Remote Australia Online

Indigenous land and sea management (ILSM) has been the focus of large government investment in Australia and globally. Beyond environmental benefits, such investments can deliver a suite of social, cultural and economic co-benefits, aligning with the objectives of Indigenous communities and of governments for culturally appropriate socio-economic development. Nevertheless, there have been very few studies done on the spatial distribution of this investment and the extent to which its associated co-benefits address socio-economic disadvantage, which is unevenly distributed across Australia. This study draws on Australian ILSM programmes to examine the spatial and temporal distribution of investment for ILSM between 2002?2012 and considers implications for the distribution of associated co-benefits. Mapping and analysis of 2600 conservation projects revealed that at least $462M of investment in ILSM projects had occurred at 750 discrete sites throughout Australia. More than half of this investment in ILSM has been concentrated in northern Australia, in disadvantaged remote and very remote areas where a high percentage of the population is Indigenous, and Indigenous land ownership extensive. Our research has shown that ILSM investment has successfully been spatially distributed to areas with high needs for multiple social, economic, environmental and health and well-being co-benefit outcomes.

Australian grassroots action on climate change is a recent phenomenon. Climate change as an issueof concern entered the political landscape and the national psyche of Australia later than in othercountries, but since then there has been a surge of climate action. A grassroots layer of the climatemovement has been co-evolving with the proposal of development projects such as coal mines.Australia’s grassroots movement consists of concerned citizens seeking to address climate changethrough personal action by pushing for broader economic, political, and social change. The researchproduced by this analysis delves into this aspect of climate action in the context of the coal miningindustry in Australia, with particular focus on environmental discourses (e.g., sustainabledevelopment, environmental justice, green radicalism) characteristic of the #StopAdani movementthat has evolved to contest the proposed Adani mine. ​What is the geography/landscape of environmentalactivism in the case of the Carmichael Coal Mine in Queensland, Australia?​ I draw on social media data,interview data, as well as important documents and sources from the gray literature to address thisquestion. Analyzing across these various datasets, I show that the Australian grassroots movementagainst the Adani coal mine has been able to adapt its vantage depending on scale, employing aneconomy-centered argument about the infeasibility of fossil fuel extraction at the local scale and anenvironment-focused argument about the injustices of coal mining ventures on the global scale. Ialso find that while the movement historically engaged with diverse discourses, ideas ofenvironmental justice became more prominent in the movement following the Australian bushfires.Social media data illustrate how Twitter contributes to the dynamism of grassroots activism whilealso illustrating how important events, e.g., the bushfires, can have a dramatic effect on orientationof activism. The data also illustrate how different framings of the same issue, i.e., the economicunviability of the Adani mine and the environmental injustices of the Carmichael, can have aunifying impact on social movements.

Objectives: To describe the current contraception usage patterns from a cohort of Australian Indigenous women, including their ideal family size and spacing between children. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of data (2012-2019). Setting: Data are from a longitudinal study, the Gomeroi gaaynggal (babies from Gomeroi lands) program, based in rural and remote Gomeroi lands in New South Wales. Participants: Women carrying an Indigenous baby who enrolled during pregnancy were eligible for the study. The mother and child are then followed for up to 10 years. Main outcome measures: Contraception usage in the postnatal period was recorded, as well as whether they were sexually active, whether they wanted more children and their preferred spacing between children. Medical, social and demographic information was also collected. These measures were self-reported via an online tool (Survey Monkey?) at their first visit to the study following the birth of their child. Results: Ninety-nine women were included in the analysis. Most women reported that they were sexually active at the time they were questioned about their contraceptive usage. The most popular contraception choices were condoms, the oral contraceptive pill and implant rods. Those answering that they did not want more children had a median of three children already. Those who wanted more children had a median of one child. The majority of the women stated that 2-3 years between babies was ideal. Conclusion: The sampled women had clear beliefs about their ideal family size, in which contraceptive usage played an important part.

