Contribution of multi-tenure reserve networks to biodiversity conservation

A consistent and integrated approach to nature conservation across the landscape and regardless of tenure is widely recognised as essential in ensuring the effective conservation of biodiversity. 'Multi-tenure reserve networks', which incorporate public and private lands managed for conservation, are considered a means of achieving landscape scale conservation. Biosphere Reserves (BR) and Conservation Management Networks (CMN) are characteristic models in Australia. This thesis aims to evaluate the role of such networks in protecting biodiversity, specifically by: (1) analysing the spatial configuration (size, shape, connectivity) of networks and their individual components; (2) evaluating the contribution of networks (in real terms and in reporting procedures) to biodiversity conservation objectives; (3) analysing the influence of the attitudes and perceptions of land managers on the functionality of networks; and (4) evaluating the influence of coordinating bodies on network functionality. In order to account for deficiencies in existing classifications of conservation lands, a new classification system was developed for this thesis - the Conservation Lands Classification. This classification incorporates conservation mechanisms on public and private lands and forms the basis for comparing network components in three Australian case studies - the Bookmark BR located in the Murray Mallee of South Australia, the Gippsland Plains CMN on the eastern Gippsland Plains of Victoria and the Grassy Box Woodlands CMN across the inland slopes of New South Wales. The spatial configuration of individual components within networks was measured using spatial analysis techniques within a geographic information system (GIS). GIS was also used to measure the contribution that networks made to a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system through the ecosystems they protected. The attitudes and perceptions of landowners and managers within the networks were obtained using questionnaires. Questionnaires were also sent to network coordinators. Statistical and descriptive analysis was conducted on the results. The sizes of individual components varied markedly between the three networks, however within each network public reserves were on average larger than private conservation lands. Although levels of physical connectivity varied between networks, Bookmark BR and Gippsland Plains CMN showed greater similarity to each other than to the Grassy Box Woodlands CMN. The findings raise important questions about the real and perceived differences in the BR and CMN models. All networks, and particularly those components outside the public protected area estate, contributed to enhancing the protection of ecosystems unrepresented or under-represented in the reserve system, although the extent of this contribution varied between networks. Trade-offs between reserve design efficiency and a contribution to a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system were evident between networks. Bookmark BR was characterised by high connectivity, strong reserve design integrity but a lower contribution to protecting under-reserved ecosystems, whereas the opposite was evident in the Grassy Box Woodlands CMN. Over 88% of managers considered their involvement in multi-tenure reserve networks to be a positive or very positive experience. A lack of resources and time for management were considered major limitations of these networks. The majority (80%) of private land managers within networks were willing to be included in a national reserve system of conservation lands. This has important implications for the Australian National Reserve System, which currently incorporates mostly public land. The changing nature of the network coordination arrangements suggests an organic fluid evolution of network structures is likely, contrasting with the desire for legalistic and administrative rigidity promoted by government agencies. The thesis concludes that all the networks studied contribute in varying degrees to biodiversity conservation. The key factors influencing the current and potential contribution that such networks make are: (1) the aims, directions and restrictions set by or imposed upon the coordinating body; and (2) the biophysical nature of the surrounding bioregion and resultant historical land use and tenure pattern. Although the successful operation of such 'multi-tenure' networks ultimately relies on the willing participation of private landholders, ongoing institutional support is likely to be required for maintaining networks in the longer term. Considering networks are increasingly formed outside of the influence of government institutions, this presents a significant challenge for effective coordinated conservation.

Chronic disease risk factors in rural Australia : results from the Greater Green Triangle risk factor surveys

The aim of this article was to assess the level and prevalence of major chronic disease risk factors among rural adults. Two cross-sectional surveys were carried out in 2004 and 2005 in the southeast of South Australia and the southwest of Victoria. Altogether 891 randomly selected persons aged 25 to 74 years participated in the studies. Surveys included a self-administered questionnaire, physical measurements, and a venous blood specimen for lipid analyses. Two thirds of participants had cholesterol levels ≥5.0 mmol/L. The prevalence of high diastolic blood pressure (≥90 mm Hg) was 22% for men and 10% for women in southeast of South Australia, and less than 10% for both sexes in southwest of Victoria. Two thirds of participants were overweight or obese (body mass index ≥25 kg/m2). About 15% of men and slightly less women were daily smokers. The abnormal risk factor levels underline the need for targeted prevention activities in the Greater Green Triangle region. Continuing surveillance of levels and patterns of risk factors is fundamentally important for planning and evaluating preventive activities.

Travel undertaken by women accessing private Victorian pregnancy termination services

Objective: To investigate the extent and cost of travel undertaken by women accessing Victorian termination of pregnancy services.

Design, setting and participants: This was a multi-centre, cross-sectional observational study of women receiving privately funded pregnancy termination services, conducted between November 2002 and June 2003 at eight major pregnancy termination service providers in Victoria.

Main outcome measures: Distance travelled, money and time expended undertaking travel, and reasons women chose particular clinics.

Results: Of the 1,244 Australian resident respondents who resided in Victoria, 9.3% travelled more than 100 km to access services. Teenagers were 2.5 times more likely than other respondents to travel further than 100 kilometres (km) (18.2% compared with 7.8%, OR=2.5, 95% CI 1.5-4.2, p<0.001). Women originated from all Australian States and Territories except South Australia and 13.7% were from Statistical Divisions other than Melbourne. More than one-third of respondents (41.3%) chose their clinic because they were referred by a doctor or general practitioner.

