scholarly journals Predator-baiting experiments for the conservation of rock-wallabies in Western Australia: a 25-year review with recent advances

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Kinnear ◽  
C. J. Krebs ◽  
C. Pentland ◽  
P. Orell ◽  
C. Holme ◽  
...  

Predation is widely believed to be the main threatening process for many native vertebrates in Australia. For 25 years, predator-baiting experiments have been used in the Western Australian Central Wheatbelt to control red fox predation on rock-wallabies and other endangered marsupial prey elsewhere. We review here the history of a series of baiting experiments designed to protect rock-wallaby colonies by controlling red foxes with 1080 poison baits. We continue to support the conclusion that red foxes can reduce or exterminate rock-wallaby populations in Western Australia. Research trials from 1990 to 2008 have uniformly shown a dramatic recovery of rock-wallaby populations once red foxes are baited. Baiting experiments are often black boxes and their success should not blind us to their weaknesses. Ideally, what we would like to measure are the functional responses of predators to prey abundance directly. As a contribution towards this goal, we describe new technology that enables one to determine which predator killed which prey, at exactly what time, with improved research and management outcomes.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Burns-Dans ◽  
Alexandra Wallis ◽  
Deborah Gare

An economic and population boom in the 1890s created opportunities for architects to find work and fame in Western Australia. Architecture, therefore, became a viable profession for the first time, and the number of practicing architects in the colony (and then state) quickly grew. Associations such as the Western Australian Institute of Architects were established to organise the profession, but as the number of architects grew and Western Australian society matured, it became evident that a role for government was required to ensure practice standards and consumer protection. In 1921, therefore, the Architects Act was passed, and, in the following year, the Architects Board of Western Australia was launched. This report traces the evolution and transformation of professional architectural practice since then, and evaluates the role and impact of the Board in its first century.


1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
ODILE POULIQUEN-YOUNG

The Western Australian system of protected areas (PAs) covers more than 15 million ha and is the second largest conservation estate of the Australian continent. An analysis of the history of the creation of PAs in Western Australia shows that the concept of nature conservation through reserves was slow to emerge. During the early decades of the century, reserves were mainly created for their recreation values. The lack of governmental interest in nature conservation led to a belated development of reserve coverage up to the 1950s, while vast areas of land were opened to farming and pastoralism. Following two scientifically-based reviews of the PA system, the number and coverage of PAs increased dramatically up to the late 1970s. The rationalization of the vesting and managerial responsibilities for PAs was only finalized in the 1980s. Since then, there has not been any large increase in PA area but a consolidation of the PA coverage. The development of the system of PAs has been impeded by the belated response of Western Australian governments to conservation concerns and a 'worthless' land approach to conservation as a land use. While large-scale land alienation for agriculture has now stopped, other types of land uses such as mining and other aspirations over land management and vesting, such as Aboriginal land claims and forestry are now constraining any large expansion of the PA system. Only an approach embracing the whole landscape can overcome the political and social limitations of the concept of PAs and the further degradation of developed land in Western Australia.


Museum Worlds ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-111
Author(s):  
Andrea Witcomb ◽  
Alistair Patterson

The discovery of five photographs in 2018 in the State Library of Western Australia led us to the existence of a forgotten private museum housing the collection of Captain Matthew McVicker Smyth in early-twentieth-century Perth. Captain Smyth was responsible for the selling of Nobel explosives used in the agriculture and mining industries. The museum contained mineral specimens in cases alongside extensive, aesthetically organized displays of Australian Aboriginal artifacts amid a wide variety of ornaments and decorative paintings. The museum reflects a moment in the history of colonialism that reminds us today of forms of dispossession, of how Aboriginal people were categorized in Australia by Western worldviews, and of the ways that collectors operated. Our re-creation brings back into existence a significant Western Australian museum and opens up a new discussion about how such private collections came into existence and indeed, in this instance, about how they eventually end.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell

Gould, Peter. Windy Wyndham and the Wagon Who Couldn’t Swim. Bassendean, Western Australia, Peter Gould and Donna Franklin, 2018. This is the sixth volume in Peter Gould’s Stories from the Engine Shed series. These books tell the stories of the train engines and cars of the Bennett Brook Railway at Whiteman Park, near Perth in Western Australia. Apart from being a fun series of children’s books, this series is important because it demonstrates that the concept of anthropomorphized train cars is generic and does not belong to any particular franchise. The series has its own cast of characters and a unique Western Australian world in which they operate. While earlier volumes have been set in Whiteman Park, this is a story told by the large diesel locomotive, Windy Wyndham that harkens back to a time when Windy worked at the harbour in the northwestern Australian coastal town of Wyndham.  The book is full of Donna Franklin’s brightly coloured pictures. The style of illustration varies significantly, even within pictures. Some of the images, particularly those with machines and people, are quite cartoonish. Drawings of people sometimes lack detail. However, when the subject is something in nature, Franklin’s work is stronger. Her rendition of a turtle, a crocodile, magpie-larks and seahorses are lovely.  Each page is a picture with text overprinted. The text includes local references, such as the Freemantle Doctor, the cooling breeze that comes from the Indian Ocean. There are also some railway-specific words, such as “buffer beam”, “shunter”, and “cow catcher.” These words are explained in the glossary, “Ashley’s Railway Words”, at the end of the book.   While not widely distributed, the series is available through the Bennett Brook Railway. This volume includes a loose single page insert that explains the history of the real Windy Wyndham engine, which has been at Whiteman Park since 1984.  Overall, this is an excellent series, which is suitable for elementary school libraries and public libraries.  Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 


Telopea ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 227-235
Author(s):  
Peter Olde ◽  

Twenty-one Grevillea species currently comprise the Triloba Group sensu Flora of Australia, or Group 1 sensu The Grevillea Book. All species except the transcontinental species G. anethifolia R.Br. are distributed in southwest Western Australia. Grevillea pieroniae Olde, herein described, is currently treated as Grevillea sp. Stirling Range (D.J. McGillivray 3488 & A.S. George) by the Western Australian Herbarium. It has some affinity with Grevillea anethifolia through shared possession of similar truncate-conical to cylindrical pollen-presenters. Grevillea pieroniae is a rare species that is potentially threatened by Phytophthora cinnamomi, fire frequency, a drying climate, as well as grazing by feral and native herbivores, so requires careful assessment and ongoing monitoring. A short history of the Triloba Group is provided to give context to Grevillea pieroniae and as precursor to other related species soon to be recognised.


2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Pervin

David Magnusson has been the most articulate spokesperson for a holistic, systems approach to personality. This paper considers three concepts relevant to a dynamic systems approach to personality: dynamics, systems, and levels. Some of the history of a dynamic view is traced, leading to an emphasis on the need for stressing the interplay among goals. Concepts such as multidetermination, equipotentiality, and equifinality are shown to be important aspects of a systems approach. Finally, attention is drawn to the question of levels of description, analysis, and explanation in a theory of personality. The importance of the issue is emphasized in relation to recent advances in our understanding of biological processes. Integrating such advances into a theory of personality while avoiding the danger of reductionism is a challenge for the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Gemma Tulud Cruz

Christian missionaries played an important role in the Australian nation building that started in the nineteenth century. This essay explores the multifaceted and complex cultural encounters in the context of two aboriginal missions in Australia in the nineteenth century. More specifically, the essay explores the New Norcia mission in Western Australia in 1846-1900 and the Lutheran mission in South Australia in 1838-1853. The essay begins with an overview of the history of the two missions followed by a discussion of the key faces of the cultural encounters that occurred in the course of the missions. This is followed by theological reflections on the encounters in dialogue with contemporary theology, particularly the works of Robert Schreiter.


Author(s):  
Arunabh Ghosh

In 1949, at the end of a long period of wars, one of the biggest challenges facing leaders of the new People's Republic of China was how much they did not know. The government of one of the world's largest nations was committed to fundamentally reengineering its society and economy via socialist planning while having almost no reliable statistical data about their own country. This book is the history of efforts to resolve this “crisis in counting.” The book explores the choices made by political leaders, statisticians, academics, statistical workers, and even literary figures in attempts to know the nation through numbers. It shows that early reliance on Soviet-inspired methods of exhaustive enumeration became increasingly untenable in China by the mid-1950s. Unprecedented and unexpected exchanges with Indian statisticians followed, as the Chinese sought to learn about the then-exciting new technology of random sampling. These developments were overtaken by the tumult of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), when probabilistic and exhaustive methods were rejected and statistics was refashioned into an ethnographic enterprise. By acknowledging Soviet and Indian influences, the book not only revises existing models of Cold War science but also globalizes wider developments in the history of statistics and data. Anchored in debates about statistics and its relationship to state building, the book offers fresh perspectives on China's transition to socialism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (6) ◽  
pp. 4-4
Author(s):  
Rafael Heller
Keyword(s):  

It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of new technology that appears to have potential to transform everything, including education. But, as Rafael Heller explains, educators have a long history of being seduced by technologies that never really lived up to their promise. That’s no reason to ignore technology’s potential, but plenty of reason to be realistic about what it can achieve.


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