The region of interest in this study is the ocean area to the north of the Western Australian coast; that is, the Timor Sea. It is the tropical cyclones (TC) that generate in this area that most often affect the people and industries located in this region of Western Australia. Accordingly, it is the case that there is a continuing need to improve our understanding of these systems using both observations and numerical models. After an introduction to the problems caused by TCs in the north of Western Australia, a description is made of the study area. A review of the various meteorological systems that can be identified in the tropics is provided. This is followed by a history of research on cyclogenesis. A detailed discussion is undertaken on the current state of knowledge of tropical cyclogenesis. This theoretical understanding subsequently is applied to three case studies. Following a description of the data used and the analysis techniques, the three case studies are presented. In each case study, a system, which later becomes a tropical cyclone, is analysed during the genesis period. The three case studies examined in this thesis are, case 1 (TC Tim, 1994), case 2 (TC Elaine, 1999) and case 3 (TC Isobel, 1996). In each case, the system was studied for at least 10 days prior to it being named. This approach was adopted to ensure that any potential development was not overlooked. A system is named when it reaches sufficient intensity for gale force winds to exist in all quadrants around the centre of that system. For each case, the environment in the vicinity of the location where the system was initially identified was studied until an evolving system was identified. Monitoring of the system continued until it was named. / Observations from the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program comprised the physical data set. In parallel with this data collection activity, meteorological products from a numerical model were catalogued over the same time interval. The thesis presents comparisons of the satellite products and the model output over the study period. In part, motivated by the outcomes of this comparison, it was determined to investigate further prospects for using the array of satellite-derived products that might be more appropriate for use as a forecasting support tool. Finally, as an example, a prototype index is proposed which has potential to demonstrate the degree of development of a system. In this work, for want of a name, this index is termed the Hamilton Index (HI). It uses meteorological products derived from the microwave DMSP series of satellites and provides a temporal sequence of values of the index that are applied to monitor the developing of the TC systems in the three case studies. The meteorological variables used in the index were selected because they were accepted indicators of tropical cyclogenesis identified in the research literature. When applied to the three case studies, the HI showed a significant improvement in sensitivity to the state of development of the systems, especially when compared to the computer model data examined for the case studies.

Fewer than 200 fish species are found in freshwater habitats in Australia, of which 144 are confined exclusively to freshwater. At least 22 species of exotic freshwater fish have been introduced into Australia, and 19 of these have established self-sustaining populations. However, the parasite fauna of both native and exotic freshwater fishes in Australia is poorly known. This is particularly the case in the south-west of Western Australia, where there have been no previous comprehensive studies of the parasites of 14 native species and nine or more exotic species of fish found in freshwater habitats. This study represents a survey of the parasites of freshwater fishes in the South West Coast Drainage Division and reports 44 putative species of parasites in 1429 individual fishes of 18 different species (12 native and six exotic) from 29 locations. Parasites were found in 327 (22.88%) fishes, and of the infected fishes, 200 (61.16%) were infected with only one species of parasite and 127 (38.84%) were infected with two or more species of parasites. For helminth and arthropod parasites, which were more comprehensively surveyed than protozoan and myxozoans, I found 37 species compared to 77 species found in a recent study of fishes from the East Coast Drainage Division. The present study demonstrated that parasitic infection was significantly more common in native fish species (mean prevalence of infection with any species of parasite = 0.36 ± 0.09) than in exotic fish species (0.01 ± 0.12). Parasites were found in all native fish species, but in only two exotic fish species that were examined. Parasite regional and component community diversity were estimated by species richness (the number of species, S) and by an index of taxonomic diversity (HT). Both parasite species richness and parasite taxonomic diversity were significantly