Thesis (M.A.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

The Western Australian Museum houses a large collection of artefacts from late nineteenth century iron sailing vessels, wrecked en route from Britain. The bulk of this collection comprises cargo objects, destined for sale in the Swan River colony. The protection afforded artefacts, due to the integrity of these shipwrecks, presents new research opportunites for identifying particular classes of commodities which were considered either necessary or desirable for colonial consumers. This thesis examines the notion of material consumption as reflected in shipwreck assemblages in Western Australia for the later nineteenth century, prior to Federation. The research is concerned with the notion of cultural continuity from Britain through specific product selection, as demonstrated by the archaeological assemblages of iron barques importing general merchandise into the colony. Focusing on the Sepia (1898), the objectives include an appraisal of shipwreck cargo artefacts and their applicability to questions relating to consumer behaviour. While the primary objective of this study is on the identification of cargo assemblages, it presents an opportunity to study taphonomic processes and provide a method of relating the vessel to its cargo contents in order to answer broader questions about shipping practices, with a particular focus on stowage. This research also critiques shipwreck collections comprised of selectively recovered, unprovenanced artefacts and suggests appropriate methods for using such material.

[Truncated abstract] Understanding the effect that the disturbance of habitat by humans has on the population dynamics and ecology of wild animals is critical for the management of these populations. By understanding the demographic effects of disturbance the ways in which a population can be managed to increase or decrease its rate of change in size also become apparent. This thesis describes the effect that human disturbance, through the establishment of a large naval base, has had on the population dynamics and ecology of tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) on Garden Island, Western Australia. The disturbance of the environment on the HMAS Stirling Naval Base included the establishment of large areas of irrigated and fertilised couch grass (Cynodon dactylon) that increased and made virtually constant the amount of food available to the tammars in that area. In addition, traffic associated with the naval base resulted in large numbers of tammar wallabies being killed by vehicles. The effects of these disturbances were determined by comparing population dynamics, through vital rates of survival and fecundity and population growth rates, and spatial ecology, through the size of the animals' home ranges, in three areas of Garden Island. The three areas were the naval base (highly disturbed), southern bushland (adjacent to the naval base) and the northern bushland (undisturbed). The tammars on the naval base were in better body condition than those living in the two bushland areas of the island. ... When the impact of road-kills was removed, increased to 1.150.101 per year on the naval base and 0.960.076 per year in the southern bushland. Fecundity transitions, defined as the product of the rates of birth and pouch-young survival, and adult survival rates were lower in the bushland areas compared with the naval base in two of the three years, which were the main reasons for the lower estimates. There were no significant differences in the size of the tammars' home ranges between areas with modified or unmodified habitats or between the sexes (P>0.05). In summer the mean size of the home ranges was 3.90.66 ha, which was larger than winter when home ranges were 3.20.54 ha, but this difference failed to reach significance (P=0.058). These results indicate that the modification of the tammars' habitat has probably not caused significant changes in the size of the animals' home ranges. The size of the home ranges of tammar wallabies is likely to be determined by a complex interaction of many factors, and habitat modification alone has not been sufficient to cause substantial changes. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate that the disturbance caused by the establishment of the naval base on Garden Island has altered the population dynamics of the tammars wallabies, through increasing in the amount of food available to the tammars and through high numbers of road-kills. These results also demonstrate how gaining detailed knowledge of population dynamics can have direct application to managing the impact of disturbance on populations of wild animals.