Within Australia, research on women and alcohol has been predominantly focussed on either large scale surveys of women’s consumption or on alcohol problems studies within treatment populations. Such research mainly draws upon the biomedical understandings of the body and the disease model of alcoholism. In contrast, this study examines the meanings and practices of alcohol use within the social contexts of women’s everyday lives. Alcohol is viewed as a part of life rather than as an excess or problem.

Transition between secondary school and university can be a time of stress and anxiety. It is a time when decisions about courses and careers can have extraordinarily significant implications. It is, therefore, a time when information about courses, universities and university life must be effectively presented and thoughtfully comprehended. This study explores secondary student insights into university before and during the crucial decision making process as well as the consequences of those insights and decisions. (For complete abstract open document)

The major focus of this study is on the outdoor education subject as a learning context in which caring and community are educational achievements. The review of the literature is necessarily selective as the scope of the research touches upon the discipline areas of community, caring, moral development and education, friendship, outdoor education, experimental education and camping. The research is based upon a two step process within which both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. The first step in the process utilises phenomenological methods. The second step in the process uses the survey method.

The Barwon Downs Aquifer in south western Victoria has long been recognized to have extensive groundwater resources. It is also an important source of supply in Barwon Water’s drought emergency management plan. An understanding of the aquifer behaviour in relation to its recharge and withdrawal rates is essential for sustainable development. The main aim of this modelling exercise is to evaluate the present groundwater use and estimate the maximum possible extraction from the aquifer without serious consequences, and hence evaluate the groundwater management options and possible augmentation of the Barwon Downs Wellfield.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century a wide cross-section of British society had strongly correlated the notions of ‘civilization’ and ‘true religion’ with the accurate measurement and profitable use of time. Their specific experience of time, however, was not a human universal but a cultural construct, deeply embedded within the clock-governed milieu of industrial-capitalist and Christian society. Consequently, in the British colonies, the portrayal of indigenous societies as being ‘time-less’ (i.e.: culturally lacking regularity, order and uniformity) came to operate as a means of constructing an inferior, ‘irregular other’. By way of two case-studies – located in the 19th-century British settler-colonies of Victoria (Australia) and the Cape Colony (South Africa) – this thesis documents the manner in which nineteenth-century British missionary and settler-colonial discourse constructed the notion of ‘time-less’ indigenous cultures. Such apparent inferiority, this thesis argues, bolstered the depiction of indigenous societies as culturally inadequate – a representation that helped to rationalize and justify settler-colonialism’s claims upon indigenous land. / The negative portrayals of ‘Aboriginal time’ and ‘African time’ also helped to cast these societies as particularly in need of temporal reform. Indeed the latter were considered to be not only out of place but also ‘out of time’ within the timescape of Christian/capitalist rituals and routines. This study highlights some of the everyday means by which British settler-colonists and Protestant missionaries sought to reform the time-orientation and rhythms of indigenous societies. The evidence provided suggests that cultural colonization in the British settler-colonies was configured – to a greater extent than previous understandings allow – by an attack on non-capitalist and non-Christian attitudes to time. Christianizing and ‘civilizing’ meant imposing – coercively and ideologically – the temporal rituals and routines of British middle-class society. / Although the universalizing will of nineteenth-century European cultural expansion was reflected in its attempt to impose a specifically western view of time upon the world, the process of temporal colonization was neither homogeneous throughout the colonies, nor uncontested by indigenous societies. On the one hand, settler-colonialism’s diverging economic objectives in the Cape and Victoria – shaped as they were by economic land/labour requirements, demographics, and localized visions of race – defined the various manners in which Europeans viewed, and sought to colonize ‘indigenous time’. On the other hand, indigenous people in both settings often successfully managed either to defy the imposition of clock-governed culture, to establish compromises between the new and old rhythms, or to exploit the temporal discourses of their self-styled reformers. This suggests that time in the colonial context may be seen as a two-edged sword: not only as an instrument of colonial power, but also as a medium for anti-colonial resistance. / By analysing the discursive constructions of a temporal other, and by documenting the everyday struggles over the dominant tempo of society, this thesis highlights time’s central role in the colonial encounter and seeks to further our understandings of the process and implications of settler-colonization and Christianization.