In this issue of The Lancet Regional Health-Western Pacific, Hare and colleagues have reported on over three decades of data on hyperglycaemia (defined as pre-existing and gestational diabetes) during pregnancy and birthweight trends in a cohort of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women from the Northern Territory, Australia. [1] The authors report on the increase in rates over time in gestational diabetes (3.4% in 1987 to 13% in 2016) and pre-existing diabetes (0.6% in 1987 to 5.7% in 2016) in pregnant Aboriginal women. A similar increasing trend for gestational diabetes was also reported for non-Aboriginal women (1.9% in 1987 to 11% in 2016), with no change in pre-existing diabetes (≤0.7% throughout). Along with the increase in hyperglycaemia over time there was also a decrease in small-for-gestational-age for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers. Despite this important decrease, there was a significant concurrent increase over time for large-for-gestational-age and high birthweight (>4000g) infants for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers with the average increase for Aboriginal mothers greater than non-Aboriginal mothers. Importantly when investigating the contribution of hyperglycaemia during pregnancy on large for gestational age infants, the authors found that there was a strong association over time.

Interactions between dingoes and domestic dogs in Australia have implications for disease spread, but to understand the potential impact, better knowledge of the nature of this dingo-domestic dog interface is needed. Driven by a need to assess the risk of a rabies incursion in northern Australia and its likely impact, a field research program was initiated in 2012, focused on the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) of Cape York, Queensland. There is scant information available on how and under what circumstances dingoes interact with domestic dogs, which is a gap in disease preparedness and response, and studies have been conducted on both domestic dogs and dingoes in this area. Here we describe one study that used camera-trap data to assess fixed and variable characteristics of NPA dingo populations. Because of the dingo-domestic dog interface and hybridisation in the NPA, we hypothesised that some dingo-type dogs might exhibit domestic dog traits. During 12 months of monitoring, 24 phenotypically-based dingo- type dogs were identified. Seven of these that were studied in more detail exhibited both dingo-like and domestic dog-like traits. Activity was concentrated at an unofficial waste site and mostly at night, and interactions between these seven dingo-like dogs were observed. Although interactions between this subset of highly active dingoes and domestic dogs were not observed, two such interactions were observed within the larger group of dingoes. Whilst this study provides baseline information about the role that the dingo-domestic dog interface could play in disease spread – such as in the event of a rabies incursion – it is a snapshot in a single region. To inform disease surveillance, control and management plans, multidisciplinary research involving ecologists, epidemiologists and veterinarians, together with indigenous communities, is needed to further define the dingo-domestic dog interface in Australia.

This paper reports on a project aimed at investigating teacher wellbeing in remote communities in Australia. It utilised a multiple case study methodology to investigate the lived experiences of remote Australian teachers, particularly how remote teachers simultaneously manage the wellbeing and academic needs of their students. Findings show how the challenges of working in remote places impact teacher wellbeing and provides six practical recommendations about how to better support remote teachers. There is a present need to develop a framework of remote teachers thriving, so systems and communities are not over-reliant upon teachers’ individual resilience in hard-to-staff places.

The introduction of exotic herbivores into the semi-arid and arid zones of Australia resulted in dramatic change in the native vegetation (e.g. Noble and Tongway 1986; Friedel et al. 1990). Overgrazing and trampling reduced ground cover and changed species composition from dominance by perennial grasses and shrubs to dominance by annual species over extensive areas (e.g. Gunn 1986), or assisted the encroachment of woody species (Wilcox and Cunningham 1994). It is particularly in this context that the recent introduction of new sheep breeds, reputedly hardier than traditional Merinos, and the increasing trend to farming or re-domestication of feral goats, poses serious quest-ions for the ecological sustainability of the region. This ongoing project aims to combine information from laboratory experiments, field studies and producer experience to develop practical management strategies that are supportive of regional and national ground cover targets aimed at reducing wind erosion and maintaining biodiversity values. We report the preliminary results and recommend management strategies.

This chapter describes and reflects on an intensive four-week pre-release educaring program run with Aboriginal women in Alice Springs Correctional Centre Northern Territory, Australia. The behaviours, or symptoms, that contributed to the incarceration of these women, who comprise 2.2 per cent of the Australian population and are 34 per cent of women in prison in Australia, reflect their stories in a colonised space—demonstrating Australia as a continuing penal colony. There is systemic failure across the whole service delivery, with incapacity to acknowledge, understand and respond to the women’s trauma experiences and provide alternatives to prison. Taking healing into a prison with the Kunga Stopping Violence Program required a journey through their layers of loss grief and trauma, walking the circle of wellbeing into anger violence boundaries and safety. This chapter discusses the outcome of this process which drew on indigenous methods of art in feelings and story in poetry that show the strength of culture in healing from generational trauma, with the opportunity to ‘circle into truth through stories’.

Grassland production systems contribute 40% to Australia’s gross agricultural production value and utilise over 50% of its land area. Across this area a broad diversity of systems exist, but these can be broadly classified into four main production systems: 1. Pastoral grazing of mainly cattle at low intensity (i.e. <0.4 DSE/ha) on relatively unimproved native rangelands in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern and central Australia; 2. Crop-livestock systems in the semi- arid zone where livestock graze a mixture of pastures and crops which are often integrated; 3. High rainfall permanent pasture zone in the coastal hinterland and highlands and; 4. Dairy systems covering a broad range of environments and production intensities. A notable trend across these systems has been the replacement of wool sheep with beef cattle or meat sheep breeds,which has been driven by low wool prices. Although there is evidence that most of these systems have lifted production efficiencies over the past 30 years, total factor productivity growth has failed to match the decline in terms of trade. This has renewed attention on how research and development can help increase productivity. In addition, these industries are facing increasing scrutiny to improve their environmental performance and develop sustainable production practices. We propose several areas in which grasslands research and development might help provide gains in system productivity and sustainability. In particular, pasture productivity might be improved by filling gaps in the array of pastures available either through exploring new species or improving the adaptation and agronomic characteristics of species currently sown. Meanwhile there is a need to maintain efforts to overcome persistent and emerging constraints to pasture productivity. Improving livestock forage feed systems and more precise and lower cost management of grasslands would translate into improved utilisation and conversion of forage produced into livestock products. There is significant scope to capture value from the ecological services grasslands provide and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production. Multi-purpose grasslands provide not only grazing for livestock but produce other food products such as grain which may also have potential to integrate livestock with cropping. However, reduced human research capacity in pasture science will challenge our ability to realise these potential opportunities unless efforts are made to attract and support a new generation of pasture scientists.

There are significant economic and environmental issues impacting on the short and long term viability of family-run breeding enterprises in the Queensland Gulf. Falling cattle prices and increased business costs threaten the social and financial well-being of many beef producers. Set stocking and overgrazing combine to reduce native 3P (productive, palatable and perennial) grass frequency and herd produc-tivity. The Ryan family on Greenhills Station at George-town in the Queensland Gulf embarked on a 5 year water and fencing infrastructure development program aiming to improve pasture utilisation, land condition and long term carrying capacity.

Art centres across regional and remote Australia support the contemporary cultural expression of more than 14,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and are a significant part of the local economies in their communities (Acker & Woodhead, 2014a; Altman, 2012). These small enterprises fulfil a range of artistic, commercial, civic and social welfare functions, which places many of them under pressure to meet community needs and expectations (Wright, 1999). Government policies and programs have been determining factors in their success (Altman, 2013). This thesis explores how policies and programs have impacted on art centres, with the aim of better understanding the enabling environment in which art centres operate and why they have succeeded to the degree they have. The hopes of policymakers, politicians and government staff rest on the art centres as vehicles for economic engagement and independence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, 2008). This research surveys the writings about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander economic development and the art and craft sector of remote Australia. Case studies from the Pilbara and the Torres Strait have been selected to track the impact of market forces, economic trends and policy on specific art centres, focusing on but not limited to the period between 2007 and 2013. The research demonstrates how poorly defined and understood art centres are in the policy domain and the path dependencies that have evolved as a result of self-determination and, more recently, of normalisation approaches to development in remote Australia (Pierson, 2000; P. Sullivan, 2011a). This thesis identifies some of the reasons the expectations of art centre performance have been so high, what kind of economic engagement policymakers are proposing and what the future outlook for art centres may be.

There is ongoing debate about the benefits of multi-paddock rotationally grazed systems compared to continuous grazing (Briske et al. 2008). One of the purported benefits of high density short duration grazing is more spatially uniform defoliation. A commercial-scale trial in northern Australia (Hunt et al. 2013) compared continuously grazed paddocks to cell grazed and wet season spelled systems in newly developed paddocks. This paper reports the effect of grazing system on defoliation with distance to water through time.

