Obtaining a very high level of precision and sophistication in automated computer control is now available inexpensively from a variety of hardware and software sources. Applying this automated technology to an astronomical telescope broadens the scope of applications of the instrument, particularly in areas such as photo electrics, CCD imaging and remote control. The ultimate design goal of the UWS telescope was that of full roboticism, giving access of the facility to off campus clients both in Australia and overseas. The first phase towards full robotic control is automation of the required optical and mechanical parameters, providing precision targeting and object tracking. This thesis describes the mechanical aspects of the UWS telescope and the procedures and equipment involved in its automation, including the drive system, electro mechanical design and associated computer hardware and software. Sample performance test data shows that using a high percentage of inexpensive proprietary robotics components, a very sophisticated and accurate measuring device can be produced. / Master of Science (Hons.)

In order to evaluate the effects of an integrated curriculum on the learning of popular music, the Sting Curriculum was designed for senior secondary students of mixed ability. This nine week program was presented to a sample of 124 students aged between 16 and 18 years in urban Sydney (Australia).The results of tests conducted indicate that students in the sample achieved high scores when a greater emphasis was placed on performance than on the listening and composition activities. The principal findings of the study suggest that the Sting Curriculum was successful as a vehicle for learning popular music, providing students with an integrated and sequential program that motivated participants to become immersed in the music. Furthermore, in the context of an integrated curriculum, popular music learning was enhanced when teachers utilised a pedgogical approach which emphasised the performance activity. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Although the importance of fire management for biodiversity conservation is increasingly being recognised, little is known about the relationship between fire regimes and plant diversity in Australia’s temperate grassy woodland ecosystems. This project sought to address this gap in the woodlands of Western Sydney’s Cumberland Plain. Aspects of vegetation dynamics were investigated through six studies, mostly in shale-based Cumberland Plain Woodland (CPW) remnants. Results indicate that fire frequency profoundly affects both vegetation composition and structure. The influence of fire cycles was most readily apparent in the shrub layer. Findings from the six studies were synthesized into a state and transition model which allows exploration of management actions. Interfire intervals between 4 and 12 years are predicted to maintain Themeda woodland with both Bursaria thickets and open areas, and obligate seeder shrubs. Variable intervals across time and space within these thresholds should maintain much of the landscape at fuel levels compatible with property protection; fuel loads in CPW peak well below those in woodlands on sandstone. Low fire frequency remnants dominated by Bursaria retain many conservation values, but are likely to support lower abundances of obligate seeder shrubs and open patch herbs, and to be more weed-prone, than remnants burnt once or twice a decade. Experimentation with one or two short interfire intervals may be appropriate in long unburnt CPW. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this thesis, aspects of the reproductive biology of four Banksia species that display in various combinations all the life histories currently recognised in the genus were compared. Species like banksias, from fire prone regions of the world are typically characterised by life histories (traits and organs) that in reference to fire response allow them to be classified as seeders or sprouters. Plants killed by fire and that rely on seed for regeneration are called seeders and those that have the capacity to survive fire and produce vegetative sprouts are called sprouters. The species are Banksia ericifolia, Banksia integrifolia, Banksia oblongifolia, and Banksia serrata. The study was conducted in the Sydney region of Australia, which was arbitrarily divided into North, Central, and Southern provinces for sampling across species. It has been generally hypothesised that several traits are likely to be associated with seeders and sprouters. However, these traits were not always clearly apparent from the author’s studies. It is argued one reason for the anomalies in the expected associated traits is a result of a tendency to assume a evolutionary history that is based on fire as being the primary selection pressure. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The overarching question under investigation in this thesis is the extent to which the ideals of penal management as espoused by both British and Colonial authorities were implemented in the day to day administration and management of a convict work force. The focus of the examination is the construction of Major Thomas Mitchell’s line of road between Mt. Victoria and Bathurst in the 1830’s. Specifically the thesis documents the various sites on the line of road with a particular emphasis on the administrative centre and principal facility, No. 2 Stockade Cox’s River, to explain the dynamic interaction of the network and its role in the penal repertoire of New South Wales. In bringing together a large range of sources the thesis has enabled the first thorough reading of the convict sites associated with the Western road. This has led to a multi-dimensional understanding of the place, its people, and the process of its construction. It provides a basis for future scholarship on this neglected network, located almost at the doorstep of greater Sydney, on the western fringe of the Blue Mountains. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research in this portfolio is situated in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in New South Wales. It examines the impact that changes to improve the competitiveness of the vocational education and training sector have had on the role of managers in TAFE. These managers are suffering a number of tensions associated with balancing the pedagogic, professional and managerial aspects of their role. While recommendations were made about how to improve the managers’ role, a concern remains that performance indicators in TAFE which emphasise quantitative measures of efficiency, marginalise educational quality. Many staff now view the managers’ role as unattractive, raising questions about who will step up to sustain valued leadership in TAFE. A major implication of the research is that close attention must be paid, at all levels of the TAFE hierarchy, to succession planning. / Doctor of Education (D.Ed.)

