A Continuing Conversation

A CONTINUING CONVERSATION Articles from Western Sydney University

A Continuing Conversation was compiled by Western Sydney University’s Research Theme Champions, 2016: Professor Don McNeill, Urban Living and Society Professor Kathryn Holmes, Education and Aspirational Change Associate Professor Caroline Jones, Education and Aspirational Change Professor Caroline Smith, Health and Wellbeing Associate Professor Amanda Third, Health and Wellbeing Associate Professor Juan Salazar, Environmental Sustainability Associate Professor Jeff Powell, Environmental Sustainability

The articles reproduced here originally appeared in The Conversation. They are reprinted under CC-BY ND 3.0.

Scholarly references have been removed from the articles as they originally appeared in The Conversation. They may be retrieved from that site.

These articles and others can be found on The Conversation website: theconversation.com/au.

For enquiries related to this publication, or the articles contained in it, please email: scott.holmes@westernsydney.edu.au.

Contents Foreword 7

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

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Ageing in harmony: why the third act of life should be musical Migrant children are often their parents’ translators – and it can lead to ill health Parent education and complementary therapies reduce birthing risks Will global warming make you fat?

Here’s to coaches, unsung heroes and role models for social change

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URBAN LIVING AND SOCIETY

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Cuts to Water NSW’s science staff will put Sydney’s water quality at risk What might Jane Jacobs say about smart cities?

How do we stop people falling through the gaps in a digitally connected city?

Design in the ‘hybrid city’: DIY meets platform urbanism in Dhaka’s informal settlements

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With the rise of apartment living, what’s a nation of pet owners to do?

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ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

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Turtle extinction event bodes ill for our waterways Not in my backyard? How to live alongside flying-foxes Crimes against the environment: the silent victim of warfare The NSW government is choosing to undermine native vegetation and biodiversity

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Five cities that could change the future of Antarctica

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EDUCATION AND ASPIRATIONAL CHANGE

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Why baby talk is good for your baby Defending the indefensible: myths about the gender pay gap Is two hours of screen time really too much for kids?

Saying ‘I’m not good at maths’ is not cool – negative attitudes are affecting business

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Debunking common myths about raising bilingual children

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32 35

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Professor Scott Holmes scott.holmes@westernsydney.edu.au FOREWORD

We aren’t used, as academics, to talking outside our own circles. Maybe a coffee with colleagues here and there. An email to a grant collaborator. A lecture. A conference.

We rarely get outside the round of academic life to talk with the people affected by our research.

This chapbook, a collection of pieces written by Western’s researchers for The Conversation, is a step towards expanding that circle.

The Conversation is an online platform for topical short pieces produced by academic researchers. Most Australian universities make submissions, and Western’s researchers have been particularly successful in this forum, cutting-through with compelling, popular pieces.

Western’s recently appointed Theme Champions have made a selection of these articles under their particular theme areas, and they are collected here.

Our Theme Champions are unique in the Australian university sector. Their job is to connect – with their colleagues, across disciplines, and with the communities our research serves. Working within the University’s research themes, our seven Champions are pivoting Western’s research even further towards solving the problems that matter outside the academy. They are gathering together collaborative research teams to bring the right expertise to bear on the big issues.

I hope you enjoy this selection of some of our work.

Professor Holmes is Western’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Development

Health and Wellbeing Research within our Health and Wellbeing theme explores how health initiatives can prevent disease and illness, encourage healthy lifestyles in individuals and communities, and reduce the cost and impact of illness. We take an integrated approach to health research. The environments in which we live, the cultural background from which we come, and the work we do all affect our physical and mental health.

Western’s effective, research-led interventions focus on the complex factors contributing to health outcomes.

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Jennifer MacRitchie AGEING IN HARMONY: WHY THE THIRD ACT OF LIFE SHOULD BE MUSICAL

It’s never too late to pick up a musical instrument. In fact there are many reasons why it’s a great idea, particularly in old age.

We normally hear about reasons to increase music education for children, and for good cause. There are many cognitive and social benefits to playing an instrument that aid a child’s development. Consequently, as an older adult, there are long-term effects of having taken part in these musical activities, as it can limit cognitive decline.

Even a small amount of training can have long lasting effects. But this doesn’t mean that those who have never played an instrument in childhood have missed the boat. The ageing brain is plastic: that means it is able to learn new things all the time. So, should we consider an increase in music programs for those in the third age?

Playing music as a workout for the brain Learning to play a musical instrument is an extremely complex task that involves the coordination of multiple sensory systems within the brain. Many instruments require precise coordination between the eyes, the ears and the hands in order to play a musical note. Using the resulting sound as feedback, the brain prepares for the next note and so it continues. The act of musicmaking is quite a brain workout.

The relationship between the motor and auditory parts of the brain is strengthened when physically playing music. This may explain why adults trained to play certain melodies have an enhanced representation of music in the brain compared to adults only trained to listen to the same melodies.

As playing music involves many different parts of the brain, even a shortterm program for older adult musical novices can lead to generalised improvements for cognitive ability.

Music as a workout for the fingers Learning to play an instrument such as the piano involves many complex finger sequencing and coordination tasks. As such, it can be a great test-bed for learning to move fingers independently.

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The creativity of music and the enjoyment people take in playing is particularly important for rehabilitation, as it encourages sustained practice leading ultimately to higher benefits.

It’s thanks to this that piano lessons have been used to successfully retrain hand function for patients who have had a stroke. The immediate auditory feedback from each finger movement is thought to help adults reduce errors in movement and work towards moving at a more regular pace.

Music training is an excellent environment to train cognitive and motor abilities, both in the contexts of child development and for rehabilitation.

The question for older adults is this: can learning a musical instrument not only put the brakes on cognitive and motor decline, but actually allow development of new skills?

Older adults can improve their motor learning – that is, they can improve their rate of learning new things – and the best environments for brain training are ones that are novel and flexible.

Of course many activities can be novel such as juggling or knitting, but the advantages of learning an instrument can be found in the breadth of skills required to play. At Western Sydney University, we are currently investigating how piano training can be used with healthy older adults to improve their general hand function in unrelated daily tasks.

Music for health and wellbeing Often, the worry is that playing an instrument will be too difficult for older adults to manage. On the contrary, learning to play an instrument can provide a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Older adults relish the opportunity to learn something new. Cognitive benefits aside, music can also be a great social activity for older adults, facilitating social bonding and decreasing feelings of loneliness or isolation.

Music programs are linked to improvements measured in markers of the body’s immune system such as the presence of antibodies and vital signs (heart rate/blood pressure).

It’s suggested that this is a consequence of decreases in stress that can happen when taking part in musical activities. However, further research is needed to determine exactly how this relationship functions.

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Music for all It’s vital to understand how we can aid the current generation of older adults, in terms of both health and personal enjoyment. With the myriad benefits provided by playing a musical instrument, it would seem beneficial to have a wider variety of musical activities on offer to the older generation.

Wouldn’t it be great if the third age wasn’t viewed as a final descent from some mid-life peak, but some new act of life that opens up these opportunities? Perhaps we should give older adults the chance to develop in ways they could never have imagined before.

Activities such as singing in a choir, or playing the piano can provide this opportunity, as well as offering many general benefits to health and wellbeing.

So whether it’s in independent living, retirement or assisted care, let’s make the third act of life a musical one!

Dr MacRitchie is a researcher at the University’s MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development.

