demographic features may affect the selection of distance education technologies. Situation-matching strategies should therefore be taken by universities or institutions with different student cohorts. A survey is adopted in Central Queensland University (CQU) to identify and rank the critical success factors in a DLCP in Australia where there is a significant number of earner-learners and students with low socioeconomic background. The findings suggest that the most important CSFs include access to computers and internet, reliability of web-based learning sites, high relevance and clarity of learning materials and assessment items, the availability of web-based learning sites that can be easily manipulated, and the capability of the instructors to provide well-structured courses. The findings also suggest that students with low socioeconomic background have more rigorous requirements on interface design, instructors’ support, and the integration of practical components into courses. The results provide good guidance of the design and delivery of DLCPs and will be useful for universities and institutions that are seeking to implement the distance mode in construction education.

Hydrostratigraphic and hydrochemical characterisation of aquifers, aquitards and coal seams in the Galilee and Eromanga basins, Central Queensland, Australia

Inter-aquifer mixing studies are usually made carrying out hydrochemical and isotopic techniques only. In this thesis these techniques have been integrated with three-dimensional geological modelling proving to be a better approach for inter—aquifer mixing assessment in regional areas, and also highlighting the influence of faulting in the understanding of groundwater and gas migration, which could not be possible using the two fist techniques alone. The results are of particular interest for coal seam gas basins and can even be used as exploration tools as areas of higher permeability and gas migration were identified.

Forecasting trends in the Brisbane central business district office market

The Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW) holds a significant interest in the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD) in controlling approximately 20 percent of the office space within its confines. This comprises a total of 333,903 square metres of space, of which 170,111 square metres is owned and 163,792 square metres is leased from the private sector. The department’s nominal ownership extends to several enduring, landmark buildings as well as several modern office towers. The portfolio includes the oldest building in the CBD, being the former Commissariat Stores building and one of the newest, a 15,000 square metre office tower under construction at 33 Charlotte Street.

Communication infrastructure study for precise positioning services in regional Queensland

Providing precise positioning services in regional areas to support agriculture, mining, and construction sectors depends on the availability of ground continuously operating GNSS reference stations and communications linking these stations to central computers and users. With the support of CRC for Spatial Information, a more comprehensive review has been completed recently to examine various wired and wireless communication links available for precise positioning services, in particular in the Queensland regional areas. The study covers a wide range of communication technologies that are currently available, including fixed, mobile wireless, and Geo-stationary and or low earth orbiting satellites. These technologies are compared in terms of bandwidth, typical latency, reliability, coverage, and costs. Additionally, some tests were also conducted to determine the performances of different systems in the real environment. Finally, based on user application requirements, the paper discusses the suitability of different communication links.