When Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) opened in December 1972 as the first non-Aboriginal community legal centre in Australia, Its volunteer workers posed a radical critique of the legal system and of the legal profession. They depicted both to be intricately involved in the oppression of Australians on low incomes. In a bid to combat this oppression, FLS developed two broad objectives: to provide free and accessible legal assistance, and to operate as a medium of social change. The adoption and pursuit of these at times contradictory aims amounted to an attempt by FLS volunteers to marry the politics of the New Left to the workings of the law. The adoption of these aims also meant that FLS would be involved, at a very practical level, in the debate concerning the relationship between the law and social change in Australia. / In the years after its formation, the radical critique once posed by FLS dissipated. This occurred primarily because the State, n the form of the Whitlam Government moved to accommodate the most persuasive criticisms that FLS workers had of the legal system. The Whitlam Government’s creation of a new legal aid system in 1973, the high profile taken by FLS workers in debates about legal aid and the fact that FLS received government funding were all crucial to FLS’s increasingly accepted status as a part albeit an unusual one of the legal profession. / Notwithstanding this acceptance, FLS workers have continued to pursue the organisation's two original aims. As a result of this FLS has continued to draw clients and workers to the Service, while at the same time it has continued to operate as an effective social critic.

The knowledge and understanding of sediment transport is essential for the development of effective management strategies for nutrient and sediment loading in estuarine systems. Estuarine suspended sediment (in high concentrations), has the ability to adversely impact upon surrounding ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Due to a recent decline in water and sediment quality, it has recently been mandated that a number of tropical, coastal estuarine systems in Queensland, such as the Fitzroy River estuary, have their sediment loading reduced. In order to meet these requirements, a greater understanding of the sediment transport dynamics and driving processes (such as flocculation and settling velocity) needs to be achieved, and the accuracy of estimation improved. This research project was motivated by the need to improve the general accuracy of field measurements for estuarine suspended sediment transport and dynamics. Field-based measurements (especially settling velocity) are necessary for the parameterisation of sediment transport models. The difficulty in obtaining accurate, in situ data is well documented and is generally limited to methods that isolate a water sample from its natural environment, removing all influences of estuarine turbulence. Furthermore, the water samples are often extracted from points (Eulerian) where the history of the suspended particles is generally unknown. These sampling methods typically contain intrinsic errors as suspended sediment transport is essentially Lagrangian (i.e., flows with the net motion of flow-field) in nature. An investigation into different drogue systems conducted in parallel with a study into the tidal states of the Fitzroy River estuary led to the development of a novel Lagrangian drogue device, the LAD. Additionally, the water-tracking ability of the LAD was tested and found to accurately follow a parcel of estuarine water over a slack water period. Therefore the LAD was deployed in the Fitzroy River to assist in the further understanding of complex sediment transport processes such as flocculation and settling velocity in a natural estuarine flow field. The final device (the LAD - Lagrangian Acoustic Drogue) was developed, utilizing the principals of acoustic backscatter intensity-derived SSC measurements. The investigation of a series LAD deployments (during slack water) in the Fitzroy River estuary, revealed the dominant suspended sediment processes and also gave an insight into the prevailing flow-patterns. Results showed the presence of a settling lag mechanism between low and high tide, which can initiate a net sediment flow upstream with each flood tide. The bulk settling velocity showed comparable results at both low and high water. The LAD derived bulk settling velocity as a function of concentration (SSC), yielding a strong positive correlation (r2 = 0.73). Also the importance of flocculation in the bulk settling and clear up of the water column during periods of still water (high and low tide) was demonstrated as all in situ settling velocities (0.33 - 1.75 mm s-1) exceeded single grain approximations (0.47 mm s-1). This research demonstrates the potential for Lagrangian drogue studies as an effective measuring platform for the accurate quantification of estuarine suspended sediment dynamics. The application of the LAD in the Fitzroy River has lead to a significant improvement in the understanding of the system's real sediment transport processes. This research has provided an effective and accurate technique for measuring real settling velocities for input into numerical models or for the validation of existing model outputs. Furthermore, this technique shows great potential for application in other estuarine systems.

