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Selected Works

Australia

2013

Articles 1 - 30 of 90

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley Dec 2013

Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sue Thomson

PISA is a survey that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds, who are near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems. PISA in Brief summarises the results from the PISA 2012 assessment of students’ mathematical, scientific and reading literacy skills. It tells us about how students performed in the assessment and describes some wider findings about what lies behind their results.

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Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley Dec 2013

Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

PISA is a survey that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds, who are near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems. PISA in Brief summarises the results from the PISA 2012 assessment of students’ mathematical, scientific and reading literacy skills. It tells us about how students performed in the assessment and describes some wider findings about what lies behind their results.

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"Muting" Neoliberalism? Class And Colonial Legacies In Australia, Chris Gibson Nov 2013

"Muting" Neoliberalism? Class And Colonial Legacies In Australia, Chris Gibson

Chris Gibson

Australian governments of left and right persuasions have seemingly embraced elements of the neoliberal agenda, as in many other parts of the world; but exactly how deeply these have been enacted, and how transformative they have been, must be understood in relation to key colonial, geographical and cultural inheritances. These inheritances include the hegemony of central government stewardship of the economy (essential in a colonized, sparsely populated continent of almost unmanageable scale), a long tradition of social democratic regulation, and cultural expectations of socio-spatial equality. Neoliberal policy projects have been "muted" by on-going equality claims, and some progressive "wins" in …

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Making Things In A High-Dollar Australia: The Case Of The Surfboard Industry, Andrew Warren, Chris Gibson Nov 2013

Making Things In A High-Dollar Australia: The Case Of The Surfboard Industry, Andrew Warren, Chris Gibson

Chris Gibson

In August 2011 the announcement by Bluescope Steel of mass layoffs at its Port Kembla steelworks, in the Illawarra region, sparked renewed public debate and media commentary on the future of manufacturing in Australia. The debate has since spread to cars, aluminium smelting - even Mortein fly spray - and has quickly coalesced around the unprecedented high Australian dollar, its impacts on exports, and the prospects of the production of goods shifting overseas. As Australian mining magnates such as Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart and Twiggy Forrest attempt to remould Australia around their 'quarry vision' (Pearse, 2009) of extractive minerals exports, …

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Diversifying Ethnicity In Australia's Population And Environment Debates, Natascha Klocker, Lesley Head Nov 2013

Diversifying Ethnicity In Australia's Population And Environment Debates, Natascha Klocker, Lesley Head

Natascha Klocker

Population–environment debates in Australia are at an impasse. While the ability of this continent to sustain more migrants has attracted persistent scrutiny, nuanced explorations of diverse migrant cultures and their engagements with Australian landscapes have scarcely begun. Yet as we face the challenges of a climate changing world we would undoubtedly benefit from the most varied knowledges we can muster. This paper brings together three arenas of environmental debate circulating in Australia—the immigration/carrying capacity debate, comparisons between Indigenous and Anglo-European modes of environmental interaction, and research on household sustainability dilemmas—to demonstrate the exclusionary tendencies of each. We then attempt to …

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Community Antagonism Towards Asylum Seekers In Port Augusta, South Australia, Natascha Klocker Nov 2013

Community Antagonism Towards Asylum Seekers In Port Augusta, South Australia, Natascha Klocker

Natascha Klocker

An overtly hostile response to asylum seekers was observed in questionnaire responses provided by residents of Port Augusta, South Australia in April 2002. A social construction approach to identity and representation was used to interrogate this antagonism within its social, cultural, political and geographical contexts. Asylum seekers were constructed as 'burdensome', 'threatening' and 'illegal', and opposition to them was set within the discursive framework of a 'Self/Other' binary. Enmity towards asylum seekers was articulated concurrently with overwhelming support for the Federal Government's exclusive and deterrence-oriented asylum policies. However, vehement opposition was expressed regarding the government's decision to construct Baxter Immigration …

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C-Amp Dependent Protein Kinase A Inhibitory Activity Of Six Algal Extracts From South Eastern Australia And Their Fatty Acid Composition, Ana Zivanovic, Danielle Skropeta Nov 2013

C-Amp Dependent Protein Kinase A Inhibitory Activity Of Six Algal Extracts From South Eastern Australia And Their Fatty Acid Composition, Ana Zivanovic, Danielle Skropeta

