Playing for Life: A Case Study in Childhood, Culture and Transition. This study will advance Australian research on identity formation in postcolonial societies; develop child-focused research in academic anthropology; align Australian Aboriginal Studies with recent international progress in the field of children's social imagination; innovate the analysis of transforming Indigenous worldviews; create a perspective for in-depth psychological research with Aboriginal Australians; build a rich res ....Playing for Life: A Case Study in Childhood, Culture and Transition. This study will advance Australian research on identity formation in postcolonial societies; develop child-focused research in academic anthropology; align Australian Aboriginal Studies with recent international progress in the field of children's social imagination; innovate the analysis of transforming Indigenous worldviews; create a perspective for in-depth psychological research with Aboriginal Australians; build a rich resource for comparative research and for teaching. It also offers distinct social benefits: fostering the understanding of Aboriginal children's social and mental needs in processes of cultural transformation; enhancing equality by identifying the positive potentials in children and Aboriginal society.
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Can there be good policy? Tracing the paths between policy intent, evidence and practical benefit in regional and remote Australia. By tracking major health, housing and education reforms currently underway across regional and remote Australia, this research generates fresh perspectives on an urgent contemporary debate in Indigenous social affairs: namely, are governments best placed to drive social change or to determine policy imperatives; and if not, are there alternate ways to generate good ....Can there be good policy? Tracing the paths between policy intent, evidence and practical benefit in regional and remote Australia. By tracking major health, housing and education reforms currently underway across regional and remote Australia, this research generates fresh perspectives on an urgent contemporary debate in Indigenous social affairs: namely, are governments best placed to drive social change or to determine policy imperatives; and if not, are there alternate ways to generate good policy? An anthropological approach will be used to observe government policy at work. The research will explore the institutional reasons behind the gap between intention and outcome in Indigenous social policy; how failure cycles in policy are replicated; and possible techniques for creating and implementing a new ethics of policy engagement.Read moreRead less
Investigating social, built and physical environment factors for remote Indigenous communities, and their relationships with cardiometabolic outcomes. This study with 74 remote Indigenous communities will be the first to evaluate features of their social, built and physical environments in relation to cardiometabolic risks and diseases. Policy-relevant results will identify features of environments to be targeted to assist reducing chronic diseases for Indigenous peoples in remote communities.
Challenges, Possibilities and Future Directions: A National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts. Children's Courts occupy a unique position in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in responding to often marginalized delinquent youth and vulnerable children and families. Philosophical and structural shifts in Australia and overseas suggest community and legal system responses are often ineffective and contribute to longer-term problems, creating social challenges for governments ....Challenges, Possibilities and Future Directions: A National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts. Children's Courts occupy a unique position in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in responding to often marginalized delinquent youth and vulnerable children and families. Philosophical and structural shifts in Australia and overseas suggest community and legal system responses are often ineffective and contribute to longer-term problems, creating social challenges for governments and communities alike. This national study will examine how key stakeholders, including, significantly, judicial officers, view the Children's Court's contemporary responses and challenges, their preferred alternatives responses and the viability of suggested reforms, thus offering a unique contribution to informing legal and social policy change.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disp ....Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disparities have policy implications for education and skills training, housing affordability, infrastructure provision, and community sustainability. These issues will be investigated using a new functional economic regions geography and state of art spatial modelling tools supplemented by regional case studies.Read moreRead less
Heat stress in the workplace: health burden and labour productivity loss. This project aims to estimate the economic loss of workplace heat exposure in Australia. The project will investigate the health services costs of occupational heat-related illnesses/injuries, explore the labour productivity loss and its costs resulting from heat stress at work, and estimate the benefits from a generic heat warning intervention for workplace heat prevention. Outcomes are expected to provide an overview of ....Heat stress in the workplace: health burden and labour productivity loss. This project aims to estimate the economic loss of workplace heat exposure in Australia. The project will investigate the health services costs of occupational heat-related illnesses/injuries, explore the labour productivity loss and its costs resulting from heat stress at work, and estimate the benefits from a generic heat warning intervention for workplace heat prevention. Outcomes are expected to provide an overview of national economic implications at present and in the future from effective heat stress control, assist the development of work place heat policies, and inform resource allocation to make Australian workplaces well prepared for likely increasing extremely hot weather.Read moreRead less
The demographic consequences of extreme weather events in Australia. This project aims to understand how extreme weather events are likely to affect Australians’ residential mobility choices, using machine learning techniques to provide the first overview of the impact of natural hazards on where Australians are likely to live in the future. Expected outcomes include an understanding of the influence of extreme weather events on changes in population numbers and composition. Expected benefits in ....The demographic consequences of extreme weather events in Australia. This project aims to understand how extreme weather events are likely to affect Australians’ residential mobility choices, using machine learning techniques to provide the first overview of the impact of natural hazards on where Australians are likely to live in the future. Expected outcomes include an understanding of the influence of extreme weather events on changes in population numbers and composition. Expected benefits include an understanding of how environmental drivers are influencing internal migration in Australia, enabling better planning for service provision and economic growth.Read moreRead less
Do marine heat waves cause pathogen outbreaks in Australian coastal waters? This project aims to identify links between increasingly frequent Marine Heat Wave (MHW) events and outbreaks of microbes that cause disease in marine animals, reduced aquaculture yields and human health hazards. Pathogenic bacteria from the Vibrio genus exhibit a preference for elevated seawater temperature and this project will test the hypothesis that episodic MHWs will trigger blooms of dangerous species. Using innov ....Do marine heat waves cause pathogen outbreaks in Australian coastal waters? This project aims to identify links between increasingly frequent Marine Heat Wave (MHW) events and outbreaks of microbes that cause disease in marine animals, reduced aquaculture yields and human health hazards. Pathogenic bacteria from the Vibrio genus exhibit a preference for elevated seawater temperature and this project will test the hypothesis that episodic MHWs will trigger blooms of dangerous species. Using innovative ecogenomic tools, this project will track the impact of MHWs on the dynamics of pathogenic Vibrio within coastal habitats, oyster farming facilities and coral reefs. The benefit of this project will be essential new knowledge on an emerging threat to Australia’s valuable marine estate, food security and public health.Read moreRead less
Australian savannah landscapes: past, present and future. Australian savannahs are productive and culturally and biologically significant landscapes but are vulnerable to climate change. The project will determine savannah function (carbon and water balance) for the present and assess how sensitive they have been to past climate variability. The project will then address how they may respond to future climate change.
First Nations AI: Country, Climate, Communication. Our team of Indigenous and western scholars aims to develop a systematic account of artificial intelligence and its possibilities in climate change communication in remote First Nations communities in northern Australia. Working under Indigenous governance, we will establish spaces for Indigenous landowners and scientists to come together to probe diverse AI techniques for making sense of climate predictions and risks. We will build the capacity ....First Nations AI: Country, Climate, Communication. Our team of Indigenous and western scholars aims to develop a systematic account of artificial intelligence and its possibilities in climate change communication in remote First Nations communities in northern Australia. Working under Indigenous governance, we will establish spaces for Indigenous landowners and scientists to come together to probe diverse AI techniques for making sense of climate predictions and risks. We will build the capacity of Indigenous people to conceive and design AI, accounting for divergent languages and knowledge systems. This is expected to lead to more effective and trustworthy communications about extreme weather and climate change, improving the preparedness and responses of remote First Nations communities.Read moreRead less