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Renu Narchal MIGRANT CHILDREN ARE OFTEN THEIR PARENTS’ TRANSLATORS – AND IT CAN LEAD TO ILL HEALTH

An estimated 30% of Australians are born overseas while nearly 20% speak a language other than English at home. But our translation services grapple to meet the demand of those who don’t have an adequate grasp of English, particularly recent migrants and refugees. Research shows in these situations, children often end up interpreting – known as language brokering – for their parents. This is a heavy responsibility with psychological consequences.

Migration challenges Migrating to a new country has many challenges, including losing the closeness of extended family, needing to learn a new language and having to fit into a foreign society. These changes are often easier for children than adults.

Children attend educational institutions with locals, where they are subjected to the dominant language and culture. This helps them quickly learn the language and cultural nuances of their host country.

Parents often end up depending on their children to translate and interpret both the new culture and language in a range of settings, including the doctor’s office, legal situations (where children can help their parents fill out immigration documents), and mediating during parent-teacher interviews.

Research shows children as young as eight, who obviously don’t have training in translation and become linguistic and cultural mediators, experience increased responsibility which leads to role reversal. Parents express dependent behaviours and children, in an attempt to meet their parent’s needs, acquire nurturing, supportive, and care-giving behaviours.

Such relationship disturbances have been linked to aggression, risk-taking behaviours and social problems in children.

Language brokers There are some benefits to children taking on increased responsibilities.

Children who translate for parents acquire enhanced cognitive, social, emotional and interpersonal skills.

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A survey based on 280 sixth grade (aged around 11 to 12) Latino family translators at a Chicago school found they performed significantly better on standardised tests of reading and math than their non-translating peers.

In another study, researchers interviewed 25 Latino children of around 12 years who were translating for their parents. These children said their responsibilities made them feel proud, helpful and useful. Research also shows Latino children of around the same age, who didn’t feel translation to be a burden, had no negative health outcomes.

But translating and interpreting is a complex process. Where children saw their increased responsibility as a burden, it worked as a stressor, leading to risk-taking behaviours, such as drinking alcohol and using marijuana.

Overstretched with responsibility beyond their age, children can feel obligated, with those who become translators reporting high levels of stress and pressure to translate mature matters accurately. Children also often feel overburdened in complicated and serious situations, such as when they are required to translate documentation.

One study obtained longitudinal data from 182 first- and second-generation Chinese 15-year-olds. It found the children who more frequently acted as interpreters for their parents had poorer psychological health. Frequency of translation was also associated with parent-child conflict, particularly for those who held strong family values.

Legal mechanisms In California, a bill written in 2013 by a former Chinese immigrant who translated for his parents as a child, proposed banning the use of child interpreters younger than 15 by any state or local agency or program that receives state funding.

Now a child psychologist, the former child translator told the Los Angeles Times that not only were children likely to make mistakes in translation, the “youngsters cannot handle the stress”. Although the bill wasn’t successful, the process highlighted the need for better understanding and awareness of the issue.

Australia could consider a similar approach, but more research would need to be done to spell out the negative implications of language brokering. If such a legal mechanism were implemented, we’d need enough translation services in medical, legal and other official settings to fill the gap child translators would leave behind.

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An unpublished study I completed showed a number of children who acted as interpreters found their education was disrupted, while others considered leaving school due to their responsibilities. Currently, there are no supports and services provided for children translators in Australia. Nor is there enough research on the prevalence of this experience in the country. There is an urgent need for the government, the community, and parents to better understand the potential impacts of language brokering on children’s health.

Dr Narchal is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western.  

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Kate Levett PARENT EDUCATION AND COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES REDUCE BIRTHING RISKS

Most women and their partners are offered or recommended childbirth education classes as part of routine care during pregnancy. Most first-time parents attend these classes but this declines considerably for following pregnancies, although there is no recent data about rates of attendance.

Childbirth education is often attended at the hospital where women are going to give birth, but increasingly women and their partners are seeking non-hospital, alternative classes and workshops. So is childbirth education important? Do all the programs aim to achieve the same thing and, most importantly, do they?

Our new paper on childbirth education has shown it is possible to dramatically reduce interventions in the birthing process and help reduce parents’ fear and make them feel more empowered and excited about giving birth. The program was a two-day weekend workshop for women and their partners, and was based on elements of the privately available course She Births®, and the acupuncture for labour and birth protocol.

What our study found The study was conducted as a randomised controlled trial of an antenatal education program that aimed to reduce epidural rates in low-risk, first-time mothers. The course included a range of evidence-based complementary therapies, such as acupressure, relaxation, massage, visualisation, yoga, and breathing techniques. We also incorporated continuous support from a partner. The course involved an education session on the benefits of natural birth, and how women’s own hormones could be utilised or enhanced to cope with labour pain, by using the complementary therapies included in the course.

We found the women in the study group had a significant reduction in epidural rates compared with women in the control group (23.9% compared to 68.7%). They were also significantly less likely to require their labour to be sped up with artificial hormones (28.4% compared to 57.8%) or have damage to their perineum (84.7% compared to 96.4%). They had a shorter “pushing” stage of labour (mean difference of 32 minutes), and almost half the caesarean section rate (32.5% compared to 18.2%). The babies in the study group were also less likely to require resuscitation (with oxygen or bag

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and mask) at birth (13.6% compared to 28.9%).

The evolution of childbirth education Back in the 1960s, there was a push to get future parents educated about natural birth. This was because from the early 1900s, most women started going to hospitals to have their babies, and drug use for pain relief during labour started becoming more and more widespread. This began with chloroform, well known for its use by Queen Victoria in 1853. But, over time, harms, such as women being rendered unable to move, began to be known.

Through the 1940s and 1950s, the effects of a cocktail of drugs known as “Twilight Sleep” (morphine and scopolamine) were uncovered with women finding they felt dopey and had little memory of the birth. There was a renewed push for re-education about natural birth.

The push for natural birth was based on the work of British obstetrician Grantly Dick-Read, whose work centred around the concept of childbirth without fear. This led to the natural childbirth movement started by physical therapists Elisabeth Bing and Marjorie Karmel in the United States, and obstetrician Frederick Lamaze in France, which all became known as the Lamaze movement. Childbirth education also evolved to help empower parents make choices and be informed about birth. But while these childbirth education classes increasingly became a routine part of antenatal care in Australia during the 1970s and 1980s, by the 1990s, there was a distinct shift away from natural childbirth and towards hospital births. These classes are now geared more towards parent education with less focus on birth, and more general information about pregnancy, birth and early parenthood, as well as about hospital routines and services. Information for parents about birth includes descriptions of medical interventions, such as induction of labour, routine vaginal exams, artificially speeding up the labour, caesarean section, and the various options for pain relief during labour.

How is childbirth education changing?

More recently, there have been a range of private classes offered for birth preparation. Although most haven’t been evaluated for effectiveness. In the UK and Australia, trials of self-hypnosis for childbirth preparation have shown some effect in reducing anxiety in labour. But they’ve failed to demonstrate any reduction in the use of pain killers during labour, or on rates of caesarean section. A Cochrane Review of antenatal education for childbirth or parenthood says the effects or outcomes of these programs are largely unknown, and that the outcomes they seek are as diverse as the programs offered.

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High rates of medical intervention in childbirth are problematic as they often lead to what is termed a “cascade of interventions�, where the first intervention in labour leads to subsequent interventions to manage the side effects of the original one. Research shows these interventions, which commonly begin with epidural analgesia, often result in instruments such as forceps being needed, episiotomy (where the skin between the anus and vagina is cut), major trauma to the perineum or a caesarean section.

Education about the birthing process has been found to reduce fear about labour and birth by helping parents understand the physiology of normal labour and birth, empowering couples to be invested in their own experience, and understanding what is available to support labour and birth.