As spirituality first appeared in Australian curriculum documents in 1994, it was important to establish how educators thought it related to student well- being. In this research a description and four accounts of spirituality - spiritual rationalism, monism, dualism, and multidimensional unity - were developed from available literature. The literature also revealed four sets of relationships important to spiritual well-being. These were the relationships of a person with themself, others, environment, and Transcendent Other. / The model of spiritual health proposed here claims that these four sets of relationships can be developed in corresponding Personal, Communal, Environmental and Global domains of human existence, each of which has two aspects - knowledge and inspiration. Progressive synergism describes the inter-relationship between the four domains. / The quality of relationships in the four domains constitutes , spiritual well-being in each domain. Spiritual health is indicated by the combined effect of spiritual well-being in each of the domains embraced by a person. / The principles of grounded theory qualitative research methodology were used to investigate the views of 98 teachers from a variety of schools near Melbourne. Feedback from 23 Australian experts, on the researcher’s definitions, is discussed. / To encompass all the teachers’ views of spiritual health, to the initial categories of Personalist, Communalist, Environmentalist and Globalist, a fifth category was added for the small group Rationalists, who embraced the knowledge, but not the inspiration/transcendent aspects, of the first three domains of spiritual well-being. / All the teachers believed spiritual health should be included in the school curriculum, most rating it of high importance, two-thirds believing it should be integral to the curriculum. The teachers’ major curriculum concerns focussed on Self, Others, the Transcendent, or Wholeness. / Investigation of those teacher characteristics seen as important for promoting spiritual health, with associated hindrances and ideals, showed variation by gender, personal view of spiritual health, major curriculum concern, teacher and school type. Greatest variation was noticed when comparing school type. State school teachers emphasised care for the individual student from a humanistic perspective. Catholic school teachers were concerned for the individual, with religious activities being implemented by dedicated teachers. Other Christian school teachers focussed on corporate, not individualistic, activities, and emphasised relationship with God. Other non-government school teachers emphasised tradition, with attendant moral values. Implications of these variations on school choice are discussed. / Principals’ behaviour, speech and attitude were considered by the teachers to be vital in providing opportunities for spiritual development in schools. / A 30-item Spiritual Health Measure (of Humanistic and Religious Aspects of Spiritual Health) was developed using the researcher’s model of spiritual health and data from 300 UK teachers. / The SHM should be useful as a diagnostic for individuals or groups to provide base data from which to plan enhancement of their spiritual health. / This thesis contains an analysis of how well the Victorian Curriculum & Standards Framework provides guidelines for promoting spiritual health. / A position of responsibility, called Spiritual Facilitator, is proposed to help ensure that the rhetoric about spiritual well-being is put into practice in schools.

Chapter 1. Introduction- analysis of the conscription referendum of 1916..... Chapter 2. Compulsory Military Training in peace-time. Chapter 3. Towards compulsion in war-time. Chapter 4. The campaign in Victoria. Chapter 5. The vote in Victoria. Chapter 6. Conclusions.

Poverty was widespread in Victorian society in the later nineteenth century, but the colony remained proud that it had not had to resort to a Poor Law in order to meet the needs of the less fortunate of its citizens. Instead, the relief of the destitute was the responsibility of a large number of voluntary charitable agencies, most financially dependent on the government to a greater or lesser extent, but totally under the control of those private citizens who chose and were able to make regular donations. (For complete precis open document)

A personal conviction that Victorian secondary technical education was not necessarily “second rate” prompted this study - the history of Shepparton South Technical School. This thesis examines the evolution of a secondary technical school until its demise under the 1982 to 1989 State Labor Government. The technical schools were under threat from their inception following the 1910 Education Act. The first Chief Inspector of Technical Instruction, Donald Clark, warned that their executive school councils and their links with the senior technical colleges were bulwarks against their extinction. Clark argued that there was a need for strong leadership and vigilance if they were to retain their distinctive philosophy. The wording of the 1910 Education Act did not specify the development of a dual system. Yet the tech schools flourished because they were popular with boys and parents, because of their executive Councils, and because of their relationship with industry. The junior techs evolved into secondary techs during the 1950s and 60s, staffed by teachers with industrial experience who were qualified to teach apprentices, as well as the junior students. A Board of Inspectors of Technical Schools travelled throughout Victoria to disseminate information and mentor technical school staff. DTE Ted Jackson’s 1970 policy gave principals unprecedented autonomy to respond to the needs of young people within their local community.

The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One is headed by a fairly broad historiographic review into past works on the Chinese in Australia. This is followed by a brief introduction to the historical and cultural background of the immigrants and the character of their migration. An examination of the passive and proudly in different responses of the Chinese to Victorian anti-Chinese legislation concludes this section. The stress of this final chapter is on the overall lack of influence of the White Australian Policy on the behaviour of the Chinese. Part Two examines the sojourning sentiments of the Chinese and how they affected the sex and age distribution of the population, their choice and method of work, their accommodation and quality of life. Part Three begins by contrasting the impact of science and technology on Australia and China and the focus will be on China’s peripheral position in the industrial world. The insecurity of the Chinese in the industrialising environment of Australia will be considered. This will be contrasted by the more accommodating cultural milieu of Southeast Asia and the important thread of Chinese culture and traditions throughout the region’s history. The importance of the ‘modified’ or ‘mixed’ version of the family business in assisting the rise of the Chinese in the Southeast Asian region will be discussed. The final part of the thesis will suggest that the decline of the Victorian Chinese in the four occupations of alluvial mining, furniture-making, market-gardening and laundering was significantly affected by an inflexible attitude to technology. It is argued that the Chinese did not apply science and advanced equipment when it was prudent to do so. The conclusion will summarise the main argument and suggest its relevance for the modern overseas Chinese communities.