The Master of Fine Art document examines the inception of Matter Painting as it occurred in Europe and it's following in Australia. This document recalls the history and process of this late assimilation through examining the development of abstraction in Australia and the local receptiveness of influence from abroad. Within a climate of increased immigration and international awareness, Matter Painting was encountered by an initiated few. This history firstly begins with practitioners that were not in locale but rather overseas who were in close proximity to the centre of such avant-garde. It is not until the artist and critic Elwyn Lynn returns from his seminal overseas travels in 1959 and his first showing of "Matter" painting's in 1960 that Matter Painting in Australia gathered momentum. Discussed within this document is the history of this movement, the impact that it had on local practitioners and the relevance that it has played within my practice.

Black/white/male/female struggles over knowledge correctness and who is brave are examined inductively in the field of bushfires. The paradoxes of a white male icon are linked to contradictions in gender theories in disaster. In mainstream literature, assumptions of innate white male superiority in bravery justify white women???s diminution and white male domination. In feminist theory, women???s diminution is the problem and their bravery for struggling against hegemony applauded. Philosophies of bravery are explored in 104 semistructured interviews and 12 months??? fieldwork as a volunteer bushfirefighter. There is great variety in the ways volunteers cope with bushfires. However, evidence of white male hegemony emerges when volunteers complain of state and territory indifference to preventing property and environmental damage and injury and death. Evidence is examined that Indigenous Australians once managed bushfires better than a sprawl of bureaucracy. Bushfire service claims that Aborigines knew nothing about hazard reductions are contradicted. This debate over bushfire management leads to the discovery of a third epistemology breaking with claims of white male iconic bravery and bureaucratic mastery. To generalise about the habitus of claims to knowledge and bravery, I analyse Newcastle Herald articles from 1881-1981. Three competing knowledge fields and their associated struggles are examined; Indigenous Australians and white womens??? emancipatory struggles confront data on bushfirefighting. Bushfires emerge as a serious problem, a bureaucratic power base and a white male icon from the 1920s.

This research, conceptualizes, operationalises and empirically tests a competency-based theory of business-partnering performance within an Australian business-partnering context. Drawing on theory from social psychology and marketing, the research integrates a number of theoretical approaches including resource-based theory, competency based theory, relational factors view, relational interaction theory, and competitive advantage theory to explain why some business partnerships are more successful than others are. The results use a ???process model of business-partnering??? performance to explain the interaction process through which business partners exploit the available partnering related ???operant resources??? and how these resources influence the performance of business partnerships and their ability to achieve a competitive advantage. Specifically, this research investigates a number of important internal resources, which facilitate the building, and maintaining of external businesspartner relations including ???joint alliance competence???, ???joint alliance structure???, ???interpersonal relational competence??? and ???market orientation???. This research shows that an adequate understanding of how these ???operant resources??? are deployed/accessed and co-created by the business partners to achieve a competitive advantage requires integration of ???relational interaction theory??? into ???resource-based theory??? and ???competency-based theory???. The results of this research show that those firms that pursue business partnerships as a competitive strategy can improve performance by engaging in a range of activities, which facilitate the building of ???relational capital??? of the partnership. The results provide support for conclusion that ???communication behaviour??? is a central and important mediating variable in the performance of business partnerships. Overall, the findings are consistent with the literature in finding support for the notion that ???joint alliance competence??? is a direct antecedent of businesspartnering performance. There is support for the notion that the partnership???s ability to govern and manage itself is an important determinant of ???communication behaviour??? and ???co-ordination behaviour???. The results identified ???market orientation???, ???co-ordination behaviour??? and ???relational capital??? as all having a direct influence on business-partnership profitability. Finally, given the relatively high failure rates of business partnerships this research provides greater opportunity for a discussion of the kinds of intervention strategies that could be used to minimise the risk of failure and/or to improve partnership performance. Keywords: competency, alliance, business partnership, relationship marketing, businesspartnering competency, relational factors view, resource based view, relational interaction theory, market orientation, interpersonal relational competency, alliance structure, process model.

Bibliography: leaves 227-248. / xx, 248 leaves, [22] leaves of plates : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 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 Crop Protection, 1995

Bibliography: leaves 355-365. / ix, 365 leaves : ill. ; 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 Economics, 1996

Bibliography: leaves 182-190. / xv, 192 leaves [7] leaves of plates : ill., maps (chiefly col.) ; 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 Economics, 1997

Bibliography: leaves 387-404. / xix, 404 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / South Australia is unique amongst Australian States insofar as s82(1) of the Education Act 1972 vests the director-General of Education, rather than the minister of Education, with de jure control of State school curriculum. This locus of control is at odds with the well-established democratic convention that Ministers control the directive policy components of their portfolios. This thesis describes how this mode of curriculum control came about, its nature and implications, and mounts a challenge to its legitimacy. (abstract) / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 1998

Bibliography: leaves 359-374 / 430 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This study examines the changing expectations and experiences of thirty-three Indonesian postgraduate students who were interviewed every three months during candidature in Australia. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Depts. of Applied and Molecular Ecology, 1999

Bibliography: leaves 385-420. / vi, 420 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / An exploration of the Australian refugee detention policy, which argues that the resort to detention is discriminatory and founded in the fear of Australia's "significant other" - the Asian. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 1999

vii, 303 leaves : ill. ; 31 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 History, 1976