With an increase in demand on deep-sea resources comes a need for appropriate and effective management of this ecosystem. The establishment of a representative network of deep-sea Marine Protected Areas offers one tool with which to address the conservation needs of the deep sea. While a number of deep-sea habitats have been identified as vulnerable to anthropogenic activities (e.g. cold-water coral reefs and sponge aggregations), poor knowledge of the distribution of these habitats hinders conservation efforts and network planning, and thus we need habitat maps. With improvements in acoustic data resolution acquired from the deep sea, and the ability to cover large areas rapidly, the use of acoustic techniques in mapping biological habitats is growing. Multibeam bathymetry and its derived terrain variables can potentially provide important information that can aid in the delineation and characterisation of biological communities. A necessary prelude to mapping is therefore the definition of biological assemblages for use as mapping units. Two megahabitat features (seamount and submarine canyons) were sampled using acoustic and ground-truthing to characterise and map the distribution of benthic assemblages. Species were identified as distinct morpho-types and catalogued, and still images quantitatively analysed. Standard multivariate community analysis was undertaken to define distinct faunal assemblage that may act as mapping units. Those clusters identified by the SIMPROF routine were taken against a set of criteria to reject/accept as robust assemblages that may be used as mapping units. Twenty two benthic assemblages or biotopes were defined from multivariate analysis of quantitative species data, 11 from the SW Approaches and 11 from Anton Dohrn Seamount, and a further one from video observations (SW Approaches). Taken against current definitions, 11 of these were considered as Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME). Diversity was measured to compliment the comprehensive description of biotopes. The use of multivariate diversity indices proved better for comparing diversity of biotopes as it captures a more than one aspect of diversity of the community. Two biotopes were common to both megahabitat features, cold-water coral reef habitats, and those from Anton Dohrn Seamount were more diverse than from the SW Approaches. Modelling techniques were employed to test the relationship between biotopes and environmental and geophysical parameters, which may be used as surrogates to map VME. Generalised Additive Models of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems revealed multibeam bathymetry and its derived parameters to be significant surrogate for mapping the distribution of some assemblages, particularly those that appear to be influenced by current regime; whilst not so well for those whose distribution is not so strongly current driven e.g. soft sediment communities. In terms of deep-sea mapping, the use of multibeam can prove a useful mapping tool if the resolution of the data is at an appropriate scale that will identify meso-scale geomorphological features, such as cliff-top mounds, that may act as proxies for occurrence of biotopes, but this relationship is still unclear. Surrogates were used to map VME across the seamount and submarine canyons, and full coverage maps were produced for all biotopes occurring on these megahabitat features.

This thesis brings together a series of existing and ongoing pieces of research, conducted over a period of some years. There are five primary aims. The first is to construct a coherent empirical picture of the social organisation of space in rural South Australia by the early 1980s, at the outset of a period of turmoil and rapid change. The second is to bring together two relevant but disparate levels of theory (globalisation/structural change and localism/place attachment), to understand the impact of the rural crisis of 1984-94 on rural communities, families and individuals. The third is to trace the context and development of the crisis itself, the resultant poverty, demographic change, and reduced socio-economic viability of communities. Fourthly, the theoretical and empirical findings are applied to the search for an altered accommodation between society and space, through which a modified and regrouped but still essentially intact rural society can survive beyond the crisis. Finally, I reflect on the methodological contribution and limitations of the thesis, and also on the ethical concerns and values confronting an academic researcher reporting on a local- or micro-level social tragedy, concealed and rationalised by national macro-level success. Chapter 1 deals with fundamental concepts and epistemology. Chapter 2 sketches the evolution of the South Australian rural habitat up to the 1980s. Chapter 3 examines macro-level theory on globalisation in the structuralist and political economy traditions, which seek to explain the forces changing the politico-economic ground rules within which rural communities have to operate. Chapter 4 examines theory relating to the world of the individual person and his/her most immediate social reference groups - family, neighbourhood and community. It presents a model of place-making, and evaluates the contributions of various disciplines towards understanding specific aspects of this process, particularly rural sociology, social and humanistic geography, structuration theory and theory relating to human territoriality. Chapter 5 reveals how individuals and local social groups actually occupied space and developed place-attachment in rural South Australia in the early 1980s. It draws on field studies carried out between 1979 and 1986, and on a 1982-83 postal sample survey of 2000 rural households. Chapter 6 traces the course of a decade of almost continuous rural crisis, from about 1984. It shows how the global economy and political decisions (international, national and State) flowed through to rural people and places. Demographic and economic impacts are examined at State level, with a regional example. Chapters 7 (quantitative) and 8 (qualitative) examine the changes wrought by the crisis on rural society and the social organisation of space. They draw on a 1992/93 replication of the previous postal survey to demonstrate the persistence and continuity of major features of the rural society, but also the fragility of the current spatial organisation. The widespread rural poverty in the early 1990s and its impact on the state of rural morale are demonstrated, along with perceived changes in key community characteristics, and divergence of the economic from the social organisation of rural space. Chapter 9 assesses requirements for a socially sustainable rural Australia, in the light of the last ten years� developments in rural research. It argues the need for the focus of localism to be re-defined upwards from individual community to regional level Finally in Chapter 10, I reflect on the contribution and limitations of the thesis, and on the wider problem of the role academics could, should and do play in relation to the deeply meaningful social transformations we purport to study.