The aim of the project was to determine factors which explain the distribution of macroinvertebrates in two Melbourne streams both drastically affected by urbanisation. A detailed description is given of Dandenong Creek, flowing through the south-eastern suburbs, and Darebin Creek, in the northern suburbs, emphasising stream features likely, or known, to influence the drift and benthic fauna. Faunal sampling was carried out in Dandenong Creek from June 1992 until July 1993, and in Darebin Creek from February 1995 until March 1998. Physicochemical parameters were also recorded. The collected data, together with previously existing data, were analysed using multivariate analyses: non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS); analysis of similarities (ANOSIM); matching biotic and abiotic variables using BIOENV, and principal component analysis (PCA). Various biotic and diversity indices were calculated in an attempt to identify the major factors responsible for the failure of the fauna to recover from previously more seriously degraded water quality. The contribution of drift to the colonisation potential in Dandenong Creek appeared to be impacted by retarding basins, underground barrel-draining and channelization. Results also indicated that increased conductivity adversely affected the fauna in the lower reaches of Dandenong Creek. It was concluded that in Darebin Creek, high nutrient levels, as well as other pollutants, had resulted in low macroinvertebrate diversity in both the drift and benthos. If, as this study suggests, faunal diversity is a valid measure of stream health, the following factors need to be addressed for catchment-wide, stream management: lack of riparian zone vegetation (increasing bank erosion and making the benthic habitat unstable, with greater temperature variability); control of stormwater runoff (flow variability, increased conductivity, nutrient levels, sediment loads, sewage effluent, industrial discharges and heavy metals), and to modify retarding basins to increase stream continuity.

Swan Bay is a shallow marine embayment of Port Phillip Bay, just north of Queenscliff, Victoria. It has been part of the Harold Holt Marine Reserves since 1977 and is a seagrass habitat. This study investigated the species of fish present in the inter-tidal zone of Swan Bay, collected information on their ecology, investigated the importance of Swan Bay compared to Port Phillip Bay as a nursery and/or breeding area and compared these results with those of similar seagrsss habitats. Field work was carried out monthly over a two year period, from April 1981 to April 1983, using beach seine nets at Swan Bay and Portarlington. Forty four species of fish were identified from Swan Bay and nineteen from Portarlington. Fish were most abundant during the summer and autumn months when seagrass growth was at a maximum and least abundant during winter due to the absence of seasonal residents and decreased numbers of permanent residents. Swan Bay was found to be an important nursery ground for two commercially-caught species: the Yellow-eye Mullet and the King George Whiting. Juvenile Yellow-eye Mullet were more numerous in Swan Bay than at Portarlington. Smell juvenile King George Whiting were more abundant at Portarlington than in Swan Bay where older juveniles were more numerous. The fish fauna of Swan Bay was found to be similar to western Port but the abundance of species varied. Atherinosome microstoma was the dominant species in terms of abundance and biomass. Diet was found to be different from that reported by Robertson (1979) at Western Port due to the different range of prey items.

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This study examines how first year principals learn their roles and provides the picture through their eyes. As there is no formal preparation requirement to become a principal in Victorian government schools, new principals must seek out and direct their own learning for the role. The study describes the informal and formal sources of learning that are sought by beginning principals to help them learn about their new role. The focus is on identifying what sources of learning were used through different phases of the study and how some became more critical than others in shaping and developing the role of a principal in the school. This thesis is a story of continuous professional socialization and learning of a group of seven beginning principals using case studies and interviews over four phases of learning in their first year in the role as they proceed from appointment, entry, establishment through to consolidation of the role. The process of socialization underpins the study and is conceived as a process of learning in which the participants actively direct and participate in their own socialization. However, greater emphasis is placed on the developing nature and reliance on learning in role development. Previous studies of professional socialization of beginning principals have identified licensure programs as significant in the preparation and ongoing development process, whereas this is not the case in Victoria where no such requirements exist. This study adds to existing studies through the finding that there are similarities in the stages of professional socialization process in the Australian context, but also explores new aspects about professional learning by identifying various phases and sources of learning for Victorian principals. These ranged from dependence upon an apprenticeship arrangement, through self-directed task learning, to that of becoming an independent learner within a professional community of equals. Some of the themes identified and explored in this study included examining phases of learning, sources of learning, and their effect on role development. The study was initially based on identifying and exploring some of the key issues and the significance of learning experiences suggested by the beginning principals rather than researching predetermined hypotheses. This grounded and qualitative approach involved data collection over four different time phases in the first year in the role and allowed flexibility in the construction of case studies and the cumulative development of data through the study. The greater part of the data were collected through interviews in each of the four phases of the study along with the collection of survey data for comparison and contrast in the first and final study phases. The research raises many issues that can serve as a basis for further exploration of the complexity of the role of learning within professional socialization for beginning principals. As well, it suggests a number of implications for the organization of professional learning and socialization in beginning principal socialization for the first year in the role.