greater in native fish species (mean S = 10.5 ± 2.3; mean HT = 1.19 ± 0.14) than in exotic fish species (mean S = 1.6 ± 3.3; mean HT = 0.27 ± 0.20). These relationships were consistent over all geographic locations that were sampled. The reduced parasite load of exotic species compared to native species has been previous reported across a wide range of taxa. It is thought to arise partly because founding populations of hosts have a low probability of harbouring the species’ total parasite fauna, and partly because parasites that infect introduced exotic species may not be able to maintain their life cycle in the new environment. It has been suggested that a reduced parasite load increases the competitive ability of exotic species compared to native species (the parasite release hypothesis) and this may partly explain the abundance and apparent competitive success of exotic over native species of freshwater fish in the South West Coast Drainage Division. For native species of fish, there were major differences among species in both prevalence of parasitic infection and parasite community diversity, but this variation was not related to fish size, whether the fish were primarily freshwater or primarily estuarine, or whether they were primarily demersal or pelagic. In this study, I report two new parasites in south western Australian waters. Both are copepod parasites; Lernaea cyprinacea and a new species of Dermoergasilus. The Dermoergasilus appears to be native to the south-west of Western Australia and has been described as Dermoergasilus westernensis. It differs from previously described species in the genus principally by the armature of the legs. This new species was found on the gills of freshwater cobbler, Tandanus bostocki and western minnow, Galaxias occidentalis in two different river systems. Lernaea cyprinacea is an introduced parasitic copepod found on the skin and gills of freshwater fishes in many areas of the world. The parasite has not previously been reported in Western Australia. We found infestations of L. cyprinacea on four native fish species (G. occidentalis; Edelia vittata; Bostockia porosa; T. bostocki) and three introduced fish species (Carassius auratus; Gambusia holbrooki; Phalloceros caudimaculatus) at two localities in the Canning River, in the south-west of Western Australia. The parasite has the potential to have serious pathogenic effects on native fish species, although it appears to be currently localised to a small section of the Canning River. Over all localities from which fishes were sampled in the present study, the proportion of native freshwater fishes with parasitic infections and the component community diversity of the parasite fauna of native fishes were both negatively related to habitat disturbance, in particular to a suite of factors (river regulation, loss of riparian vegetation, eutrophication and presence of exotic fish species) that indicate increased human usage of the river and surrounding environment. The reduced parasite load and diversity in native fishes from south-west rivers with greater human usage was due principally to the loss of a number of species of trematode, cestode and nematode endoparasites which use fishes as intermediate hosts. Other studies have also found that endoparasites with complex life cycles are most likely to be adversely affected by environmental changes, presumably because any environmental changes which impact on either free-living parasite stages or on any of the hosts in the complex train of parasite transmission will reduce parasite population size and may cause local extinction of the parasite species. The most heavily infected species of native freshwater fish in the South West Coast Drainage Division was T. bostocki with 96% of all individuals containing at least one species of parasite. As with most freshwater fishes of south-west Australia, T. bostocki is limited in its distribution to waterways with relatively low salinity. The degree of parasitism and histopathology of internal and external organs in T. bostocki from the Blackwood River was examined over a period of rapid, seasonal changes in water salinity. As salinity increased, the infracommunity richness and prevalence of ectoparasites on the skin of fishes decreased, while the infracommunity richness and prevalence of endoparasites increased. This was associated with a decrease in histopathological lesion scores in the skin and an increase in histopathological lesion scores in internal organs, particularly the intestine. I hypothesise that the seasonal spike in salinity had two contrasting effects on parasitic infections of T. bostocki. Firstly, it increased the mortality rate of parasites directly exposed to water, leading to a decrease in ectoparasitic infection and associated pathology. Secondly, it suppressed immune function in fish, leading to a decreased mortality rate of parasites not directly exposed to water and a more severe pathological response to endoparasitism.

