The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values : a study of Mount Isa city, Queensland, Australia

Much publicity has been given to the problem of high levels of environmental contaminants, most notably high blood lead concentration levels among children in the city of Mount Isa because of mining and smelting activities. The health impacts from mining-related pollutants are now well documented. This includes published research being discussed in an editorial of the Medical Journal of Australia (see Munksgaard et al. 2010). On the other hand, negative impacts on property prices, although mentioned, have not been examined to date. This study rectifies this research gap. This study uses a hedonic property price approach to examine the impact of mining- and smelting-related pollution on nearby property prices. The hypothesis is that those properties closer to the lead and copper smelters have lower property (house) prices than those farther away. The results of the study show that the marginal willingness to pay to be farther from the pollution source is AUS $13 947 per kilometre within the 4 km radius selected. The study has several policy implications, which are discussed briefly. We used ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression, spatial error and spatial autoregressive or spatial lag models for this analysis.

Assessing the suitability of market approach valuation methods for mine and quarry valuations

An area of property valuation that has attracted less attention than other property markets over the past 20 years has been the mining and extractive industries. These operations can range from small operators on leased or private land to multinational companies. Although there are a number of national mining standards that indicate the type of valuation methods that can be adopted for this asset class, these standards do not specify how or when these methods are best suited to particular mine operations. The RICS guidance notes and the draft IVSC guidance notes also advise the various valuations methods that can be used to value mining properties; but, again they do not specify what methods should be applied where and when. One of the methods supported by these standards and guidelines is the market approach. This paper will carry out an analysis of all mine, extractive industry and waste disposal sites sale transactions in Queensland Australia, a major world mining centre, to determine if a market valuation approach such as direct comparison is actually suitable for the valuation of a mine or extractive industry. The analysis will cover the period 1984 to 2011 and covers sale transactions for minerals, petroleum and gas, waste disposal sites, clay, sand and stone. Based on this analysis, the suitability of direct comparison for valuation purposes in this property sector will be tested.

Identifying belief targets to increase bone marrow registry participation among students who have never donated blood

New members on bone marrow registries worldwide are needed to allow sufficient diversity in the donor pool to meet patient needs. We used the theory of planned behaviour belief-basis and surveyed students who had not donated blood previously (i.e. non-donors) (N = 150) about the behavioural, normative, and control beliefs informing their intentions to join the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Key beliefs predicting non-donors’ intentions included: viewing bone marrow donation as an invasion of the body (β = −.35), normative support from parents (β = .40), anticipating pain/side effects from giving blood (β = −.27), and lack of knowledge about how to register (β  = −.30). Few non-donors endorsed these beliefs, suggesting they are ideal targets for change in strategies encouraging bone marrow donor registration.

Testing an extended theory of planned behavior to predict young people's intentions to join a bone marrow donor registry

An extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to understand the factors, particularly control perceptions and affective reactions, given conflicting findings in previous research, informing younger people's intentions to join a bone marrow registry. Participants (N  = 174) completed attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), moral norm, anticipated regret, self-identity, and intention items for registering. The extended TPB (except PBC) explained 67.2% of variance in intention. Further testing is needed as to the volitional nature of registering. Moral norm, anticipated regret, and self-identity are likely intervention targets for increasing younger people's bone marrow registry participation.

A data mining approach to improve the automated quality of data

This thesis describes the development of a robust and novel prototype to address the data quality problems that relate to the dimension of outlier data. It thoroughly investigates the associated problems with regards to detecting, assessing and determining the severity of the problem of outlier data; and proposes granule-mining based alternative techniques to significantly improve the effectiveness of mining and assessing outlier data.

