The present thesis examines the themes of ‘shared history,' ‘place-making,' and ‘reconciliation' to assess how these come together in the establishment of an Aboriginal identity in Perth, Western Australia. Focusing on individuals who do not represent the common stereotypes associated with Aboriginal Australians, it will be demonstrated that these individuals are forced into an in-between place where they have to continually negotiate what Aboriginality means in the twenty-first century. Taking on this responsibility they become mediators, stressing a ‘shared history' in order to create a place for themselves in the non-Aboriginal landscape and to advance reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia by fighting the dominant discourse from within. Beginning with the State and Government's Native Title appeal premiss that Nyungar never existed, this thesis will examine this claim by first presenting an account of the history of southwest Western Australia to establish the place Aboriginal people have been forced into by the colonists during early settlement, and the processes of which extend into the present day. From there on in the focus will be on individual Aboriginal people and their careers and businesses, examining how they attempt to redefine what is perceived and accepted as Aboriginality through different interaction and mediation ‘tactics' with non-Aboriginal Australians. Finally, this thesis will take a closer look at the reconciliation movement in Australia and the people involved in it. It will determine different approaches to reconciliation and assess their possibility and meaning for the construction of a twenty-first century Aboriginal identity. The thesis will conclude that although Nyungar are forced into the dominant discourse, their resistance from within credits a new kind of Aboriginality that is just as valid as the ‘traditional' and ‘authentic' Aboriginality imagined by non-Aboriginal Australia.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), comprising deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a common and preventable cause of morbidity among individuals and hospital in-patient mortality. Further, it imposes a substantial burden upon the community and its health care system and economy. Studies performed in Western societies suggest that the annual incidence of DVT is about 0.8 to 1.2 per 1,000, PE about 0.3 to 0.6 per 1,000, and VTE about 1.0 to 1.8 per 1,000. However, it is not known if these estimates can be generalised to the Australian population because of differences in ethnic composition and other risk factors for VTE among the different populations. In this thesis, I undertook a prospective, community-based cohort study over a 13-month period in 2003 – 2004 to determine the incidence and crude event rate of symptomatic, objectively verified VTE in north-east metropolitan Perth. The study population was broadly representative of the national Australian population in terms of age, sex and ethnic distribution. Cases were identified through multiple overlapping sources. The incidence of DVT, PE and VTE in the community were 0.52 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.41 – 0.63), 0.31 (95% CI: 0.22 – 0.40) and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.69 – 0.97) per 1000 per year, respectively. The annual incidence of DVT, adjusted to the World Standard population, was 0.35 (95% CI: 0.26 – 0.44) per 1000, PE 0.21 (95% CI: 0.14 – 0.28) per 1000 and VTE 0.57 (95% CI: 0.47 – 0.67) per 1000. The crude event rate for VTE was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.71 – 0.99) per 1000 per year. These findings suggest that the incidence of DVT, PE and VTE are lower than in other Western societies studied. Possible reasons include a lower prevalence of exposure to causal risk factors (genetic and environmental) and incomplete case ascertainment. Knowledge of the local incidence and event rate allows health planners to allocate appropriate resources and evaluate cost-effective preventive measures.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2005.

