Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: p. 273-289.

While home schooling is by no means a new phenomenon, the last three decades have seen an increasing trend in the engagement of this educational alternative. In many countries, including Australia, a growing number of families are opting to remove their children from the traditional schooling system for numerous reasons and educate them at home. In response to the recent home schooling movement a research base in this area of education has emerged. However, the majority of research has been undertaken primarily in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with very few studies having examined home schooling in Australia. The existing corpus of research is also relatively small and incomplete. Also, certain categories of home schoolers and the processes involved in their undertaking of this modern version of a historically enduring educational alternative have been overlooked. In particular, children with disabilities appear to be one of the home schooling groups that have attracted very little research world wide. This group constituted the focus of the study reported in this thesis. Its particular concern was with generating theory regarding how parents deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year. Data gathering was largely carried out through individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviewing and participant observation in the interpretivist qualitative research tradition. However, informal interviews, telephone interviews and documents were also used to gather supplementary data for the study. Data were coded and analysed using the open coding method of the grounded theory model and through the development and testing of propositions. The central research question which guided theory generation was as follows: 'How do parents within the Perth metropolitan area in the state of Western Australia deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year?' The central proposition of the theory generated is that parents do so through progressive modification and that this involves them progressing through three stages over a period of one year. The first stage is designated the stage of drawing upon readily-available resources. The second stage is designated the stage of drawing upon support networks in a systematic fashion. The third stage is designated the stage of proceeding with confidence on the basis of having a set of principles for establishing a workable pattern of home schooling individualised for each circumstance. This theory provides a new perspective on how parents deal with the home schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities over a period of one year. A number of implications for further theory development, policy and practice are drawn from it. Several recommendations for further research are also made.

Many orchids require mycorrhizal symbioses with fungi for their development and survival. Rhizanthella gardneri the Western Australian underground orchid is associated with the companion plant Melaleuca uncinata and its ectomycorrhizal fungus symbiont. Much less is known about the habitat requirements of its sister species, R. slateri, which occurs in Eastern Australia. The absence of chlorophyll from Rhizanthella gardneri and R. slateri results in total dependency on associations with fungal symbionts. Many ecological and biological aspects of these fascinating orchids remained poorly known, including the identity of the fungal associates and the nature of their tripartite associations with Rhizanthella and Melaleuca. Extremely high specificity of these mycorrhizal relationships is likely to be the most important factor explaining the highly specific habitat requirements of underground orchids. The purpose of this study was to conduct further investigations of the role of the mycorrhizal associations of Australian underground orchids by identifying the fungi involved in these associations, optimising their growth in sterile culture and devising efficient means for synthesising their tripartite associations with R. gardneri and M. uncinata. In total, 16 isolates of fungi were successfully obtained from the two underground orchids and used in a series of experiments to understand both the nature of the fungi and their relationship with orchids. The identity of these fungi was established by using conventional morphological and molecular methods. Cultural and morphological studies revealed that all isolates from R. gardneri and R. slateri were binucleate rhizoctonias with affinities to members of the genus Ceratobasidium. However, the teleomorph state that was observed from the R. slateri symbiont during this study more closely resembled a Thanatephorus species. Further identification using ITS sequence comparisons confirmed that mycorrhizal fungi of Rhizanthella belonged to the Rhizoctonia alliance with relatives that include Thanatephorus, Ceratobasidium, or Rhizoctonia from other continents with over 90% similarity. Most of these related fungi are known as plant pathogens, but some were orchid mycorrhizal fungi. However, the isolates from the two underground orchids were most closely related to each other and formed a discrete group relative to other known members of the Rhizoctonia alliance. Sterile culture experiments determined culture media preferences for mycorrhizal fungi from Rhizanthella and other orchids. A fully defined sterile culture medium designed to more closely resemble Australian soil conditions was formulated. This new medium was compared to undefined media containing oats or yeast extract and recommendations for growth of these fungi are provided. The undefined media based on oats provided the best growth of most fungi, but the new Australian soil media was also effective at growing most orchid mycorrhizal fungi and this fully defined media was less prone to contamination and should provide more reproducible results. A comparison of three methods for inoculating M. uncinata with the underground orchid fungi resulted in the production and characterisation of ectomycorrhizal roots and hyphae formed by fungi isolated from R. gardneri and R. slateri. These underground orchid fungi could easily be distinguished from other mycorrhizal fungi (caused by airborne contamination) by the characteristic appearance of these roots and hyphae. A new system for growing and observing tripartite mycorrhizal associations was devised using pots with side viewing windows and the use of transparent seed packets to contain Rhizanthella seeds. This method allowed all the stages of seed germination to be observed in the glasshouse, culminating in the production of underground orchid rhizomes. Seed germination was only successful when seed was placed directly over active M. uncinata ectomycorrhizas confirmed to belong to the correct fungus by microscopic observations through the side of window pots. The importance of these new scientific discoveries concerning the biology and ecology of the underground orchids and their associated fungi for the recovery of these critically endangered orchids are discussed.