Danielle Skropeta

c-AMP dependent protein kinase (protein kinase A, PKA) is an important enzyme involved in the regulation of an increasing number of physiological processes including immune function, cardiovascular disease, memory disorders and cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PKA inhibitory activity of a range of algal extracts, along with their fatty acid composition. Six algal species were investigated including two Chlorophyta (Codium dimorphum and Ulva lactuca), two Phaeophyta (Phyllospora comosa and Sargassum sp.) and two Rhodophyta (Prionitis linearis and Corallina vancouveriensis), with the order of PKA inhibitory activity of their extracts identified as follows: brown seaweeds > red …

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Alice In Oz - 'Please, Ma'am, Is This New Zealand? Or Australia?': The Lewis Carroll Alice In Wonderland Books In Australia, Michael K. Organ Oct 2013

Alice In Oz - 'Please, Ma'am, Is This New Zealand? Or Australia?': The Lewis Carroll Alice In Wonderland Books In Australia, Michael K. Organ

Michael Organ

There is no obvious connection between Australia and the very English Alice in Wonderland stories written by the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in the latter half of the nineteenth century, apart from a few brief words uttered by Alice at the beginning of her adventures - 'Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?' - suggesting that, upon falling down a rabbit hole, she had been transported to the Antipodes ('Antipathies'), just as Lemuel Gulliver had found himself lost in Lilliput a century earlier. Yet the ongoing popularity and influence of these works in the former British colony is …

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The Human Green Office Experience: Happy And Healthy Or Sick And Frustrated?, Lynne Armitage, Ann Murugan Oct 2013

The Human Green Office Experience: Happy And Healthy Or Sick And Frustrated?, Lynne Armitage, Ann Murugan

Lynne Armitage

Adopting the proposition that the effect on people using, interacting or working in a ‘green’ workplace environment is not currently clear nor fully understood, the purpose of this research is to examine what the green workplace environment is like from the perspective of one of this sub group – the users’/employees’– especially when it comes to satisfaction levels and health outcomes. This study examines and compares responses between employees in green and in non-green workplace environments in order to determine if a gap exists between the satisfaction and health levels of these two groups. The survey covers 351 employee respondents …

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Recent Perceptions Of Rural Australia In Italian And Italian Australian Narrative, Gaetano Rando Oct 2013

Recent Perceptions Of Rural Australia In Italian And Italian Australian Narrative, Gaetano Rando

Gaetano Rando

The publication in 2008 of the English translation of Emilio Gabbrielli’s novel Polenta e Goanna based on Italian migrants in the West Australian goldfields brings into focus the themes of the bush, the outback and migration that since the mid 1850s (Raffaello Carboni, Rudesindo Salvado) have emerged as a constant thread in texts produced by Italian Australian writers. Italian settlement in rural and outback areas of Australia during the late 1800s and early 1900s has remained a largely unsung saga while most Italians migrating to Australia after 1947 ultimately settled in urban areas. Among the few who have written creatively …

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Images Of Sicily And Australia In The Narratives Of Venero Armanno And Antonio Casella, Gaetano Rando Oct 2013

Images Of Sicily And Australia In The Narratives Of Venero Armanno And Antonio Casella, Gaetano Rando

Gaetano Rando

ITALIAN AUSTRALIAN "MIGRATION" LITERATURE HAS DISPLAYED a tendency to present themes and characters closely linked to southem Italy, in particular Sicily and Calabria, a phenomenon in part explained by the massive emigration from these regions between the late I800s and the early 1970s. Sicilian Australians constitute the largest Italian regional group present in the country, with some 50,000 Sicilian born, while, according to community estimates, as many as 200,000 Australian born may have some claim to Sicilian ancestry.

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Privileged Migration: American Undergraduates, Study Abroad, Academic Tourism, Marcus Breen Sep 2013

Privileged Migration: American Undergraduates, Study Abroad, Academic Tourism, Marcus Breen

Marcus Breen

American undergraduates are increasingly engaging in educational study abroad programmes. This article examines and explains the trends in international university education from the perspective of a former faculty member at Northeastern University, a large private university in Boston. The article explains how cultural studies can be invoked as a circuit breaker to challenge the assumptions of privileged Americans who travel to the (global) South. Drawing on his experience in leading undergraduates on summer programmes to Australia, the author explores ways in which the political work of cultural studies can be positioned within the diasporic experience of cultural studies academics, suggesting …

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Bottles, Bores, And Boats: Agency Of Water Assemblages In Post/Colonial Inland Australia, Leah M. Gibbs Sep 2013

Bottles, Bores, And Boats: Agency Of Water Assemblages In Post/Colonial Inland Australia, Leah M. Gibbs