[Truncated abstract] Perth is the capital city of Western Australia (WA) and the home of more than three quarters of the population in the state. It is located in the southwest WA (SWWA), a low to moderate seismic region but the seismically most active region in Australia. The 1968 ML6.9 Meckering earthquake, which was about 130 km from the Perth Metropolitan Area (PMA), caused only minor to moderate damage in PMA. With the rapid increase in population in PMA, compared to 1968, many new structures including some high-rise buildings have been constructed in PMA. Moreover, increased seismic activities and a few strong ground motions have been recorded in the SWWA. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate the seismic risk of PMA under the current conditions. This thesis presents results from a comprehensive study of seismic risk of PMA. This includes development of ground motion attenuation relations, ground motion time history simulation, site characterization and response analysis, and structural response analysis. As only a very limited number of earthquake strong ground motion records are available in SWWA, it is difficult to derive a reliable and unbiased strong ground motion attenuation model based on these data. To overcome this, in this study a combined approach is used to simulate ground motions. First, the stochastic approach is used to simulate ground motion time histories at various epicentral distances from small earthquake events. Then, the Green's function method, with the stochastically simulated time histories as input, is used to generate large event ground motion time histories. Comparing the Fourier spectra of the simulated motions with the recorded motions of a ML6.2 event in Cadoux in June 1979 and a ML5.5 event in Meckering in January 1990, provides good evidence in support of this method. This approach is then used to simulate a series of ground motion time histories from earthquakes of varying magnitudes and distances. ... The responses of three typical Perth structures, namely a masonry house, a middle-rise reinforced concrete frame structure, and a high-rise building of reinforced concrete frame with core wall on various soil sites subjected to the predicted earthquake ground motions of different return periods are calculated. Numerical results indicate that the one-storey unreinforced masonry wall (UMW) building is unlikely to be damaged when subjected to the 475-year return period earthquake ground motion. However, it will suffer slight damage during the 2475-return period earthquake ground motion at some sites. The six-storey RC frame with masonry infill wall is also safe under the 475-year return period ground motion. However, the infill masonry wall will suffer severe damage under the 2475-year return period earthquake ground motion at some sites. The 34-storey RC frame with core wall will not experience any damage to the 475-year return period ground motion. The building will, however, suffer light to moderate damage during the 2475-year return period ground motion, but it might not be life threatening.

[Truncated abstract] Background: A review of the literature indicated there was a need for more long-term randomised controlled studies on the effects of BRCA counselling/testing on high risk women, including improved strategies for risk communication. Reviews have also shown women are confused about the significance of inconclusive or non informative results with a need for more research in this area. Aims: The general aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of breast cancer genetic counselling on psychological distress levels, perception of risk, genetic knowledge and understanding of BRCA testing/test results in a cohort of 207 women from high risk breast cancer families who were referred for genetic counselling in Perth during the period 1997 to 2001. Short- and long-term impact of BRCA genetic counselling/testing was determined in women with and without cancer in a randomised controlled trial as part of which women were randomised to either receive immediate versus delayed genetic counselling. This included family communication patterns before BRCA testing, anticipated outcomes of testing on oneself and family including intentions for result disclosure. Comprehension of index and predictive BRCA testing with possible results was assessed both in the short- and the long-term and understanding of individual or family BRCA test results was evaluated at long-term. The effect of genetic counselling on breast cancer risk perception in unaffected women was evaluated. This study considered a theoretical framework of educational learning theories to provide a basis for risk communication with possible relevance for future research. ... Only 25% of the original study population (52/207) reported BRCA results and women's understanding of results is concerning. Key findings were: 1. The majority of affected women received an inconclusive result. 2. Out of twelve unaffected women who reported results, seven were inconclusive which are not congruent with predictive testing. This implies that these women did not understand their test result. 3. A minority of untested relatives did not know whether a family mutation had or had not been found in their tested family member or what their actual test result was. This implies either a lack of disclosure or that woman did not understand the rationale for and significance of testing for a family mutation. 4. Three relatives did not understand a positive result was a mutation. Conclusion: The implication of this research for breast cancer counselling and testing services is that women who wait for counselling are no worse off in terms of short- or long-term general psychological distress than women who receive the intervention early. There is a suggestion that unaffected women without the disease found counselling more advantageous than affected women. The meaning of BRCA results as reported by women is concerning particularly women's understanding of negative and inconclusive results and further research is needed in this area. Too much information presented at counselling may affect women's comprehension of risk, BRCA testing and future test results and further research is required to evaluate the effects of information overload.