OBJECTIVE: Abuse of inhalants containing the volatile solvent toluene is a significant public health issue, especially for adolescent and Indigenous communities. Adolescent inhalant abuse can lead to chronic health issues and may initiate a trajectory towards further drug use. Identification of at-risk individuals is difficult and diagnostic tools are limited primarily to measurement of serum toluene. Our objective was to identify the effects of adolescent inhalant abuse on subsequent drug use and growth parameters, and to test the predictive power of growth parameters as a diagnostic measure for inhalant abuse. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed drug use and growth data from 118 Indigenous males; 86 chronically sniffed petrol as adolescents. RESULTS: Petrol sniffing was the earliest drug used (mean 13 years) and increased the likelihood and earlier use of other drugs. Petrol sniffing significantly impaired height and weight and was associated with meeting 'failure to thrive' criteria; growth diagnostically out-performed serum toluene. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent inhalant abuse increases the risk for subsequent and earlier drug use. It also impairs growth such that individuals meet 'failure to thrive' criteria, representing an improved diagnostic model for inhalant abuse. Implications for Public Health: Improved diagnosis of adolescent inhalant abuse may lead to earlier detection and enhanced health outcomes.

While many remote places in Queensland, Australia have access to schools, very few have provision for preschool education. Recent efforts to change this have included the development of a kindergarten program delivered through the local school. An impact assessment undertaken in 2017 involved visiting 30 remote sites offering the program. Analysis of interview data indicated the importance of sense of place in the delivery of this program. Educators and family members were overwhelmingly supportive of the option of a kindergarten program in their sites, regarding it as an equity and social justice imperative to provide access to programs that seem to be taken-for-granted for children and families in urban and regional locations. The potential for the program to enhance social interactions and educational outcomes was highlighted, even when educators noted a range of challenges in the implementation of the program. Sense of place and the positioning of educators and families are explored in the paper.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in tourism has developed to become an important, although small, part of the tourism sector in Australia. Engagement in tourism is an avenue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote regions to build independent and sustainable economic opportunities on country. This thesis examines the networking activities that underpin the facilitation and development of Aboriginal tourism in remote regions of Australia at the level of the enterprise. The research draws on the expertise and knowledge of two Aboriginal tourism enterprises, investigating the nature of business networks for Aboriginal tourism enterprises in remote Australia. The research explores the kinds of networks used by small remote Aboriginal tourism enterprises, and in what ways the networks contribute to the resilience of the enterprises. The study draws from business networking theory and organisational resilience theory, arguing that networking is key to organisational resilience and worthy of investigation. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, consistent with a shift towards interpretive approaches within tourism scholarship. This was informed by the selection of a constructivist epistemology, that acknowledges the subjectivity of the social reality of the human world. The research design was also informed by the Indigenist research paradigm by explicitly privileging Indigenous voices, acknowledging the non-Indigenous worldview of the researcher, and following protocols advocated by Indigenous scholars. Two case studies were undertaken, with Iga Warta in the northern Flinders Ranges and with Kelly’s Ranch in Tennant Creek. Both enterprises offer cultural tourism products in addition to other non-tourism business activity, yet these case studies operate dissimilar business models in distinct remote locales. Therefore, the case studies were not comparable as they represent the experiences of two enterprises in different circumstances. The findings of the research reveal that these two enterprises maintain networks at a local, state, national and international level, within three distinct systems G the tourism system, the wider business system and the cultural system. In addition, networks vary in strength and bring different combinations of resources to the enterprise that include monetary benefit, information and social support. The enterprises often select business relationships that are supported by a shared understanding predicated on a wide range of shared interests and experiences. In addition, the enterprises maintain networks by adopting multiple ‘hats’ and ‘identities’, navigating various systems simultaneously. This offers further evidence to support previous research that suggests that Aboriginal business people are more inclusive than competitive, and that networking is a process embedded in Aboriginal culture. Networks contribute to the resilience of the enterprises by enhancing the longevity and adaptability of the enterprises through connection to learning opportunities, information, new visitor channels, and professional development. Yet, withdrawal or absence of networks can challenge enterprises to seek out new networks to access these resources. Various forms of capital also emerge as sources of resilience for the enterprises, including social capital, identity capital and cultural capital. The prevalence of business networking activity that exists within the cultural system of these case studies indicates that the cultural capital inherent in these relationships supports a range of productive business activity, anathema to previous research that cultural capital may not support commercial enterprise. The implications stemming from this research for small remote Aboriginal tourism enterprises are that there are a diverse range of tourism and non-tourism networking options can be a source of resilience, particularly when enterprises are adaptive and take risks. Furthermore, when available, local networks and connections with other Aboriginal tourism enterprises can offer unique benefits. Future research and support mechanisms can facilitate the networking and resilience of remote Aboriginal tourism enterprises by recognising culture and cooperative networking as a strength and source of resilience.