Wingecarribee and Fitzroy Falls Reservoirs are part of the Shoalhaven system within the Sydney metropolitan water supply network and are both shallow, well mixed, polymictic water bodies. After construction in 1973, land use activities within the catchments changed from low intensity grazing to more intensive practices such as dairying, particularly on the northern foreshore of Wingecarribee Reservoir, and vegetable farming around Fitzroy Falls Reservoir. The change in land use practice raised concerns about the possible impact on water quality of the reservoirs. This study sought to differentiate between the influence of catchment effects, inter-reservoir transfers and seasonality to enable an assessment of long term trends in water quality to be made. Data collected on a monthly basis by the Water Board between October 1973 and December 1985 were assessed and representative or 'indicator' variables for the different influences were selected. Classification of the phytoplankton to create sample clusters followed by discriminant analysis of the abiotic data were performed to rank the 'indicator' variables The classification analyses indicated that time of sampling was more important than site differences in determining clustering and that both Wingecarribee and Fitzroy Falls Reservoirs were well mixed and similar. The influence of chronological changes following the initial filling of the reservoirs, seasonality and inter-reservoir transfers were detected in the clustering patterns. Changes attributable to land use activities within the catchments were not detected. The reduction in concentrations of variables from high values following the initial filling of the reservoirs was the main influence regulating clustering between 1974 to 1982 and the influence of seasonality on clustering was most apparent during 1976 and 1978. The assessment of the influence of inter-reservoir transfers was restricted because of limited data. Seasonal periodicities and ongoing changes in the phytoplankton and physical and chemical data over the study period were assessed as a means of interpreting and verifying the analysis results.

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Land use practices over the last 200 years have dramatically altered the distribution and amount of riparian vegetation throughout many catchments in Australia. This has lead to a number of negative impacts including a decrease in water quality, an increase in sediment transport and a decrease in the quality of terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The task of restoring the functions of riparian zones is an enormous one and requires spatial and temporal prioritisation. An analysis of the existing and historical functions of riparian zones and their spatial distribution is a major aid to this process and will enable efficient use of remediation resources. The approach developed in this thesis combines remote sensing, field measurement and terrain analysis to describe the distribution of five riparian zone functions: sediment trapping, bank stabilization, denitrification, stream shading and large woody debris production throughout a large semi-arid catchment in central Queensland.

This thesis focuses on the genesis and development of direct taxation in early New Zealand. During the study period (1843-45), both taxpayers and tax were new to the colonial settlement and this study traces the early history of the two trying to accommodate each other. Between 1843 and 1845, subject to the politics of tax, the fiscal future of the colony was decided. The thesis begins by contextualising the study. It critically examines the revenue and expenditure record of the Crown Colony period and then details the antecedents of New Zealand fiscal policy in general and specifically tax policy (our shared English heritage). Thereafter, four interesting events in New Zealand tax law are discussed: (1) Schedule E of the British Land and Income Tax Act, 1842 (arrived in New Zealand 1843); (2) The Property Rate Ordinance, 1844; (3) the proposed Amendment to the Property Rate Ordinance, 1844; and, (4) the proposed Dealers’ Licensing Ordinance in 1845. After analysing the period’s individual direct tax laws, the thesis elaborates on the political process which determined the development of this body of tax laws. Thereafter, the thesis develops a conceptual model to explain the tax reform process of the study period. The thesis finds that tax policy during the study period was driven by four key influences: crisis (internal/external and economic); political considerations; the application of sound nineteenth-century economic policy; and importantly, the precedent of another nation’s experience with tax policy development. To have knowledge of such events in economic history (the past record of tax law), how and why they occurred, matters. Just as a nation’s financial accounts are built on the foundations of the previous fiscal year, future taxation policy will be based on current taxation policy; tax laws which were developed from past (historic) tax practices. Therefore, knowledge of how New Zealand formulated tax policy in the past and why it did so, is of interest to fiscal policy makers today. Future tax policy is simply a derivation of past tax laws; the development of New Zealand’s taxation policy began in New South Wales in 1839, and thereafter began, what this thesis suggests, was a predictable, evolutionary process.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [1]-[10])

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