Similarly, evidence-based complementary medicine techniques seem to be effective in reducing interventions in labour. Childbirth education should be re-imagined to ensure parents have the tools and positive attitudes needed to manage labour and birth.

Dr Levett is an Adjunct Fellow at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University.

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Hilary Bambrick WILL GLOBAL WARMING MAKE YOU FAT?

First it was fats, then it was carbs, but one day we might be blaming climate change for our expanding waistlines. Climate change is already affecting Australia’s ability to reliably produce quality food.

With climate records being broken on a monthly basis, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine our relatively easy access to fresh produce becoming a thing of the past.

We all know what we should be eating to stay healthy: less fat and sugar, more fresh fruit, veggies and lean protein.

Eating sustainably isn’t all that different. Stop eating so many of the cows that burp and fart methane into the atmosphere and try to eat more locally sourced, plant-based produce.

Already one of the fattest nations on the planet, Australia’s national diet is far from perfect. The healthy living pyramid is more an aspiration than a reflection of reality.

Climate change threatens to make healthy and sustainable eating even harder. And that’s bad for our waistlines and the planet.

While the precise local impacts of climate change around Australia still present some uncertainties, it is looking likely that our suitable agricultural areas will shrink. This potentially will reduce the supply of local fresh produce, wheat and other grains. Further climate research will allow us to understand this better and adapt appropriately.

Warmer temperatures and increased atmospheric CO₂ can cause some plants to grow more quickly, but this may mean fewer micronutrients in each mouthful of fruit or vegetables. It also allows some of the weeds and pests to flourish.

As average temperatures rise and heatwaves become more common, heat stress on animals will challenge our milk, egg and meat supplies. Seafood is a potential alternative as long as it is sourced from sustainable fisheries – and is prepared as a healthy option (steamed or grilled, not deep-fried with chips).

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But the marine environment isn’t immune to climate change either. Increasing ocean temperatures and acidification will probably alter species abundance and distribution and bring further challenges to sustainability.

As Australia’s population grows and its food-producing regions diminish under higher temperatures and increasingly uncertain rainfall, fresh produce may become less reliably available and more expensive. We may come to rely more and more heavily on processed foods rather than fresh produce, and turn increasingly to imported foods.

Greater reliance on global food systems means Australia’s food security becomes more precarious, increasingly subject to the whims of international markets. Our food also becomes potentially less safe: the more lengthy and complex the chain of supply, the more opportunities for contamination and the harder it becomes to trace the source – not to mention the greater food miles and added environmental pressures from transporting foods vast distances.

Poorer hit hardest Not everyone will experience the same dietary pressures as the world warms up. Those with plenty of cash may still choose to buy the more expensive fresh produce – a crunchy apple might become a luxury!

At the same time, this group may also be influenced by ethical arguments to buy more sustainable agricultural products, choosing perhaps wallaby or rabbit over a juicy steak.

Time-poor low- and middle-income earners will face a tougher time.

Processed foods are cheaper by the calorie, and a sugary, fatty muesli bar is sometimes easier to pack in a lunchbox than a bruise-prone banana or apple.

People on lower incomes and with lower educational attainment are more likely to be overweight or obese. As accessibility and affordability of fresh food decline, this same group could be increasingly vulnerable to obesity and related health issues.

It is not all doom and gloom, though, for Australia’s fresh food production.

Australia is well known for its innovation and already farms are becoming more efficient at producing more food with less water and developing technologies to deal with increasing climate pressures. Some are already taking up the challenge to eat a healthier diet which is more sustainable.

A necessary complementary approach would be to reduce food wastage at

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several points along the supply chain. Households throw out about a fifth of their food, largely through bad planning when we do the shopping, cooking too much each mealtime, and perhaps being overly cautious about whether food has gone off.

Supermarkets elsewhere are starting to be penalised for food waste.

Such measures here, along with the developing interest in buying “ugly food”, also have the potential to save our increasingly precious fruits and veggies from the rubbish bin and help keep healthy eating affordable.

Professor Bambrick is a researcher with the Centre for Health Research within Western’s School of Medicine.

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Andrew Bennie HERE’S TO COACHES, UNSUNG HEROES AND ROLE MODELS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Sport provides opportunities for social participation, identity construction, and engagement in the workforce. Indeed, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) identifies sport and physical activity as a meaningful and cost-effective tool for achieving improved health, quality education, and advanced human capital.

Olympic athletes play an important role within this sport-for-development agenda, promoting the Olympic ideals of fairness and social equality and encouraging wider sports participation across the community.

But despite these lofty goals, huge investment in elite sport has done little to overcome the social inequality that impacts the life expectancy, health, and social outcomes of people in many communities across the globe.

And researchers have begun to raise doubts about sport’s role in overcoming disadvantage and marginalisation. While sport may have a place in the development agenda, it’s not clear that athletes – as role models – are able to drive change.

Athletes as role models One of the arguments against using sport to solve problems in development contexts is that it promotes only one type of role model: the successful athlete. Athlete role models can influence the lives of young people with their talent, messages about healthy and active living and continuing education.

The IOC has, for instance, handpicked 12 Olympic athletes to serve as role models for competitors at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. These athletes will be focusing “on areas such as skills development, … environment and social responsibility, and Olympism.”

But young athletes are often thrust into being role models at a time where they may not be ready to take on this responsibility. And research shows that “only 10 percent of elite athletes have been inspired by other elite athletes … to start with their current sport” and even fewer might inspire young people to live as “model” citizens.

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Coaches as role models Coaches are often viewed as positive role models and mentors for their players, working behind the scenes to bring teams to victory, supporting them in their defeat and sharing in the joy of participating.

Good coaching goes beyond physical skills training; it involves the development of life skills, confidence, resilience and social participation.

This is not to say that coaches are immune to poor behaviour. They could be overly competitive, for instance, prone to criticising athletes, and may overlook unsportsmanlike conduct such as doping.

But our research with Aboriginal coaches in Australia shows that coaching has the potential to play a significant role in shaping an individual and community’s identity, culture, and knowledge.

Many of the coaches we spoke to embraced their leadership role and used it to engage in broader forms of social and community development. Off the field, they were involved in the lives of players, alongside actively promoting positive messages about healthy living, social responsibility and education.

It’s disappointing, then, that coaches have largely been excluded from the narrative about sport and social development.

Many people could rattle off names of athletes who have succeeded at Olympic and Paralympic Games. But if asked to make a similar list of coaches involved in the these Games, they would probably struggle.

Actually outstanding Although they often work behind the scenes and are less likely than athletes to become household names, Australia has a number of notable Olympic coaches whose contributions to sport and society have been recognised.

Marlene Matthews won bronze in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in the 100m and 200m events, and later set a world record (10.3 seconds) for the 100 yard sprint. After retiring, Matthews started her own athletics club, before being appointed athletics coach with the Rothmans Sports Foundation, where she was responsible for the then newly formed Australian Track and Field Coaches Association.

Matthews was a pioneer. She forged a path for future generations of female sport coaches and administrators, defiantly protecting her right to be a

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coach “and not in the kitchen” in a field where “being a man was virtually a pre-requisite to success”.

Her services to athletics were rewarded when she became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1979, and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1999.

In the 1960 Paralympics, Kevin Coombs became Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative (Paralympics or Olympics) in wheelchair basketball. He represented Australia at five Paralympic Games, including two as captain.

Coombs went on to captain and coach the Australian wheelchair basketball team at the 1998 Goodwill Games. He has been an ambassador for the National Indigenous Strategy for Literacy and Numeracy and received an OA for his service to sport and the community.

