Beaches In Australia Research Articles

Physical Modelling Of Rock Bags Under Wave Attack

In 1987, rock bags were developed by Kyowa in Japan to protect against erosion from hydraulic processes in riverine, lake, coastal and marine environments. Since 2020, rock bags have been used as a temporary or emergency coastal protection unit for seawalls on some beaches in Australia (e.g. Wamberal Beach and Collaroy Beach). These structures have typically been built against a pre-existing dune or eroded dune scarp for protection of landward coastal assets. While a limited amount of hydraulic scale modelling has been undertaken for some rock bag applications, their behaviour in shallow water, coastal environments under wave forces had not previously been quantitively evaluated. A two‑stage physical modelling program was carried out to assess the behaviour of rock bags when used in this emerging erosion protection application. As a result of the scale laboratory tests for shallow water seawalls constructed from rock bags, specific results were obtained for a proposed structure at Stockton Beach (Newcastle, Australia) as well as producing generic design information that could be applied at other locations. As expected, the design wave height for rock bag damage (displacement) was found to be inversely proportional to wave period. Preliminary design stability curves were developed for rock bags under monochromatic and irregular wave attack. In addition to displacement, settlement of the rock bags was observed during the modelling, and it is recommended that consideration should be given to vertical settlement over the design life of these structures. Wave runup was also found to be high; this is also an important consideration for future rock bag seawalls in either establishing the design crest level to prevent wave overtopping or adopting and managing a permissible amount of wave overtopping during a design event.

Consumer Informatics and One Health: Shifting the Focus from the Individual to the Globe. Findings from the Yearbook 2023 Section on Education and Consumer Health Informatics.

To summarise the state of the art during the year 2022 in consumer health informatics and education, with a special emphasis on "One Health". We conducted a systematic search of articles published in PubMed. We build queries to merge terms related to "consumer health informatics", "one health", and "digital". We retrieved 94 potential articles for review. These articles were screened according to topic relevance and 12 were selected for consideration of best paper candidates, which were then presented to a panel of international experts for full paper review and scoring. The top five papers were discussed in a consensus meeting. Three papers received the highest score from the expert panel, and these papers were selected to be representative papers on consumer informatics for exploring one health from consumer perspective in the year 2022. Bibliometrics analysis conducted on words found in abstracts of the 12 candidate papers revealed four clusters of articles, where clustering outcomes explained 96.91% of the dispersion. The first cluster composes three papers related to patient engagement in primary care practices, using digital-delivered diabetes prevention programmes, or exploring citizen involvement in co-designing environmental projects (such as air pollution exposure and health). The second cluster represents four papers related to digital health literacy and consumer behavior, such as digital vaccine literacy, and food labelling influences and whether displaying Nutri- and Eco-Score at food product level led to improved consumer choices. The third cluster consists of two papers exploring strategies to involve citizens in various science projects while analyzing the quality of citizen-collected data (e.g., mosquito bites or gastropod community dataset). The last cluster contains three papers related to the relationships between human behavior with their environment and their contribution to citizen science projects (e.g., biological water quality in the Netherlands distribution, composition, abundance of debris across sandy beaches in Australia and its regions, urbanization and reptile biodiversity across Florida). Traditionally, consumer health informatics focuses on providing individuals with tools and resources to actively manage their own health. By incorporating a global health (or one health) perspective, our field is now at a crossroad, demanding us to think beyond the individual and challenging us to instill the thinking that our actions not only have consequences on the individual but also on the population and the environment. Perhaps this is also a reflective time for the consumer informatics field, to consider shifting the focus from the individual to one that is more aligned with one health, helping consumers gain awareness of how their actions impact on the individual, the population and the environment, and providing them with tools to work collectively to help decide how their actions may bring benefits (as well as harms) across these levels.

Assessing the effectiveness of MARPOL Annex V at reducing marine debris on Australian beaches

To mitigate marine debris and promote sustainable marine industries, legislation and regulations surrounding the management of marine debris have been adopted worldwide. One of the most well-known and important agreements is the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), which focuses on reducing all types of ship-sourced marine pollution. MARPOL Annex V, which deals with the disposal of solid waste, came into force on 31 December 1988. However, was only amended to include a complete ban on waste disposal as of 1 January 2013. Assessing the effectiveness of key regulations is fundamental for supporting evidence-based decisions regarding the management of our oceans. Here, we evaluated whether MARPOL Annex V translated into a decrease in the incidence of shipping- and commercial fishing-sourced debris on remote beaches in Australia using 14 years of standardised, community-driven data. From 2006 to 2020 there was a significant change over time in the density of fishing and shipping debris on Australian beaches; debris density increased up to 2013 followed by a decrease until mid-2017. Although the new regulation started in January 2013, the decrease in density was not recorded until one year later. The decline was only observed for 4 years, reinforcing the existence of lags between the implementation of international agreements and the corresponding potential reduction in debris in the environment. This provides compelling evidence that international agreements and policies by themselves are not enough to solve the debris problem, with improved implementation and enforcement also required. We discuss future perspectives and solutions to reduce ocean-sourced litter inputs into the ocean and highlight the urgent need for action.

Ground Penetrating Radar of Paleoblowouts and Transgressive Dunes, Younghusband Peninsula, South Australia

Warner, A.L.; Hesp, P.A.; Keane, R., and Gontz, A.M., 2022. Ground penetrating radar of paleoblowouts and transgressive dunes, Younghusband Peninsula, South Australia. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(5), 885–895. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) can be used to elucidate the spatial and temporal relationships of paleoshorelines and dunefield evolution and aid in understanding past landscapes in order to help predict future evolutionary pathways of barrier development. GPR was used on the Younghusband Peninsula coast of Southern Australia at a location known as 42 Mile Crossing. The barrier is on the longest beach in Australia and hosts a Holocene transgressive dunefield system. The site also contains many active, modern, and stabilized blowouts. This study aimed to image buried (paleo) blowouts, analyze the subsurface strata of the area, and attempt to relate these findings to the past transgressive dunefield processes, phases, and architecture. The study was able to characterize the buried blowout's shape, size, and dominant wind direction, and the site's stratigraphic evolution.

Rainfall leads to elevated levels of antibiotic resistance genes within seawater at an Australian beach

Anthropogenic waste streams can be major sources of antibiotic resistant microbes within the environment, creating a potential risk to public health. We examined patterns in the occurrence of a suite of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and their links to enteric bacteria at a popular swimming beach in Australia that experiences intermittent contamination by sewage, with potential points of input including stormwater drains and a coastal lagoon. Samples were collected throughout a significant rainfall event (40.8 mm over 3 days) and analysed using both qPCR and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Before the rainfall event, low levels of faecal indicator bacteria and a microbial source tracking human faeces (sewage) marker (Lachno3) were observed. These levels increased over 10x following rainfall. Within lagoon, drain and seawater samples, levels of the ARGs sulI, dfrA1 and qnrS increased by between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude after 20.4 mm of rain, while levels of tetA increased by an order of magnitude after a total of 40.8 mm. After 40.8 mm of rain sulI, tetA and qnrS could be detected 300 m offshore with levels remaining high five days after the rain event. Highest levels of sewage markers and ARGs were observed adjacent to the lagoon (when opened) and in-front of the stormwater drains, pinpointing these as the points of ARG input. Significant positive correlations were observed between all ARGs, and a suite of Amplicon Sequence Variants that were identified as stormwater drain indicator taxa using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data. Of note, some stormwater drain indicator taxa, which exhibited correlations to ARG abundance, included the human pathogens Arcobacter butzleri and Bacteroides fragilis. Given that previous research has linked high levels of ARGs in recreationally used environments to antimicrobial resistant pathogen infections, the observed patterns indicate a potentially elevated human health risk at a popular swimming beach following significant rainfall events.

Characteristics and beach safety knowledge of beachgoers on unpatrolled surf beaches in Australia

Abstract. The majority of drowning deaths on Australian beaches occur significant distances away from lifeguard services. This study uses results of 459 surveys of beachgoers at five beaches unpatrolled by lifeguards in New South Wales, Australia, to improve understanding of who visits these beaches and why, and to identify risk factors associated with their beach safety knowledge and behaviour. Many unpatrolled beach users were infrequent beachgoers (64.9 %) with poor rip current hazard identification skills, who did not observe safety signage that was present, and yet intended to enter the water to swim (85.6 %) despite being aware that no lifeguards were present. The survey found that the main reasons why beachgoers visited unpatrolled beaches were because they were conveniently close to their holiday accommodation, or they represented a quieter location away from crowds. Future beach safety interventions in Australia need to extend beyond the standard “swim between the flags” message in recognition that many Australian beaches will remain unpatrolled, yet still frequented, for the foreseeable future. Future beach safety interventions for unpatrolled beaches should be tailored towards the varied demographic groups of beach users.

Expendable young males

ABSTRACT Surf lifesaving in Australia is an iconic community volunteer service. Surf lifesaving members must attain their bronze medallion, which includes fundamental first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques in order to patrol the beaches. Each year thousands of rescues and first aid procedures are conducted on the beaches of Australia as volunteer patrolling surf lifesavers carry out their community service. However, there is a sport attached to this community service, which has arguably become the ‘face’ of surf lifesaving in Australia. Some athletes are professional, and others gain a range of sponsorships. Many others are juniors and Masters competitors. The national championships each year draw anywhere between 5000 and 8000 competitors and spectators. Not without its critics, the masculinised nature of surf lifesaving has come under scrutiny in the past (Booth, 2001). Significantly, this is a paper about young males and the way in which masculinity is socially constructed within both a sporting and broader social and cultural context. It is also a paper that challenges the way in which the male body is endorsed, perceived, and used in a utilitarian manner from boyhood through to early male adulthood, across a range of settings thereby creating a normalised conception of the male body throughout life. Using surf lifesaving as vehicle through which young males can be explored, it identifies the role of sport in the creation of this normalisation and specifically highlights, through an autoethnographic account, the expectation placed on young males within the masculinised sporting setting of surf lifesaving in Australia.

Sensescapes and attention restoration in nature-based tourism: Evidence from China and Australia

Several prior single-location case studies have found that the sensescape of a natural environment contributes to visitors' attention restoration. This study tests the effects of a soundscape and a visualscape on attention restoration using data from two natural destinations, Purple Mountain in China and Burleigh Heads Beach in Australia. The results indicate that the characteristics of a soundscape significantly contribute to visitors' attention restoration and quality of life directly and through the mediation of visualscape. Natural environments relate to visitors' quality of life through its multimodal sensescape. Critically, the attention restoration model is found to be applicable in different natural contexts, revealing that the restorative value of a natural sensescape is not contextually bound. Nature-based tourism can be used to promote mental health in the post-COVID-19 period worldwide.

Determining the associated risk of beach-washed logs and their origin at Milman Island, a nesting ground for the endangered hawksbill turtle (

Globally, beach-washed logs have been shown to negatively affect marine turtle nesting, but the effects and origin of beach-washed logs on remote beaches in Australia have not yet been investigated. This study presents a novel investigation into the species and origin of timber logs washed ashore on an endangered marine turtle nesting beach at Milman Island, in the Great Barrier Reef, and their potential impact on nesting attempts. A spatial analysis of the coincidence of beach-washed logs and nesting attempts highlighted several areas around Milman Island that should be prioritised for future action to remove high-impact logs. Probable log origin was determined by tree species analysis and validated through ocean current modelling. This indicated that timber species found on Milman Island had a probable origin in the Coral Sea, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Manipulative experiments involving the presence or absence of beach-washed logs could be the next step in further understanding the relationship between the nesting behaviour of the Eretmochelys imbricata population on Milman Island and beach-washed logs.

Characteristics of beach erosion in headland bays due to wave action: Taking the Narrabeen beach in Australia as an example

The special cape-shaped topography of a headland sandy bay is the reason its shoreline varies differently than that of a straight-line coast. The Narrabeen embayment is located on the southeastern coastline of Australia approximately 20 km north of Sydney. The enclosed sandy beach is 3.6 km in length and is composed of fine to medium quartz sand overlying sandstone bedrock, with a median sand grain size D50 of 0.3 mm. Due to the prevalence of moderate to high wave energy conditions and the exposure of the central and northern portions of the beach to the prevailing south-southeastern swell waves. The morphodynamic responses of the Narrabeen beach are highly variable and rapid alongshore. The beach state was predominantly influenced by episodic storm events throughout the year when erosion and accretion can occur. This study analyzed measurements of cross-shore profiles of the Narrabeen headland sandy bay from 1997-1998. With reference to an atypical huge-wave event, this paper describes in detail the beach erosion caused by huge-waves and the beach restoration caused by small waves after the huge-wave event. It also details the relationship between shoreline variation and wave parameters (wave height and wave angle). To discuss the regulations and causes of beach rotation, the study selected six huge wave events that occurred in 1990–2000, all of which were followed by over eight months of small waves, and analyzed the alongshore variation. The results show that the morphodynamic responses of the Narrabeen beach are highly variable and rapid alongshore. During the huge wave events, the beach was eroded and the shoreline retreated. In the aftermath, the small waves restored the beach. The difference in the shoreline variation due to small waves exhibits a rotational pattern. Wave height is related to sand volume above mean sea level and sand accumulation was rapid and high after the big nearshore wave events. The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is closely related to the variability in the shoreline. Time-lagged cross-correlations between monthly beach shoreline positions and the SOI were calculated to investigate the presence of stronger cross-correlations between the beach shoreline and the SOI; the central profile (profile 4) is the most sensitive to the feedback of SOI change. The small waves after a huge-wave event make beach rotation periodic. Analysis of directional wave data and the SOI suggests that beach change is driven by changes in wave height (power) and a subtle change in wave direction, both of which are positively related to the SOl. The change in the SOI induces changes in the wave angles, which leads to sediment transport. This is the most important factor in beach rotation. These results reconfirm huge-wave and small waves subaerial morphology, in particular, these results confirm that the wave height and angle, which are induced by the SOI after a huge-wave event, are key drivers of alongshore variation in headland sandy bay coastlines. Under small wave conditions, the northern and mid beach profiles have negative correlations with SOI index, while the southern beach profiles have positive correlations with SOI index. This lead to sediment erosion in the north while sediment deposition in the south. And the shoreline thereby shows a rotational pattern. With the variation of the SOI index, the sediment movement changes in each beach profile, and the shorelines rotational pattern shows periodicity.

Analysis of sugarcane herbicides in marine turtle nesting areas and assessment of risk using in vitro toxicity assays

Agricultural processes are associated with many different herbicides that can contaminate surrounding environments. In Queensland, Australia, herbicides applied to agricultural crops may pose a threat to valuable coastal habitats including nesting beaches for threatened loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). This study 1) measured concentrations of herbicides in the beach sand of Mon Repos, an important marine turtle nesting beach in Australia that is adjacent to significant sugarcane crops, and 2) investigated the toxicity of these herbicides to marine turtles using a cell-based assay. Samples of sand from turtle nest depth and water from surrounding agricultural drains and wetlands were collected during the wet season when herbicide runoff was expected to be the greatest and turtles were nesting. Samples were extracted using solid phase extraction and extracts were analysed using chemical analysis targeting herbicides, as well as bioanalytical techniques (IPAM-assay and loggerhead turtle skin cell cytotoxicity assay). Twenty herbicides were detected in areas between sugarcane crops and the nesting beach, seven of which were also detected in the sand extracts. Herbicides present in the nearby wetland were also detected in the beach sand, indicating potential contamination of the nesting beach via the river outlet as well as ground water. Although herbicides were detected in nesting sand, bioassays using loggerhead turtle skin cells indicated a low risk of acute toxicity at measured environmental concentrations. Further research should investigate potentially more subtle effects, such as endocrine disruption and mixture effects, to better assess the threat that herbicides pose to this population of marine turtles.

Land-beach-risk-scape: deciphering the motivators of risk-taking at the beach in Australia

This article considers risk-taking associated with the popular leisure activity of beach going in Australia. It investigates the risk-taking proclivities and cultural protocols in Australian beach use which, to date, have received little research attention. Drawing on the testimonies of beachgoers, we provide a discussion on how risk can be both voluntary as well as accidental at the Australian beach. While accidental risk-taking can be attributed to a lack of beachscape safety or lack of hazard knowledge, it is often the result of peer, sociocultural and psychodynamic influences that result in the production and reproduction of a pervasive culture of risk-taking. This culture is explored via the influence of the enculturation of risk into Australian beach practices, the attenuation of safety perceptions among beachgoers, and the attraction to risky behaviours that affect those in the beach space. The reproduction of risk in Australian beach use and the feeling of attachment observed among research participants have been conceptualised as the embodied societal subject, as identified through geographic psychoanalysis. A psychoanalytic geographic interpretation of participant attitudes and beliefs concerning risk-taking and beach use has been used to theorise how the prevailing discourses and fantasies of Australian beach use shape this site-specific culture of risk.

Estimating nonmarket values of Brisbane (state capital) residents for state based beach recreation

Beaches in Australia are a national icon and internationally renowned. In Queensland, coastal areas and beach recreation attract domestic and international visitors, underpinning the tourist industry across the State. However, the activity of local residents, who use the beaches most frequently, is generally not recorded in official records, but has significant economic value. In the study outlined in this paper, the value of beach recreation by residents in Brisbane (the capital city and largest population centre in Queensland) was estimated using the Travel Cost Method. Negative binomial models were used to estimate values associated with both daytrips and overnight trips to beaches in different regional areas. It is estimated that Brisbane households make approximately 5.78 million daytrips and 2.97 million overnight trips to the beaches in southeast Queensland each year. This results in a total annual value of $1,039M ranging from $839M to $1,416M. Variations in value estimates for different regions indicate that there are important differences in the factors driving site selection between daytrips and overnight trips to the beach which have not been identified in this study and need to be considered if value estimates are to be considered for extrapolation to other situations. The research results also identified some methodological limitations in the application of a population-based approach to the valuation exercise rather than the more traditional site-based approach. Brisbane residents make an important contribution to the value of beach recreation in central and northern parts of the State, with households making approximately 0.27 million overnight trips per year. However, it was not possible to estimate travel cost models for beaches in these regions because there were low visitation rates and insufficient differentiation in visitation rates.

Hate and otherness—Exploring emotion through a race riot

Exploring the emotion of hate through the Cronulla race riot that occurred on a Sydney beach in Australia in December 2005, this article’s principle concern is to interrogate the pleasure and the pain of hate, by asking what is happening to us when we hate? Analysing hate as an emotional response to and a soothing strategy for dealing with human alienation, it suggests that crucial to understanding hate is a grasp on the ontological entanglement of self, otherness and hate. Viewing hate through this lens it is possible to become attentive to the ways in which hate is mobilised by and for social institutions such as masculinity and nationalism and enacted as racial hate.

Experiencing Beach in Australia: Study Abroad Students' Perspectives

AbstractThe current “Australian-ness” of outdoor environmental education is an evolving “set” of socio-cultural constructions. These constructions can be interpreted within the circumstances of an empirical study of tertiary study abroad students' participation in an undergraduate semester long unit “Experiencing the Australian Landscape” (EAL) as an ambivalent mixture of belonging and beach, or solidity and fuidity. This ambivalence imparts various meanings within and about the Australian context of beach as a “place”. The study is based on an interpretive mixed method ethnographic and phenomenological small-scale case study. It fnds that the beach experience is infuenced by various social discourses, such as neocolonialism, individualism and mobility. Participants experienced the beach in a fuid sense of non-belonging, despite the EAL intention of fostering a place-responsive pedagogy. In order to understand their experience and its alleged link to an enhanced environmental awareness, an embodied dialectic descriptive interpretation of place experience is suggested.

Terror at the beach: Arab bodies and the somatic violence of white cartographic anxiety in Australia and Palestine/Israel

Nearly six months after the horrific episodes of racist violence at Cronulla beach in Australia, Israeli artillery fire killed seven Palestinians on a northern Gaza beach. This article examines how, in both sites, the beach is constructed as the legitimate preserve of an aggressive majority that maintains its fragile sense of cartographic hegemony through an excessively violent mapping of the racialised Arab Other's body. The trans-national mapping of the somatic violence of whiteness will be analysed through a reading of Arab embodiment in the Australian and Israeli contexts of racial oppression and territorial aggression.

Migration routes and foraging behaviour of olive ridley turtlesLepidochelys olivaceain northern Australia

The foraging ecology of endangered olive ridley Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtles is poorly known in Australia, with only a limited knowledge of their foraging distribution inferred from captures in trawl net fisheries. We attached satellite transmitters to 8 olive ridley turtles in 2004 and 2005 at a nesting beach in Australia's Northern Territory to document their migratory routes and for- aging behaviour. Three turtles moved up to 40 km from the nesting beach before renesting on the same beach within 12 to 23 d. The turtles made post-nesting migrations of 165 to 1050 km to 5 differ- ent foraging areas and used coastal, continental shelf and continental slope habitats. The use of one foraging area by 3 turtles, together with previous trawl data, indicate a predictable source of food in this area. Distinct foraging areas indicate that foraging behaviour differs from the meandering oceanic movements of turtles in the Pacific. During migration and foraging periods, turtles dived to the substrate with maximum depths of 150 to 200 m and maximum dive durations of 120 to 180 min. The locations of foraging areas overlapped with existing trawl fisheries and oil and gas exploration and mining.

Biodiversity of marine nematodes in Australian sandy beaches from tropical and temperate regions

The universal occurrence and abundance of nematodes provides opportunities to investigate ecological factors that may influence biodiversity. Clarke and Warwick (2001) have proposed diversity indices average taxonomic distance(AvTD), variation in taxonomic distinctness (VarTD) for computing marine nematode biodiversity based on classification trees. Faith [Biological Conservation 61 (1992) 1] had previously proposed a diversity index based on phylogenetic trees, though not applied to nematodes. Clarke and Warwick (2001) also considered an index AvPD analogous to AvTD. These indices have been applied to five very large collections of free-living nematodes from three exposed sandy beaches in Australia. Two were from a beach close to Darwin in northern Australia, two from the temperate southeast coast of Australia and one from the south of the Australian mainland. The collections extend over a considerable range of latitude, from 12°26′S to 38°33′S and the controversial hypothesis that latitudinal gradients per se influence the biodiversity of marine nematode assemblages is examined. AvTD did not vary among collections and its value for any collection was indistinguishable from that of random samples of the same size drawn from the total species pool. VarTD showed no variation for three of the collections, but was slightly higher than expected for the mid-latitude beach, attributed to unevenness in the classification trees. AvTD and VarTD were not greatly affected by differences in sampling intensity. PD varied directly with the number of species found but observed PD did not differ from the PD of random samples of the same number of species taken from the total species pool. Thus, the observed variation in PD is wholly accounted for by variations in species richness. The number of species found increased with decreasing latitude. It appears that species richness by itself is an adequate index of biodiversity for the free-living nematodes of these sandy beaches, and more complex indices such as AvTD, VarTD and PD are unnecessary.

Increased death of new leaves of coastal banksia (Banksia integrifolia L.f) around ocean sewage outfall sites

Abstract Salt‐spray damage to coastal vegetation is a worldwide phenomenon. Worsening of such damage by surfactants present in sewage disposed of at sea has been observed in Europe and on trees planted around metropolitan beaches in Australia. Whether adverse impacts of sewage occur on the more widespread native vegetation around non‐metropolitan outfalls in Australia is unknown. The present study investigated the survivorship of existing leaves, and of new shoots and leaves, on Banksia integrifolia around three outfall and three non‐outfall sites in spring/summer of 1997‐1998. Survivorship of existing leaves was almost identical at outfall and non‐outfall sites. When plants initiated new shoots over the spring/summer, plants at outfall sites initiated more than plants at non‐outfall sites; but the proportion of these new shoots lost subsequently differed little between outfall and non‐outfall sites. Survivorship of newly initiated leaves on the new shoots differed between outfall and non‐outfall sites, with 65% of the new leaves on average being lost at outfall sites, and 47% being lost at non‐outfall sites by the end of summer. The probability of observing a difference of this magnitude ranged between P= 0.057 and 0.11 (February‐April 1998). This is the first report of a possible adverse impact on an Australian native plant from sewage discharged to the ocean.

From knowledge to action regulation: Modeling the cognitive prerequisites of sun screen use in australian and uk samples

Sun protective cognition and behaviour was studied on beaches in Australia (n =113) and in the UK (n = 376). Cognition measures based on social psychological models, including the Theory of Planned Behaviour, were used to construct a model of sunscreen use. Path analysis showed that knowledge, norms, perceived threat, self-efficacy and perceived importance of short-term negative consequences of sun exposure accounted for 44% of the variance in intentions to use sunscreen. A measure of prior planning contributed as much to the prediction of behaviour as did intentions and there was support for both a moderating and a mediating influence of planning on intention. The results support theoretical proposals that post-decisional cognitions should be added to current theoretical models and have implications for intervention design.