This thesis establishes the concept of affective form as a means of examining urban design – being the intersection of architecture, planning and landscape – in relation to techniques of governance. Affective form broadly describes a built environment where people are encouraged to amend, or govern, their actions according to particular socio–political ideas. Exploration of the concept’s application as a theoretical tool is undertaken here in order to generate a means of discussing the ethical function of urban design. The emergence of notions of affective form will be located in the eighteenth century, alongside the growing confidence in the ability for humankind to effect social and cultural progress. In a series of examples, stretching throughout the twentieth century, the implicit relation of planning, architectural and landscape form to social effect is discussed. The language, and design models, used to delineate affective form are described, alongside discussion of the level of intentionality apparent in the conceptions of urban form’s social effect. Critique through affective form allows an analysis that brings together the underlying utopian elements of projects – the traces of ideology and sociological theories – with an evaluation of the formal concepts projected. As the second area of investigation, the city of Perth in Western Australia provides a contextual focus for the examination of concepts of affective form. Through a series of appropriations of urban design models a suburban archetype emerged in Perth of a planned, homogenous field of low–rise, single–family, detached dwellings within a gardenesque landscape. The process of appropriation is described as a continuing negotiation between local expectations and the implicit conceptions of affective form within the imported models. Connecting the two primary concerns of the thesis, the ability of form to influence social change and the evolution of Perth’s garden suburb ideal, is the association of that developing garden suburb model with notions of affective form. The associations are outlined through three case studies. The first is an account of the planning of the City of Perth Endowment Lands Project during the 1920s. The second describes the planning and architecture of the athlete’s village built for the VIIIth British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Perth in 1962. The third study details the development in the 1990s of Joondalup, a satellite city in the Perth metropolitan region. The account of Perth’s garden suburb ideal is intertwined with the consideration of the varying ways in which the conceptualization of affective form has been expressed. Each case study is contextualized by a preceding chapter that discusses the particular conceptions of affective form used in its examination. Thus the main body of the thesis comprises three parts – each associated with a case study, each containing two linked chapters

Australia is a suburban nation. Today, with increasing concern regarding the sustainability of cities, an appreciation of the complexities of Australian suburbia is critical to the debate about urban futures. As a built environment and a cultural phenomenon, the Australian suburbs have inspired considerable scholarly literature. Yet to date, such scholarly work has largely overlooked the changing environmental values and visions of those shaping and residing within suburban landscapes, and the practices through which such values and visions are materialised in the processes of suburban development. Focusing on the post-war suburban landscapes of Canberra and Perth, this thesis centralises the environmental, political and economic forces that have shaped human action to construct suburban spaces, paying particular attention to the extent to which individual understandings and visions of 'environment' have determined the shape and nature of suburban development. Specifically, it examines how those operating within Australia’s suburbs, including planners, developers, builders, landscape designers and residents have imagined the 'environment', and how such imaginaries have shifted in response to varying spatial, temporal and ideological contexts. Tracing the shifting nature of environmental concern throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, it argues that despite the somewhat unsustainable nature of Australia's suburban landscapes, the planning and development of such landscapes has long been influenced by and has responded to differing understandings of 'environment', which themselves are the product of changing social, political and economic concerns. In doing so, this thesis challenges a number of perceptions concerning Australian suburbs, environmental awareness and sustainability. In particular, it contests the assumption that environmental concern for Australia's suburban development emerged with the urban consolidation debates of the 1980s and 1990s, and analyses a range of environmental sensibilities not often acknowledged in current histories of Australian environmentalism. By examining, for example, how the deterministic and economic concerns of differing planning bodies, along with the aesthetic and ecological concerns of various planners, are intertwined with the housing and domestic lifestyle preferences of suburban homeowners, this history brings to the fore the often conflicting environmental ideas and practices that arise in the course of suburban development, and provides a more nuanced history of the diversity of environmental sensibilities. In sum, this thesis enhances our understandings of the changing nature of environmental concern and illuminates the complex, still largely misunderstood, environmental ideas and practices that arise in the processes of suburban development.