Managing risk and enhancing corporate sustainability in the Australian extractive sector : An exploratory study of leading mining and oil & gas firms in Australia
- Authors: Andeobu, Lynda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Risk is an unavoidable issue in most activities of life, including business. Risk-management is increasingly a hot-button issue for stakeholders and the general public. As such, it is of rising importance in the high-risk extractive industries of mining and oil & gas. Specifically, risk-management can help firms reduce business failure-rates and enhance corporate sustainability. However, the integration of risk-management and corporate sustainability within planning, financing, and operations remains a key challenge for the sector. This research seeks to fill this gap by investigating and evaluating the current use of risk-management by extractive-sector firms to add value to stakeholders. Given that risk- management and its impact on corporate sustainability is enormous, this study will provide useful insights into the risk-management practices undertaken by extractive-sector firms in Australia and how cost-effective risk-management practices contribute to the overall enhancement of financial performance, stakeholder value and corporate sustainability of those firms. This study, after drawing data from Australia’s top 10 mining/metals firms and top 10 energy/utilities firms, uses: i) Questionnaires to give a background/context for the study, and ii) Interviews to further probe issues raised and gain a deeper understanding. The analysis in this study found that risk-management practices are: i) Perceived by management practices to contribute significantly to financial performance, stakeholder value and corporate sustainability of their firms ii) Very similar across mining firms and those in oil & gas, and iii) Too limited in application in the extractive-sector and should be extended beyond traditional hazards. Overall, it was found that risk-management systems appear to be comparable across Australia’s large mining firms and oil & gas firms. However, at a detailed level, these basic systems and structures of risk-management are adjusted and adapted to meet specific needs, corporate strategies, organisational objectives and environmental pressures. NOTE: At the request of the author, Chapters 2-12 and Appendix 7 have been removed.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Mining a rich lode : The making of the Springdallah Deep Lead Goldfield communities
- Authors: Hunt, Joan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Although little material evidence survives other than mullock heaps and the occasional ruined building, a large body of archival documentation exists to help reveal the history of the deep lead gold mining communities at Springdallah. This thesis reconstructs the discovery, rise and progress of that goldfield, 30km south-west of Ballarat, through a study of family formation and community building, facilitated by micro-study tools including prosopographical and genealogical databases. At its prosperous and productive peak in the 1860s and 1870s, the communities relied totally on the mining industry for their existence. This thesis positions the alluvial deep lead gold mining industry firmly within the long but disparate historiography of Australian, and particularly Victorian, gold seeking. Unlike the many regional histories that celebrate the growth from goldfields to city status, it focuses on the miners who worked the deep leads of buried river beds, and how they and their families effected material and social change to benefit the communities they created. The findings of this thesis reveal that, in contrast to the strong Cornish presence on many Victorian goldfields, miners at Springdallah came mainly from northern England, south-west Ireland, and the lowlands of Scotland, often with extensive kinship networks. The study demonstrates that this network of communities attracted workers, usually with coal and lead mining experience, who had skills suited to conditions in the deep lead alluvial gold mining industry. According to the findings of this thesis, miners gained power within the Springdallah communities by becoming members of committees, councils, and boards of local and wider institutions. This study found that the Springdallah families were youthful, adapted well to their changed circumstances, were agents of change within their communities, and quickly took advantage of Victorian land legislation, particularly the 1869 Land Act, to take up farming properties both locally and in the north and east of the State.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Motion picture production : A micro-budget model
- Authors: Owen, Richard
