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The goal of this thesis is to examine the editorial position of the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's oldest continually produced newspaper, as a way of examining the character of colonial liberalism. Analysis will proceed by way of close scrutiny of key issues dealt with by the Sydney Morning Herald, including: state-aid to churches; education policy; free trade; land reform; the antitransportation movement; issues surrounding political representation; and the treatment of Chinese workers. Such analysis includes an appraisal of the views of John Fairfax, proprietor from 1841 to his death in 1877, and the influences, particularly religious nonconformity, which shaped his early journalism in Britain. Another key figure in the thesis is John West, editor 1854-1873, and again his editorial stance will be related to the major political and religious movements in Britain and Australia. Part of this re-evaluation of the character of colonial liberalism in the thesis provides a critical study of the existing historiography and calls into question the widely held view that the Sydney Morning Herald was a force for conservatism. In doing so, the thesis questions some of the major assumptions of the existing historiography and, while doing justice to colonial context, attempts to contextualise colonial politics with the broader framework of mid nineteenth-century Western political thought.

This thesis describes an inquiry taken into the nature and genesis of landscapes experienced imaginally. The inquiry proceeds by introspection, by art making, and by exploring related writings. The terms pre-conceptual and pre-imaginal are used to refer to an unknowable dimension from which the conceptual and the imaginal rise, and attempts are made to confirm the conceptual and the imaginal as expressions and effects of this dimension. The possibilities of a continual interplay between the imaginal and the pre-imaginal in the inner life of writers and artists are explored. / Master of Arts (Hons)

The focus of this study is the formation of 'community' in contemporary greenfield master planned estates.The project is cast against the historical backdrop of modern utopian place-making, and the idea that a particular permutation of urban design, infrastructure and social programs can produce an ideal of community: of connectivity, social support and social identity. A further ambition of contemporay urban design is the marketable idea of securing a physical and social space. The thesis comprises four parts. Part I presents the theoretical framework of the thesis, a task which incorporates a review of theoretical concepts and of the relevant literature. Part II discusses methodological issues, the research design and research process, before providing background information needed to support the following empirical chapters. Part III comprises these empirical chapters and sets about detailing and analysing data captured through the comparative case study of Harrington Park and Garden Gates. The final section of the thesis provides an interpretation of the empirical and research data. It draws conclusions as to the character of the Master Planned Community (MPC)and the dynamics which contribute to its contemporary character. It concludes by attempting a tentative theory of the MPC. / 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)

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)

Agricultural shows are community-based festivals that represent a majority of festivals staged in rural destinations within Australia. Recent anecdotal evidence indicates their survival is being threatened. Declines in the overall number of shows and visitor attendance have been widely reported, yet an analysis of the reason for these declines has not been investigated. Agricultural shows are managed by volunteers within not-for-profit show societies who are finding it difficult to survive in an increasingly competitive and challenging external environment. Little is understood about these show societies, their volunteer managers and the management effectiveness. This study has addressed these gaps by investigating show society management effectiveness by means of a marketing concept paradigm. A case study method employing qualitative in-depth interviews with key show society members and other stakeholders was conducted on one agricultural show. Findings reveal that this show society is managed by volunteers whose primary involvement motivation is based upon self-interest in one or more components of the show. The majority of these individuals do not have management skills and expertise required to manage a festival and whilst it is important to note their volunteering contribution, it is this lack of skills and knowledge that has prevented a systematic approach to management. There is no attempt at consumer research, strategic planning, organisational planning or volunteer recruitment. The show programs do not change to reflect the current needs of the community, rather what is affordable, who can organise it and what has always been done. As a result, the case study show society is not employing a marketing concept orientation but a product concept orientation. This study concludes that without this focus, the show society will be ill equipped to meet changing customer demands and stay abreast of competitors. To assist agricultural shows to manage future challenges and adopt a marketing concept, a theoretical model has been proposed that incorporates existing frameworks and this study’s findings. / M. Commerce (Hons.)