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The Picturesque aesthetic emerged in the later 18th century, uniting the Sublime and the Beautiful and had its roots in the paintings of Claude Lorrain. In Britain, and in Australia, it came to link art, literature and landscape with architecture. The Picturesque aesthetic informed much of colonial culture which was achieved, in part, through the production and dissemination of architectural pattern books catering for the aspirations of the rising middle classes. This was against a background of political change including democratic reform. The Italianate villa, codified and promoted in such pattern books, was a particularly successful synthesis of style, form and function. The first Italianate villa in England, Cronkhill (1803) by John Nash contains all the ingredients which were essential to the model and had a deeper meaning. Deepdene (from 1807) by Thomas Hope gave the model further impetus. The works of Charles Barry and others in a second generation confirmed the model's acceptability. In Britain, its public status peaked with Osborne House (from 1845), Queen Victoria's Italianate villa on the Isle of Wight, Robert Kerr used a vignette of Osborne House on the title page of his sophisticated and influential pattern book, The Gentleman's House (1864,1871). It was one of many books, including those of J.C, Loudon and AJ. Downing, current in colonial Victoria. The latter authors and horticulturists were themselves villa dwellers with libraries and orchards, two criteria for the true villa lifestyle. Situation and a sense of retreat were the two further criteria for the villa lifestyle. As the new colony of Victoria blossomed between 1851 and 1891, the Italianate villa, its garden setting and its landscape siting captured the tenor of the times. Melbourne, the capital was a rich manufacturing metropolis with a productive hinterland and international markets. The people enjoyed a prosperity and lifestyle which they wished to display. Those who had a position in society were keen to demonstrate and protect it. Those with aspirations attempted to provide the evidence necessary for such acceptance, The model matured and became ubiquitous. Its evolution can be traced through a series of increasingly complicated rural and suburban examples, a process which modernist historians have dismissed as a decadent decline. These villas, in fact, demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated retreat by merchants from ‘the Town’ and by graziers from ‘the Country’. In both town and country, the towers of villas mark territory newly acquired. The same claim was often made in humbler situations. Government House, Melbourne (from 1871), a splendid Italianate villa and arguably finer than Osborne House, was set in a cultivated landscape and towered above all It incorporated the four criteria and, in addition, claimed its domain, focused authority and established the colony's social status. It symbolised ancient notions of democracy and idealism but with a modem appreciation for the informal and domestic. Government House in Melbourne is the epitome of the Italianate villa in the colonial landscape and is the climax of the Picturesque aesthetic in Victoria.

The aim of the research is to investigate factors that may explain success in elementary computer programming at the tertiary level. The first phase of the research included the identification of possible explanatory factors through a literature review, a survey of students studying introductory computing, a focus-group session with teachers of computer programming and interviews with programming students. The second phase of the research that was called the main study, involved testing the identified factors. Two different groups of programming students - one group majoring in business computing and another majoring in computer science - completed a survey questionnaire. The findings of the research are as follows. Gender is of little significance for business students but there is an adverse gender penalty for females in computer science. Secondary school assessment is inversely related to outcomes in business computing but directly influences outcomes in the first programming unit in the computer science course. As in prior research, previous knowledge and experience were demonstrated to matter, A range of other variables was found to be of little importance. The research suggests that different problem-solving techniques might be relevant in business compared with those of use in computer science.

The relationship of vegetation and disturbance factors to the distribution, abundance and diversity of small mammals in the eastern Otway region, Victoria were investigated. Antechinus stuartii, Rattus fuscipes and Rattus lutreolus were widely distributed and occurred in the majority of the eleven floristic vegetation groups identified. Antechinus minimus, Antechinus swainsonnii and Pseudomys novaehollandiae had restricted distributions and were recorded in only two or three vegetation groups. New information on the distribution of the rare species P. novaehollandiae, was obtained and two floristically rich vegetation groups that it preferred were identified. Species-rich small mammal communities occurred in vegetation communities with high numbers of sclerophyll plant species and high structural diversity. Maximum food resources were considered to be provided in these communities. Local habitat diversity was also correlated with species-richness. Small mammal abundance was maximum in non-sclerophyllous canmunities, where high plant productivity was considered to be important. For the first time, the presence of the plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi was shown to affect small mammals. It was associated with small mammal communities of low species richness and abundance, Recovery of small mammal populations after wildfire was slow until the fourth year. Mus musculus reached peak abundance from 2-3 years and then declined rapidly. P. novaehollandiae was the only native species that achieved maximum abundance early in the succession. A. stuartii, R. fuscipes and R. lutreolus approached maximum abundance in mid-succession, while Isoodon obesulus was a mid- to late-successional species. A. minimus survived the fire, but did not persist after one year. The pattern of succession was influenced by attributes of species, such as survival after fire, their ability to disperse and reproduce.