[Truncated abstract] Southwestern Australia is a global biodiversity hotspot. The region contains a high number of endemic species, ranging from Gondwanan relicts to more recently evolved plant and animal species. Biogeographic models developed primarily for plants suggest a prominent role of Quaternary climatic fluctuations in the rampant speciation of endemic plants. Those models were not based on explicit spatial analysis of genetic structure, did not estimate divergence dates and may be a poor predictor of patterns in endemic vertebrates. Myobatrachid frogs have featured heavily in the limited investigations of the biogeography of the regions fauna. Myobatrachid frogs are diverse in southwestern Australia, and while we know they have speciated in situ, we know little about the temporal and spatial patterning of speciation events. In order to gain insight into the biogeographic history and potential speciation patterns of Myobatrachid frogs in the southwest I conducted a comparative phylogeography of four frog species spanning three life history strategies. I aimed to: 1) assess the biogeographic history of individual species, 2) determine where patterns of regional diversity exist using a comparative framework, 3) determine whether congruent patterns across species enable the development of explicit biogeographic hypotheses for frogs, and 4) compare patterns of diversity in plants with the models I developed for frogs. I conducted fine-scale intraspecific phylogeographies on four species. ... Geocrinia leai: deep divergences, coincident with late Miocene arid onset, divide this species into western and southeast coastal lineages, with a third only found within the Shannon-Gardner River catchments. Phylogeographic history within each lineage has been shaped by climatic fluctuations from the Pliocene through to the present. Arenophryne shows the first evidence of geological activity in speciation of a Shark Bay endemic. Divergence patterns between the High Rainfall and Southeast Coastal Provinces within C. georgiana are consistent with patterns between Litoria moorei and L. cyclorhynchus and plant biogeographic regions. Subdivision between drainage systems along the southern coast (in M. nichollsi, G. leai and the G. rosea species complex) reflect the relative importance of distinct catchments as refuges during arid maxima, similarly the northern Darling Escarpment is identified as a potential refugium (C. georgiana and G. leai). Divergences in Myobatrachid frogs are far older than those inferred for plants with the late Miocene apparently an important time for speciation of southwestern frogs. Speciation of Myobatrachids broadly relates to the onset of aridity in Australia in the late Miocene, with the exception of earlier/contemporaneous geological activity in Arenophryne. The origins of subsequent intraspecific phylogeographic structure are coincident with subsequent climatic fluctuations and correlated landscape evolution. Divergence within frogs in the forest system may be far older than the Pleistocene models developed for plants because of the heavy reliance on wet systems by relictual frog species persisting in the southwestern corner of Australia.

Adolescence is a time of accelerated physical and sexual growth, and many students become sexually active before they finish secondary schooling. Unfortunately, many adolescents and young adults experience sexual coercion in their intimate relationships. Sexual coercion is defined broadly as verbal or physical pressure to engage in sexual activity. This study sought to examine sexual coercion experiences of Year 11-12 high school, male and female students in their peer dating and relationships. Before retrieving such information, a modified Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) questionnaire was designed. This was named the Adolescent Dating and Relationship Survey (ADRS) which, subsequently, was examined by experts in the area, and validated via a pilot study using 30 university students. Thirdly, the study administered the ADRS to 341, Year 11 and Year 12 students to examine how they responded to their sexually coercive experiences. The participants were actively engaging in relationship behaviours, with nearly 50% of the females and 70% of the males reporting a relationship with a partner of the same age. However, significantly more females dated older partners and, conversely, more male students were involved with younger partners. The female students tended to have longer relationships than the males, especially for relationships of 9 to 12 months or longer. Participants did not report sexual coercion experiences via threat or blackmail, nor were the males threatened with a weapon. The most frequently cited forms of coercion by both female and male students were: made to feel guilty, being plied with alcohol and/or other drugs, being pressured by begging and/or arguing, and being lied to. However, the female students reported being physically restrained significantly more than the males. As a group they responded to these sexually coercive acts via all forms 2 measured except the males, who did not resort to either fighting off or yelling. Talking about the experience later was the response commonly reported by the students. Further, female students responded to sexual coercion by saying either,