The range of available sown pasture legumes for the vast heavy clay soil regions of northern Australia has long been regarded as being deficient (Burt 1993; Jones and Clem 1997; Pengelly and Conway 2000). Indeed immense areas of northern Australia’s semi-arid clay soil regions have nosown pasture legume with proven adaptation and persis-tence through the long annual dry seasons (Gardiner and Swan 2008). The genus Desmanthus is a Mimosaceae le-gume containing some 24 species which are native to the Americas and range from being herbaceous to suffruticose in habit (Luckow 1993). Desmanthus is one of the very few legumes consistently observed to persist under heavy graz-ing on clay soils in their native environments (Pengelly and Conway 2000). Numerous accessions of Desmanthus were collected and introduced into Australia by various institu-tions, notably CSIRO and QDPI, over the past 50 years (Reid 1983; Pengelly and Liu 2001), as potential legumes for clay soils. After years of multi-site field evaluation of Desmanthus and other species, in 1991 QDPI released 3 Desmanthus cultivars, cvv. Marc (D. virgatus), Bayamo (D. leptophyllus) and Uman (D. pubescens), which were mar-keted as a blend named “Jaribu” (Cook et al. 1993). Currently, only cv. Marc is available commercially with a focus on southern subtropical Queensland markets. How-ever, Pengelly and Conway (2000) state that, owing to Marc’s low dry matter production, its contribution to ani-mal diets and soil N is limited.

This article considers the spatial and material implications of drinking water regulation in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. Responding to water contamination and scarcity events in remote NT communities, we argue that the politico-bureaucratic edifice of uniform drinking water governance and service provision across the NT is a state-curated fiction. The article outlines the available legislative protections for drinking water supply in the NT, which include minimum quality standards, water allocation mechanisms, testing regimes, and so on. These are shown to vary significantly between geographic locations and we argue that this produces a racialised ?archipelago? of differentiated islands of drinking water governance (Bakker 2003. "Archipelagos and Networks: Urbanization and Water Privatization in the South." The Geographical Journal 169 (4): 328-341). Using the Gulf country town of Borroloola as a case study, the article then examines the colonial and land rights bases of this spatial variegation, and its significance for drinking water infrastructure provision and remediation. In doing so, we consider how the entropic materialities of ageing infrastructures work to further confound effective drinking water regulations and their practical enactments. The article argues that it is crucial to understand the limits of drinking water regulation in the NT, in order to elucidate the racialised distribution of potential environmental harms, and to mitigate further toxic inheritances.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have notably embraced vocational education and training (VET) in places classified as very remote by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Participation rates are high and qualification holders are increasing as a result of strong participation (Crawford & Biddle 2017; Windley 2017). Despite this strong participation, the employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates in very remote parts of Australia remain low. It would seem that training is not translating into employability or employment for many (if not most) learners. One reason for this is completion rates of less than 20% for many courses, meaning there is high attrition. Completion rates are particularly low at Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) certificates I and II. In 2015, completion rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in very remote areas across Australia were 10.6% for certificate I courses and 16.6% for all AQF courses. For participants then, the expectations of training may not be realised, and, for training providers and trainers, the inefficiencies created by non-completion mean that too much attention is placed on attending to the needs of administration rather than on the learners. Recognising this problem, a team of researchers representing five different institutions from around Australia set out to uncover how training retention and employability could be improved. Drawing on their experience, they identified five programs in their institutions that are considered successful in achieving above-average retention. By studying these case examples, the factors contributing to successful retention could be identified, as well as the approaches that worked. The team also examined quantitative data, available through the National Centre for Vocational Education Research’s (NCVER) VOCSTATS database, to understand the dynamics of participation, retention and completion in very remote parts of Australia.

Since 2011 the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s (CRC-REP) Remote Education Systems (RES) project has investigated aspects of remote schooling with a view to uncovering ways that outcomes for remote students and their families could be improved. One of the key questions driving the research was ‘what is education for in remote communities?’ The bulk of responses from remote Aboriginal respondents discussed the need for education to maintain language and culture, and build strong identities in young people. Very few respondents suggested that school was a stepping stone on a pathway to higher education. The question remains then, ‘what kinds of pathways would enable remote learners to progress to university and then to succeed?’ The answers we provide to this question are in part drawn from the RES research findings. But we also propose responses that are built on principles that emerge from the project. We look forward to consider how remote education systems could respond to give young people with aspirations for higher education the opportunities they need to succeed. The answers we provide recognise the complexity of the context. In particular, we provide a critique of boarding school strategies and suggest – in line with RES findings – strategies and approaches that are responsive to both the aspirations stated by community members for the future of the youth and the community.