Coaches lead as well as inspire; they can play a direct role in shaping the life choices of their athletes. The promotion of Olympic and Paralympic coaches as role models for aspiring athletes and future leaders (both within and beyond sport) could be a powerful vehicle for change.

They show how involvement in sport can lead to so much more than athletic success.

Our research, and other work like it, shows how coaches can be key agents of change for delivering important messages espoused by the IOC about education, physical health and mental well-being.

Dr Bennie is a lecturer and researcher in Health and Physical Education in Western’s School of Science and Health.

Urban Living and Society Research within our Urban Living and Society theme is focused on understanding and guiding change: in the economy, in society, and in culture. Our researchers approach change through the lens of urban living, seeking to understand how the places we live, the work we do, the way we describe ourselves and the bonds we form interrelate.

These relationships determine our shared quality of life and physical health, and our research is aimed at ways to improve both.

Our current and expanding interdisciplinary research expertise in urban planning, the digital humanities, infrastructure engineering, innovation networks, business support, social cohesion, the law, governance frameworks, cultural studies and globalisation serve our communities world wide as they adapt to urban change.

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Ian Wright CUTS TO WATER NSW’S SCIENCE STAFF WILL PUT SYDNEY’S WATER QUALITY AT RISK

The recent axing of five of the six senior scientists charged with protecting the health and safety of Sydney’s drinking water has understandably created concerns.

This follows last year’s merger of the New South Wales State Water Corporation and the Sydney Catchment Authority, creating a single body called WaterNSW to oversee water for the entire state. Later in the year the newly created agency suffered around 80 job cuts.

Domestic water supply systems are generally managed in ways that eliminate or reduce any possible risk to water quality. It appears to be problematic that the new agency loses its specific focus on Sydney’s water supply at the same time that it loses its most knowledgeable and experienced staff.

Water big deal Sydney has Australia’s biggest and most complex domestic water supply network. In 2013-14 the city’s 4.5 million inhabitants used 536,607 million litres of water – roughly equivalent to an Olympic swimming pool of water every hour.

The challenge of supplying the greater Sydney population with clean, safe and reliable water has not always been met. In 1998, Sydneysiders were forced to boil their drinking water when the network was infected with Cryptosporidium and Giardia, after heavy rains washed these chlorineresistant parasites into the water supply. The pathogens were detected and nobody became seriously ill. Nevertheless the incident was a great embarrassment for the state government and tarnished Sydney Water’s coveted reputation for water cleanliness and safety. The subsequent inquiry recommended that the catchments and water supply infrastructure become the responsibility of a separate agency, leading to the creation of the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) in 1999.

Science plan The inquiry also pointed to a lack of scientific certainty about the sources of

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water supply contaminants, and how they should be dealt with. So the SCA developed an in-house team of scientists, and commissioned others from CSIRO and universities, to gather the expertise needed to provide safe and reliable water in the face of factors such as droughts, deluges, pollution and pathogens.

This scientific effort was no mean feat, given the size of Sydney’s water infrastructure and the SCA’s modest workforce of fewer than 300 staff.

Sydney’s catchments collect water from an area covering 16,000 square km of land west and south of the city. The water is stored in 21 dams, including the massive Warragamba Dam. These are linked to consumers by a complex array of pipelines, tunnels and other infrastructure.

What’s more, the catchments themselves are extensively developed. More than 100,000 people (and many domesticated animals) live in the region.

Towns such as Katoomba, Lithgow, Goulburn, Moss Vale, Bowral and Berrima all discharge their treated sewage waste into catchment waterways.

As a result, Sydney’s water catchments have many potential sources of pathogens, including those from human and animal waste. A crucial part of the SCA’s research was to determine which of these contaminants poses a serious threat to humans.

The scientific research improved routine operational monitoring of the effectiveness of the multiple barriers that protect the quality of the water from the headwaters of the catchment through various storages, filtration and treatment systems, to the reticulated network of pipes to the consumer.

The SCA science team has undertaken and published some of the world’s most thorough research on the effects of subsidence from coal mining and its impacts on surface waters, such as Waratah Rivulet, an important waterway that feeds the Woranora Dam. The research thoroughly documents the changes in surface water flows and chemistry as the mine subsidence fractures the sandstone strata. The freshly fractured sandstone “captures” some or all of the stream flow and a complex array of chemical reactions occur, resulting in increased salinity and concentrations of metals zinc, nickel and cobalt. It is less clear how mining was able to inflict such environmental damage in such well-protected catchments.

Other sources of catchment water pollution received less attention from the SCA scientists even though coal mining in Sydney’s water catchments continues to generate considerable community concern. One example is Springvale Colliery in the Warragamba catchment near Lithgow. The mine

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has just been extended despite having been identified as the largest source of salinity in the Coxs River catchment, the second-biggest waterway that flows into Warragamba Dam. Financial flows Although the SCA was a government agency, it earned revenues of just over A$200 million in 2013-14 by selling water to its customers, principally Sydney Water. Rather than costing the NSW government money, it paid the state a dividend of A$27.9 million in 2013-14.

It remains to be seen whether WaterNSW, with its significantly smaller scientific team, can continue this vital research to protect Sydney’s catchments and infrastructure. I expect that its biggest customer, Sydney Water, and NSW Health will demand that rigorous scientific standards continue to be upheld. In its previous incarnation, the Sydney Catchment Authority had as its motto “Healthy catchments, quality water – always”.

It’s an important principle to uphold, and regional areas could benefit if this guiding principle pervades Water NSW’s operations across the state. It needs to ensure that the high standards that protected Sydneysiders’ water are not sacrificed.

Dr Wright is a researcher with Western’s School of Science and Health.

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Sarah Barns WHAT MIGHT JANE JACOBS SAY ABOUT SMART CITIES?

This May, urbanists around the world have been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jane Jacobs. The American-Canadian author and activist’s spirited defence of inner-city neighbourhoods inspired a generation of urban activists and place-makers. So what might Jacobs have to teach a new generation of urbanists and planners?

Much of Jacobs’ legacy stems from the successful “David and Goliath” campaigns she led in the late 1950s and 1960s against the development plans of Manhattan’s “master builder” Robert Moses.

Her first battle, to prevent an extension of Fifth Avenue that would have torn apart her beloved Washington Square Park, was followed by a series of protracted community campaigns. These ultimately saved some of Manhattan’s most iconic neighbourhoods – Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy – from “slum clearance” and demolition.

At this time, many Americans were retreating to the suburbs, and city planners – epitomised by Moses, then head of the powerful Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which managed vast tracts of land in New York City – imposed their “comprehensive city plans” on neighbourhoods, with scant input from local communities.

Working under the spell of Le Corbusier’s vision of the “Radiant City” (Ville Radieuse), planners like Moses saw themselves playing the heroic role of a city’s surgeon. They justified their radical urban plans through appeals to natural or scientific principle. For Le Corbusier, automobiles were machines of circulation, the “lifeblood of the 20th century”; cities needed them to avoid stagnation.

In love with the ‘sidewalk ballet’ Jacobs resisted this vision. In her first and most influential book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs attacked planners for ruining the cultures of cities. She saw the modernist vision of cities as: “… the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.”

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Jacobs wrote: “When city designers try to find a design device that will express, in a clear and easy fashion, the ‘skeleton’ of city structure (expressways and promenades are current favourites for this purposes) they are on fundamentally the wrong track. A city’s very structure consists of a mixture of uses … We get close to its structural secrets when we deal with the conditions that generate diversity.”

Instead of city spines and clean lines, she asked her readers to look more closely at what makes a street really work. She loved the “intricate sidewalk ballet”, a complex order that helped to maintain public safety and wellbeing through a “constant succession of eyes”.