[Truncated abstract] The objectives of this study are threefold: Firstly, to consider the relevance (to subnational state development) and adaptability (to globalisation) of federalism from a Western Australian perspective. Secondly, to consider the way in which various State Governments in Western Australia have implemented economic development policies to benefit from the global political economy. Finally, it proposes alternative mechanisms for guiding long-term economic development policy decision-making in Western Australia. This final objective is addressed in light of the findings of the first two. It is recognised that incremental changes are possible in full knowledge of the embedded nature of the policy-making process in Western Australia . . . In the case of Western Australia, subnational autonomy does not herald the end of the nationstate so much as a new stage in globalisation. In terms of how the Western Australian State Government attracts capital and labour investment, its history as an independent colony and its physical isolation from the other colonies have created the initial conditions that frame the policy-making process, which includes a set of drivers influencing the decisions that are made by State agents. Overall, the State Government continues to reinforce the State’s role as a peripheral resource supplier to the national and global political economy. Within this context, however, alternative strategies can be proposed that may contribute to the long-term sustainable development of the State’s economy.

Thesis submitted to the Division of Science and Engineering. Bibliography: leaves 307-322.

While it is now well established that many Europeans were delighted with the landscapes they encountered in colonial Australia, the pioneer narrative that portrays colonists as threatened and alienated by a harsh environment and constantly engaged in battles with the land is still powerful in both scholarly and popular writing. This thesis challenges this dominant narrative and demonstrates that in a remarkably short period of time some colonists developed strong connections with, and even affection for, their 'new' place in Western Australia. Using archival materials for twenty-one colonists who settled in five regions across southern Western Australia from the 1830s to the early 1900s, here this complex process of belonging is unravelled and several key questions are posed: what lenses did the colonists utilise to view the land? How did they use and manage the land? How were issues of class, domesticity and gender roles negotiated in their 'new' environment? What connections did they make with the land? And ultimately, to what extent did they feel a sense of belonging in the Colony? I argue that although utilitarian approaches to the land are evident, this was not the only way colonists viewed the land; for example, they often used the picturesque to express delight and charm. Gender roles and ideas of class were modified as men, as well as women, worked in the home and planted flower gardens, and both men and women carried out tasks that in their households in England and Ireland, would have been done by servants. Thus, the demarcation of activities that were traditionally for men, women and servants became less distinct and amplified their connection to place. Boundaries between the colonists' domestic space and the wider environments also became more permeable as women ventured beyond their houses and gardens to explore and journey through the landscapes. The selected colonists had romantic ideas of nature and wilderness, that in the British middle and upper-middle class were associated with being removed from the land, but in colonial Western Australia many of them were intimately engaged with it. Through their interactions with the land and connections they made with their social networks, most of these colonists developed an attachment for their 'new' place and called it home; they belonged there.

[Truncated abstract] Soils of Western Australian cropping regions are very low in phosphorous. White lupin, chickpea, and faba bean are being increasingly used in rotations with wheat on these soils. Yield of wheat after a legume crop is frequently higher than its yield after wheat. It has been reported that in addition to nitrogen, legumes can also contribute to improve the availability of phosphorous for the subsequent crops. This PhD research project aimed at optimising the economic returns of wheat-legume rotations through more efficient use of P fertiliser in the legume phase as well as enhanced availability of soil P in the subsequent wheat phase

[Truncated abstract] Relationships between the persistence of organic matter added to soil, the dynamics of soil organic carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) were examined in four experiments on lateritic soils of Western Australia. The main objective was to quantify the release of P following organic matter application in soils which have high P adsorbing capacity. Another objective was to confirm that due to its recalcitrant materials, the effect of peat lasted longer in soil than other sources of organic matter in terms of increasing plant-available P fractions. Three experiments were conducted under glasshouse conditions for various lengths of time, with nine- to twelve-month incubations to investigate these hypotheses. As expected, organic matter with lower C:N ratios than peat (lucerne hay) decomposed more rapidly compared with peat, and the most active mineralisation took place within the first three months of incubation. Soil organic-C (extracted by 0.5 M K2SO4) had a significant positive correlation with P extracted with 0.5 M NaHCO pH 8.53. For a higher application rate (120 ton ha-1), peat was better than wheat straw and lucerne hay in increasing extractable bicarbonate-P concentrations in soil, especially at incubation times up to 12 months. Throughout the experiment, peat was associated with a steady increase in all parameters measured. In contrast to peat, nutrient release from lucerne hay and wheat straw was rapid and diminished over time. There was a tendency for organic-C (either in the form of total extractable organic-C or microbial biomass-C) to steadily increase in soil with added peat throughout the experiment. Unlike wheat straw and lucerne hay, extractable organic-C from peat remained in soil and there was less C loss in the form of respiration. Therefore, peat persisted and sequestered C to the soil system for a longer time than the other source of organic matter. Freshly added organic matter was expected to have a greater influence on P transformation from adsorbed forms in lateritic soils than existing soil organic matter. By removing the existing soil organic matter, the effect of freshly applied organic matter can be determine separately from that of the existing soil organic matter for a similar organic-C content. In order to do this, some soil samples were combusted up to 450° C to eliminate inherent soil organic matter. The release of P was greater when organic-C from fresh organic matter was applied to combusted soils than in uncombusted soils that contained the existing soil organic matter. The exception only applied for parameters related to soil micro-organisms such as biomass-C and phosphatase. For such parameters, new soil organic matter did not create conditions favourable for organisms to increase in activity despite the abundance of organic matter available. More non-extractable-P was formed in combusted soils compared to bicarbonate-P and it contributed to more than 50% of total-P. As for the first experiment, peat also showed a constant effect in increasing bicarbonate extractable-P in the soil

<Truncated abstract> The Neoproterozoic (815.4 ± 4.3 Ma) Aries kimberlite intrudes the King Leopold Sandstone and the Carson Volcanics in the central Kimberley Basin, northern Western Australia. Aries is comprised of a N-NNE-trending series of three diatremes and associated hypabyssal kimberlite dykes and plugs. The diatremes are volumetrically dominated by massive, clast-supported, accidental lithic-rich kimberlite breccias that were intruded by hypabyssal macrocrystic phlogopite kimberlite dykes and plugs with variably uniform- to globular segregationary-textured groundmasses. Lower diatremefacies, accidental lithic-rich breccias probably formed through fall-back of debris into the vent with a major contribution from the collapse of the vent walls. These massive breccias are overlain by a sequence of bedded volcaniclastic breccias in the upper part of the north lobe diatreme. Abundant, poorly-vesicular to nonvesicular, juvenile kimberlite ash and lapilli, with morphologies that are indicative of phreatomagmatic fragmentation processes, occur in a reversely-graded volcaniclastic kimberlite breccia unit at the base of this sequence. This unit and overlying bedded accidental lithic-rich breccias are interpreted to be sediment gravity-flow deposits (including possible debris flows) derived from the collapse of the crater walls and/or tephra ring deposits that surrounded the crater. ... This Fe-enrichment may have resulted from Fe-Mg exchange with olivine during slow cooling of the peridotite host rocks. Textures reflecting the cooling history of some mantle xenoliths are preserved in the form of fine exsolution rods of aluminous spinel in diopside and zircon in rutile grains in aluminous spinel- and rutile-bearing serpentinised ultramafic xenoliths, respectively. These textures suggest nearly isobaric cooling of host rocks in the lithospheric mantle, and indicate that at least some aluminous spinel in spinel-facies peridotites formed through exsolution from chromian 4 diopside. Episodes of Fe-Ti-rich metasomatism in the spinel-facies Kimberley mantle are the likely source of high-Ti phlogopite-biotite + rutile and Ti, V, Zn, Ni-enriched aluminous spinel ± ilmenite associations in several ultramafic xenoliths. U-Pb SHRIMP 207Pb/206Pb zircon ages for one granite (1851 ± 10 Ma) and two serpentinised ultramafic xenoliths (1845 ± 30 Ma; 1861 ± 31 Ma) indicate that the granitic basement and lower crust beneath the central Kimberley Basin are at least Palaeoproterozoic in age. However, Hf-isotope analyses of the zircons in the ultramafic xenoliths suggest that the underlying lithospheric mantle is at least late Archaean in age.

Thesis submitted to the Division of Science and Engineering. Bibliography: leaves 219-235.