Outback Research Articles

Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield (review)

Reviewed by: Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield Karen Coats Wakefield, Vikki Friday Never Leaving. Simon, 2013 322p Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-8652-2 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-8655-3 $10.99 R Gr. 7-10 Friday and her mother are always on the move, so Friday’s sense of self and home comes from her mother’s stories rather than a place. From those stories she knows she’s loved but that she’s also cursed: all of the Brown women are destined to drown on a Saturday. When her mother’s lungs fill up one Saturday and she loses her battle with cancer, Friday ends up living with a group of street kids, whose leader, Arden, possesses many of the qualities Friday admired in her mother and desperately misses. Arden’s methods of keeping the group together, however, soon make Friday uncomfortable, and she tries to convince Silence, a selectively mute boy whose loyalties have transferred from Arden to Friday, to come away with her. Arden can’t allow this threat, and the entire group is put in danger by her warped need to maintain power. Artfully written, this story ranges from a sensitive portrait of broken kids trying to survive on their own and create the family they need, to depictions of life in urban and outback Australia, to a breathtaking action/adventure with outcomes both heartbreaking and chilling. Friday emerges as a character who is vulnerable to the machinations of others because she doesn’t yet understand her own needs or power, and Wakefield surely but subtly charts how Friday escapes the thrall of Arden to embrace the legacy of her mother, who has taught her many practical things as well as how to survive by staying mobile and knowing your own stories. Lyrical prose traces her path from lonesome grief to empowering connectedness, and it’s clear that coming to terms with the story of her past will ultimately free her to write the story of her future. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Obstetric Air Medical Retrievals in the Australian Outback

IntroductionWomen in labor or with complications of pregnancy in the remote, outback region of Australia's Northern Territory are transported to the hospital by air. The objective of this study was to describe the interventions required by obstetric and newborn patients during air medical transport and to evaluate how often these were beyond the scope of practice of a team consisting of an experienced midwife with or without a general flight doctor. MethodsA retrospective cohort analysis of 200 consecutive women between 20 weeks gestation up to 24 hours postpartum and newborns transferred during the same time period. ResultsOnly 1 obstetric patient required intervention beyond the scope of a midwife. Forty-eight newborn infants were transferred. Eleven (23%) required interventions within the skill range of a general flight doctor. Twenty (42%) required neonatal specialist care. Ten of 31 newborns requiring more than midwifery care were referred for transport while in utero. ConclusionsIn this specific cohort, a midwife provided an appropriate level of maternal care to the majority of patients. Newborns frequently required clinical expertise beyond the practice scope of a midwife and general flight doctor. Most women in labor do not deliver during transport. The transport service has finite economic resources and logistical constraints. This study highlighted an ongoing challenge regarding when to request additional neonatal specialist care for preterm or high-risk patients referred for transport in utero.

The Imagined Desert

The following analysis of the Australian Outback as an imagined space is informed by theories describing a separation from the objective physical world and the mapping of its representative double through language, and draws upon a reading of the function of landscape in three fictions; Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1899), Greg Mclean’s 2005 horror film Wolf Creek and Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 cinematic adaptation of Kenneth Cook’s novel Wake in Fright2. I would like to consider the Outback as a culturally produced text, and compare the function of this landscape as a cultural ‘reality’ to the function of landscape in literary and cinematic fiction.

A Distributed Ground: The Unknown Fields Division

AbstractAs leaders of the Unknown Fields Division at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London, Liam Young and Kate Davies take their students on trips to the end of the earth. Cataloguing extreme territories, they investigate the role of design in developing new cultural relationships. Fictional speculation is used as an instrument for understanding emerging environmental and technological futures, in a process of experiencing, chronicling and, ultimately, reimagining the urban and the remote, and charting global flows and trajectories. Here they describe a speculative supply chain that begins below the surface of the Western Desert in outback Australia, and continues to the Arctic ‘Northwest Passage’ and on to London.

Rainfall and temperature variation does not explain arid species diversity in outback Australia

Rainfall and temperature variation does not explain arid species diversity in outback Australia Lochran W Traill,1 Thomas C Wanger,2,3,4 Siobhan C de Little,1 Barry W Brook11Environment Institute and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia; 2Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Stanford University, CA, USA; 3Ecosystem Functions, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany; 4Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, GermanyAbstract: Steps toward conserving biodiversity should start at understanding the components across spatial scales and a determination of the drivers of these. Here we determine additive species diversity for arid South Australia, based on over 50 years of survey data. Elevation and soil data were sourced through the Australian Government, and climate data from the WorldClim database. Alternative hypotheses relating the effect of climatic and environmental parameters to diversity were tested using generalized linear models and ranked according to information-theoretic statistics. Total species richness for the region was 1824, similar to all arid regions. α-diversity values were low, relative to the contributions made by β-diversity toward total γ-diversity, similar to additive diversity indices for nonarid biomes. There was a lack of statistical support for our hypothesis that regional spatial variation in arid region diversity can be explained by climate topography. Arid South Australian species diversity appears to be largely driven by environmental parameters at the localized scale – beyond the resolution of available survey data. Heterogeneity in habitat, provided by mountainous regions, likely contributes toward the high β-diversity values. Our research is the first application of the additive (not multiplicative) approach toward understanding diversity within arid Australia.Keywords: additive diversity, arid biome, South Australia, generalized linear models, global climate models, species richness

The phatic finger: Public gesture and shared meaning on the highways of the Australian Outback

This paper explores the cultural significance of ephemeral public greetings on the highways of Australia's Northern Territory. Despite the exceptional speed at which vehicles pass one another and the fact that such salutations are mostly between travellers who have no acquaintance with one another, few drivers fail to acknowledge the co‐presence of others on the highway. The main concern of this account is to detail how this greeting system works, including the diverse meanings which can be attached to participation in it. In conclusion, it is suggested that this is a form of phatic communication which, as Malinowski (1923) said, eschews engagement with weighty economic and political issues, but contributes significantly to a sense of community between those involved.

Flap fenestration in treatment of mis-deployment of stent-graft in false lumen of aortic dissection

Objective To evaluate feasibility of flap fenestration in management of the condition that a stentgraft is wrongly deployed in false lumen of aortic dissection. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on a case of Stanford type B aortic dissection who was confirmed that the stentgraft had been wrongly deployed in false lumen of aortic dissection by CT angiography （CTA） after endovascu lar repair. Thereafter, an additional surgical management was carried out. At length, flap fenestration at 2 cm below predeployed stentgraft was performed using an Outback catheter so as to link false and true lumens. Successively, another stentgraft was placed via the access to draw blood flow from false lumen back to true lumen and then coil embolization was performed for distal breach of the dissection. Results Surgery was carried out under local anesthesia, with operation duration of 170 minutes and intraoperative blood loss of 350 ml. The chest and back pain disappeared after operation. The patient commenced to take food and take offbed activity at the very day of operation in absence of paraplegia, visceral ischemia, or other complications. Aortic CTA at postoperative one week showed ideal positioning of stentgraft, flu ent blood flow of aorta and major visceral artery, and vanishing of false lumen. Conclusions Flap fen estration at farend of predeployed stentgraft so as to draw blood flow back to true lumen by connecting the new placed stent graft to predeployed stentgraft is an effective treatment for misdeployment of stent graft in false lumen of aortic dissection. Outback catheter for flap fenestration is characterized by accurate location and high safety. Key words: Peritoneum; Aneurysm, dissecting; Stents

Situating the ‘beyond’: adventure-learning and Indigenous cultural competence

In 2010, an Indigenous Elder from the Wiradjuri nation and a group of academics from Charles Sturt University travelled to Menindee, a small locality on the edge of the Australian outback. They were embarked upon an ‘adventure-learning’ research journey to study ways of learning by creating a community of practice with an Elder from the Ngyampa/Barkandji nation. This article first explores the implications of this innovative approach to transformative learning for professional development and for teaching and learning practice. It then reflects on the significance of location for pedagogic approaches aimed at closing the education gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in universities.

REMOTE INDIGENOUS STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDINGS OF MEASUREMENT

It is widely accepted that mathematical learning builds upon students’ prior knowledge and understandings, and their identities. In this study, this phenomenon is explored with indigenous students in remote community schools in outback Australia. Through one-on-one task-based interviews, it was found that these students had some clear understandings of the measurement concepts involved, although these understandings were often idiosyncratic to these students in this context. The task-based one-on-one interview gave better insights into students’ knowledge than the written form of the National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy assessment. Nevertheless, the students’ conceptions provide a useful basis upon which to build subsequent knowledge, understanding and skills in the forms required by the formal mathematics curriculum.

Cold War heritage and the planned community: Woomera Village in outback Australia

The heritage of the Cold War is attracting increasing international interest. Much of that revolves around technological legacies; less attention has been paid to the community infrastructure which supported defence research, weapons testing and military installations. Security and operational logistics meant that research and development was conducted not only in restricted settings but also in often geographically remote situations. An archetypal example is the Woomera Rocket Range in outback South Australia, where long-range weapons were trialled from 1947 under a joint project between the British and Australian governments. Woomera Village, established as a planned residential facility to support personnel employed on the Range, survives today in a similar role, but with a population greatly diminished from its late-1960s heyday. This paper introduces the Village against the backdrop of Cold War heritage and spatial planning ideology, surveys its raison d’être and growth as a Cold War town, and considers its modern-day status as a heritage place and sustainable community.

Analysis of stomach bacterial communities in Australian feral horses

We investigated the community structure of bacteria that populate the stomach of the Brumby, a breed of feral horses from the Australian outback. Using a 16S rRNA gene clone library, we identified 155 clones that were assigned to 26 OTUs based on a 99.0 % sequence identity cutoff. Two OTUs represented 73.5 % of clones, while 18 OTUs were each assigned only a single clone. Four major bacterial types were identified in the Brumby stomach: Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, Veillonellaceae and Pasteurellaceae. The first three groups, which represented 98.1 % of the Brumby stomach library clones, belonged to the bacterial phylum Firmicutes. We found that 49.7 % of clones were related to bacterial species previously identified in the equine hindgut, and that 44.5 % of clones were related to symbiotic bacterial species identified in the mouth or throat of either horses or other mammals. Our results indicated that the composition of mutualistic bacterial communities of feral horses was consistent with other studies on domestic horses. In addition to bacterial sequences, we also identified four plastid 16S rRNA gene sequences, which may help in further characterizing the type of vegetation consumed by Brumby horses in their natural environment.

A Note About Transitions

A Note About Transitions Minrose Gwin, Coeditor, Southern Literary Journal As many of our readers may know, Fred Hobson is retiring after 23 years as coeditor of the Southern Literary Journal. In those years, he has shaped the course of southern literary criticism. Consistently open to new approaches and directions and graciously ushering in new scholars and their work in southern studies year after year, he has made the journal what it is today by always insisting on high standards and responsible, meaningful scholarship. He will be sorely missed, though we will continue to call on him to read manuscripts and offer his always sage, always calming advice (when he's not busy climbing up and down the Grand Canyon, exploring the Australian Outback, or enjoying hikes in his beloved western North Carolina mountains). Fred is a modest, unassuming man, but his massive and profoundly meaningful scholarship and editorial labors in the field of southern studies cannot be overstated. Fred, we dedicate this issue to you. At the same time that I look backward at Fred's many contributions and the sheer joy of working with him, I am delighted to welcome Florence Dore as the new coeditor of SLJ. Florence's interests in post-1945 American literature and southern studies, especially her interest in globalized approaches to southern literature and southern modernism, as well as her editorial experience as coeditor of Stanford University Press's Post45 Series, will be of great value as we move forward. Florence's first book, The Novel and the Obscene: Sexual Subjects in American Modernism, works extensively with feminist theory to trace the emergence in American modernist narrative of new forms of sexual identity. Her new book, Forms of Privacy: Reading Transparency in the Postwar Southern Novel, now approaching completion, examines the influence of middle-class expansion and racial desegregation on southern novels written in the 1950s and 1960s. A talented singer and songwriter, Florence has a strong interest in music that we hope to put to use in a future special issue; she recently codirected the "Post45@The Rock Hall" conference, an interdisciplinary gathering at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. This is Florence's first issue, and we're very excited about it. Fred was also the journal's book review editor for decades. Over the past two years, Harriet Pollack, whose scholarly work on Eudora Welty, southern women writers, Emmett Till narratives, and civil rights literature is well known among southernists, has graciously taken over that [End Page v] role. Her most recent edited volume, appearing in January, is Welty, Whiteness, and Race. Most of our reviews take the form of review essays, and Harriet has been working hard to find appropriate reviewers for book sets. Please let us know if you are interested. Meanwhile, on the front lines of our operation, Patrick Horn has stepped down from the Managing Editor's position after serving the journal faithfully and well for the past four years. Patrick has been an incredible Managing Editor. Unflappable and diligent, careful and innovative, Patrick has expanded the function of the Managing Editor in a number of important ways. As he turns to the final stages of a brilliant dissertation on narrative empathy — certainly a quality that he has put to good use in his editorial duties — we wish him the very best. He has graciously agreed to stay on as a consultant to the journal during his last year at UNC. Jameela F. Dallis, our new Managing Editor, has hit the decks running, and after working steadfastly with Patrick as Assistant Managing Editor last year, has ably taken the helm. Jameela's research interests have coalesced into a dissertation on the contemporary American and Caribbean Gothic; her coursework in southern literature, history, and memory will play a large part in this project, and we feel fortunate indeed that she has chosen to work with the journal. As if things weren't stirred up enough around here, there is a special issue on Gulf literatures in the offing, with Keith Cartwright and Ruth Salvaggio, whose scholarly works have examined writings borne out of Gulf currents and crossings, having graciously agreed to serve as guest...

Outback palms were planted

Outback palms were planted

Dispatches

Dispatches

Mapping the outback

Mapping the outback

Outback and Beyond

Outback and Beyond

Electronic funds transfer: new legal issues?

Electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments promise a cashless society in electronic commerce (e-commerce). Whilst technical issues have overcome the legal and practical logistics are being addressed. A background to legal problems is given including liability, certainty of payments and the requirements of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Cybercrime threats such as fraud and abuse of access to automatic teller machines (ATM) are also outlined. Issues with the 'disenfranchised' young, older persons and indigenous populations in outback Australia who use EFT are discussed. Litigation from various common and civil law jurisdictions are described as relevant legislation pertaining to EFT. New technological innovations in mobile banking (m-banking) have introduced new problems that challenge the law. Policy and legislative instruments provide a critical means by which issues may be overcome to ensure that EFT as a generic payments system may yet endure as a sound business model.

Karen Brown and Daniel Gilfoyle (eds), Healing the Herds: Disease Livestock Economies, and the Globalization of Veterinary Medicine, Ecology and History Series (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010), pp. x + 299, £22.50, paperback, ISBN: 978-0-8214-1885-7.

Karen Brown and Daniel Gilfoyle (eds), Healing the Herds: Disease Livestock Economies, and the Globalization of Veterinary Medicine, Ecology and History Series (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010), pp. x + 299, £22.50, paperback, ISBN: 978-0-8214-1885-7.

The city's outback - By Gillian Cowlishaw

The city's outback - By Gillian Cowlishaw

2011 Service Award for Richard N. Pugh

2011 Service Award for Richard N. Pugh