The complexity of a place made it impossible to replicate.

The ballet of the good city never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place it is always replete with new observations.

Jacobs’ polemic against urban planning would become its orthodoxy.

Death and Life has been required reading for students of urban planning for decades. Today they learn of the failed spaces created by modernist planners and the geographies of single-use enclaves and far-flung highways they spawned.

Jacobs’ campaigning inspired urban activists around the world to stage protests in their own cities. This helped usher in a new era of citizen-centric planning frameworks.

As Saskia Sassen wrote recently, it was Jacobs who first urged the need to recognise the value of “place” when considering the implementation of urban policies.

Is Jane Jacobs still relevant or useful?

Although Jacobs is a profoundly influential figure in 20th-century urbanism, in many respects her radicalism can feel like it belongs to another era.

The Manhattan districts she fought to preserve represent some of the most expensive real estate in the world, so it’s hard to disagree that a city’s dense, historic core might be worth preserving. Economist Edward Glaeser talks about “Jacobs Spillovers” – the transfers of knowledge and activity that help to explain the generation of wealth in cities like New York and London.

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Some might even ask: was Jacobs simply one of the first to fly the NIMBY flag against any developments taking place within the prized neighbourhoods they helped to gentrify?

But if we take a closer look at what Jacobs had to say – and how she said it – it becomes clear her ideas remain as radical and important as they were in the 1960s.

This is perhaps no more so than in relation to rise of the “smart city”.

Smart cities and the rise of a new urban science Today’s smart cities are big business, powered by the potential for big data and the internet of things to improve the efficiencies of urban systems.

Smart cities offer solutions to improve transport management, make better investment decisions, improve accountability and promote transparent decision-making.

The premise is that with so much data (big data) being produced, planners, governments and researchers can better understand cities as complex systems, and make better decisions about how they are planned and managed.

This explosion of data in cities – from traffic data, through mobile communications data to sensor data capturing the behaviour of natural systems and the everyday uses of infrastructure assets – is giving rise to a new “urban science”.

This incorporates machine learning, predictive analytics and complexity science. Its champions – such as Mike Batty and Luis Bettencourt – argue that we are starting to see the emergence of Jacobs’ “sidewalk ballet” in data-driven form.

But while the rise of big data and smart cities opens up possibilities for cities that were previously unthinkable, we should also be wary of the limitations.

The fine arts of urban observation Jacobs wasn’t simply claiming that cities should be understood as complex systems.

At a perhaps deeper level, Jacobs was arguing against visions of the city over-determined by the technologies that produce them: for LeCorbusier, as for Moses, the view of the city enabled by the innovation of flight helped give

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rise to new urban utopias like the Radiant City.

In writing Death and Life, Jacobs was also resisting the dominance of expert knowledge about a city, in favour of a democracy of lived experiences and everyday insights. She once reflected that: “… learning and thinking about city streets and the trickiness of city parks launched me into an unexpected treasure hunt.”

As a new generation of planners are taught of the possibilities of a datadriven urban science, we need to remember that Jacobs’ love of the sidewalk ballet also gave voice to the multiple languages, meanings, experiences and knowledge systems that underpin a vibrant urban culture.

Not all of these can be rendered by data-driven systems. Hopefully, the best insights into a city’s infinite complexity won’t only be produced by those trained with the skills to generate insights from big data.

The “data exhaust” of our daily lives will increasingly shape the way cities are understood. Much work remains to be done to ensure a cities data infrastructure is valued as a fundamental public asset.

But I can hear Jacobs issuing a word of warning: don’t forget to keep taking unexpected treasure hunts through city parks and keep your eyes on the street (not on your phones!). And keep listening out for different lived experiences and ways of knowing a place – not only those that can be rendered real-time as the data flows of complex systems.

Dr Barns is a researcher with Western’s Institute for Culture and Society.

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Justine Humphry HOW DO WE STOP PEOPLE FALLING THROUGH THE GAPS IN A DIGITALLY CONNECTED CITY?

Popular visions of the “smart city” promise that with digital technology the power of the city “as a platform” is put in users’ hands. Whether real or imagined, digital connectivity 24/7 is a fundamental part of the city-fabric.

Yet this is not the case for the city’s most marginalised and excluded. Much of this digital dimension is hidden. Shopping, banking, job searches, trip planning, government service transactions, entertainment and contact with friends and family are carried out online and through an increasing array of mobile apps. Such activities are now essential for navigating and participating fully in city life. Cultural activity is increasingly hybridised, reliant on social media and location-aware devices for co-ordinating collocated gatherings and events.

Struggling to stay connected Yet some groups are not automatically included in this experience of connectedness. Despite the fact that 95% of people experiencing homelessness have a mobile phone, staying connected is an everyday struggle. In research carried out for the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), a common reported experience of homelessness was having lost or broken a mobile phone, or had it stolen.

Service restrictions, number changes and credit shortages also meant internet and telephone access was partial and discontinuous.

There is also the issue of access to power. The assumption that city dwellers have a place to go to recharge their device batteries is so ingrained as to be unremarkable. Yet the same study found that 32% experienced difficulty recharging their mobile handset. Through the project, Making Connections, we set out to find out more about these connectivity barriers and to come up with creative solutions. Supported by the Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre and Western Sydney University, the project involves working directly with young people who have experienced homelessness and relevant organisations. A series of participatory design workshops is guiding the innovation process.

Stories that the participants shared in the first workshop highlighted the risks associated with not having regular, reliable and affordable access. In some cases the results are life-threatening. One young man recounted an incident

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of waking up on the street with his backpack being pulled from under him and a knife in his stomach. His mobile phone was in the stolen bag, so he had no way of dialling emergency services. He waited for hours before someone stopped to see if he needed help.

The difficulties associated with digital connectivity also mean that people who are homeless shape their activities and movements to meet their access needs. This is time and energy that might otherwise be directed to getting the support and assistance needed to move out of homelessness.

The recently launched “Ask Izzy” app and website, for example, which simplifies and streamlines access to services for the homeless, relies on an internet connection. The patchwork nature of free public WiFi, with inadequate or no access in some places, means users of these services face new hurdles.

Another young man talked of how he would walk around endlessly, trying to connect: “I’m walking around and I just have my WiFi open checking … Usually you can’t even find anything anywhere. It’s pretty hard.”

“City centres are at least easier than suburban areas. If you go further west, especially near Penrith or anywhere between Blacktown and Penrith, there’s not much free WiFi. It’s more something you have to pay for.”

Sociologist Emma Jackson describes experiences such as these as being “fixed in mobility”. Here, the physical and political structure of the city imposes movement simply to access the resources necessary to survive, making it even harder to move out of homelessness.

Urban digital connectivity is highly uneven and subject to rapid change as a result of market forces, new technology developments and planning initiatives. Until recently, internet access was a paid-for service in internet cafes and convenience stores. Now it is more likely to be in the form of charged or free WiFi hot spots.

Working to secure access Given these challenges, how might we design city spaces better to make it easier and safer for people who are homeless to access digital technology?

The group who attended the first of the Making Connections workshops came up with five creative ideas revolving around some key principles:

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free and widespread access to power

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availability of free WiFi/mobile internet

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affordable and robust devices and flexible mobile plans

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security of belongings and self

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enhanced access to support services.

The idea behind the second Making Connections workshop, to be held on February 19 at the Parramatta city campus of Western Sydney University, is to bring these ideas and principles to life. Representatives of telecommunication companies, charities, local government, public libraries, universities and related organisations will come together to develop and implement these ideas. The aim is to incorporate these key principles into policies and new programs, and to develop a common approach in all cities.

