Bibliography: p. 283-313. Two systems of dryland cropping, one conventional and one conservation, were studied on the same farm over a period of 10 and 14 years respectively. The conventional cropping system was based on cultivated fallow which served to manage and conserve water, nitrified organic matter and controlled weeds. Stubble was burnt prior to cultivation for the fallow phase, with pasture and cropping phases rotated. The conservation farming system was based on the absence of soil tillage, stubble retention, rotation of a variety of crops and chemical control of weeds. Water conservation was achieved through increased infiltration by improved soil structure, avoidance of compaction, reduced water runoff and reduced evaporation by stubble retention. Overall, the conventional farming system was proven to be unsustainable. The conservation system was sustainable in terms of productivity, profitability and effect on the environmental resources of soil and water. The growing of sorghum as a summer grass in the Wimmera was also found to be an opportunity for improving productivity, profitability and sustainability by controlling winter weeds.

This study investigates the sedimenology and geochemistry of Permian glacial sediments cropping out in the Bacchus Marsh and Derrinal areas in central Victoria and in the subsurface beneath the Cainozoic Murray Basin in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Facies analysis of the Bacchus Marsh Formation, based on a critical review of literature on glacial sedimentary processes and environments, identifies the following major facies groups: 1. Subglacial tillites deposited beneath wet-based ice. Some of these tillites exhibit structures indicative of a number of subglacial processes such as frictional lodgement of large clasts, subglacial bed deformation, subglacial meltwater flow and subglacial size sorting of clasts. Other subglacial tillites are essentially structureless. 2. Bedded diamictites to sandstones deposited predominantly by ice-rafting of debris into standing water. 3. Fluvial outwash sandstone and conglomorate facies that are finer-grained than typical proglacial outwash facies. 4. Deltas and subaqueous outwash fans vary from sandy sediments deposited by proglacial and subglacial streams to coarse, poorly sorted complexes deposited as debris aprons close to the ice front. Abundant underflow deposits suggest that less than normal marine salinities prevailed in these water bodies, even if they were arms of the sea. 5. Supraglacial tillites consisting of sandy diamictites to pebble conglomerates.

The Gippsland Basin of southeastern Australia is the most energy-rich basin of Australia producing petroleum, gas and brown coal. Three-quarters of the Basin lies offshore and the rest onshore. The basin was initiated as a rift valley, caused by the separation of the Australian continent from the Antarctic followed by a number of tectonic events throughout the basin history. Early Cretaceous sedimentary rocks form the basement, which is in turn covered with Late Cretaceous to Recent sediment of sand, clay, limestone, and brown coal seams. The total thickness of the in-filling sediments offshore attains up to 6000 m, but onshore is up to 1200 m. There are three main acquifer systems, the Hydrostratigraphic Units 2, 4, and 7, all of which are confined. The two lower aquifer systems, Units 4 and 7, contain high temperature groundwater. It is generally agreed that the hydrocarbons offshore have been derived from terrestrial matters including brown coal and ligneous clay offshore. In the present study, the author has developed a case that hydrocarbons offshore being derived not only from the offshore source but also from onshore brown coals and coaly matter and in this hydrocarbon forming processes, groundwater has played a significant role. The Central Deep, in particular, provides favourable conditions for hydrocarbon maturation. Throughout the basin history, the Central Deep has experienced the oil window temperatures. In supporting this hypothesis, geochemical studies on groundwater, brown coal, and hydrocarbons as well as hydrodynamics are presented.

In Australia, high local densities of macropodid marsupials in state parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries are threatening biodiversity and pose a considerable management challenge. The high public profile of these species places socio-political constraints on the management options available. The use of fertility control techniques appears to offer an alternative. However, before a contraceptive system can be developed a detailed knowledge of the reproductive processes for that species must be generated. In this thesis, sexual maturity, seasonal reproduction, aspects of the endocrinology of reproduction and fertility control were investigated in the eastern grey kangaroo. In Victoria the eastern grey kangaroo is capable of breeding at all times of the year, although breeding is more synchronous than in northern populations, with 41% of the females breeding between December and January. In Victorian populations the onset of sexual maturity is delayed in both sexes, with females reaching maturity at 22 ± 1.2months and some males not reaching sexual maturity by 32 months of age. Male kangaroos showed seasonal changes that closely tracked the reproductive activity of the female kangaroos. Plasma testosterone concentrations were significantly elevated during the peak breeding period compared to all other times of the year. Both prostate and testis weights were low during winter when the reproductive activity of the females is low, although the difference was not significant.

The books from which Victorian children learned to read last century held a variety of implicit social and moral values. To many children in isolated, pioneering districts of Victoria, the secular Reader was the principal source of information and ideas. The more advanced of the Irish and British Readers contained a huge variety of factual knowledge in combination with extracts from the best of English literature. Although these imported Readers underwent exclusions, adaptations and revisions, the content remained essentially foreign to colonial Australia, with a pervading moral stance originating in the high-minded intellectual and cultural traditions of Europe. Throughout the nineteenth century, there was undue emphasis on the mechanical aspects of grammar in the elementary school curriculum. In the minds of Victorian educators, the study of grammar was firmly linked with the cultivation of high ideals and an intellectual understanding of life. In reality, the grammar books were sensible and straightforward, but badly used by the poorly-educated teachers. The popularity and cheapness of the Irish and British grammar books prevented the adoption of a number of locally-produced texts. This thesis examines the changing content and use of school books during three distinct periods: the Irish monopoly, 1848-1877, the British phase, 1877-1896 and a National phase, 1896-1948. During the first phases, there were impressive local text-book publications, reflecting a desire for more local, relevant knowledge for Australian school children and a developing independence from the Home country. Most failed to secure official patronage and had limited circulation. The more successful ones attempted to meet the needs of new curriculum programmes, emphasising local knowledge relevant to colonial children.