Review of the nutrition policy of the Arnhem Land Progress Association

The process of implementation and the effect of the nutrition policy of the Arnhem Land Progress Association (ALPA) were reviewed three years after implementation of the policy in five remote Aboriginal community retail stores in May 1990. In 1993, compliance with the policy varied among stores. Recommended foods were available regularly in most communities; however, promotional and educational components of the policy were not widely implemented. Dietary improvements were evident in those communities where stores most complied with the policy. Some aspects of the ALPA nutrition policy require modification, and renewed commitment to the policy is likely to improve further the diet in the Aboriginal communities involved. The ALPA nutrition policy is a potential model for the development of other local food and nutrition policies in remote Aboriginal communities.

Assessing land-use and transport integration via a spatial composite indexing model

Achieving sustainable urban development is identified as one ultimate goal of many contemporary planning endeavours and has become central to formulation of urban planning policies. Within this concept, land-use and transport integration is highlighted as one of the most important and attainable policy objectives. In many cities, integration is embraced as an integral part of local development plans, and a number of key integration principles are identified. However, the lack of available evaluation methods to measure extent of urban sustainability levels prevents successful implementation of these principles. This paper introduces a new indicator-based spatial composite indexing model developed to measure sustainability performance of urban settings by taking into account land-use and transport integration principles. Model indicators are chosen via a thorough selection process in line with key principles of land-use and transport integration. These indicators are grouped into categories and themes according to their topical relevance. These indicators are then aggregated to form a spatial composite index to portray an overview of the sustainability performance of the pilot study area used for model demonstration. The study results revealed that the model is a practical instrument for evaluating success of local integration policies and visualizing sustainability performance of built environments and useful in both identifying problematic areas as well as formulating policy interventions.

Understanding the fabric of social interactions for ridesharing through mining social networking sites

The design of applications for dynamic ridesharing or carpooling is often formulated as a matching problem of connecting people with an aligned set of transport needs within a reasonable interval of time and space. This problem formulation relegates social connections to being secondary factors. Technology assisted ridesharing applications that put the matching problem first have revealed that they suffer from being unable to address the factor of social comfort, even after adding friend features or piggybacking on social networking sites. This research aims to understand the fabric of social interactions through which ridesharing happens. We take an online observation approach in order to understand the fabric of social interactions for ridesharing that is happening in highly subscribed online groups of local residents. This understanding will help researchers to identify design challenges and opportunities to support ridesharing in local communities. This paper contributes a fundamental understanding of how social interactions and social comfort precede rideshare requests in local communities.

A Literature Review of Wellness, Wellbeing and Quality of Life Issues as they impact upon the Australian Mining Sector

