https://hdl.handle.net/2123/1843 2026-06-04T15:43:22Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/9070 Harbouring Discontent: World Heritage, the Great Barrier Reef and the Gladstone Port Development Davey, Madeline Nell The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is facing unprecedented pressures from a range of inputs– one of the most prominent being industrial coastal development. Of these developments, none has more current significance than the Gladstone Port Development (GPD) in Gladstone Harbour at the southern end of the GBR in Queensland, Australia. The Port expansion includes the extension of an existing coal terminal, reclamation and development of new land and three gas processing plants on Curtis Island, plus associated dredging works. These developments are causing controversy globally because they are occurring within the GBR World Heritage Area (WHA). Gladstone Harbour was included within the original World Heritage Listing (WHL) as it met the criteria attributed to the entire GBR – natural environmental assets of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV); including turtles, dugongs, mangroves, seagrasses and coral. These environmental attributes are under serious threat with the GPD, causing a clash between development and conservation in Gladstone Harbour. Moreover, the WH listing for the entire GBR is at risk because of the rapid development of the export industry along the GBR coast. These developments have been allowed because they are occurring in the small percent of the WHA that is not managed by the Federal GBR Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA); rather jurisdiction of these coastal waters falls to the Queensland government. The GBR has long been regarded as epitomising ―best-practice‖ management standards for MPA because of management by the GBRMPA. However, the management ‗best-practice‘ title is now under threat. In this study discrepancies in boundaries and management practices between the GBRWHA and the GBR Marine Protected Area (MPA), come to the fore through the perspectives of high-user stakeholders - the fishers and conservationists/researchers of the region. The stakeholders provide localised insights into the OUV together with views about current management approaches. These perceptions were gathered throughout July 2012 using semi-structured interviews in Gladstone. Using these insights this study explores the way in which multiple interests collide – drawing out and questioning the role of state and federal government in regulating the space. Arguably, the management of the GPD should match the values embedded in the area‘s WH designation, granted in 1981. The extent to which this has happened is explored in this study. This study finds that the WHL of Gladstone Harbour remains significant for local user groups. While there are calls to redraw the GBRWHA it is critical to further understand how locals value the area and the WH listing before maps are re-drawn. The incorporation of stakeholder perceptions into environmental governance for marine habitats is essential to achieve better environmental and social outcomes. In this context, this study embraces a political ecology paradigm which provides a conceptual framework for an explanation of the GPD. Such an approach enables an explanation of the forces at work in the GPD - which allows environmental, political and economic factors to be intertwined into explanations and analysis. This overarching conceptual approach illustrates how multiple interests interact in a way which limits the efficacy of the existing environment governance framework 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5775 The role of cyclic climatic regimes and riparian vegetation: a qualitative and quantitative study into the cause of river bank slope instability and channel widening on the Macdonald River, New South Wales. Murray, Jaqueline Numerous case studies have demonstrated the catastrophic nature of channel change experienced on the Macdonald River, a tributary of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, New South Wales. However, there is an absence of studies that clearly state how and why the channel changed as dramatically as it did. As a consequence, the magnitude of, and ultimate controls on the changes to the Macdonald River’s form and processes are not fully appreciated. In this study, a comparison is undertaken on the three existing river morphology perspectives with respect to the Macdonald River. The Warner and Erskine Perspective states the sole importance of the cyclic hydro-climatic conditions of the FDR and DDRs on river morphology. The Brierely and co-workers Perspective states the sole importance of anthropogenic influence in the catchment and on the banks on river morphology. The Intermediate Perspective of Hubble and co-workers considers both existing and conflicting perspectives and states the importance of both cyclic climatic regimes and anthropogenic activity in the catchment and particularly on the river banks, in determining river morphology. Resultantly, a selection of Hubble and co-workers Perspective is made to classify the Macdonald River’s morphology. It is clear, from the analysis of historical aerial photographs, archival sketches, photographs and historical documentation, that riparian vegetation was absent from the banks of the Macdonald River from 1941 as a result of land-clearing practices from the early 19th Century. The banks of the Macdonald River would not have experienced this ‘catastrophic’ channel change between 1949 and 1955 had riparian vegetation remained on the banks. Riparian vegetation has been found to increase the soil-shear strength and hence the stability of river bank slopes, in particularly on the Upper Nepean and the Macdonald Rivers in New South Wales, where vulnerable sands to silty-sands predominate the bank material. This has been further proved with geochemical bank stability modeling. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5777 What Triggers and Barriers to Practicing Consumption Ideals Must Be Addressed By Sustainable Consumption Solutions? Oberthur, David Despite a wealth of knowledge on the psycho-social and ideological functions of personal consumption, we have yet to successfully address unsustainable consumption practices in developed urban spaces. This study develops a contemporary understanding of how people from Sydney engage in their personal consumption practices. Using both focus groups and personal consumption journals, I identified the common consumption considerations of all participants regardless of whether their goal was to minimise or maximise their resource consumption. This data was collected into eight categories of psycho-social and ideological issues that are argued to consistently contribute to the renegotiation of consumption ideals into practices. These results show that personal consumption is a fluid act that occurs anew with each decision. As such, these eight categories offer points of entry to affect sustainable consumption practices. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5779 Wan nes nomo - Place & access to primary care in rural Vanuatu Petrou, Kirstie This thesis seeks to examine access to health care in rural Vanuatu. Health1 has long been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a fundamental human right, yet disparities persist in health status throughout the world today. While there are a number of reasons for this, the (in)accessibility of primary care (PC) services is an important contributing factor. In Vanuatu, access to PC represents a particularly pertinent issue. With a small population of roughly 243,000 (Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2009) distributed over approximately sixty-five islands, population dispersal alone causes problems for service provision. The situation is exacerbated by poor infrastructure, high transport and communication costs, low per capita income, and rapid population growth (Siméoni 2009). With limited funding and a heavy reliance on international aid, the Vanuatu Ministry of Health faces real challenges in providing an effective, accessible network of PC services (World Health Organisation Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) 2009). 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5774 Cretaceous Palaeogeography of Eastern Australia: Connecting the Deep Earth to Surface Processes Matthews, Kara We have used the geodynamic modelling software CitcomS 3.0 to model the surface evolution of Australia since 140 Ma and constrain the location of the Cretaceous aged subduction zone that paralleled its eastern margin. Australia’s palaeogeography was profoundly affected by mantle convection processes during the Cretaceous. Eastward passage of the Australian plate over subducted slab material induced negative dynamic topography in eastern Australia, causing widespread time-dependent subsidence and formation of a vast epeiric sea during a eustatic sea-level low. Although there exists a considerable amount of geological evidence for active convergence between Australia and the palaeo-Pacific at this time, the exact location of the subduction zone has remained elusive. To constrain the location of subduction we tested two end-member models, one with the subduction zone directly adjacent to the continent, and an alternative model with subduction translated 23° east. Our forward geodynamic models incorporate a rheological model for the mantle and crust, plate motions since 140 Ma and evolving plate boundaries, implemented in the GPlates software. While mantle rheology affects the magnitude of surface vertical motions, the timing of uplift and subsidence depends critically on plate kinematic reconstructions and plate boundary geometries. Tectonic subsidence analysis using the backstrippping method was performed on 42 wells from the Eromanga and Surat basins in eastern Australia. This revealed Cretaceous tectonic subsidence trends with which to compare our modelled dynamic topography. Simulations with subduction proximal to the active continental margin resulted in accelerated basin subsidence delayed by 20 Myr compared with these tectonic subsidence data. However this timing offset was reconciled when subduction was shifted eastward. Comparisons between whole mantle seismic tomography images and equivalent model temperature cross-sections further validate our proposed eastward shift in subduction. Finally an absence of subduction zone volcanism along Australia’s east coast in the Early Cretaceous supports our conclusion that a back-arc basin existed east of Australia during the Cretaceous. Our models further allowed us to test alternative Tertiary plate boundary geometries east of Australia, in particular whether or not the proposed short-lived mid-Tertiary eastward dipping "New Caledonia subduction zone" may have been responsible for a prominent fast shear wave anomaly at ~1100 km depth beneath the Tasman Sea. Our models suggest that post 45 Ma westward dipping subduction along the Tonga-Kermadec Trench may have produced the slab material mapped by mantle tomography models in the lower mantle underneath the Tasman Sea. An additional eastward dipping subduction zone does not appear to be required by the tomographic images, as proposed previously. Approximately 200MB of appendices available. Contact the Department of Geosciences. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5776 The Influence of Physical and Anthropogenic Factors on a Channel’s Geomorphic Diversity White, Alicia The geomorphic diversity (or the natural variability within and between geomorphic structures) of fluvial systems provides an indication of river health and biological activity as well as their resilience to change. Despite this, few studies have investigated the controls on geomorphic diversity and, as a result, our understanding of this fundamental aspect of rivers is incomplete. Similarly, investigations into the controlling factors on channel morphology tend to be limited in scope. For example, the influence of physical and anthropogenic external factors on the morphology of fluvial systems has typically been examined through the study of the effects of a single factor (e.g., woody debris) on either the cross-sectional form, the shape of the long-profile, the bed structure or the channel pattern of a river system. As rivers have been shown to adjust their channel morphologies to external controls (Knighton 2000) over all four of these degrees of freedom, isolating individual degrees of freedom may miss out on the complex interactions that occur between them. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the multi-scale and multifactor influences of physical and anthropogenic external factors (particularly confinement, riparian vegetation, woody debris, obstructions and anthropogenic impoundment) on the geomorphic structure and diversity of river systems at a range of scales, using the Turon River in Central West New South Wales as a case study. In this study, river channels were examined at four scales (i.e., cross-section, long-profile, bedform and bar unit) to assess the influence of five external factors (confinement, riparian vegetation, woody debris, obstructions (i.e., islands and in-channel bars) and anthropogenic impoundment (i.e., a causeway)) on the geomorphic diversity of the Turon River. To accomplish this, a total of 231 cross-sections were surveyed over a 600 m reach. These data were then used to calculate the size and variability of cross-sections, long-profiles, bedforms and bar units within the study reach. Morphology and diversity at each scale (and for each factor) were tested for statistical differences using non-parametric uni-variate approaches. The results presented in this study suggest that the presence of obstructions is the most influential external factor on channel size in the Turon River, affecting the size and shape of cross-sections, long-profiles and, to a lesser extent, bedforms and bar-units. That is, obstructed channels were found to be significantly different to channels devoid of obstructions insofar as they were smaller, shallower, contained steeper channel gradients had more vertical variation in their long-profiles, had longer pool-riffle sequence spacing and were of a different channel form to channel reaches devoid of obstructions. Obstructions, in association with the presence and type of woody debris, were also observed to be the most influential factors on the diversity of river channels. For example, the presence of either obstructions or woody debris increased the variability of crosssectional and bedform parameters, while the type of woody debris present influenced the variability of the long-profile’s vertical and angular variations (i.e., the vertical and angular variations in long-profiles containing in-channel woody debris were less variable than those with on-bank woody debris). Importantly, cross-sections are impacted upon more than long profiles, with their size and variability affected by both large-scale external factors (e.g., confinement and riparian vegetation) and small-scale influences (e.g., obstructions and impoundments). For example, cross-sections within confined reaches were found to be larger but less diverse than crosssections in unconfined channels, while the reverse is true for obstructed cross-sections (i.e., obstructed cross-sections were smaller and more diverse than unobstructed channels). Conversely, pool-riffle sequences were the least affected river components, only being influenced by obstructions and, to a lesser extent, woody debris. That is, bar-units within obstructed channels were smaller, longer and more asymmetric than bar-units within channels devoid of obstructions. The results presented in this study also indicate that the variability of channel characteristics was affected more by the influence of external factors than channel dimensions. Additionally, the findings of this study indicate a reversal in the influence external factors have on the size and shape of a channel and its diversity. That is, smaller channels were found to be more diverse than larger channels. This is the first study to examine the influence of multiple factors on multiple scales within a river reach. The results of this investigation illustrate that river systems have complex responses to a combination of different physical and anthropogenic external factors that are evident at multiple scales (from cross-sections through to bar units). Additionally, it has shown that interactions between the external factors in a reach can result in a highly geomorphically diverse environment. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/5772 Multi-Scale Morphodynamic Assessment of an Embayed Low Energy Estuarine Beach, Shoal Bay, Port Stephens, NSW Harris, Daniel Low-energy shorelines are common coastal features, with their combined length exceeding that of high energy coastlines. Yet the morphodynamics of such systems are poorly understood with only a few process based assessments of low-energy environments. Shoal Bay is a low-energy embayed estuarine beach in the Port Stephens estuary, located on a high-energy coast. It has been undergoing erosion for the past 40 years and its cross-shore extent is associated with a well developed flood-tide delta (FTD). This study investigates the morphodynamics of Shoal Bay beach over multiple temporal scales. Short term studies included nearshore hydrodynamic (wave and current) surveys during summer and winter. Sediment entrainment calculations were used in the nearshore current analysis and allowed for more accurate assessment of longshore sediment transport. Medium term assessment involved the analysis of morphological change from one year of beach surveys as well as an evaluation storm effects from hourly offshore wave data. Historic storm data, sediment characterisation and 43 years of aerial photography were used in the long term morphodynamic analysis. Westward trending sediment pathways were found at all three time-scales. Short term studies indicate that under modal conditions westward transport of sediment occurs. This corresponded with accumulation of sediment in the west. Severe high-energy events triggered considerable erosion along the entire beach. Detailed analysis of beach recovery after severe events could not be made but negligible recovery is observed over one year of surveys. Significant erosion and shoreline recession was found in the medium and long term morphological analysis as was shoreline rotation. Medium term shoreline retreat was caused by high-energy stochastic events; however it seems unlikely that these events are the sole cause of long term shoreline retreat. A reduction in sediment input as well as reworking of the FTD are proposed to be the long term processes driving 43 years of chronic shoreline retreat. The results of this study represent a scientific contribution to the morphodynamics of low-energy beaches and they are relevant for the future shoreline management of Shoal Bay and other drowned river valleys on high-energy coasts. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z