This thesis investigates how volunteers are organized at visitor attractions. It focuses on museums and art museums; non-profit institutions that manage large volunteer programs. The study addresses five important issues : 1/ in what context do museums and art museums operate; 2/ why people are motivated to volunteer for these institutions; 3/ what is the extent to which the institution interacts with its external environment and how this affects organizing routines of volunteers; 4/ what is the relationship between volunteer motivation, interest dissatisfaction and value commitments; and 5/ how this understanding can result in the better management of volunteers. Two attractions in New South Wales and one in the Australian Capital Territory were investigated. The author collected data on field activities of volunteer managers and coordinators, and administered a questionnaire to the total population of volunteers in these three attractions. The thesis contributes to a more holistic understanding of volunteers that offers a critical theoretical extension to tourism, institutional and neo-institutional literature. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is the first substantive analysis of unregistered proprietary horse racing (or pony racing, as it was popularly known) in Sydney, an extremely popular form of the sport conducted weekly or more frequently between 1888 and 1942. However, a number of researchers working on its periphery have contributed commentary and judgements to a discourse on it that has existed since the establishment of the Sydney Turf Club (STC) in 1943. Their writings have created an orthodox view of the sport that suggests inter alia it was a cultural expression of a ‘needy and greedy’ element of the working class and that its constituency was excluded from that of the racing of the Establishment, conducted by the Australian Jockey Club (AJC). This orthodoxy also holds unregistered racing was subject to endemic corruption, haphazardly conducted, inexpensive to attend, provided poor money and was in general a burlesque of AJC racing. The thesis engages this discourse and tests the tenets of the orthodoxy through examination or re-examination of relevant primary sources, including parliamentary papers, contemporary newspapers and journals, race books and other documents, administrative records, photographs, and the memoirs and transcripts of oral history provided by human participants. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The small business sector has become an increasingly important segment of the Australian economy since the 1970s. Industrial relations in the sector have been assumed to be harmonious. However, to a large extent this belief about industrial relations is based on conventional wisdom rather empirical evidence. Industrial relations research in Australia has concentrated on medium to large businesses because the centralised nature of the industrial relations system encouraged a collective emphasis. This collective emphasis ensured peak representative bodies and larger organisations had a tendency to dominate while small enterprises and their employees were, to a large extent, excluded. The perceived non-problematic nature of industrial relations in the small business sector was another reason for the lack of focus on the sector. The low incidence of strike activity and the low levels of trade union membership have meant research has been concentrated on the more "difficult" areas of industrial relations. The lack of empirical research into industrial relations in the sector is an important shortcoming. There are a number of commentators who suggest that it is too simplistic to assume harmonious relations. It is likely that there is a range of industrial relations in small business, depending on a number of variables including the personality of the owner/manager and employees, the type of business and the current economic climate. The legislative framework will also have an important affect on industrial relations. This study addresses the lack of empirical research in industrial relations in the small business sector by examining the differences between small and large registered clubs in NSW. Registered clubs have an unusual ownership structure and unusual business goals. They are also unusual since they are non-profit organisations formed by groups of people who share a common interest and who have come together to pursue or promote that interest. Registered clubs are governed by a board of directors who are responsible for the formulation of policy and for ensuring that management carries out these policies. This study found that there were significant differences in regards to some aspects of employment relations. For example, small clubs were more likely to have lower rates of unionisation than large clubs. They were also likely to have lower levels of informal bargaining than large clubs. The methods of communication within the workplace were likely to be more informal in small clubs and they were less likely to have communications with a trade union. Despite this greater degree of informality in employment relations, small clubs were more likely to use award provisions to determine wages for their managers and employees. Interestingly, despite the lower level of unionisation and the greater use of awards by smaller clubs there were no significant differences between small and large club managers' perception of the impact of awards and trade unions on club flexibility. The findings from this study suggest the deregulation of the Australian industrial relations system may not have any significant benefits for small business.