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: The film industry plays an important cultural and economic role in Australia. However, the film industry in Australia has struggled for many years under a subsidy-driven government intervention process that creates a high degree of dependence on a subsidy-centric model. Motion picture production costs worldwide have risen dramatically over the last decade with Hollywood production budgets commonly exceeding $100 million. Australia as a nation has a proven capability to produce respectable motion pictures at varying production budgets, although this capacity has become entrenched with taxpayers’ money. Historically, subsidy-driven industries in Australia trend towards collapse due primarily to cyclical fiscal deficits and changing funding imperatives at the Commonwealth level. As a PhD by exegesis, the focus of this research was to create, as well as evaluate, a new model of film production that would not be dependent on subsidies. This study evaluated a number of factors that were relevant to establishing a viable micro-budget model. Micro-budget films have received little research attention, with the focus being on major films. This research examined an alternative model, through the creation of a feature-length micro-budget film, called Stakes, and assessed it across a range of criterion to determine whether Australia’s film industry could be strengthened and potentially become self-sufficient. The resulting motion picture premièred in Australian cinemas on October 29th 2015. The justification, methods and results are discussed in detail throughout this exegesis providing strong evidence in favour of the viability for a micro-budget segment in the Australian film industry. Such a model could reduce the risk of Australia’s film industry collapsing if subsidies are reduced or abolished. Thus, this research has significant implications for Australia’s film industry and also contributes strongly to scholarship through providing crucial information on micro-budget films.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Muddling upwards : The unexpected, unpredictable and strange on the path from care to high achievement in Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline , Golding, Frank
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care: International Research, Policy and Practice Chapter 7 p. 135-154
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Education is a key avenue to personal, social and economic success; and its lack can lead to lifelong deprivation and social exclusion. The chapter focuses on the specific educational challenges that confront children in out-of-home care (OHC), and those who have been discharged from Care as young adults. A very small percentage of care leavers complete education, and some of the core reasons for this are discussed. The two authors, themselves care leavers, provide emblematic case studies by recounting their own experiences. They conclude that many of the obstacles they had to surmount were, and are, common to care leavers of their generations and also those currently in OHC. The chapter closes with a brief summary of policy reforms necessary to ensure educational equity for care leavers. © The Author(s) 2016.
Mullawallah : spririt of times past, present and future
- Authors: Newton, Janice
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 165-180
- Full Text: false
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- Description: When Mullawallah (also known as King Billy, Frank or William Wilson) died of exposure/exhaustion on 23 September 1896, many of the Ballarat community took a somewhat ghoulish interest in viewing the corpse at the Ballarat and District Hospital morgue. Mullawallah was laid in a black and gold open coffin, decorated with golden representations of Aboriginal weapons. The hospital gardener made a special boomerang-shaped wreath of wattle blossom which was placed on his chest. A few days later, on 26 September, hundreds of residents, including local Members of Parliament, assembled for the beginning of the funeral procession at the hospital. They wished to be part of what they believed was the historic occasion of the passing of the 'last of the Ballarat tribe'. Key local churches and institutions had jostled to organise this burial. Ultimately, it was the Anglican Archedeacon who presided over the service and the Methodists who donated the grave plot.
New bird records from the Fortescue Marsh and nearby claypans, Pilbara bioregion, Western Australia
- Authors: Trainor, Colin , Knuckey, Chris , Firth, Ronald
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Field Ornithology Vol. 33, no. (2016), p. 61-81
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The Fortescue Marsh in the Pilbara bioregion, Western Australia, is an extensive ephemeral wetland that fills episodically. It is considered as a potential Ramsar site and is recognised as a nationally important wetland and an Important Bird Area. We surveyed birds at 21 sites on the Fortescue Marsh and a further 23 sites (44 sites in total), including nearby claypans Coondiner Pool and Mungthannannie Pool, in the Fortescue Valley over 12 days in March-April and July 2012. A total of 100 bird species (34 waterbird and 66 landbird species) was recorded during the survey. A further 86 bird species (including 28 waterbird species and 58 landbird species) were recorded for this area from searches of databases and the literature (total of 187 species; 62 waterbirds). New and significant observations during the survey included the first breeding record of Australian Shelduck Tadorna tadornoides for the Pilbara, the first breeding records on the Marsh of Black-tailed Native-hen Tribonyx ventralis and Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia, and the first record of Australian Painted Snipe Rostratula australis for the Fortescue Valley. Despite this area's importance to breeding and visiting waterbirds, the birds of the Fortescue Marsh remain surprisingly under-studied. We highlight some significant but overlooked literature records of waterbirds on the Marsh. Further ground and aerial surveys, and ongoing monitoring of this region would be valuable. © 2016, Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA). All rights reserved.