Leah Maree Gibbs

Australian water politics is marked by conceptual and bureaucratic separation of water as discrete matter. The source of this politics of separation is colonial relations with water and the Australian continent. Yet, analysis of the materiality of water illuminates the agency of water as part of an assemblage. This paper seeks to unsettle the treatment of water as separate, discrete matter. It asks how political responses to the public problem of water would change were we to take seriously the vitality of nonhuman bodies. In order to investigate this question, the paper presents an analysis of six objects from the …

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Opening The Windows On Diplomacy: A Comparison Of The Domestic Dimension Of Public Diplomacy In Canada And Australia, Ellen Huijgh, Caitlin Byrne Sep 2013

Opening The Windows On Diplomacy: A Comparison Of The Domestic Dimension Of Public Diplomacy In Canada And Australia, Ellen Huijgh, Caitlin Byrne

Caitlin Byrne

Public diplomacy's scholarship and practice are evolving and seeking to adapt to the expanding interests, expectations, connectivity and mobility of the publics that have come to define the field in an organic fashion. The characteristic distinction between international and domestic publics as the key to defining the practice of public diplomacy is increasingly challenged by public audiences that are no longer constrained by such traditional delineations. The attention on the involvement of domestic publics in public diplomacy, or its domestic dimension, has to be understood within this context. This article aims to cast further light on public diplomacy's domestic dimension, …

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Learning 2.0: A Catalyst For Library Organisational Change, Julia Gross, Lynette Leslie Aug 2013

Learning 2.0: A Catalyst For Library Organisational Change, Julia Gross, Lynette Leslie

Lynette A Leslie

The purpose of this paper is to describe “what happened” with round two of the implementation of Learning 2.0 with a large and diverse group of library staff at Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library during 2007/2008. A previous paper reported on a study of the suitability of the 23 Things Learning 2.0 program for a small group of early adopters in the ECU Library. This follow-up paper reports challenges that library management faced when the remaining staff were given the 23 Things Learning 2.0 program. All remaining library staff members were encouraged to undertake the program, but take-up was not …

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Women's Pay In Australia, Great Britain And The United States: Commentary, Ronald G. Ehrenberg Jul 2013

Women's Pay In Australia, Great Britain And The United States: Commentary, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] My reaction to this paper is mixed. On the one hand, it represents one of the few serious efforts I know of to place discussions about comparable worth in a comparative perspective and to bring evidence from other countries' experiences into the debate about policy in the United States. For this the authors should be resoundingly applauded. On the other hand, I am left with the feeling that they have not pushed their empirical analyses as hard as they might have, and because of this, in places they may have drawn some inappropriate conclusions. My discussion will elaborate on …

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Uptake Of Medicare Chronic Disease Items In Australia By General Practice Nurses And Aboriginal Health Workers, Elizabeth J. Halcomb, Patricia M. Davidson, Nicola Brown Jul 2013

Uptake Of Medicare Chronic Disease Items In Australia By General Practice Nurses And Aboriginal Health Workers, Elizabeth J. Halcomb, Patricia M. Davidson, Nicola Brown

Elizabeth Jane Halcomb Professor

The Australian health care system is currently in a state of reform and there is increasing pressure to provide care in community settings. Rising costs, demands and population ageing underscore the importance of adopting models of health care delivery to address changing epidemiological patterns. Population ageing and the increase of chronic conditions challenge models based on acute care. Changes to the Medicare benefits schedule have facilitated the development of a range of expanded nursing services in the general practice setting. In particular, item number 10997 was introduced to reimburse practice nurses and Aboriginal health workers (AHWs) for providing monitoring and …

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Developing Academic Literacy In Context: Trends In Australia, Emily Purser Jul 2013

Developing Academic Literacy In Context: Trends In Australia, Emily Purser

Emily R Purser

As the diversity of the student population grows in the tertiary education sector, and communications become more multi-modal, the nature of 'literacy' in university curricula both changes and needs more explicit development. We cannot assume that students have, or can develop in the given time, an appropriate level of academic literacy without writing being given careful attention. Various models for the development of students' academic language, including their writing, are in play and under scrutiny, but the broad trend seems to be away from extra-curricular attempts to address students' literacy development, and towards seeing this as a responsibility best shared …

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Sharing Quality Resources For Teaching And Learning: A Peer Review Model For The Altc Exchange In Australia, Geraldine Lefoe, Robyn Philip, Meg O'Reilly, Dominique Parrish Jul 2013

Sharing Quality Resources For Teaching And Learning: A Peer Review Model For The Altc Exchange In Australia, Geraldine Lefoe, Robyn Philip, Meg O'Reilly, Dominique Parrish