The extensive tropical grasslands of north Queensland are grazed by beef cattle and provide a significant proportion of the water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. Soil sediments and nutrients eroding from the grazing lands of the Burdekin and Fitzroy catchments in north-e ast Queensland contributes to reduced water quality in the GBR lagoon. Degraded and eroded D-condition bare areas and eroding gullies in grazing lands provide a disproportionate amount of soil and nutrient losses from predominately native pasture grasslands used for cattle grazing. Rehabilitating these degraded areas will help improve water quality flowing onto the reef.Rehabilitation methods were evaluated on three soil types on a degraded creek frontage in the Burdekin River catchment of north Queensland over the 2011-2012 summer. These bare patches occur widely across the two catchments and consistently degraded sites have been identified by 24 years of satellite imagery. The objectives of this study were to identify mechanical methods and management practices for regenerating these bare patches. This will assist landholders in returning unproductive land into useful grazing pastures and willprovide benefits to the wider community by improving water quality from grazing lands that enters the GBR lagoon.

This paper explores a reflexive decolonizing framework, arising from a teachers` first four years of teaching practice in an Indigenous community in the North of what is commonly known as Australia[A1]. The paper seeks to frame a connection between the already-established field of teacher self-reflection, and a need for decolonizing ways of knowing in education, to respect and recenter othered knowledge systems. Autoethnography and open-ended interviews are implemented with Indigenous elders, to explore the self-reflection that a non-Indigenous teacher must embrace to begin to decolonize their practice. Drawing on theories of whiteness (Moreton-Robinson, 2000), othering (Staszak, 2009) and the Cultural Interface in settler-Indigenous discursive spaces (Nakata, 2007), this work documents an extended process of teacher self-reflection. Reflecting on Karen Martin’s (2008) work Please Knock Before You Enter, and in response to Laenui’s Processes of Decolonisation (2000), starting points are proposed from which teachers can think deeply about their practice concerning ongoing coloniality. The epistemological underpinnings of teachers’ practice are explored as the place where decolonizing work must occur across all educational spaces.

Purpose – Good social relationships and connections to place are key aspects of work-life balance that are rarely considered by employers because of a focus on the work part of the dichotomy. In response to this omission, this paper aims to investigate women's experiences of frequent relocations due to their partner's employment in the mining industry. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with 20 women, who had partners employed in the mining industry. Thematic analysis focussed on participants' individual stories of relocation to identify common and divergent experiences. Findings – Themes identified included the role of industry practices and expectations in supporting relocation; personal strengths and strategies developed over time; individual and family needs during relocation; the impact of life stage on decisions about relocation and the important aspects of place. Research limitations/implications – Mining has a relocation culture common to those involved in the industry. While this culture presents challenges, most of the participants in this study also found benefits in moving often and had developed strategies to cope with relocation upheaval. Participants expanded their social relationships, adding to community resources of the places they lived in by participating in social and cultural events. Practical implications – Relocation disrupts workforce stability and cohesion desired by industry. Understanding relocation culture is one way family members survive in the industry. It is critical for the mining industry to acknowledge the life part of work-life balance. Originality/value – The paper conceptualises relocation as a significant part of the mining industry's culture creating mining families as itinerant. This is the first paper that examines family experiences and social relationships, external to the industry they are connected to. The finding that family members of mining industry employees are very likely to live in remote locations at some point is new. The way these individuals can be used as resource in deprived locations requires further exploration.