Percy : A life in China - The life and times of Percy Nettle : 1886-1964
- Authors: Nettle, Rodney
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is about the transnational life of Percival Edward Nettle (1886-1964), a young man born in Ballarat who moved from Australia to Shanghai at the end of 1906 on his way to San Francisco. He never did get to San Francisco but lived in and out of China until he died in 1964. This thesis tells his story and also addresses the perennial human management problem of achieving a co-operative fit between people from different cultural backgrounds. Percy Nettle achieved this fit with the Chinese through developing an exceptional rapport with Chinese people from the time he commenced working with them in 1907 on engineering projects, and later during and through wars and other civil engagements. He was a great success in China, the key to which was his skill with the language and later from his ability to culturally adapt and empathise with the people in the environments in which he was living at the time. Percy also found that his ‘Wesleyan’ approach to people conveniently dovetailed with the ‘Confucian’ values approach of the Chinese. Percy was able to communicate with Chinese people from Viceroys to infantry men and bandits and could win their trust regardless of social levels. Percy documented his ‘fitting in’ experience with the Chinese in his diaries, letters and journals over a fifty-five-year period until his death in Hong Kong in 1964. The analysis and contextualisation of his original records form the basis of this thesis and what is learned from this study of his exceptional life is the importance of achieving a very high level of cultural empathy and understanding with the people we deal with beginning with learning how to speak with them in their own language. Percy was also able to demonstrate the universal efficacy of strong ethical values even when they are transposed from one cultural setting to another.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Playing the ghost : Ghost hoaxing and supernaturalism in late nineteenth-century Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Waldron, David , Waldron, Sharn
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Folklore (United Kingdom) Vol. 127, no. 1 (2016), p. 71-90
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article employs a Jungian analytical perspective in its exploration of the phenomenon of ghost hoaxing in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonial Victoria, Australia, as observed through its reportage in the print media of the era. © 2016The Folklore Society.
Playing the ghost : ghost hoaxing and supernaturalism in nineteenth-century Victoria
- Authors: Waldron, David
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 19-30
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Ghosts have long been a popular subject in central Victoria. Even in the late Goldfields era, belief in ghosts, ghost stories and hauntings were popular subjects for entertainment and attracted significant attention in the printed press and public gatherings and lectures. In a sense Ballarat was a 'haunted' city from very early in its coloniel history. With such a demand and popular interest in ghosts, Ballarat also became a hot bed of spiritualism and ghost hoaxing. This paper examines the history and context of ghost hoaxing in nineteenth-century colonial Victoria with a focus on Ballarat and the central Victorian region.
Progressive rebels of Boy's Own Adventure? The 1935 Australian Cricket tour of India; breaking down social and racial barriers
- Authors: Ponsford, Megan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In October 1935, a touring party embarked on the inaugural tour of India by an Australian cricket team. To a great, and somewhat stereotypical, extent popular representations of IndianeAustralian relations are viewed through the lens of cricket – the national game in both countries. This dissertation about a significant, yet overlooked, chapter in sporting history examines the Australian cricketers’ response to the social, racial and political hierarchies of lateecolonial India. The experience of the touring party encouraged a reeimagining of ideological perspectives and this thesis identifies a uniquely Australian subjectivity to the British colonisation of India. The tour between the colony (India) and the dominion (Australia) can be interpreted as an antie imperial gesture. Both countries were attempting to forge relationships that would be independent from Britain. The role of cricket, itself experiencing a renaissance during the 1930s as it transformed from a largely amateur pursuit to an increasingly professional occupation is interrogated. As part of this transformation international cricket positioned itself as an increasingly politicised global entity within the broader turbulence of the firstehalf of the twentieth century. All those involved in the tour are now dead. However a close historical analysis of previously lost, highly personalised, primary material (letters, manuscripts, photographs and cricket ephemera) enables an interpretation of the players’ experience. This thesis argues that sporting events can be interpreted as cultural ciphers yet scholars and the wider sportsewriting community have neglected the historical significance of the 1935/36 tour. The unofficial status of the tour and its highly professional emphasis alienated it from the amateur ideals of Australian cricket. This transnational, multiedisciplinary approach addresses a lacunae in the professional trajectory of cricket. It also provides a new understanding and historical counter narrative of idetwentieth century IndianeAustralian sporting history and cultural exchange.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Social memory and battle names : Exploring links between travel, memory and the media
- Authors: Winter, Caroline
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Tourism and Hospitality Research Vol. 16, no. 3 (2016), p. 242-253
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The profile of five battles fought by Australians in the Great War (1914-1918) was traced over the past century using the frequency by which they were cited in the popular media. The pattern of these frequencies appeared to remain much the same from 1915 until the 1990s with battles involving very large numbers of casualties at Pozières and Passchendaele having a higher media frequency than smaller battles at Fromelles and Villers-Bretonneux. Gallipoli's status as Australia's best known battlefield has been consistent from 1915 until the present day. Over the past decade however, the media frequencies suggest that there has been a re-prioritization in the importance of these five battles. The discovery of lost graves at Fromelles and the introduction of a Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux has elevated the importance of these two sites, with the result that tourist visitation to them has also increased. © The Author(s) 2016.