[Truncated abstract] Mediterranean southwest Australia, a global biodiversity hotspot, has nutrient deficient soils, exacting climatic conditions and is species rich with 7380 native vascular plant species, of which 49% are endemic. The region is expected to experience one of the world's highest degrees of biodiversity loss and change in the coming decades, with introduced species presenting a major threat. Limited knowledge is available on the mechanisms of ecosystem change associated with invasion and fire in this biodiversity hotspot region. Banksia woodland, an iconic complex species-rich natural ecosystem is one of the major vegetation types of the coastal sandplain, extending from 15 to 90 km inland and 400 kms along the west coast. The following hypothesis was tested to explore the ecological impacts of invasion: Is invasion of Banksia woodland by the introduced species Ehrharta calycina and Pelargonium capitatum accompanied by an alteration in ecosystem properties and processes, whereby the degree of change is related to fire frequency and abundance of introduced species? Different vegetation conditions, i.e. Good Condition (GC), Medium Condition (MC), Poor Condition invaded by Ehrharta calycina (PCe) and Poor Condition invaded by Pelargonium capitatum (PCp) were utilized for field assessments. ... In the soil seed bank, species numbers and germinant density decreased significantly for native and seeder (fire sensitive) species between GC sites and invaded sites. Surprisingly 52% of germinants at GC sites were from introduced species, with much of the introduced soil seed bank being persistent. Native species were dominated by perennial shrubs, herbs and sedges, while introduced species were dominated by perennial and annual grasses and herbs. Invasion by introduced species, associated with frequency of fire, altered the ecosystem, thus disadvantaging native species and improving conditions for even greater invasion within the Banksia woodland. Significantly higher soil phosphorus P (total) and P (HCO3) were found at PCe and PCp sites compared to GC sites. Leaf nutrient concentrations of phosphorus were significantly higher, and potassium and copper significantly lower in PCe and PCp sites, with introduced species having significantly greater concentrations than native species (except Manganese). This study demonstrated the key role of phosphorus in the Banksia woodland, in contrast to other research which identified nitrogen as the major nutrient affected by invasion. Higher levels of soil and leaf phosphorus, loss of species diversity and function, changes in fire ecology and canopy cover and a limited native soil seed bank make restoration of a structural and functional Banksia woodland from the soil seed bank alone unlikely. Without management intervention, continuing future fire is likely to result in a transition of vegetation states from GC to MC and MC to PC. The knowledge gained from this study provides a better ecological understanding of the invasive process. This enhanced understanding will enable the development of adaptive management strategies to improve conservation practices within a biodiversity hotspot and reduce the impact of the key threatening process of invasion.

This thesis examines the constraints and options inherent in placing feminist demands on the state, the limits of such interventions, and the subjective, intimate understandings of feminism among agents who have aimed to change the state from within. First, I describe the central element of a

Ethnicity is an important social construct mobilised in the discourses of multicultural education. At present, little research exists on the way ethnicity impacts on the schooling experiences of students with former Yugoslav background (SFYB) in Australia. This qualitative study looks at the daily realities of twelve SFYB at a Western Australian government secondary school. Particular attention is paid to the management of their ethnic identities to achieve their educational, social and other goals. Data gathered from the twelve in-depth, guided interviews with SFYB is analysed through the lens of critical multiculturalism, posited as one of several notions of multiculturalism and one with a specific social justice agenda. Theories of hybridity developed by Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall are translated into the critical multiculturalist framework and provide a further development of the analysis of the data in which hybridity is seen as both experiences and enactments. The study findings suggest that these SFYB embody the principles of critical multiculturalism as skilful managers of contingencies of ethnic identities, aspirations and challenges they encounter at the school. The study also proposes that the notion of critical, power conscious hybridity could be useful as a conceptual tool in the future work of critical multiculturalists.

