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Thesis (M. Comm.) (Hons.) -- University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, 2000. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Commerce (Honours), December, 2000. Bibliography : leaves 154-160.

Thesis (M.Sc.) (Hons.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 2000. / "A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Honours)". Bibliography : leaves 123-130.

The search conference was held at Mareeba (North Queensland) to have the community identify ways to help reduce the region's unemployment. Alternative methods that could have been used are discussed and the reasons for using the search conference instead of those methods are noted. Practical and theoretical details of planning the search conference from the initial problem identification to the preparation of the final report are fully described.

D.Phil. / Land cover changes associated with growing human populations and expected changes in climatic conditions are likely to accelerate alterations in hydrological phenomena and processes on various scales. Subsequently, these changes could significantly influence the quantity and quality of water resources for both nature and human society. Documenting the distribution of land cover types within the Shire River catchment is the foundation for applications in this study of the hydrology of the Shire catchment. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between the measured land cover changes and hydrological regimes in the Shire River Catchment in Malawi. Maps depicting land cover dynamics for 1989 and 2002 were derived from multispectral and multi-temporal Landsat 5 (1989) and Landsat 7 ETM+ (2002) satellite remote sensing data for this catchment. Other spectral-independent data sets included the 90-m resolution Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM), Geographical Information System (GIS) layers of soils, geology and archived land cover. Core image-derived data sets such as individual Landsat bands, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Principal Components Analysis and Tasseled Cap transformations were computed. From generated composite images, land cover classes were identified using a maximum likelihood algorithm. Eight land cover classes were mapped. A hierarchical multispectral shape classifier with an object conditional approach determined by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) legend structure was used to map land cover variables. LCCS was used as a basis for classification to achieve legend harmonization within Africa and on a global scale. Flexibility of the hierarchical system allowed incorporation of digital elevation objects, soil and underlying geological features as well as other available geographical data sets. This approach improved classification accuracy and can be adopted to discriminate land cover features at several scales, which are internally relatively homogeneous.In addition to compatibility with the FAO/LCCS classification system, the derived land cover maps have provided recent and improved classification accuracy, and added thematic detail compared to the existing 1992 land cover maps. Fieldwork was conducted to validate the land cover classes identified during classification. Accuracy assessment was based on the correlation between ground reference samples collected during field exercise and the satellite image classification. The overall mapping accuracy was 87%, with individual classes being mapped at accuracies of above 77% for both user and producer accuracy. The combination of Landsat images, vector data and detailed ground truthing information was used successfully to classify land cover of the Shire River catchment for years 1989 and 2002.

no / This paper analyses the verbal and textual hostility employed by rioters, politicians and the media in Sydney (Australia) in December 2005 in the battle over Sutherland Shire¿s Cronulla Beach. By better understanding the linguistic conventions underlying all forms of maledictive hate, we are better able to address the false antimonies between free speech and the regulation of speech. It is also argued that understanding the harms of hate speech provides us with the tools necessary to create a more responsive framework for criminalising some forms of hate speech as a preliminary process in reducing or eliminating hate violence.

This thesis contends that; in mainstream rural residential development around the Australian Capital Territory, use of community title guidelines for sub-division should consider social processes and environmental considerations along-side economic imperatives and interactions. Community title is a form of land tenure that allows for private freehold ownership of land as well as community owned land within the one sub-division. In New South Wales, community title was introduced in 1990 under the Community Land Development Act 1989 (NSW) and the Community Land Management Act 1989 (NSW). Since the introduction of community title, upwards of one hundred and fifty developments, ranging from just a few blocks to the size of small suburbs, have been approved throughout the state. The original aim of community title was to provide a legal framework that underpinned theme-based broad-acre development. Themebased development could include a Permaculture© village, a rural retreat for likeminded equine enthusiasts, or even a medieval village. Community title is also seen as an expedient form of land tenure for both developers and shire councils. Under community title, a developer only has to submit a single development application for a multi-stage development. This can significantly reduce a developer's exposure to risk. From a shire council's perspective, common land and resources within a development, which would otherwise revert to council responsibility for management, becomes the collective responsibility of all the land owners within the development, effectively obviating council from any responsibility for management of that land. Community title is also being touted in planning and policy as a way of achieving 'sustainable' environmental management in new subdivisions. The apparent expediency of community title has meant that development under these guidelines has very quickly moved beyond theme-based development into mainstream rural residential development. Community title effectively provides a framework for participatory governance of these developments. The rules governing a community title development are set out in the management statement, which is submitted to the local council and the state government with the development application. A community association, which includes all lot owners, manages the development. Unless written into the original development application, the council has no role in the management of the common land and resources. This thesis looks at the peri-urban zone around one of Australia's fastest growing cities - Canberra, whose population growth and relative affluence is impacting on rural residential activity in the shires surrounding the Australian Capital Territory. Yarrowlumla Shire, immediately adjacent to the ACT, has experienced a 362 percent increase in population since 1971. Much of this growth has been in the form of rural residential or hobby farm development. Since 1990, about fifteen percent of the development in Yarrowlumla Shire has been community title. The Yass Shire, to the north of the ACT, has shown a forty five percent population increase since 1971. Community title in that shire has accounted for over fifty percent of development since 1990. The thesis case study is set in Yass Shire. The major research question addressed in the thesis is; does community title, within the context of rural residential development around the Australian Capital Territory, facilitate community-based environmental management and education? Subsidiary questions are; what are the issues in and around rural residential developments within the context of the study, who are the stakeholders and what role do they play and; what skills and support are required to facilitate community-based environmental management and education within the context of the study area? To answer the research questions I undertook an interpretive case study, using ethnographic methods, of rural residential development near the village of Murrumbateman in the Yass Shire, thirty kilometres north of Canberra. At the time of the study, which was undertaken in 1996, the developments involved had been established for about four years. The case study revealed that, as a result of stakeholders and residents not being prepared for the management implications of community title, un-necessary conflict was created between residents and between residents and stakeholders. Community-based environmental management issues were not considered until these issues of conflict were addressed and residents had spent enough time in the estates to familiarise themselves with their environment and with each other. Once residents realised that decisions made by the community association could affect them, there developed a desire to participate in the process of management. Eventually, earlier obstacles were overcome and a sense of community began to develop through involvement in the community association. As residents became more involved, the benefits of having ownership of the community association began to emerge. However, this research found that management of a broad acre rural residential development under community title was far more complicated than any of the stakeholders, or any but the most legally minded residents, were prepared for.