The life and times of Dr Hermann Beckler (1828-1914) : An Australian - Barvarian Odyssey
- Authors: Dodd, David
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: The principal aim of this research thesis has been to reconstruct the life and times of Dr Hermann Beckler (1828-1914), a Bavarian-born scientist and adventurer who spent six years in Australia between 1856 and 1862. This study constitutes the first authoritative analysis of Beckler’s life. It focuses on the various turning points that influenced his odyssey-like journey from Bavaria to Australia and back again, as well as his travels within Australia, his interest in the natural environment and the botany of Australia, and his empathy towards the Indigenous people. Beckler was a product of the Age of Romanticism. He was an enigmatic and contemplative person, yet possessed a degree of toughness and resilience to overcome what appeared to be initially a self-imposed exile, replete with self-recriminations, as he tried to establish himself, firstly as a medical doctor and then as a pharmacist in the pioneering Moreton Bay region of colonial New South Wales. His interests in the natural sciences provided a solution to the problem of employment, and his botanical collecting skills ultimately gained him a position with Dr Ferdinand Mueller of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. He worked as a botanical plant collector in northern New South Wales before his medical qualifications and botanical saw him appointed as medical doctor and botanist to the Victorian Exploring Expedition 1860-1861 led by Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills. Beckler recognized this appointment as an opportunity to explore the hitherto unknown parts of the interior of Australia and while he did his best to fulfill his role, he was frustrated by the mismanagement of the whole expedition by Burke’s erratic leadership and by the ineptitude of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Exploration Committee. He remains one of Australia’s and Germany’s forgotten explorer botanists. This thesis aims to bring to life Beckler’s contribution to this important episode in Australian colonial history.
- Description: Master of Business by Research
The mystery of the Moranghurk sculptures
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 143-150
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Since the earliest colonial days in Australia there have been a large number of reports of what have variously been described as stone carving, rock sculptures, earthen sculptures and rock engravings by Aboriginal people. The most prominent of these has been on the wooden sculptures emanating from northern Australia. Few anthropologists have minutely reported on what McCarthy described as examples of Aboriginal 'plastic art'. Aboriginal sculptures 'crudely fashioned' from beeswax, some of them 'made to represent human figures' but more generally 'modelled' to represent 'kangaroos, turtles, goannas, crocodiles and birds'. One of the most widely reported earthen carvings in what is now known as Victoria was described as the Challicum Bunyip. This was reputed to be an outline of a creature known as a bunyip, which was gouged into the ground. Other accounts of life-sized Aboriginal sculpture in Victoria are not numerous but certainly extant.
The night Dixie came to town : The Shenandoah and the American Civil War in Ballarat
- Authors: Moll, Nicholas
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 116-129
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: That the American Civil War occurred exclusively within North America and affected specifically United States affair is a common misconception. Whilst the majority of the infantry conflict occured within and between the United and then Confederate States of America, the clash was such that it and its effects spread accross the globe. Also engaged in the American Civil War were Prussian military observers; political entanglements with the United Kingdom and Russia; Canadian volunteers within the Union army; smuggling and blockade running from the Bahamas into the Confederate States; cotton shortages in French industries that were heavily reliant on raw materials imported from the southern states; merchant raiding in the Pacific and Atlantic; along with countless other entanglements to Europe and their colonies into the conflict through one means or another. The tyranny of distance notwithstanding, Australia was no exception to the overflow of conflicts and consequences that resulted from the American Civil War.