The shift to a more complex urban internet ecology, with the taken-forgrantedness of mobile connectivity, creates a need to re-engage with issues of digital exclusion in cities. Developing long-term and sustainable responses requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders. They will need to be not only committed to the goal of inclusion but also have the means for cooperating and taking action to achieve this goal

Dr Humphry is a lecturer and researcher in Western’s School of Humanities and Communication Arts

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Teresa Swist, David Sweeting, Liam Magee DESIGN IN THE ‘HYBRID CITY’: DIY MEETS PLATFORM URBANISM IN DHAKA’S INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, moved from the world’s second-least-liveable city to the fourth-least-liveable city in The Economist’s latest liveability survey. But cities are complex and measures of liveability often subjective.

These rankings perhaps say more about the biases of global standards than about Dhaka itself.

This isn’t to suggest these measures do not have their uses. The very growth of the urban measurement industry points to the productive diversity of world cities. It also illustrates how cities are internally diverse, even contradictory, in character.

This is especially true in Dhaka. On the back of high GDP growth, standards of living for Dhaka’s middle class have risen considerably. At the same time, informal settlements have also grown.

Based on Bangladesh’s 2014 census, it was calculated that 1.06 million people are living in slums in the Dhaka division. This number “has increased by 60.43% in the last 17 years”. Unofficial estimates of the number of slum residents are much higher, around 3.5 million.

Across the developing nations, around one-third of city residents live in slums. A 2013 Rockefeller Foundation report suggested that rather than focusing on a linear vision of “world-class cities”, planners and policymakers should adopt an alternative lens of “hybrid cities”, in which: “… informal economies are directly integrated into city planning and priorities.”

This requires inclusion of social movements and grassroots organisations that exist in and around informal economies. Secure housing, political recognition, legal protections and well-funded health and education programs are minimal measures for how this might be realised.

Illuminating shadow economies As cities trumpet their liveability, creativity and greenness, informal settlement activities are often relegated to the shadows. The Rockefeller

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report suggests this is not only a problem for social justice or political representation, but also for economic growth.

A hybridised city looks to light up those areas where communities are already bringing together existing needs, new ideas, vigorous debate and innovative possibilities. John Thakara observes that informal settlements have a “DIY urbanism”, which has implications for urban design, planning and development: The shadow economy is more fragmented, and more reliant on social networks, than the formal one – but it is no less dynamic for that. Because social practices are a key part of this urban transformation, the tasks of design are mutating.

An integrated approach would recognise how these practices – and associated urban planning processes – respond inventively to the limits and loopholes of rapidly expanding cities. According to the Rockefeller report, such limits include: … information asymmetries in the labour market that prevent equitable access to jobs; and insufficient access to resources (for example, skills, finance and markets) that enable growth.

Kolorob: a participatory platform Kolorob is an urban innovation initiative stemming from a multi-sectoral collaboration with the communities of two slums in Mirpur, Dhaka. Young people have been integral from the start as mappers and facilitators to collect data about services and involve communities in the application’s design.

A Bangla word meaning “clamour” or “noise”, Kolorob is aimed at amplifying the diverse voices and inventive practices of these informal settlements. It builds on the immediate strengths and networks of these communities to help meet their need for information about services, jobs and opportunities in a rapidly growing city.

The main features of the GooglePlay app include an interactive map about essential services in the two informal settlements. Kolorob also provides detailed information, a feedback system and a comparison tool.

We are exploring the expectations, experiences and reflections of community members involved in co-designing the app. Discussions with young people highlighted how they strongly value:

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increasing smartphone penetration and usage in their communities

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making the variety of local services more visible, providing in-depth detail about these, and using community feedback to enhance decisionmaking

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beginning to promote informal jobs to increase opportunities and autonomy for informal-sector workers.

Our initial research into the co-design of Kolorob has found significant scope for participatory platforms to enhance access to existing services and employment opportunities in these areas. They also generate the potential for broader capacity-building by linking people to skill development and institutional support where available.

How such technology platforms can be maintained and leveraged in continued partnership with such communities is critical. This experiment connects with similar conversations in other cities and through other networks. One prominent example is the Platform Co-operativism movement, which includes RefugeesWork in Germany, Sensorica in Canada and Enspiral in New Zealand.

Such platforms work to make data collection and knowledge sharing more inclusive.

Connecting people and opportunities A range of policymakers, politicians, researchers and community organisation representatives are now converging on the UN’s Habitat IIIconference in Quito, Ecuador. Key to the conference is the adoption of a New Urban Agenda. This aims to be: “… an action-oriented document which will set global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities through drawing together co-operation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors at all levels of government as well as the private sector.”

The role of information and communication technology in this invites not only close attention but novel collaborations. For instance, a 2015 report highlights several hurdles to overcome: •

More public-private partnerships are needed to incubate new ICT startups to provide locally appropriate services.

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•

Small, fragmented demonstration projects require national scale-up with business models addressing urban and rural areas.

As a platform, Kolorob is still in its early development stage. But there is interest from existing and new multi-sectoral partners in exploring the potential of scaling it up within Dhaka, as well as across other South Asian megacities.

Rather than focusing on artificial solutions based upon improving world-class cities, we need to turn the spotlight to inclusive ICT platforms that contribute to both informal and formal economies. We can then begin to meet the wider social and political needs of hybrid cities.   Dr Swist and Dr Magee are research fellows at Western’s Institute for Culture and Society. David Sweeting is an Associate member of the Institute.

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Emma Power WITH THE RISE OF APARTMENT LIVING, WHAT’S A NATION OF PET OWNERS TO DO?

Australia is a nation of pet owners. Yet as the popularity of apartment living grows, this culture is increasingly at risk from strata regulations that restrict the keeping of animals. Are these laws out of touch?

NSW Fair Trading has released a review of strata regulation. Key changes include a review of model by-laws relating to pet ownership. The proposed by-laws will make it easier for residents to keep pets in a strata scheme, such as an apartment or townhouse.

What changes are proposed?

The Strata Schemes Development Act currently incorporates three model by-laws, one of which bans pets. The proposed model by-laws remove this option.

Modifications to retained by-laws are also proposed. For example, a current clause allowing small dogs requires that people “carry the animal when it is on the common property”. The review proposes replacing this with one that doesn’t mention size and requires that owners “supervise the animal when it is on common property”.

The proposed changes are to the model by-laws. Strata communities will still retain the right to adopt by-laws that suit their particular context, including restricting pets.

Why support the changes?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that animals are banned from the majority of strata schemes, especially apartment buildings. However, the market appears to be undergoing change.

Growing numbers of pet-friendly apartments are going on sale. It is now not uncommon to see advertisements for apartments that include a picture of a fluffy dog. For developers, pet-friendly status is often part of the sales strategy and is believed to broaden market appeal.

Growing support for pet keeping in strata communities reflects the cultural

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importance of pet ownership in Australia. More than 60% of Australian households include at least one companion animal, with dogs and cats most common. These animals are more than just “pets”: 88% of households see them as family members.

Restrictive policies on pets are a real barrier to apartment living. Such rules can force people to consider relinquishing their pets, which can result in euthanasia and be devastating for the owner. Restrictive by-laws also drastically reduce the available market for people trying to sell an apartment.

Pets can be an asset to the whole community. More than just supporting good physical health and wellbeing and acting as a buffer against loneliness, pets have a “ripple effect” on interactions within neighbourhoods; they help to create a sense of community.

My research with dog owners in apartments across Sydney shows this.

People I spoke with described having more social interactions with their neighbours after they got a dog. Dogs made people recognisable to their neighbours and served as an ice-breaker, helping people to have “easy conversation” without the feeling of invading someone else’s privacy or personal space.

