The thesis contains two components, providing both a creative and critical exploration of the relationship between the subject and place. The creative work, Reaction Time explores how its characters seek particular settings that will affect their sense of place and belonging in certain ways. The critical essay, “Wide Open Roads: Landscape, Environment and Belonging in Twentieth Century Outback Narratives”, explores how the knowledge of the political and cultural conditions of place are produced as affecting the subject’s personal relationship to place in late twentieth century outback narratives. / The creative piece, Reaction Time, tells the story of Joel who is returning to Australia after the death of her mother. Joel and her sister have never been able to reconcile their fierce, academic mother of the past with the trivial, domestic self she became in the years after her sudden retirement to her rural Tasmanian home. Throughout the story Joel finds she is trying to realise the grief of losing of a mother she never completely understood, while also dealing with her feelings of alienation both in her mother’s home in Tasmania, and in Melbourne, where the spectre of old relationships she left behind long ago maintains her sense of unease in a place she once thought of as home. / The essay, Wide Open Roads analyses three novels published toward the end of the twentieth century to examine the way the characters’ relationships to place and landscape are constructed. It argues that the outback, couched in its newfound cultural role as an untouched, pristine pilgrimage point for spiritual journeys, has come to be considered a ‘sacred’ space for all Australians. Using ecocriticism and postcolonial theory as a theoretical framework, the essay discusses how, while late twentieth century outback narratives constructed characters whose desire to traverse the outback, or sense of attachment to it, was deep, the convergent social influences of environmentalism and Indigenous land rights and a growing postcolonial consciousness have propelled writers to depict more problematic and complex relationships with place than were evident in past outback narratives.

Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia / This thesis analyses the movement of the senses present in the social memory about the outbacks. In this way, there has been an interpretative effort that used as reference the undertow outbacks denomination present in the documents that mention the process of occupation and housing in Bahia country and that includes, generically, an area of geographic transition between the coast line and the Caatinga ( a tract of land covered with crooked trees and prickly plants),structured around the present Vitória da Conquista city. The argument that permeates this study is that memory and representations are intrinsically linked to the process of socio spatial production. In this sense, it has aimed to a theoretic approximation between the concepts of territory, place, memory and social representations, exercising an interdisciplinar dialog, that maintains, however, the peculiarity of a geographic sense. Concerning to the geographic concepts, the theoretical support adopted based itself mainly on Carlos (1996), Castro (1992, 1997), Claval (1999, 2001), Corrêa (1994, 1997), Cosgrove (1998, 1999), Haesbaert (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004), Massey (2000, 2008), Moraes (2005a, 2005b), among others. As regard to memory, the theoretical anchor was based specially on Halbwachs (1990), Pollak (1989, 1992) e Fentress e Wickham (1992). Em Chartier (1990), Bourdieu (2007) e Jodelet (1991), was found the theoretical reference to comprehend the function of the elements that pervade the social representations and the strategies of mobilization that materialize itselves in the socio spacial production. In the specific discussion about outbacks, fundamental subsidies were given by Amado (1995), Almeida (2003, 2008), Arruda (2000), Bolle (2004), Lima (1999), Rodrigues (2001),among others. Concerning to the methodological procedures, different sources were used: application of questionnaires, realization of interviews, documental research in newspaper and local blogs. Memory as much as representations organizes itself and manifests in a multiplicity of languages. So, relating to the methodological aspects, the Discourse Analysis pointed elements that provided a better understanding of the productions of sense inherent to several types of discourses that per passed the research focus. As an initial proposition, it believed that when the places develop, get out off the isolation and precariousness of circulation route and the means of communication, the approximation with the idea of outbacks get in distance. However, the empiric work has showed that, even in a separating movement, simultaneously, there is a movement of permanence. It has been verified that life around outbacks are marked by ambivalences and by a plurality of look that constitute themselves by inclusion and exclusion socio spatial, material and immaterial bases, permanence and ruptures, spatiality and temporality that make possible to apprehend the conception of a back wood territory/place in the memory and in the social representations. Such ambivalences attest multiple outbacks marked by wefts and interlacing,considering what has been lived, noticed and conceived. It was still realized that, in the confluence of several discourses, exist different spaces of stabilization that, many times, put themselves in conflict, producing clivagens (land layers), recovering and insertions. The conceptions of outbacks are, therefore, constantly making itself, so the space is. / Esta tese analisa o movimento dos sentidos presentes na memória social acerca da representação de sertão. Para tanto, partiu-se de um esforço interpretativo que utilizou como referência o Sertão da Ressaca, denominação presente nos documentos que abordam o processo de ocupação e povoamento do interior da Bahia e que compreende, genericamente, uma área de transição geográfica entre o litoral e a caatinga, estruturada em torno do atual município de Vitória de Conquista. A argumentação que permeia este estudo é a de que memória e representações estão intrinsecamente associadas ao processo de produção socioespacial. Com tal entendimento, buscou-se uma aproximação teórica entre os conceitos de território, lugar, memória e representações sociais, exercitando um diálogo interdisciplinar, que mantém, todavia, a peculiaridade do viés geográfico. No que diz respeito aos conceitos geográficos, o suporte teórico adotado pautou-se principalmente em Carlos (1996), Castro (1992, 1997), Claval (1999, 2001), Corrêa (1994, 1997), Cosgrove (1998, 1999), Haesbaert (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004), Massey (2000, 2008), Moraes (2005a, 2005b). No que concerne a memória, a ancoragem teórica foi fundamentada, especialmente, em Halbwachs (1990), Pollak (1989, 1992) e Fentress e Wickham (1992). Em Chartier (1990), Bourdieu (2007) e Jodelet (1991), encontrou-se o referencial teórico norteador para compreensão do papel dos elementos que engendram representações sociais e das estratégias de mobilização simbólica que se materializam no processo de produção socioespacial. Na discussão específica sobre sertão, subsídios fundamentais foram dados por Amado (1995), Almeida (2003, 2008), Arruda (2000), Bolle (2004), Lima (1999), Rodrigues (2001), entre outros. No que concerne aos procedimentos metodológicos, contou-se com diferentes fontes que resultaram da aplicação de questionários, realização de entrevistas, pesquisa documental em jornais e blogs locais. Tanto memória quanto representações se organizam e se manifestam numa multiplicidade de linguagens. Assim, no que tange aos aspectos metodológicos, a análise de discurso forneceu elementos que possibilitaram uma melhor compreensão das produções de sentido inerentes aos diversos tipos de discursos que perpassaram o foco da pesquisa. Como proposição inicial, tinha-se que, à medida que os lugares se desenvolvem , que saem do isolamento e da precariedade das vias de circulação e dos meios de comunicação, a aproximação com a ideia de sertão vai se distanciando. Entretanto, a pesquisa demonstrou que, no mesmo movimento de afastamento, simultaneamente, há um movimento de permanência. Verificou-se que as vivências e experiências acerca do sertão são marcadas por ambivalências e por uma pluralidade de olhares que se constituem por inclusão e exclusão socioespacial, bases materiais e imateriais, permanências e rupturas, espacialidades e temporalidades, que permitiram a apreensão da concepção de território/lugar sertão na memória e nas representações sociais. Tais ambivalências evidenciam múltiplos sertões, marcados por tramas e entrelaçamentos, considerando o vivido, o percebido e o concebido. Constatou-se ainda que, na confluência de discursos diversos, existem diferentes espaços de estabilização que, muitas vezes, se colocam em conflito, produzindo clivagens, recobrimentos e entremeios. As concepções de sertão estão, portanto, em constante fazer-se, tal como o espaço.