Geraldine Lefoe

The ALTC Exchange (formerly the Carrick Exchange), is a national repository and networking service for Australian higher education. The Exchange was designed to provide access to a repository of shared learning and teaching resources, work spaces for team members engaged in collaborative projects, and communication and networking services. The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) established the Exchange for those who teach, manage and lead learning and teaching in higher education. As part of the research conducted to inform the development of the Exchange, models for peer review of educational resources were evaluated. For this, a design based research approach …

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Local Knowledge And The State: The 1990 Floods In Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia, Emily O'Gorman Jul 2013

Local Knowledge And The State: The 1990 Floods In Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia, Emily O'Gorman

Emily O'Gorman

In April 1990, record-breaking floods in the Warrego River threatened the rural town of Cunnamulla, located in Queensland, Australia. The floods had already inundated the upstream town of Charleville causing significant damage to property and the mass evacuation of residents. This article explores the 1990 floods in Cunnamulla in the context of two key elements of Australian history: first, several decades of rural decline in southwestern Queensland, and second, state responses to floods that had become increasingly centralized over the preceding two decades. I first examine the wider historical contexts of colonial settlement, environmental changes, and past floods in Cunnamulla …

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Red Queen Takes White Knight: The Commercialisation Of Accounting Education In Australia, Edmund W. Watts, Carol J. Mcnair, Graham D. Bowrey Jul 2013

Red Queen Takes White Knight: The Commercialisation Of Accounting Education In Australia, Edmund W. Watts, Carol J. Mcnair, Graham D. Bowrey

Ted Watts

Purpose - This paper investigates the consequences of the commercialisation of Australian universities. It also provides a theoretical framework which focuses this action. Design / methodology - The Red Queen scenario posits that organisations that are more active than their rivals (they run faster) improve their competitive positions and increase their performance. However, organisations that are more sluggish (they run slower) experience negative performance consequences. This paper examines this process using the new institutional theory against the backdrop of the quest for increased international student numbers, higher international ranking and international accreditation. Findings - Using data from the 2011 Excellence …

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Perceived Coping & Concern Predict Terrorism Preparedness In Australia, Garry Stevens, Kingsley Agho, Melanie Taylor, Alison L. Jones, Margo Barr, Beverley Raphael Jun 2013

Perceived Coping & Concern Predict Terrorism Preparedness In Australia, Garry Stevens, Kingsley Agho, Melanie Taylor, Alison L. Jones, Margo Barr, Beverley Raphael

Alison L Jones

Background In the aftermath of major terrorist incidents research shows population shifts towards protective behaviours, including specific preparedness and avoidance responses. Less is known about individual preparedness in populations with high assumed threat but limited direct exposure, such as Australia. In this study we aimed to determine whether individuals with high perceived coping and higher concern would show greater preparedness to respond to terrorism threats. Methods Adults in New South Wales (NSW) completed terrorism perception and response questions as part of computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) in 2010 (N=2038). Responses were weighted against the NSW population. Multiple logistic regression analyses …

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The Effect Of Point Of Sale Promotions On The Alcohol Purchasing Behaviour Of Young People In Metropolitan, Regional And Rural Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Kylie M. Smith Jun 2013

The Effect Of Point Of Sale Promotions On The Alcohol Purchasing Behaviour Of Young People In Metropolitan, Regional And Rural Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Kylie M. Smith

Sandra Jones

This study, part of larger project examining marketing and alcohol, looked specifically at the effect of point of sale (POS) promotions on young people, with a view to providing evidence which could be used to inform policy and regulation in this area. A series of focus groups were conducted in three different locations with young people aged 16-25 years, separated by age and gender, with a total of 85 participants. Participants were asked questions about their recollection of various POS promotions and alcohol purchasing and consumption behaviour. A majority of participants demonstrated a strong recall of previous promotions and almost …

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Newspaper Coverage Of Drug Policy: An Analysis Of Pre-Election Reporting Of The Greens' Drug Policy In Australia, Danika Hall, Sandra C. Jones, Fiona Cowlin Jun 2013

Newspaper Coverage Of Drug Policy: An Analysis Of Pre-Election Reporting Of The Greens' Drug Policy In Australia, Danika Hall, Sandra C. Jones, Fiona Cowlin

Sandra Jones

Introduction and Aims. With the headline 'Ecstasy Over The Counter' in a popular daily newspaper, the debate on drug policy officially entered the arena of the 2003 New South Wales (Australia) State Election. The debate resurfaced in the lead-up to the 2004 Australian Federal Election. This paper analyses the pre-election coverage of drug policy issues in four Australian newspapers. Design and Methods. Four high-circulation daily newspapers were monitored for a one-month period prior to both elections and analysed for their coverage of drug policy, particularly with respect to the policy of the Greens. Results. The newspapers took different perspectives on …