I don’t want to live with a barking dog!

Unsurprisingly, barking dogs are one of the top concerns that people have when they think about allowing pets in apartments. It is important to remember, though, that the vast majority of dogs are not nuisance barkers.

Also, dogs already live across Australia in 39% of households. You wouldn’t even know that most of these dogs were there.

Issues with barking in apartments can be managed in the same way as in detached housing. This involves talking with the owner of the dog and involving the local council if the issue persists.

Importantly, apartments also bring another layer of regulation. The same noise by-laws that can be used to stop your neighbour playing loud music all night also apply to pets.

What’s wrong with the current rules?

Existing model by-laws are unnecessarily restrictive. While some are “other regarding”, ensuring that animals do not have negative impacts on the experience of others living in the strata building, many (such as blanket pet

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bans) are “self-regarding”.

These by-laws do not regulate a specific behaviour that may have impacts on other residents, such as barking. Instead, these are blanket restrictions that limit residents’ choices regardless of whether these would have impacts on others.

The current model by-law that favours small dogs is a good example of an “other regulating” by-law. It also comes with a sting in the tail: some large dogs are behaviourally quite well suited to living in apartment buildings, while some small dogs are high energy and not as suited to this type of living unless kept by someone who is able to meet these energy needs.

The current by-laws therefore risk encouraging some pets that are entirely unsuited to apartment living.

What else do we need to do?

Proposed changes to strata regulation in NSW are open for public comment until May 27, 2016. If the changes are adopted, new strata schemes should be encouraged to adopt one of the pet-friendly by-laws. Existing schemes can also be proactive and consider making changes to their by-laws to make them more pet-friendly.

Beyond changes to strata regulation, apartment and urban design that is pet-friendly is needed so that people can live well with companion animals.

Design measures such as good sound-proofing, ledges and windows that allow animals to see outside, and pet-friendly open spaces in and around apartment buildings (including gardens and local parks) are good for the wellbeing of people and animals.

We should also support good neighbouring. Recent research, including my own with pet owners, suggests that in many strata communities neighbours make formal complaints about neighbours rather than knocking on the door and having a chat.

Some pet owners claim to be unaware that their pet has been a nuisance to others until they get a letter from the strata committee. This is not only stressful, it also limits the opportunity for people to respond to any issues.

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Pet keeping is already widespread in Australia and brings numerous benefits to individuals and communities. Rather than trying to restrict the presence of pets in one type of housing, it is time to think about how we can live well with our companion animals.

Dr Power is a researcher with Western’s Institute for Culture and Society.

Environmental Sustainability Western’s campuses range across both Sydney’s second CBD, Parramatta, and its remaining agricultural areas. The University’s footprint is a crucible for the environmental pressures facing the world: contested land-use, urban and agricultural climate change adaptation, and resource conservation.

Research within our Environmental Sustainability theme is broad, practical and interdisciplinary, and is focused on maintaining and managing the diversity of urban, agricultural and natural systems. Our research expertise within this theme relies on insights from sociology, the arts, engineering, green IT and economics as well as the biological and physical sciences. The use and production of recycled materials, urban green cover and public health, small business attitudes towards climate change: these are some of the ways in which the University’s researchers are engaging with environmental sustainability across disciplinary boundaries

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Ricky Spencer TURTLE EXTINCTION EVENT BODES ILL FOR OUR WATERWAYS

A number of distressed and dead turtles were found by canoeists in the Bellinger River on the north coast of New South Wales on Wednesday February 18 this year. At that time, it was reported by NSW National Parks and Wildlife rangers, NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) volunteers and local residents that 30 turtles were affected.

Several days later, the tally increased to 52 and, as of today, more than 300 turtles are dead. But the real toll is far greater, with many more washed away during a flood in late February.

Yet the peril of this one turtle species is more than an isolated issue. It gives us a window into the health of the entire ecosystem around the Bellinger River, and suggests something is very wrong.

Close to the brink The dead turtles are all from one species, the Bellinger River Snapping Turtle (Myuchelys georgesi), which is a species that only exists in a 25-kilometre stretch of the Bellinger River. The risk of extinction is high.

National parks have been closed indefinitely and plans are in place to recover healthy turtles from the wild. There are already few juvenile turtles in any Australian river because of sustained annual fox predation, close to 100%.

So the reality is that, even with active management, recovery of the species will take more than a decade if the current disease doesn’t wipe them out.

Ill turtles display symptoms of blindness, growths around the eye (septicaemic cutaneous ulcerative disease, or SCUDs) and are extremely lethargic and emaciated. The mortality rate of infected animals is 100%. High mortality combined with an extremely limited range means that this is quite possibly a rapid extinction event.

Window on our waterways Turtles are an evolutionary success story, having persisted for over 220 million years. Australian freshwater turtles face many threats that permeate every life-history stage, from egg to adult.

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The life history of turtles involves high but fluctuating rates of egg and juvenile mortality, which is balanced by extreme iteroparity (i.e. they are long-lived and highly fecund). Threats to adults are generally low.

Human activities have impacted this successful life strategy by increasing mortality of eggs and young, as well as adults. Nest predation rates are extraordinary high and adult turtles frequently become victims of road kill or are killed by foxes as they emerge to nest or disperse.

Turtles are also drowned at water regulation points in wetlands (eg. carp screens), in fishing nets or in irrigation pumps, and killed by fishers. An article from 2012 described that: “a combination of human-induced changes has created a downward spiral so powerful that – without strategic intervention – much of the great turtle lineage will have disappeared by the close of the 21st century.”

The possible extinction of an ancient lineage and iconic animal is tragic, but the consequences for the health of our rivers are even more significant.

In most systems, turtles rival fish as the highest vertebrate biomass. They are the major vertebrate nutrient recyclers (i.e. scavengers), a significant herbivore and the top predator.

Scavengers serve an important function by stabilising food webs and are critical in redistributing nutrients. Thus turtles provide a critical ecosystem service by removing decaying animal matter from the environment.

Significant numbers of dead turtles are symptomatic of something wrong with a river or wetland. Given their various roles in an ecosystem, indicators of biological health don’t come much better than freshwater turtles.

The Bellinger River Snapping Turtle consumes food, such as insect larvae, that are highly sensitive to pollution, increased sedimentation or general water conditions. In a river, which changes almost daily because of rainfall, insect populations respond rapidly and are affected by natural changes.

The turtle is adapted to boom-bust cycles of the river and resilient to natural shortages of food. However, if there are chronic issues with the food supply, then turtles will be impacted.

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Watch the turtles The crisis with the turtles in the Bellinger River may signal broader effects of a change or breakdown in ecosystem function in the river.

The last mass freshwater turtle mortality event occurred in the lower lakes of South Australia during the millennium drought, when salinity levels rose and many turtles perished after becoming entrapped by growths of marine tubeworms on their shells.

The value of turtles as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health is that their health relates to medium to long-term changes in the river, rather than annual or seasonal fluctuations that occur in potentially environmentally volatile systems.

They are also long-lived and turtles can bio-accumulate toxins in their shells. Regular sampling (shell or nails) of marked individuals can be used to monitor long-term exposure to toxins and pollutants in the river – something that snapshot monitoring of water quality may miss.

Turtles are threatened by chronic reproductive failure, exotic predators, disease, habitat modification and habitat loss. Potential for any recovery is limited by ongoing threats and limited capacity for populations to increase.

The current disease threatening to drive the Bellinger River Snapping Turtle to extinction is a potential window into a long-term breakdown of ecosystem services. The possible extinction of a long-lived ancient species that has survived several million years might be a significant warning sign of the current state of our freshwater environments.

