This thesis investigates the extent to which human rights law may be used to challenge the forced eviction of people who live in public space under public space laws. The specific case study is the operation of Darwin City Council By-law 103, which bans camping, or adults sleeping in a public place between sunset and sunrise. The by-law is used to criminalise or forcibly evict people who live in public space in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Darwin has the highest proportionate number of homeless people of any capital city in Australia. Indigenous people are significantly over-represented. The thesis charts recent legislative changes across Australia to demonstrate that public space laws, such as Darwin City Council By-law 103, continue to be popular public policy responses to law and order concerns. This legal regulation is being undertaken without ensuring compliance with international human rights standards. There has been a marked increase in Australia of the use of available domestic and international human rights tools to raise concerns about the enforcement of these laws against people living in public space. Through a review of secondary sources, the thesis establishes that some 15 human rights have been identified as potentially engaged by such enforcement but Australian jurisprudence has yet to emerge. The thesis selects the human right to privacy, family and home for detailed analysis. It interrogates available evidence from Darwin, international and comparative jurisprudence and secondary sources to determine whether the forced eviction of people living in public space under Darwin City Council By-law 103 may be found to violate the right to respect for privacy, family and home in a particular case. The study aims to make a specific contribution to growing endeavours to promote the human rights of people who are homeless, including people who live in public space. Its detailed analysis is designed to support a human rights litigation strategy at both domestic and international level, in order to challenge the extent to which people living in public space are subjected to criminalisation and forced eviction when they have nowhere else to live.

Doctor of Philosophy / Successful communication hinges on keeping track of who and what we are talking about. For this reason, person reference sits at the heart of the social sciences. Referring to persons is an interactional process where information is transferred from current speakers to the recipients of their talk. This dissertation concerns itself with the work that is achieved through this transfer of information. The interactional approach adopted is one that combines the “micro” of conversation analysis with the “macro” of genealogically grounded anthropological linguistics. Murriny Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan language spoken in the north of Australia, is a highly complex polysynthetic language with kinship categories that are grammaticalized as verbal inflections. For referring to persons, as well as names, nicknames, kinterms, minimal descriptions and free pronouns, Murriny Patha speakers make extensive use of pronominal reference markers embedded within polysynthetic verbs. Murriny Patha does not have a formal “mother-in-law” register. There are however numerous taboos on naming kin in avoidance relationships, and on naming and their namesakes. Similarly, there are also taboos on naming the deceased and on naming their namesakes. As a result, for every speaker there is a multitude of people whose names should be avoided. At any one time, speakers of the language have a range of referential options. Speakers’ decisions about which category of reference forms to choose (names, kinterms etc.) are governed by conversational preferences that shape “referential design”. Six preferences – a preference for associating the referent to the co-present conversationalists, a preference for avoiding personal names, a preference for using recognitionals, a preference for being succinct, and a pair of opposed preferences relating to referential specificity – guide speakers towards choosing a name on one occasion, a kinterm on the next occasion and verbal cross-reference on yet another occasion. Different classes of expressions better satisfy particular conversational preferences. There is a systematicity to the referential choices that speakers make. The interactional objectives of interlocutors are enacted through the regular placement of particular forms in particular sequential environments. These objectives are then revealed through the turn-by-turn unfolding of conversational interaction.

In this thesis, I describe the behavioural ecology of an Australian passerine, the Southern Emuwren Stipiturus malachurus (Maluridae). The southern emu-wren is threatened in several parts of its range, and yet information on the species’ breeding biology, habitat use and mating system is lacking. These data are fundamental to effective conservation management. My research investigated the breeding behaviour and habitat ecology of a population of southern emu-wrens in Portland, Victoria, Australia, over three breeding seasons (2000/01, 2001/02 and 2002/03). also collected data pertaining to habitat use from populations located in Anglesea and Lower Glenelg National Park (Victoria, Australia). Southern emu-wrens commonly formed socially monogamous pair bonds, although cooperative breeding was observed for the first time in this species, where male offspring within several families delayed breeding to help raise younger siblings. Successful nests produced 1.8 fledglings on average, however, a nest had only a 56% chance of success during incubation and nestling phases. Nest failure was mainly attributed to depredation and snakes were identified as major nest predators. The slow breeding rate of the southern emu-wren is typical of a small passerine in the Southern Hemisphere. Nevertheless, adult mortality was unusually high. In one breeding season the adult population was reduced by 50%. The population recovered when individuals dispersed from the adjacent coastal heathland to fill territory vacancies. This highlights the vulnerability of populations to local catastrophe, and potential extinction if spatial separation of populations exceeds the species’ dispersal capacity.

Doctor of Philosophy / Anindilyakwa is the language spoken by over 1,000 Warnindilyakwa Aborigines on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. In the Australian language families, it is placed in the Groote Eylandt Family (Oates 1970:15) or the Andilyaugwan Family (Wurm 1972:117). As Yallop (1982:40) reports, Anindilyakwa and Nunggubuyu "are similiar in grammar and possibly share the distinction of being the most gramatically complex Australian languages. They are diverse in basic vocabularly, however, and are therefore allocated to separate families".

Doctor of Philosophy / Successful communication hinges on keeping track of who and what we are talking about. For this reason, person reference sits at the heart of the social sciences. Referring to persons is an interactional process where information is transferred from current speakers to the recipients of their talk. This dissertation concerns itself with the work that is achieved through this transfer of information. The interactional approach adopted is one that combines the “micro” of conversation analysis with the “macro” of genealogically grounded anthropological linguistics. Murriny Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan language spoken in the north of Australia, is a highly complex polysynthetic language with kinship categories that are grammaticalized as verbal inflections. For referring to persons, as well as names, nicknames, kinterms, minimal descriptions and free pronouns, Murriny Patha speakers make extensive use of pronominal reference markers embedded within polysynthetic verbs. Murriny Patha does not have a formal “mother-in-law” register. There are however numerous taboos on naming kin in avoidance relationships, and on naming and their namesakes. Similarly, there are also taboos on naming the deceased and on naming their namesakes. As a result, for every speaker there is a multitude of people whose names should be avoided. At any one time, speakers of the language have a range of referential options. Speakers’ decisions about which category of reference forms to choose (names, kinterms etc.) are governed by conversational preferences that shape “referential design”. Six preferences – a preference for associating the referent to the co-present conversationalists, a preference for avoiding personal names, a preference for using recognitionals, a preference for being succinct, and a pair of opposed preferences relating to referential specificity – guide speakers towards choosing a name on one occasion, a kinterm on the next occasion and verbal cross-reference on yet another occasion. Different classes of expressions better satisfy particular conversational preferences. There is a systematicity to the referential choices that speakers make. The interactional objectives of interlocutors are enacted through the regular placement of particular forms in particular sequential environments. These objectives are then revealed through the turn-by-turn unfolding of conversational interaction.

Thesis (M.A. in Sociology)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-103). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 1931. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 235-242.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 1931. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 235-242.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.