The use of on-farm water points and artificial wildlife ponds in providing habitat for fauna in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee, Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Starks, Jonathan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text:
- Description: Fauna living in arid environments face strong ecological and physiological constraints. Water is the key requirement and vertebrates exhibit a range of adaptations for survival. Some species obtain water from their diet, but those which require water to drink or as habitat must either live in or near permanent water, or move in search of water. This strongly influences the distribution and abundance of vertebrate species in arid environments. In arid agricultural landscapes, the development of artificial water sources for stock has benefited water-dependant native fauna, particularly frogs. Little is known about the effects of removal of artificial water sources in these environments. In North-western Victoria, completion of the Northern Mallee Pipeline and the proposed construction of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline will ultimately replace over 20,000 farm dams, resulting in the widespread loss of an open water resource currently used by fauna across the Wimmera and southern Mallee. The wildlife values of the different on-farm water points in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the remaining Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Channel System were examined. Species richness and abundance of vertebrates were surveyed at farm dams, channels and stock troughs in open paddocks, and at farm dams in Mallee woodlands. Mallee woodlands with no available water were also surveyed. Sites were surveyed once per season to determine which species were utilising the different on-farm water points and Mallee woodlands. Knowledge of their usage by different species allowed the importance of each water point type to be determined and the impact of the closure of the channel system to be assessed. The study recorded 57 vertebrate species in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region, including six reptile, 43 bird, seven mammal and zero frog species. Surveys in the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region recorded 74 different species, including three reptile , 57 bird, eight mammal and six frog species. Overall species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, and the levels of species richness and abundance were significantly higher than at sites with Mallee woodland and no available water. The differences between the two site types were due mainly to greater abundance of water- dependant species at farm dams in Mallee woodland sites. For water points in open paddocks, species richness and abundance was highest at sites with a farm dam in an open paddock and lowest at sites with a stock trough in an open paddock. The difference between the different open paddock water point types were significant, and like woodland sites, were driven by greater numbers of water-dependant species. The study also examined whether purpose-built artificial wildlife ponds could provide habitat for water-dependant fauna and whether artificial wildlife ponds could potentially maintain fauna populations after de-commissioning of the existing channel system. The results of this study showed that artificial wildlife ponds placed in Mallee woodlands can provide habitat for birds, both in the Northern Mallee Pipeline region and the Wimmera Mallee Channel/dam region. The results also showed that these wildlife ponds can support species assemblages at levels comparable to a farm dam in a Mallee woodland, demonstrating that wildlife ponds can be effective in providing a degree of ‘replacement’ habitat for birds on farms. Frogs were not recorded using wildlife ponds situated in Mallee woodlands and this was considered due to the wildlife ponds being placed at least 900 metres from a nearby water source potentially too far for many frog species to disperse in an arid environment. Given these findings, the position of ponds was adjusted for the ponds installed in Black Box woodlands. Wildlife ponds in Black Box woodlands were also successful in providing habitat for birds and functioned as an important source of water for water-dependant birds in summer. Frogs were recorded using the wildlife ponds situated in Black Box woodlands and this was most likely due to their close proximity (<200 metres) to a nearby water source, as well as being located in a wetland-associated vegetation type. The success of the wildlife ponds concept has been demonstrated both in their ability to function as habitat for water-dependant fauna and through widespread community acceptance and support. With the de-commissioning of the channel and dam system removing open water sources from the farming landscape, artificial wildlife ponds installed on farms across the region could provide not just a vital habitat resource supporting water-dependant fauna, but in many areas, the only source of water for wildlife within the Wimmera and southern Mallee regions.
