scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Climate: The Case of the First 50 Years of British Observations in Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendal McGuffie ◽  
Ann Henderson-Sellers

Abstract This paper presents the case for improved interdisciplinarity in climate research in the context of assessing and discussing the caution required when utilizing some types of historical climate data. This is done by a case study examining the reliability of the instruments used for collecting weather data in Australia between 1788 and 1840, as well as the observers themselves, during the British settlement of New South Wales. This period is challenging because the instruments were not uniformly calibrated and were created, repaired, and used by a wide variety of people with skills that frequently remain undocumented. Continuing significant efforts to rescue such early instrumental records of climate are likely to be enhanced by more open, interdisciplinary research that encourages discussion of an apparent dichotomy of view about the quantitative value of early single-instrument data between historians of physics (including museum curators) and climate researchers.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 237437352199862
Author(s):  
Tara Dimopoulos-Bick ◽  
Louisa Walsh ◽  
Kim Sutherland

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect health care systems globally, and there is widespread concern about the indirect impacts of COVID-19. Indirect impacts are caused by missed or delayed health care—not as a direct consequence of COVID-19 infections. This study gathered experiences of, and perspectives on, the indirect impacts of COVID-19 for health consumers, patients, their families and carers, and the broader community in New South Wales, Australia. A series of semi-structured virtual group discussions were conducted with 33 health consumers and community members between August 24 and August 31, 2020. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The analysis identified 3 main themes: poor health outcomes for individuals; problems with how health care is designed and delivered; and increasing health inequality. This case study provides insight into the indirect impacts of COVID-19. Health systems can draw on the insights learned as a source of experiential evidence to help identify, monitor and respond to the indirect impacts of COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-55
Author(s):  
Amy Thomas ◽  
Beth Marsden

In Australia, Aboriginal peoples have sought to exploit and challenge settler colonial schooling to meet their own goals and needs, engaging in strategic, diverse and creative ways closely tied to labour markets and the labour movement. Here, we bring together two case studies to illustrate the interplay of negotiation, resistance and compulsion that we argue has characterised Aboriginal engagements with school as a structure within settler colonial capitalism. Our first case study explains how Aboriginal families in Victoria and New South Wales deliberately exploited gaps in school record collecting to maintain mobility during the mid-twentieth century and engaged with labour markets that enabled visits to country. Our second case study explores the Strelley mob’s establishment of independent, Aboriginal-controlled bilingual schools in the 1970s to maintain control of their labour and their futures. Techniques of survival developed in and around schooling have been neglected by historians, yet they demonstrate how schooling has been a strategic political project, both for Aboriginal peoples and the Australian settler colonial state.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Chancellor

Australian construction productivity has grown slowly since 1985 and remains arguably stagnant. The importance of this study is therefore to examine several factors through to be drivers of construction productivity and to understand possible avenues for improvement. The drivers tested are research and development, apprentices, wage growth, unionisation and safety regulation. Expenditure on research and development and the number of apprentices were found to be drivers of productivity growth in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. These findings are important because collectively, these three states account for a majority of construction activity in Australia.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document