Many recent studies have sought to monitor health characteristics of seagrasses, including changes in aerial extent, biomass and fish community structure. While these studies have provided important information on the ecology of seagrass communities on southeast Australia, little attempt has been made to subject these sampling procedures to rigorous experimental testing and review. This study employed commonly-used standard methods for sampling seagrass community characteristics in two sites in New South Wales. Where possible, sampling protocols were tested for accuracy and efficiency at a range of temporal and spatial scales. The ARCView Geographic Information System was used to construct vegetation polygons of seagrass distribution on the Tweed River, and in the Ukerebagh Channel annually over a 5-year period. For one year (2000), distributions from identical photographs were mapped twice to identify procedural errors. In general, errors relating to incorrect boundary identification were low compared to inter-annual variability. Inter-annual variability in seagrass beds was higher than for adjacent mangrove and saltmarsh. Estimates of biomass were derived from standard replicate 0.25m x 0.25m quadrats. The experiment contrasted two sites of similar geomorphic setting. Ukerebagh Channel on the Tweed River, and Woolooware Bay with Botany Bay are both shallow, sandy marine deltaic settings supporting stands of Zostera capricorni. Significant differences were found in the degree of replication required to identify significant changes in seagrass biomass at the two sites. Ukerebagh Channel supported relatively dense stands of Z. capricorni with low intra-site variability. Here 8 replicates were sufficient to detect 10 percent change. Towra Point presented a contrast, in which 15 replicates were required to detect a similar level of change. Woolooware Bay at Towra Point has suffered from increased sedimentation relating to alterations in current velocities at Towra Point, and the result highlights the greater degree of replication required to determine significance changes in disturbed systems. The fish populations in the seagrass at Towra Point were sampled using buoyant pop nets. Fish communities differed significantly from those sampled in adjacent mangrove and saltmarsh. Differences in fish assemblages between spring high tides, neap high tides and low tides are attributed to movements of fish between seagrass and adjacent mangrove and saltmarsh. This mosaic of habitats is utilized by a number of species over a tidal cycle, with seagrass providing an important low-tide refuge for many species utilizing mangrove and saltmarsh at high tide. Limitations in the efficiency of buoyant pop nets were exposed in a novel experiment which demonstrated differences in escape rates between species. Flat-tailed mullet (Liza argenta) are likely to be under-represented in experiments using this technique. Recommendations are made regarding optimal sampling protocols for monitoring seagrass in the region. All techniques tested are suitable, though some require modification. Some texts have under-estimated the degree of replication required to appropriately monitor changes in seagrass biomass in disturbed systems, where density is lower and intra-site variability higher. The buoyant pop-nets may require modification in open-water seagrass situations where escape by Liza argenta and Acanthopagrus australis were at unacceptable levels.