This research investigated the factors that impact on the career decisions of teachers in government primary and secondary schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. In particular, this research examined the factors that influence teachers in choosing to apply for principal class positions and the factors that influence other teachers to decide not to apply for such positions. Data were collected from current principals, assistant principals, classroom teachers with leadership responsibilities, and classroom teachers with no additional leadership responsibilities. Within the teacher and assistant principal groups, data were also sought from those who were aspiring to principal roles and those who were not aspiring to such roles. The purpose of the research was to understand the factors that influenced teachers (including those in leadership roles) in their decision making to apply, or not to apply for principal class leadership roles. / The research methodology included both qualitative and quantitative data sources. The survey was the initial data source. Its design and construction was based on a conceptual framework developed by the researcher. This framework emerged from a review of literature relating to aspirations, work motivation, and career decision making. The results of the survey were used to inform the construction of a series of nine focus groups. There were four focus groups comprising primary teachers, leading teachers, assistant principals, and principals and four focus groups comprising secondary teachers, leading teachers, assistant principals, and principals. The ninth focus group included teachers thirty years of age or younger. The focus group interviews were used to confirm and clarify themes and patterns raised by the survey data and inform aspects of the conceptual framework that were not included in the survey. / Teachers’ career decisions and leadership aspirations are influenced by many factors. This study has revealed a number of factors that develop and support principal class and principal level leadership aspirations. These include increased opportunities within the principal role for individual growth and self actualisation; teachers with leadership aspirations seek jobs that provide a personal challenge. Those who have an appreciation of the balance between job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction inherent in the principal role are more likely to aspire to the role than those who only perceive the role to be demanding, stressful and time-consuming. Principals and assistant principals identified the outcomes of the work of a principal as strong incentives to promote. Teachers and assistant principals are more likely to aspire to and subsequently apply for principal positions if the strong link between the principal role and the learning environment is made explicit. Strategic succession planning at an organisational and school level would enhance leadership aspiration and increase application rates. This may include schools providing teachers with more opportunities for acting in leadership roles providing increased opportunities for part-time and shared leadership roles. / The study also revealed a number of factors that inhibit principal class and principal level leadership aspirations. Paradoxically, while the nature of the work is one of the sources of satisfaction for principals and an incentive to promote to principal, aspects of the nature of the work are simultaneously strong sources of dissatisfaction and disincentives to promote. The interpersonal relations, particularly with teachers and parents provide enormous challenges and frustration. Personal factors such as time required by the job, the perceived stress level of the job, and effect on family, are strong disincentives to promote, particularly for women. Many teachers believe that the current role expectations of principals would not allow them to balance the demands of their personal life and their work life; the administrative demands and community expectations of the role are, in particular, seen as too demanding. A major inhibiting factor for teachers’ leadership aspirations is their lack of an understanding of the high levels of job satisfaction that balance the stresses of the principal role. Until the job satisfaction of principals becomes as explicit as their job dissatisfaction, few teachers will aspire to this role. It was also found that lack of succession planning at an organisational and school level inhibits teachers’ principal class leadership aspirations. The research identified the policy, planning and research implications that arise from the findings.

A central feature of public sector reform in Australia in the past decade or so has been the introduction of competition into service markets that were previously monopolised by public agencies. The adoption of more competitive strategies by these agencies has usually been accompanied by changes in their organisational culture - found in their structures, modes of operation and in internal and external relationships, as well as in the underlying values orientation of the organisation. The introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in local government in the state of Victoria reflected criticisms of the performance of traditional local government bureaucracies and a determination by the state government to secure a change in local government culture. This study investigates the impact of CCT on local authorities in Victoria, and explores the changes to organisational culture that have occurred. It assesses the extent to which the changes are consistent with a 'post-bureaucratic' conception of public organisations. The study presents evidence that cultural change has occurred in Victorian local authorities, particularly in the establishment of new organisation structures, a more entrepreneurial or outward focused orientation, and the development of more market focused and customer oriented service delivery systems. While cultural changes may not have progressed as far as intended by the Victorian government, they represent a more radical approach to local government reform than in other Australian states - so radical that they present a serious challenge to long-held views of the role of local government in the community. The thesis reveals that the new competitive environment may itself generate new problems such as transactions costs and erosion of trust within local councils and enables senior managers to assert stronger control over the council. It is this control, together with the technocratic or top-down approach to reform taken by the state government, which has constrained the development of model post-bureaucratic local government organisations in Victoria. In particular, it seems that senior managers are more intent on reshaping their organisations than in encouraging the greater market responsiveness anticipated in the post-bureaucratic model.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Rochester, 1968. / Score: l. 58-67, 71-133. Bibliography: l. 134. Digitized version available online via the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1308

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