Creative arts can make vital contributions to both economies and communities. Moreover, these impacts can be keenly felt by smaller, regional communities, where shifts away from traditional rural industries are apparent, and in the context of the Inew economy' which emphasises the importance of knowledge industries and creative industries. This research investigates creative arts supply and demand in regional Victoria, Australia through the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in three target communities. Fundamentally, this thesis presents a detailed analysis of the current supply and demand environment, including the impacts of regional arts festivals, and determines the conditions, events and characteristics which could strengthen regional Victorian supply and demand of creative arts. This thesis analyses focus group data to investigate current levels of supply of creative arts in regional Victoria. Qualitative analysis of the data shows that the supply of creative arts in the target areas is limited by scarce resources, isolation, negative community attitudes towards creative arts, and a small audience or sales market and an over-reliance on volunteers. Small and micro-businesses in the regional Victorian arts sector are seen as having motivations for operating beyond making money, limited business acumen, and have difficulty in marketing themselves effectively. Best-practice strategies to strengthen the operations of small and micro-businesses include adopting a more entrepreneurial attitude towards arts business, using an agent to source new audiences or sales markets and to maximise the promotion of their product, creating art which is accessible to the local community, and to engage in skills development and business training. Using attitudes towards creative arts, participation in creative arts and expenditure on creative arts as a measure of current demand levels, this thesis applies a range of statistical and econometric tests to the data collected from the three target communities. Contrary to the view emergent from the supply data, this thesis shows that regional Victorians have strong levels of demand for creative arts. Results show higher than average levels of overall monthly arts expenditure, and strong demand for cinema, craft fairs or exhibitions, books, CDs and other music formats. Low levels of demand were noted for classical music, opera or ballet. Chi-Squared analysis and ordered probit results show that gender, age, festival attendance, education, and individual levels of overall arts expenditure are all determinants of creative arts demand. Analysis regarding impacts and key aspects of two regional arts festivals found that regional festival patrons are more likely to be female, local to the host region, have a middle income, and hold a high school or equivalent qualification. An econometric model, including two versions of an Ordinary Least Squares regression in addition to Tobit and probit estimations, was used to more accurately estimate individual expenditure characteristics, notably accounting for the zero-expenditure of attendees who are local to the host region. This thesis provides valuable contributions to knowledge regarding the supply and demand of creative arts in regional areas. It also provides practical insights for policy makers, festival organisers, and the regional arts industry.

The research presented in this thesis investigates the professional development and training needs of Literacy Coordinators in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. This study augments the extensive body of research pertaining to knowledge about literacy programs, theory and pedagogy and it aims to explore a further dimension relating to the skills and knowledge that Literacy Coordinators need to acquire and apply in order to successfully manage their programs. The research paradigm of this study, as described by Guba and Lincoln (1994), uses constructivist (naturalistic) inquiry methodology and a case study approach. The collection of the data in these case studies has been achieved using a semi-ethnographic approach described by Denzin and Lincoln (2000) where the researcher observes the classroom program as a non-participant observer and engages in active collaborative reflection and analysis of the key knowledge and strategies required for successful p rogram management, in conjunction with the Literacy Coordinator participants. This study has also employed purposeful sampling (Patton, 1990) in the selection of the Literacy Coordinator participants and their schools and incorporates the use of teacher's voice in the construction and interpretation of key issues. The literature review examines the conceptualisation of literacy learning with a focus on the past three decades and explores current leadership and management theory as an integral component of program provision. A historical background to the industrial and political influences on the provision of literacy support for the purpose of raising the literacy achievement of students in secondary schools in Victoria is also provided. The value and relevance of having a theory that informs the Literacy Coordinators' practice is explored. The importance of professional development through participant observation and shared retelling and collaborative interpretation of the events is also examined. The case studies highlight the need for training in program design, diagnosing of student needs and for training for the leadership component of the role. The data collection involved six school sites and six Literacy Coordinators employed in secondary schools in the Northern metropolitan region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Data included key informant interviews, curriculum and strategic planning documents and program materials. A number of key skills and knowledge criteria emerged as key factors in successful program management. They include the need for time and appropriate resources to effectively manage the program; the need for Literacy Coordinators to be trained in selecting and designing content, the need to master pedagogical knowledge related to literacy program provision and the need for training in the use of testing instruments and interpretation of testing data. Other key knowledge and skill requirements include training in management, the ability to develop effective partnerships and the ability to build and maintain teams. Recommendations for enhancing professional practice flow from this thesis; they have most relevance to Literacy Coordinators and other program leaders and for principals, policy makers and tertiary educators.