This thesis deal with extended EV-55 version concept according to CS/FAR- 23 Commuter category specifications. Thesis objectives are design weights determination, mass analysis, calculation of aeroplane performances and comparison of aeroplane performances with current aeroplane.

Diplomová práce se zabývá modifikací stávající pozemní verze letounu EV-55 pro možnost přistání na vodní hladině. Snahou je najít takovou variantu, která nepovede k výrazným konstrukčním zásahům do draku letounu a bude vyhovovat stavebnímu předpisu CS 23, zejména požadavkům týkající se plovatelnosti a stability na vodě. Je proveden hmotový rozbor modifikované verze a s tím související omezení hmotové obálky a rozsahu centráží. Zatížení od vody je spočítáno v souladu s CS 23. Pro toto zatížení je následně navrhnuto konstrukční řešení uchycení plováků k trupu a provedena pevnostní kontrola jednotlivých prvků a spojovacích uzlů. Tyto hodnoty jsou dále porovnány s pozemními případy zatížení a stanoveny součinitele rezerv. V závěru jsou spočítány letové výkony: maximální horizontální rychlost, stoupavost, dolet a vytrvalost.

This thesis deal with extended EV-55 version concept according to CS/FAR- 23 Commuter category specifications. Thesis objectives are design weights determination, mass analysis, calculation of aeroplane performances and comparison of aeroplane performances with current aeroplane.