- Description: Masters of Applied Science
Too much information? A document analysis of sport safety resources from key organisations
- Authors: Bekker, Sheree , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: BMJ Open Vol. 6, no. 5 (2016), p. 1-8
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1058737
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565907
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: The field of sport injury prevention has seen a marked increase in published research in recent years, with concomitant proliferation of lay sport safety resources, such as policies, fact sheets and posters. The aim of this study was to catalogue and categorise the number, type and topic focus of sport safety resources from a representative set of key organisations. Design: Cataloguing and qualitative document analysis of resources available from the websites of six stakeholder organisations in Australia. Setting: This study was part of a larger investigation, the National Guidance for Australian Football Partnerships and Safety (NoGAPS) project. Participants: The NoGAPS study provided the context for a purposive sampling of six organisations involved in the promotion of safety in Australian football. These partners are recognised as being highly representative of organisations at national and state level that reflect similarly in their goals around sport safety promotion in Australia. Results: The catalogue comprised 284 resources. More of the practical and less prescriptive types of resources, such as fact sheets, than formal policies were found. Resources for the prevention of physical injuries were the predominant sport safety issue addressed, with risk management, environmental issues and social behaviours comprising other categories. Duplication of resources for specific safety issues, within and across organisations, was found. Conclusions: People working within sport settings have access to a proliferation of resources, which creates a potential rivalry for sourcing of injury prevention information. Important issues that are likely to influence the uptake of safety advice by the general sporting public include the sheer number of resources available, and the overlap and duplication of resources addressing the same issues. The existence of a large number of resources from reputable organisations does not mean that they are necessarily evidence based, fully up to date or even effective in supporting sport safety behaviour change. © 2016, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Video game classification in Australia : Does it enable parents to make informed game choices for their children
- Authors: Ross, Julie
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: If Australian video game classification does not warn of all classifiable elements, parents may be making game choices that inadvertently expose their child to content that may be deemed inappropriate. Research shows that classification in the United States of America (USA) does not always warn of all elements, and to date there has been no comparable research in Australia. This research explored issues surrounding video game classification in Australia, and whether parents feel that provides enough information for them to make informed game choices, by asking the following questions: 1. Does video game classification in Australia provide enough information for parents to make informed decisions about what games their children play? 2. What are the factors that may prevent parents from protecting children from inappropriate content in video games? To answer the first question, a content analysis compared the classification given to video games classified ‘MA15+’ in Australia during the years 2009 - 2010 with their overseas counterparts. Results showed that a substantial number of video games in Australia carry different classification information than those overseas. To answer the second question, a mixed-methods questionnaire surveyed parents of children who played video games to explore issues surrounding video game classification, and the role it plays when making game choices for children. A quasi-longitudinal process within the questionnaire explored the effect that more detailed information has on game choices. Results showed that some parents use classification to assist them with choosing games for their child, but when presented with more information some parents will make different choices. Factors which may prevent parents from protecting their child from inappropriate content in video games were also identified. The Protection Motivation Theory underpinning this research was modified to produce the Vigilant Protection Motivation Theory. Overall, this research suggests that parents in Australia may not have enough information to make appropriate game choices.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
William Bailey and his haunted mansion
- Authors: Beggs-Sunter, Anne
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 31-42
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The discovery of gold at Ballarat in 1851 conferred incredible wealth on the community, the colony and the British Empire. Ballarat was literally a city 'built on gold'. However, the immigrants who made their fortunes from gold rarely indulged in conspicuous private displays of consumption. The exception was William Bailey. His Italianate mansion, completed in 1883, reflected his great success in speculative mining ventures in the Ballarat area.
An inland record of redshank Tringa sp.In the Pilbara bioregion, western Australia
- Authors: Trainor, Colin , Trainer, John , Knuckey, Chris
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Stilt Vol. 2015, no. 67 (2015), p. 8-10
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The Common Redshank Tringa totanus and Spotted Redshank T. erythropus are vagrants to Australia with most records from coastal Roebuck Bay-Broome area, southern Kimberley. Here we report the first inland Pilbara record of a redshank species, 352 km from the coast, near Newman town on 9 September 2011. The field observation was distant and the redshank could not be identified to species level. © AWSG.
Australia and the Keynesian revolution
- Authors: Millmow, Alex
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The seven dwarfs and the age of the mandarins : Australian government administration in the post-war reconstruction era Chapter 3 p. 53-79
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: When the Nobel prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz visited Australia in 2010 he commended the Rudd Government’s policy response to the Global Financial Crisis as a proper and effective pre-emptive measure. The stimulus, which staved off any creeping sign of recession, bore a considerable Treasury imprint; and it could be said that the official family of economic advisers, that is, the Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia, were in their concerted action never so Keynesian in practice. It is appropriate then to visit the Keynesian revolution in post-war Australia recalling that three of the mandarins, Roland Wilson, John Crawford and H.C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, were professionally trained economists. Moreover, as J.K. Galbraith reminds us, the Keynesian revolution was really a ‘mandarin revolution’, that is, an intellectually powered one.