Australia’s mining boom Global demand for minerals and energy products has fuelled Australia’s recent resources boom and has led to the rapid expansion of mining projects not only in remote locations but increasingly in settled traditionally agricultural rural areas. A fundamental shift has also occurred in the provisioning of skilled and semi-skilled workers. The huge acceleration in industry demand for labour has been accompanied by the entrenchment of workforce arrangements largely dependent on fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and drive–in, drive–out (DIDO) non-resident workers (NRWs). While NRWs are working away from their homes, they are usually accommodated in work camps or ‘villages’ for the duration of their work cycle which are normally comprised of many consecutive days of 12-hour day- and night-shifts. The health effects of this form of employment and the accompanying lifestyle is increasingly becoming contentious. Impacts on personal wellness, wellbeing and quality of life essentially remain under-researched and thus misunderstood. Sodexo in Australia Sodexo began operations in Australia in 1982, and has since become a leader in providing Quality of Life (QOL) services to businesses across the country. The 6,000 Australian employees are part of a global Sodexo team of 413,000 people. Sodexo in Australia designs, delivers and manages on-site their QOL services at 320 diverse site locations, including remote sites. Sodexo operates in a range of sectors, including the mining industry. Service plans are tailored to suit the individual needs of organisations. Sodexo Remote Sites has previously conducted unpublished research among mining workers in Australia. The results highlighted needs and expectations of Australian mining workers. Main insights about workers’ requirements were directed towards: • contacts with closest; • warm rest time around proper and varied meals; • additional services to help them better enjoy their life onsite and/or make the most of it; • organise their transportation; • promote community living; and • finding balance between professional and personal life. The brief for this current research is aimed at building upon this knowledge. Research brief Expectations for quality of life and wellness and wellbeing services are increasing dramatically. It's getting costlier and more difficult to retain valuable employees. This is particularly the case in the Australian mining sector. Given the level of interest in ensuring healthy workplaces in Australia, Sodexo has commissioned QUT to conduct a literature review. The objectives as specified by Sodexo are: Objective 1: To define the concepts of wellness and wellbeing and quality of life in Australia Objective 2: To examine how wellness and wellbeing are developed within organisations in Australia and how they impact on employee and organizational performance. More specifically, to review the literature that could be sourced about: • challenges of the mining environment; • the mining lifestyle – implications for health, wellness and daily life; • personal health and wellness of Australian mining workers; • factors affecting health in mines and perceived support for health and wellness; and • the impact of employer investment in health on perceptions and behaviour of employees. Objective 3: To determine what impact employee wellness and well-being has on the performance of mining workers. More specifically, to review the literature that could be sourced about: • impact of obesity, alcohol, tobacco use on companies; and • links between employee engagement and satisfaction and company productivity. Accordingly this review has attempted to ascertain what factors an organisation should focus on in order to reduce absenteeism and turnover and increase commitment, satisfaction, safety and productivity, with specific reference to the mining industry in Australia. The structure of the report aligns with the stated objectives in that each of the first three parts address an objective. Part IV summarises prominent issues that have arisen and offers some concluding observations and comments.

Process mining for clinical processes: A comparative analysis of four Australian hospitals

Business process analysis and process mining, particularly within the health care domain, remain under-utilised. Applied research that employs such techniques to routinely collected, health care data enables stakeholders to empirically investigate care as it is delivered by different health providers. However, cross-organisational mining and the comparative analysis of processes present a set of unique challenges in terms of ensuring population and activity comparability, visualising the mined models and interpreting the results. Without addressing these issues, health providers will find it difficult to use process mining insights, and the potential benefits of evidence-based process improvement within health will remain unrealised. In this paper, we present a brief introduction on the nature of health care processes; a review of the process mining in health literature; and a case study conducted to explore and learn how health care data, and cross-organisational comparisons with process mining techniques may be approached. The case study applies process mining techniques to administrative and clinical data for patients who present with chest pain symptoms at one of four public hospitals in South Australia. We demonstrate an approach that provides detailed insights into clinical (quality of patient health) and fiscal (hospital budget) pressures in health care practice. We conclude by discussing the key lessons learned from our experience in conducting business process analysis and process mining based on the data from four different hospitals.

'I wouldn't say that' : finding a young adult, female voice in a Queensland mining town

This is a practice-led project consisting of a Young Adult novel, Open Cut, and an exegesis, 'I Wouldn't Say That': Finding a Young Adult, Female Voice in a Queensland Mining Town. The thesis investigates the use of first person narration in order to create an immediate engaging, realist Young Adult Fiction. The research design is bound by a feminist interpretative paradigm. The methodology employed is practice-led, auto-ethnography, and participant observation. Particular characteristics of first person narration used in Australian Young Adult Fiction are identified in an analysis of Dust, by Christine Bongers, and Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey. The exegesis also contains a reflection on the researcher's creative work, and the process used to draft, edit, plot and construct the novel. The research contributes to knowledge in the field of Young Adult Literature because it offers a graphic portrayal of an Australian mining town that has not been heard before.

Prickly pear land : transnational networks in settler Australia

The story of prickly pear in Australia is usually told as a tale of triumphant scientific intervention into an environmental disaster. Instead, this unarticle considers it as a transnational network in order to better understand the myriad of elements that made this event so important. Through this methodology emerges the complex nature of prickly pear land that included people, places, ideas, rhetoric and objects that traveled from all over the world into settler Australia.