Concluding on this note, the thesis argues that reading The Lord of the Rings in this way renders postcolonial concepts accessible to a whole generation of readers already familiar with the series, and points to the possibility of examining other contemporary texts, or even further analysis of Tolkien's to reveal more postcolonial sensitivities engendered in the texts.; This thesis examines J.R.R. Tolkien's texts The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King from a postcolonial literary perspective. By examining how these texts, written at the decline of the British Empire, engage with the theoretical polemics of imperialism, this thesis takes a new look at these popular and widely regarded books from a stance of serious academic interest. The first chapter examines how certain characters, who are Othered temporally in the realm of Middle-earth, manage to find a place of narrative centrality from the defamiliarized view of Merry, Pippin, Samwise, and Frodo, uncannily reoccurring throughout the narrative in increasingly disturbing manifestations. From there, the thesis moves on to uncanny places, examining in detail Mirkwood, Moria, Dunharrow, and the Shire at the end of The Return of the King. Each of these locations in Middle-earth helps Tolkien to explore the relationship between colonizer, colonized, and fetishism; the colonizer(s) disavow their own fears of these places by fetishizing the pathways they colonize for their safe passage. Since their paths are unsustainable colonially, these fetishes cannot fulfill their function, as the places are marked with unavoidable reminders of wildness and uncontrollability which cannot successfully be repressed for long. Ending this chapter with a discussion of the hobbit's return to the Shire, the argument moves into the next chapter that discusses the small-scale colonization that takes place in the heart of Frodo himself, making the Shire he used to know firmly unavailable to him. The Ring, in this case, is the colonizer, doubling, fracturing, and displacing Frodo's selfhood so that he becomes unfamiliar to himself. The uncanniness that this produces and Frodo's inability to heal from his experience with the Ring, this thesis argues, echoes the postcolonial themes of irreconcilability and the fantasy of origin.

Shire of Murray has concerns regarding the negative impact that a 100 year flood could have on existing structures built before 1997. The increase cost in construction due to landfill has an adverse effect on development in Pinjarra. Feasibility of constructing a diversion channel at upstream of Murray River to attenuate the flood level from 1 in 100 year ARI to 1 in 50 year ARI, was investigated by Kiong (2003). The Murray River Water Surface Profile along three kilometres south of Greenlands Road was modelled. Flood damages on each flood occurrence were assessed and Average Annual Damage (AAD) was calculated. The AAD is used to estimate the monetary benefit against the construction cost of the diversion channel. Groundwater along Greenlands and Fauntleroy Drains was also modelled to determine the viable depth of the designed channel, as well as the analysis of backwater. The proposed channel is designed at different scenarios (invert level at breakout point, culvert or causeway design, and diversion channel variations). The benefit cost ratio of the proposed diversion channel is calculated. Other mitigation options are suggested including detention basins for structural measure, or building a new flood-proof township for non-structural measure.

This master's thesis follows the author's previous bachelor thesis Village Hradčany in Podještědí at Contemporary History 1914 -1948. Using terminology and methods of regional history and microhistory it accents exploring contemporary history of whole commune and municipality Hradčany with all of its historical villages. It will deal comprehensively with cultural-historical and political-historical problems and phenomena of the of the second half of the 20th century, beginning with the communist rise of power in 1948 , continuing by demise of traditional rural economy in the fifties. But it will also mention the extinction of commune Hradčany itself and its connecting to the bigger commune of socialist type in seventies and developement of socialist rural society. Due to comparing the local archive sources with sources from other surrounding settlements the work should produce a synthetical historical source, which could be taken as a general picture of history of settlements in the region. The whole work is based primarily on archive and oral-history research, interviews with the oldest settlers, collection of photographic sources and written documents as memories.