The aim of this research is to understand the socio-economic development of a metropolitan region in Sydney through an analysis of regional innovative activity. South West Sydney, a major growth region within Sydney, includes the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden and Wollondilly. This region has absorbed 25% of Sydney’s population growth in the period from 1991-2001. Although South West Sydney has experienced rapid population growth, this has not been matched by associated employment growth. In some sectors such as business services employment growth has been minimal in the previous decade, this is particularly the case in Liverpool, the regional centre of South West Sydney. Population growth is estimated to continue at the current rate (in excess of 5% per annum) for at least the next fifteen years. In this environment, local government authorities in the region are seeking ways in which to develop the regional economy of South West Sydney and increase the amount of sustainable employment commensurably with current population and labour force increases. The role of innovative activity has a central place in economic development. This thesis uses a ‘systems of innovation’ (SI) approach to examine innovative activity in the South West Sydney region. SI understands innovation as a socially embedded process of transforming ideas and knowledge into novel products, processes and services through the processes of learning and searching. The approach recognises that innovative activity is determined by various actors (firms and institutions) and the interactivity between these actors and the cumulative base of knowledge in which they operate. The Regional Innovations Systems (RIS) framework develops from an acknowledgement that innovation is primarily a geographically bounded phenomenon. The RIS approach sees that specific local resources are important in determining and encouraging the innovative activities carried out by local firms and hence, the competitiveness of these areas. The RIS literature provides two fields of understanding of what constitutes a regional innovation system. The first takes the global examples of highly innovative regions such as Silicon Valley and Route 128 in the United States of America (Saxenian 1994), South West England (Cooke and Morgan 1998), Baden Wurttemberg in Germany (Cooke 2001; Braczyk, Cooke et al. 2004), Northern Italy (Piore and Sabel 1984) and in Australia, the North Ryde corridor (Searle and Pritchard 2005). These regions represent ‘ideal’ or ‘star’ RIS, with highly specialised and networked clusters of firms, many forms of supporting regional infrastructure, and high levels of interactivity. The second and emerging field understands RIS to be in existence in all regions and individual RIS are identified on a scale from weak to strong (Wiig and Wood 1995; Cooke and Morgan 1998; Cooke 2001). This second stream includes the analysis of regions seeking to encourage innovative activity by using the RIS approach to examine their local resources and connectedness. It seeks to determine how not only local resources but also their connectedness could be enhanced to increase firm competitiveness. The innovation systems represented in the ����ideal���� regions are largely a world away from what is available and what is necessary in the encouragement of RIS in most other regions. However, the conceptual framework for examining and interpreting RIS is derived from the analysis of these ‘ideal’ regions. This framework does not provide for measurement and effective interpretation of a range of activities that may be present in less exceptional regions. This research contributes to this endeavour by providing a method that allows for interpretation of a wider range of innovation activities through the analysis of knowledge intensive services activities (KISA). The focus on knowledge gathering, particularly through the KISA analysis, provides an examination of the relationship between innovation, learning and knowledge, much more so than more traditional measures of innovative activity e.g. patents and research and development (RandD) expenditure. KISA analysis is an emerging field of innovation research. KISA are closely linked to firm innovative activity (OECD 2006) and through an analysis of regional KISA usage, an understanding of innovation and knowledge activities within the region can be constructed. This analysis applies equally across various regions and provides an opportunity to guide regional economic development policy intervention at the local government level in South West Sydney. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In New South Wales education, music is a mandated primary school subject incorporated in the key learning area of Creative Arts. In secondary education, music is typically a mandatory Stage 4 subject and an elective subject choice in Stages 5 and 6. School music syllabuses include singing as a performance experience. The methodology and appropriateness of teaching children and adolescents to sing are issues expressed in the literature. Research and scientific based understanding of the voice clearly indicate that care should be taken when teaching singing to developing voices. These reasons, together with the presumption that all students will sing at some stage during their schooling, invoke the primary research questions of “who teaches school singing?”, “what types of school singing are taught?”, “how is school singing taught?” and “why is school singing taught?”. Through an investigation and analysis of teacher perspectives, this study addresses these questions in relation to teaching singing in Sydney government schools. The research is comprised of two parts. Part 1 was a broad-based questionnaire approach that generated qualitative and quantitative data. By encompassing primary and secondary classroom and/or choir teachers (127 respondents), school singing within a continuum of learning was investigated. Part 2 extended the format and focus of Part 1 by undertaking qualitative in-depth interviews of teachers (10 participants) sampled to investigate a range of key issues and school singing cultures. The study found that school singing at primary level was predominantly taught by generalist classroom teachers. A range of primary specialist teachers - dedicated music and/or choir specialist teachers, designated music and/or singing specialist teachers and dedicated performing arts specialist teachers – was identified as also teaching school singing activities. Secondary classroom music teachers were those found to teach, either solely or in conjunction with singing tutors, secondary school singing. The study determined that school singing was an activity occurring in conjunction with music syllabuses (syllabus singing), in relation to other syllabuses (co-syllabus singing) and irrespective of syllabus connections (non-syllabus singing). In addition, ancillary syllabus singing linked singing activities occurring outside the music classroom to syllabus singing within the music classroom. Co-syllabus singing was identified as being either thematic (illustrating a topic area) or supplementary (reinforcing learning in a non-musical area). In addition to defining the types of school singing in relation to both primary and secondary syllabuses, there was evidence of a dichotomy in school singing between teaching singing (formal singing) and the teaching of, or inclusion of, singing activities (informal singing). Determining whether students were taught a song or taught how to sing (it) in Sydney government schools, formed one of the major areas of impetus and focus for the study. After identifying 19 components present in respondent data at elemental or proficient levels, comparison and inclusion rates of teaching components were used to determine five levels of respondent teaching approaches - sing-along, song, song dominant, functional and developmental. Descriptive statistics and univariate statistical analysis of components revealed that component inclusion increased as the level of teaching approach increased. Independent-sample t-tests showed that there were significant differences between approaches to teaching school singing and the types of teachers who teach school singing (for example between specialist/non-specialist teachers). Contributory factors of school singing were identified as support for school singing, objectives of school singing, aptitude for school singing and constraints that restricted school singing. The types of school singing found their origins in the purposes of the singing activities. In some cases, the school culture also determined the types and purposes of school singing. Where school singing was established within the school culture, singing activities were reported as being well supported and the school culture was such that it encouraged or even enabled singing activities to occur. Conclusions drawn from the research findings have implications for the pre-service and in-service training of teachers, for those responsible for school singing activities and for those writing curriculum, curriculum related documents and teaching resources. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy