Districts Of Australia Research Articles

Spatial imbalance in the Australian regional economic system: structural unemployment 1955–1970

Summary A simple regression model is developed for the identification of long‐term trends in structural unemployment within regional labour markets. The model is applied to monthly unemployment rates recorded in 73 employment districts in Australia from July 1955 to December 1970. It is shown that, over the study period, the regional system was characterized by increasing spatial imbalance in the incidence of structural unemployment. A distinct rural/urban dichotomy is apparent with rural areas experiencing increases in structural unemployment and the major metropolitan areas (with the exception of Adelaide) significant decreases. Evidence is presented relating the trends identified to the vulnerability of regional economies to structural change and to interregional employment shifts taking place within the regional system.

Lipofuscin pigmentation of sheep livers in Australia.

ALMOST all sheep, as well as some other animals, grazing in certain districts of Australia, develop a peculiar pigmentation of their livers, portal lymph nodes and to a lesser degree of their lungs, without showing any adverse clinical signs. In the Brisbane abattoir about 25,000 livers (3 per cent) are condemned annually because of this discoloration. The pigmented livers are also seen in the Sydney abattoir, but are completely unknown in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, according to information obtained from the chief veterinary officers of these States.

The Australian CBD

INCE the close of World War II, the central business districts of Australia's leading cities, in common with most other Western metropolitan centers, have suffered increasingly from traffic congestion and suburban competition in retail trade. In Australia, as in America, this has followed upon the rapid growth of urban population, the leveling of incomes, the greater proportion of incomes spent on retail purchases, and the ever growing use of private automobiles. As a result, many Australian business houses in the larger cities have preferred to establish branches in the rapidly developing suburbs, or in the centers of smaller cities, rather than extend their downtown premises. More recently, small regional shopping centers on the American pattern have made their appearance: the first was opened at Chermside, Brisbane, and the second at Ryde, Sydney, in 1957; a third is being built on the outskirts of Melbourne. Meanwhile, municipal authorities are taking a variety of remedial measures to try and stem the flow of trade to the suburbs. Yet for all the importance of these city centers in Australian life and for all the complexity of their present problems, the Australian CBD has so far been the subject of but scanty geographical investigation. The writer has therefore undertaken a detailed field survey of the central areas of fourteen Australian cities, including the six state capitals which together house well over half the Australian population, in order to study the evolution and internal structure of the Australian CBD. But since the scope of the surveys has been too broad to permit an adequate treatment of the findings within the compass of a single article, the present study will be largely confined to an analysis of the internal groundfloor structure of the Australian CBD as exemplified by the capital cities. A comparative analysis of these cities, which range in population from one hundred thousand to nearly two million, sheds some light on the process of segregation and dispersal, as well as on the changing character and associations, of land-use elements with increasing city size. Accordingly, the fascinating individuality of each CBD will be drawn upon only in so far as it is necessary to account for apparent anomalies in the evolutionary process. The paper concludes with a brief discussion on the possible significance of the findings for the geographical examination and description of smaller centers.

East Coast District of Australia

East Coast District of Australia

Losses During A Flood in A Victorian District of Australia

Losses During A Flood in A Victorian District of Australia

Notes on some Natural Enemies of Plodia interpunctella and Silvanus surinamensis in Australia

During the first half of 1927 the writer visited the chief grape-growing districts of Australia to investigate on behalf of the Empire Marketing Board and the Common-wealth Government the insect infestation of dried fruit. The more immediately practical results of this study were published in November 1928 (E.M.B., 12, 36 pp.). On pages 20–22 of that report the question of natural enemies was briefly considered. The present notes describe certain aspects of the behaviour of these natural enemies, with special reference, in the case of the “ parasites,” to oviposition habits. The literature on Microbracon hebetor, Say (Habrobracon juglandis, Ashm.) has grown enormously in the last few years, and the present section on this insect makes no pretence to deal with the mass of literature upon it, nor to summarise our knowledge of its biology. Among more monographic papers on M. hebetor may be mentioned those of Hase (the subject at first determined in error as Habrobracon brevicornis) and Genieys (chiefly morphological). Showell (Jl. Dept. Agric. South Australia, xxxi, 1928, pp. 1048–1056), has recently published an account of the life-history under Australian conditions ; while Schultze (1924) has described its psychology, with special reference to cleaning-habits and antennal movements. Schultze's work I have not seen.

Wild Life in Australia The Life-Story of a Squirrel Adventures in the Great Forests Heroes of Pioneering

IN re-publishing, with considerable additions, the series of natural history articles which originally appeared in the Victorian Naturalist and the Emu, the author of “Wild Life in Australia” has assuredly been well advised; for within this unassuming little volume is to be found a valuable store of information concerning the animals and plants of various districts in Australia. The province of Victoria, the Riverina district of New South Wales, the islands of Bass Strait, Queensland, and Western Australia are in turn discussed; and in each case, the treatment of the subject is full of interest, although the amount of space devoted to each district is by no means large. The most important observations in the book are those relating to the life-history of the duckbill or platypus. Many of our readers will recall that in 1901 Mr. G. Metcalfe, at a meeting of the Zoological Society, denied that the platypus lays eggs. Mr. le Souëf, on the other hand, definitely states that at the end of October the creature lays one or two eggs, which are of elongated form and furnished with a leathery shell. The egg is believed to be soon hatched, and the newly-hatched young is naked, and about one inch in length. A nest and kroken eggshell were, according to the author, forwarded to Dr. P. L. Sclater. The point in dispute may now be regarded as settled. Mr. le Souëf adds that the platypus is, a good climber, and that when on land it folds inwards the portion of the web projecting beyond the toes, so that the latter may be enabled to obtain a grip of the surface.