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"Body Bags Ready": Print Media Coverage Of Avian Influenza In Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Louise Waters, Fiona Byrne, Don Iverson, Max Sutherland, Julian Gold, Chris Puplick Jun 2013

"Body Bags Ready": Print Media Coverage Of Avian Influenza In Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Louise Waters, Fiona Byrne, Don Iverson, Max Sutherland, Julian Gold, Chris Puplick

Sandra Jones

In 2006 the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus received considerable media coverage in Australia, as it did in many other countries. It is often argued that the media sensationalizes health crises, and experts cautioned about the risk of panic as a result of fear of avian influenza. The purpose of the present study was to systematically analyze Australian print media coverage of avian influenza in 2006 and to examine whether this coverage served the purpose of informing, rather than alarming, the general public. For the period January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006, 20 Australian newspaper titles were monitored for …

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Amplified Voices, But They Are Speaking To The Wrong People. Why The Complaint System For Unacceptable Advertising In Australia Is Not Working, Katherine Eagleton, Sandra C. Jones Jun 2013

Amplified Voices, But They Are Speaking To The Wrong People. Why The Complaint System For Unacceptable Advertising In Australia Is Not Working, Katherine Eagleton, Sandra C. Jones

Sandra Jones

This exploratory study highlights the lack of public awareness of the role of the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) in the process of handling complaints about unacceptable advertising in Australia. Results show that only a small proportion of Australian adults know that the ASB are the appropriate complaints handling body. This lack of awareness is evident even among those who have made a complaint about advertising (generally to a less appropriate body). This highlights the need for an education campaign to inform the general public how to make a complaint about inappropriate advertising, and who to make a complaint to. Empowering …

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Do Migrants Rob Jobs?: New Evidence From Australia, Gary Gang Tian, Jordan Shan Jun 2013

Do Migrants Rob Jobs?: New Evidence From Australia, Gary Gang Tian, Jordan Shan

Gary Tian

This study contributes to the recent debate on immigration and unemployment in Australia by investigating the causal linkage between immigration and unemployment. The question of whether `immigrants rob jobs' is examined by identifying the sources of unemployment through causal linkages between unemployment and other key variables such as immigration. The research finds no Granger causality between immigration and unemployment, but does run from industrial structural change to the high unemployment rate in Australia. This research also finds that both GDP growth and immigration inflow reinforce each other in the course of economic development in Australia.

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The Geomorphological Evolution Of A Wave-Dominated Barrier Estuary: Burrill Lake, New South Wales, Australia, Brian G. Jones, Craig R. Sloss, David M. Price, C.E. Mcclennen, John De Carli Jun 2013

The Geomorphological Evolution Of A Wave-Dominated Barrier Estuary: Burrill Lake, New South Wales, Australia, Brian G. Jones, Craig R. Sloss, David M. Price, C.E. Mcclennen, John De Carli

B. G. Jones

The geomorphological evolution of the Holocene wave-dominated barrier estuary at Burrill Lake on the New South Wales coast, Australia, has been delineated using a combination of seismic stratigraphy and the lithostratigraphic analysis of vibracores collected from the back-barrier estuarine environment. A combination of radiocarbon and aspartic acid racemisation-derived ages obtained on Holocene fossil molluscs, and the thermoluminescent signal in remnant Last Interglacial barrier sediments provides the chronological framework for this investigation. Results from this paper show that the barrier estuary occupies a relatively narrow (<1.5 km wide) and shallow (<40 m deep) incised bedrock valley formed during sea-level …

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Gpr Surveys Of Vegetated Linear Dune Stratigraphy In Central Australia: Evidence For Linear Dune Extension With Vertical And Lateral Accretion, Gerald Nanson, Brian Jones, David Price, C Bristow, Cameron Hollands, Maria Coleman Jun 2013

Gpr Surveys Of Vegetated Linear Dune Stratigraphy In Central Australia: Evidence For Linear Dune Extension With Vertical And Lateral Accretion, Gerald Nanson, Brian Jones, David Price, C Bristow, Cameron Hollands, Maria Coleman

B. G. Jones

No abstract provided.

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Holocene Sea-Level Change On The Southeast Coast Of Australia: A Review, Colin Murray-Wallace, Brian Jones, Craig Sloss Jun 2013

Holocene Sea-Level Change On The Southeast Coast Of Australia: A Review, Colin Murray-Wallace, Brian Jones, Craig Sloss

B. G. Jones

No abstract provided.

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