2007

Land, Water & Wool was the wool industry’s nation-wide program to develop better management to improve profit and create a healthier environment. It provided Australian woolgrowers with research and information resources for high priority natural resource management (NRM) issues, driving awareness and adoption of improved management practices a ....

The coal industry boom in Central Queensland's Bowen Basin has generated a number of positive economic and social impacts including increased employment, income and expenditure levels. The spike in international demand for coal since 2003 has resulted in an overlapping occurrence of an unprecedented number of new mine developments, ....

The Children's Services Regulation 2004 (NSW) makes it possible for children aged between birth and two years to be without a university qualified teacher in a centre-based long day care service. However, research demonstrates important links between caregivers. formal training and the quality of early childhood education. This cas ....

Analysis of uncertainty is often neglected in the evaluation of complex systems (such as predictive models in hydrology or ecology, or environmental processes). Decisions and actions based on such systems may be error-prone for a variety of reasons, including lack of information, input errors or data variability. Research in uncertainty addresses ....

This study investigated the role of ecosystem services in the well-being of Aboriginal Australians, in the tropical savanna region of northern Australia. There is significant literature available to suggest that Aboriginal communities depend upon the natural system (Williams 1986 and 1998; Altman 1987 and 2004; Edwards 1988; Gray 2 ....

The last 15 years have brought a dramatic change in public decision making and public policy building. A trend toward decentralisation has meant that more and more sub-national governments now find themselves responsible for providing a host of public goods and services. Rarely, however, can they "go it alone." Co-ordination among levels of gover ....

Rural and farming populations in Australia have above average rates of premature morbidity and mortality through heart disease, cancer and suicide. The Sustainable Farm Families (SFF) project is designed to influence farmers' behaviours with respect to health, safety and wellbeing. This report presents the results of an economic ev ....

Voluntary cooperative arrangements are being established among local governments for economic development purposes. However, there is a lack of empirical research that explains the conditions under which cooperative joint ventures are formed. Extending the Institutional Collective Action framework to the policy area of economic developm ....

Teacher shortage in rural localities is a long-standing issue in New Zealand. This paper reports on an attempt to reduce the impact of shortages by redesigning the way preservice teacher education was delivered. Called the Mixed Media Programme (MMP), this is a primary (elementary) teacher education programme that was established i ....

Despite concern about the social, economic, and ecological viability of the agricultural Great Plains, a century-long examination reveals that threats to society, economy, and environment are counterbalanced by surprising stability and the potential for short- and medium-term sustainability. Populations in metropolitan counties have gro ....

The first of its kind undertaken, this study used a case study methodology to investigate the opportunities for using ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ mining project infrastructure to support the development of indigenous tourism operations in northern Australia. Key study objectives were to: •Assess the potential to develop existing natural and indi ....

Rural communities are affected by the rate of urban migration of their young people once they leave school. This study draws on data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to map the experiences of a group of Year 11 students not living in any of the major Australian metropolitan areas in 1997. It examines the pat ....

The Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce report of July 2006 highlighted concerns that child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities is widespread and widely underreported. The five year plan set out in this document provides for a whole of government response to this problem and related aspects of Indigenous disadvantage suc ....

Studies of the out migration of young people from rural areas rely heavily on the push and pull factors of the need to move for higher education and jobs. But the broad brush picture these studies provide misses much of the complexity of the young people's decision making. Questionnaire data and interviews with young people living ....