[Truncated abstract] It is essential to attract, recruit and retain quality teachers in rural and remote schools for provision of quality education to rural and remote students. A robust body of research confirms that teacher quality contributes to quality of education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hay McBer, 2000; Kaplan & Owings, 2002; OECD, 2002; Ramsay, 2000). Staffing histories of rural and remote schools identify persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers, but previous research has failed to address the experiences and perspectives of rural and remote teachers from the earliest phases of appointment, tracking their experiences over time. In times and places of persistent teacher shortages, teacher quality of worklife issues are paramount. Factors impacting on teacher quality of worklife may impact on teacher retention, staffing levels and ultimately the quality of education for children. For these reasons, this study aimed to develop substantive theory about the experiences of teachers commencing appointments in rural and remote schools by investigating the perspectives of novice, interstate and overseas-qualified teachers. The study sought to develop understandings of rural and remote teachers quality of worklife. In order to achieve this aime, the experiences of 29 teachers were examined, in four categories of teachers likely to be appointed to rural and remote locations: young novices; mature-aged novices; interstate; and overseas-qualified teachers in a qualitative collective case study. ... Awareness of the variety of factors in multiple environments, and the complex interplay between them, helps to account for the diversity of perspectives and quality of worklife outcomes for rural and remote teachers. Two theories were generated from ten propositions. The first theory, Quality of Worklife for Rural and Remote Teachers: Person-Environment Fit to Multiple Environments, identified protective and risk factors associated with workrole, workplace, organisation, geographic and socio-cultural community environments. The theory recognises spillover between work and non-work life experiences, impacting on quality of teacher worklife; however, factors directly associated with worklife impacted most significantly on quality of worklife. The second theory, Processes of Adaptation to Multiple Rural and Remote Environments, identified processes (teacher expectations, evaluations of environments, responses to environments) and coping strategies (direct-action, palliative and avoidant) as leading to one of four outcomes: integration; resilient integration; disequilibrium; and withdrawal. The case study findings offer original understandings of experiences of teachers newly appointed to rural and remote schools, through the development of theory about multiple environments teachers encounter and processes of adaptation associated with their relocation to rural and remote areas. The findings have implications for theory, policy and practice, and contribute new dimensions to the general quality of worklife literature.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis develops an understanding of how, historically, Education as an area of study (Education) has been constructed at each of the five universities in the State of Western Australia. The motivation for the study was the claim made by some academics that historically Education has been marginalised in certain universities in the UK, the USA and Australia, and that this marginalisation was intensified by a negative attitude towards its association with teacher preparation. Very little evidence, however, has been put forward to support this claim, thus highlighting a major neglected area of research. This thesis is a response to such neglect in relation to the situation in one state in Australia. The focus of the thesis is on the 'preactive curriculum' as represented in the plans and syllabi that outline what was included in programs and courses. An 'internal' analysis of relevant documents was conducted along with an 'external' analysis which considered the broader social, economic and political context. It was recognised that a study of the 'interactive curriculum' also needs to be conducted to gain insights into how the 'preactive curriculum' was mediated by lecturers and students. From the outset, however, it was deemed that this would constitute a further major study in itself. ... The most prominent were the 'academic', 'integrated', 'vocational', 'technical', 'pragmatic' and 'professional' orientations. The content of Education at the five universities also varied. Such variation offered breadth of opportunity for students. It also meant that, collectively, the universities served the needs of the State and their students by providing relevant and flexible curricula beyond what would have been possible in a 'one size fits all' model. Furthermore the claim that there was tension regarding the inclusion of 'Education' as an area of study within Australian universities generally, is not upheld for the Western Australian context. While this thesis contributes to an understanding of how, historically, Education as an area of study has been constructed in one State in Australia, much further research remains to be done in this field of curriculum history. In particular, future research could focus on the way in which Education, along with other areas of university study, have been constructed in the other states of Australia and overseas. The identification of areas of contestation and omissions from courses are also worthy of consideration. Finegrained studies of this nature could collectively make an important contribution to the understanding of the history of developments in the university curriculum at a macro level. Such work would, in the fullness of time, contribute to new understandings about institutionalised learning at tertiary level and provide historical insights to inform current practice as universities continue to try to find their way in a global society.

Copies of author's previously published articles inserted. / Bibliography: leaves 194-208. / xviii, 208 leaves : ill., maps (chiefly col.), (some fold.), ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, 1998