This thesis examines the responses of non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australian rangelands to two social movements that profoundly challenge their occupancy, use and management of land. Contemporary environmentalism and Aboriginal land rights have both challenged the status of pastoralists as valued primary producers and bearers of a worthy pioneer heritage. Instead, pastoralists have become associated with land degradation, biodiversity loss, and Aboriginal dispossession. Such pressure has intensified in the 1990s in the wake of the native Title debate, and various conservation campaigns in the arid and semi-arid rangelands. The pressure on pastoralists occur in the context of wider reassessment of the social and economic values or rangelands in which pastoralism is seen as having declined in value compared to ???post-production??? land uses. Reassessments of rangelands in turn are part of the global changes in the status of rural areas, and of the growing flexibility in the very meaning of ???rural???. Through ethnographic fieldwork among largely non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australia, this thesis investigates the nature and foundations of pastoralists??? responses to these changes and critiques. Through memory, history, labour and experience of land, non-indigenous pastoralists construct a narrative of land, themselves and others in which the presence of pastoralism in Central Australia is naturalised, and Central Australia is narrated as an inherently pastoral landscape. Particular types of environmental knowledge and experience, based in actual environmental events and processes form the foundation for a discourse of pastoral property rights. Pastoralists accommodate environmental concerns, through advocating environmental stewardship. They do this in such a way that Central Australia is maintained as a singularly pastoral landscape, and one in which a European, or ???white???, frame of reference continues to dominate. In this way the domesticated pastoral landscapes of colonialism and nationalism are reproduced. The thesis also examines Aboriginal pastoralism as a distinctive form of pastoralism, which fulfils distinctly Aboriginal land use and cultural aspirations, and undermines the conventional meaning of ???pastoralism??? itself. The thesis ends by suggesting that improved dialogue over rangelands futures depends on greater understanding of the details and complexities of local relationships between groups of people, and between people and land.

I first became enamoured with vampire Gothic after reading Bram Stoker's Dracula in high school, but gradually became dissatisfied with the Australian adaptations of the sub-genre. In looking for examples of Australian vampire Gothic, a survey of more than 50 short stories, 23 novels and five movies made by Australians reveals fewer than half were set in an identifiably Australian setting. Even fewer make use of three key, landscape-related tropes of vampire Gothic - darkness, earth and ruins. Why are so few Australian vampire stories set in Australia? In what ways can the metaphorical elements of vampire Gothic be applied to the Sunburnt Country? This paper seeks to answer these questions by examining examples of Australian vampire narratives, including film. Particular attention is given to Mudrooroo's Master of the Ghost Dreaming series which, more than any other Australian novel, succeeds in manipulating and subverting the tropes of vampire Gothic. The process of adaptation of vampire Gothic to the Australian environment, both natural and man-made, is also a core concern of my own novel, Vampires' Bane, which uses earth, darkness and a modern permutation of ruins to explore its metaphorical intentions. Through examining previous works and through my own creative process, Vampires' Bane, I argue that Australia's growing urbanisation can be juxtaposed against the vampire-hostile natural environment to enhance the tropes of vampire Gothic, and make Australia a suitable home for narratives that explore the ongoing evolution of Count Dracula and his many-faceted descendants.

This thesis examines the responses of non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australian rangelands to two social movements that profoundly challenge their occupancy, use and management of land. Contemporary environmentalism and Aboriginal land rights have both challenged the status of pastoralists as valued primary producers and bearers of a worthy pioneer heritage. Instead, pastoralists have become associated with land degradation, biodiversity loss, and Aboriginal dispossession. Such pressure has intensified in the 1990s in the wake of the native Title debate, and various conservation campaigns in the arid and semi-arid rangelands. The pressure on pastoralists occur in the context of wider reassessment of the social and economic values or rangelands in which pastoralism is seen as having declined in value compared to ???post-production??? land uses. Reassessments of rangelands in turn are part of the global changes in the status of rural areas, and of the growing flexibility in the very meaning of ???rural???. Through ethnographic fieldwork among largely non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australia, this thesis investigates the nature and foundations of pastoralists??? responses to these changes and critiques. Through memory, history, labour and experience of land, non-indigenous pastoralists construct a narrative of land, themselves and others in which the presence of pastoralism in Central Australia is naturalised, and Central Australia is narrated as an inherently pastoral landscape. Particular types of environmental knowledge and experience, based in actual environmental events and processes form the foundation for a discourse of pastoral property rights. Pastoralists accommodate environmental concerns, through advocating environmental stewardship. They do this in such a way that Central Australia is maintained as a singularly pastoral landscape, and one in which a European, or ???white???, frame of reference continues to dominate. In this way the domesticated pastoral landscapes of colonialism and nationalism are reproduced. The thesis also examines Aboriginal pastoralism as a distinctive form of pastoralism, which fulfils distinctly Aboriginal land use and cultural aspirations, and undermines the conventional meaning of ???pastoralism??? itself. The thesis ends by suggesting that improved dialogue over rangelands futures depends on greater understanding of the details and complexities of local relationships between groups of people, and between people and land.