Conclusion: Many pregnancy termination patients face substantial and immediate costs beyond the service fee, as well as the diffculties associated with poor continuity of care and signifcant time away from home. Patients and service providers should be consulted further to determine appropriate clinical services, support services and subsidy schemes for the sizeable proportion of patients who undertake long-distance travel to access pregnancy termination services.

Influence of Gertrude Jekyll in the Adelaide Hills : the landscape of 'Broadlees'

‘Broadlees’ exists as an Adelaide Hills hill-station retreat in Australia, established in the 1920s as a permanent residence for the Waite sisters.1 Typically most large hill-station residences and their accompanying private ‘botanic gardens’ were developed as summer residences from the summer onslaught of the Adelaide Plains, but the Waite sisters saw ‘Broadlees’ as their permanent residence. Further, although the design of the residence was not important in the eyes of Misses Eva and Lily Waite, it was the gardens of the property that were their real passion. This article reviews the history and development of the ‘Broadlees’ property and in particular the role played by the writings and gardens of Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932)2 in its design, form and plantings, which remain the most intact and mature Jekyll-inspired landscape in South Australia today. It is a significant, extant Jekyll-influenced garden developed in the 1920s and 1930s in the Adelaide Hills3 that has been little featured in the coffee-table garden profile literature in Australia, and no article has previously been written about the property. It has been profiled in the Australian Home Beautiful and the South Australian Homes & Gardens magazines in 1932 and 1936 respectively, and also has been subject to a recent comparative assessment as to the role and influence of prominent Adelaide garden designer ElsieMarion Cornish (1870–1946).4 Perhaps because of the wishes of the owners who personally developed and sought to maintain the privacy of the gardens and house, subsequent owners have sought to respect this philosophy in their curatorship of the property.5

Australian critical infrastructure protection : a case of two tales

The protection of critical irifrastructures and the choices made in terms of priorities and cost, all impact upon the planning, precautions and security aspects of protecting these important systems. Often the when choices made is difficult to assess at the time the decision is taken and it is only after an incident that the truth of the choices made become fit!ly evident. The paper focllses on two recent examples of Australian Critical Infrastructure protection and the issues that related to those examples.

Validating planning heritage : evidence and reasoning for national heritage recognition of the 'City of Adelaide Plan' and park lands

The Adelaide Park Lands and the ‘City of Adelaide Plan’ (1837), as prepared by Colonel William Light, have long been held up as an international precedent in town planning literature. The celebrated model, embraced by Ebenezer Howard to describe his Garden City theory, has several layers of cultural landscape heritage. The ‘Plan’, in recent years, has been subject to a rigorous investigation of its Indigenous and colonization evolutionary layers to inform moves to list the landscape as possessing national heritage status under relevant Australian heritage regimes, and more recently under the National Heritage List regime, as a pre-emptive strategy towards an eventual World Heritage nomination of the cultural landscape and ‘Plan’.

Classifying Australian PhD bibliographic thesis records by ANZSRC field of research codes

This report provides a brief report detailing the methods and approach used to classify the 2007-2009 theses by ANZSRC Fields of Research codes and any recommendations.

Predicting changes to seascapes under future climate, with the Coorong as a case study

The marine and estuarine ecosystems of South Australia are likely to alter significantly in response to a changing climate, but also in response to managerial decisions we make. The allocation of fishing effort is an example of one such decision. We summarise some projections on a state-wide basis for how different components of these ecosystems may be expected to change. We anticipate that tropical elements will expand in range but cold-temperate communities will contract or disappear from South Australia. As a specific example, we have modelled the ecosystem states of the Coorong and the Murray Mouth. We combined biological and physico-chemical components of an ecosystem into co-occurring units (termed ecosystem states) with well-defined thresholds between them. Predictions were then made using time series of inputs from modelled water flows and other predictors. Using this model, we will discuss the likely implication of a range of climate change and management scenarios, highlighting the potential impact on the commercial fishing opportunities. Specifically we will discuss the potential sensitivity of the fishery to climate changes versus various management options. Understanding these possible future changes should allow the industry to adapt before climate change reduces the sustainability of the industry.

Let them eat cake : mobilising appetites for higher education

The Australian Government has set two targets for the nation's universities: (i) increase the proportion of people from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds attending university, to 20 percent of all undergraduate students by 2020; and (ii) increase the proportion of 25 to 34 year-old Australians holding a bachelor's degree, to 40 percent by 2025. Both targets will require an increased effort by governments and universities to enable and encourage more people to access higher education, particularly more from low SES backgrounds. It will also require them to think differently about the problem. Three new concepts are now redefining the equity dimensions of higher education. Despite aspirations to expand the system, students' appetites for university are no longer a given. While universities are seeking to enrol different students in greater numbers, the challenge now is how to give greater voice to this difference. And the limited mobility of students from low SES backgrounds, including those in outer metropolitan and regional areas, is now the most significant indicator of their limited access to higher education and to social mobility. The paper outlines these new conceptions of student equity and how they are informing the research of the National Centre.