The aim of this paper is to present a brief historical analysis of the Australian mining industry and the development of its social licence to operate. Commencing with the discovery of coal in the 18th century, to gold and copper and base metals in the 19th century, to the world class iron ore, mineral sands and diamond mines of the 20th century to the current day, the paper will attempt to determine how and why an industry, formerly well-respected by the public, is considered to be a pariah in the eyes of many sections of society. The theory of social licence and its use in the Australian minerals industry is briefly described and a working definition of “an honest, transparent engagement resulting in a beneficial outcome to all parties before, during and after mining” is adopted throughout the paper. Case studies illustrating examples where mining operations were, and continue to be sustained for decades, provide clear evidence of having a social licence to operate. On the other hand, examples are provided illustrating where poor environmental management practices, tailings dam failures, disputes with landowners, and/or government intervention have resulted in the loss of the social licence and early, unplanned closure. The paradox is that despite the industry's acknowledged contribution to the Australian economy, particularly in times of global ructions such as the GFC and the current coronavirus pandemic, there is considerable antipathy towards the industry by the public. Furthermore, the Australian mining industry's approach to environmental management and sustainable development is regularly used as a model for emerging mining economies. The industry has pioneered remediation and rehabilitation on challenging sites, including prime agricultural land, forests, riverine and beach environments. Successes are rarely acknowledged however but failures are highlighted, by the media, opponents of the industry, and governments. Clearly, the business as usual approach is not enough. Mining industry leaders need to take strong measures to ensure the industry is sustainable and maintains its social licence including eliminating all fatalities and serious injuries, ensuring the safety and stability of tailings storage facilities, accelerating progressive rehabilitation particularly on open cut coal mines, successfully closing mines, and lifting the environmental performance of all mines, not just a few.

INTRODUCTION: Rural and remote Australia has a shortage of allied health clinicians. The provision of quality rural placement experiences for allied health students has been a significant strategy to address these health workforce shortages. Service learning rural placements are providing allied health services in small rural towns where previously allied health services were limited or did not exist. Published literature has little detailed description of the origin or nature of particular placement programs. METHODS: An increase in Commonwealth funding for rural allied health clinical placements led to the development of an innovative service learning placement model in northern New South Wales, the Rural Community-Based Work-Ready Placement Program. During this placement, students were paired for 4-10 full-time weeks in a preschool, school or aged care facility. The program's fundamental properties included cultural and social equity education, providing continuous service throughout the year, and quality improvement initiatives in placement sites. The program was underpinned by an interdisciplinary approach that included interdisciplinary placements, interdisciplinary supervision and a structured interdisciplinary education program. RESULTS: The program required investment in stakeholder engagement and in the alignment of universities' requirements for student learning outcomes and the sites' specific needs. Clinical supervisors had to adapt to supervising students from various disciplines and universities across several sites, towns and services. The program provided students with opportunities to work autonomously, problem-solve and to initiate and implement quality improvement projects at each site. CONCLUSION: Careful selection of students, adequate preparation and management of students' expectations were important contributors to the success of the program. Providing a continuous service is an ongoing logistical challenge.

Immersive service-learning (ISL) tours provide opportunities for students to deepen their academic and social learning as they provide services to others in an environment different to their home. Research on the effects of ISL tours has been conducted with secondary, tertiary, and graduate school level students, but little research exists on the effects for primary school-age students. This may bein part because of the scarcity of ISL programs available for primary school-age students. This case study research explores the impacts of an ISL service-learning experience on its primary school-age participants. The community of the metropolitan suburban school at the centre of the study had long-held beliefs in the value of such experiences for their students, but no empirical evidence existed to validate these claims. The research aimed to explore the impacts on the students from two perspectives: (i) the students themselves; and (ii) the parents of the students. These two groups formed the participant groups for the study. Mixed methods were selected for the case study; quantitative data were collected first using a custom-designed questionnaire, on two occasions: one before, and one after the ISL experience. These explored the impacts in terms of five pre-determined themes: social-emotional development; intellectual learning;empathic understandings; the nature of service;and understanding Australian culture. Results from the survey data were then used to formulate semi-structured interview questions asked for focus groups with both groups, on only one occasion, after the tour was completed. Through this methodology, a deeper understanding of the impacts has been realised, and especially through the voices of the participants. In total, nine key impacts were found: social-emotional, intellectual, and empathic development; a change in perspectives on service and Australian culture; interpersonal and personal skill development, and finally understandings of remote living, and Aboriginal culture. The case study has fulfilled the aims of justifying service-learning as appropriate pedagogy for the primary-school level in finding that many benefits for these students resultedfrom the immersive service-learning experience. The evidence from the findings of this study has important implications, justifying the benefits service-learning experiences for primary-school teachers to deliver to, and with, their students; they can beconfident that they will be making a difference in the hearts and minds of possible leaders of tomorrow.