Dr Spencer is a senior lecturer in Western’s School of Science and Health.

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Justin Welbergen NOT IN MY BACKYARD? HOW TO LIVE ALONGSIDE FLYING-FOXES

The conflict between urbanites and wildlife recently developed a new battleground: the small coastal New South Wales town of Batemans Bay, where the exceptional flowering of spotted gums has attracted a huge influx of grey-headed flying-foxes from across Australia’s southeast.

In response to intense and highly publicised community concern, federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has announced he will seek an immediate National Interest Exemption to facilitate dispersal of these bats – a move that risks undermining legal protections afforded to this and other threatened species.

Similar conflicts are occurring elsewhere in NSW, such as the Hunter region, where some unscrupulous members of the public lit a fire in a flying-fox roost at Cessnock.

With the ongoing expansion of the human urban footprint, animals are increasingly confronted with urban environments. Human encroachment into natural habitats generally negatively affects biodiversity. However, urban landscapes can present wildlife with an irresistible lure of reliable food supplies and other resources. While urban wildlife can provide a range of benefits to health and wellbeing, it can also be cause for frustration and conflict.

Urban human-wildlife conflict is a growing area of management concern and scientific research. But the research suggests that the current strategies for addressing NSW’s conflicts between humans and flying-foxes might not have the intended results.

Ruling the urban roost Australian flying-foxes are becoming more urbanised, and the noise, smell and droppings from their roosts can have huge impacts on local residents.

A fundamental problem underlying current approaches to urban roosts is a lack of understanding of the extraordinary mobility of flying-foxes. They are some of the most mobile animals in Australia, with movements that range from foraging trips of up to 120 km in a single night to long-distance nomadism covering thousands of kilometres in a single year.

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While roosts can remain active for decades, they are more like backpacker hostels than stable households, housing a constantly changing clientele that comes to visit local attractions. Roosts are connected into large networks through which flying-foxes move in response to changes in local food resources.

This explains the sudden influx in places such as Batemans Bay where preferred food suddenly becomes abundant. But it also highlights the importance of a national approach to flying-fox management and conservation.

Intense local flowerings of Eucalypts, such as spotted gums, produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen, which attract large numbers of flying-foxes and other species for several weeks. When a relatively small local flying-fox population that is tolerated by its human neighbours suddenly increases tenfold, it can place severe pressure on the local community.

Despite their transient nature, these influxes are often wrongly interpreted as population explosions, leading to calls for culling. In comparison, more humane tactics – such as using loud noise or vegetation removal to disperse the flying-foxes – can seem like a more balanced response. But does dispersal actually work?

Shifting the problem elsewhere There is now ample evidence to show that dispersals are extremely costly and can exacerbate the very human-wildlife conflict that they aim to resolve.

Most dispersals result in the flying-foxes returning to the original roost as soon as the dispersal program ends, because naïve new individuals continue to arrive from elsewhere. Overcoming this can take months or years of repeated daily dispersal.

Other dispersals result in flying-foxes establishing new roosts a few hundred metres away, typically within the same urban environment in locations that we cannot control. This risks shifting the problem to previously unaffected members of a community and to other communities nearby.

While flying-foxes are often portrayed as noisy pests, they serve our economic interest by providing irreplaceable pollination and seed-dispersal services for free. What’s more, those same bats that annoy people during the day work tirelessly at night to maintain the health of our fragmented forests and natural ecosystems.

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So it is in our national interest to manage conflict at urban roosts, by using approaches that balance community concerns with environmental considerations.

To be considered “successful”, a dispersal should permanently reduce conflict to a level that is acceptable to the community without causing significant harm to the animals. However, dispersals are currently implemented at the local council level with little or no monitoring of the impacts in or outside the immediately affected area. This makes it hard to assess whether they have been successful.

For example, it is not uncommon for flowering to cease and flying-fox numbers to decline naturally during the period of active dispersal. This gives the community a false sense that a permanent solution has been achieved, when in fact the issues will recur the next time the trees blossom. There is thus an urgent need for urban roosts to be managed with properly defined and applied criteria for success.

Evidence-based management Unfortunately, lack of research effort directed at “ugly” and “less popular” Australian animals means that very few evidence-based management tools are available to deal with contentious roosts.

Research targeting a few key areas would greatly help efforts to improve urban roost management. For instance, we do not know how flying-foxes choose their roost sites, which leaves us unable to design “carrot solutions” by creating more attractive roost sites elsewhere.

Intensive tree-flowering events are relatively infrequent and hard to predict.

This means that it is difficult to prepare communities for a sudden influx of flying-foxes.

Furthermore, the acceptability of various flying-fox management options differs between sections of the community, so it is difficult to find optimal solutions. Social scientists are currently trying to help identify priority areas that promote long-term viability of flying-foxes while also easing conflict with humans.

The extreme mobility of flying-foxes means that a uniform federal approach for management is needed.

Local, state and federal governments continue to allocate considerable funds for dispersal responses, even though such actions are high-risk activities for

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local communities and are unlikely to provide long-term solutions. We argue strongly that targeted research is needed to better inform land managers and affected communities of flying-fox ecology and provide them with lowcost, low-risk, evidence-based tools for dealing with urban roosts.

Flying-foxes don’t care about legislative borders, and state-based responsibility for wildlife management leads to discontinuity in approaches between jurisdictions. While flying-foxes are being monitored at the national scale, this initiative needs to be combined with a uniform federal approach for managing flying-foxes in our human landscapes. Otherwise, conflicts such as those faced by the residents of Batemans Bay will continue unabated.

Dr Welbergen is a researcher at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.

 

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Steven Freeland CRIMES AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENT: THE SILENT VICTIM OF WARFARE

Acts perpetrated during the course of warfare have, through the ages, led to significant environmental destruction. These have included situations in which the natural environment has intentionally been targeted as a “victim”, or has been manipulated to serve as a “weapon”.

On Friday the United Nations marked the “International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict”.

Throughout history the environment has been a silent victim of human conflict. The problem is ongoing. It is time we properly recognised crimes against the environment and made those responsible for such crimes fully accountable.

Scorched earth tactics In the 5th century BC, the retreating Scythians poisoned water wells in an effort to slow the advancing Persian army. Roman troops razed the city of Carthage in 146 BC, and poisoned the surrounding soil with salt to prevent its future fertilisation. The American Civil War in the 19th century saw the widespread implementation of “scorched earth” policies.

In August 1945, we witnessed the destructive capability of weapons technology, when the United States detonated atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in massive loss of life and environmental destruction.

During the Vietnam War, the United States implemented Operation Ranch Hand to devastating effect to destroy vegetation used by the enemy for cover and sustenance, through the use of chemicals such as Agent Orange.

Attempts were also made to deliberately modify the environment to create floods along vital supply routes utilised by the North Vietnamese forces.

More recently still, who can forget the haunting images of more than 700 burning Kuwaiti oil well heads, which had been deliberately ignited by retreating Iraqi forces during the Gulf War in 1991 – a scene that was likened to Dante’s Inferno.

Over the following ten years, the Saddam regime built barriers and levees to drain the al-Hawizeh and al-Hammar marshes in southern Iraq, an area some

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believe is the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. This effectively destroyed the livelihood of the 500,000 Marsh Arabs who had inhabited the area of this unique ecosystem.

Actions such as these demonstrate how the deliberate despoliation of the environment can have catastrophic effects, not only on human populations, but also in ecological terms. For example, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as having the potential to kill many thousands of people in a single attack, have effects that may persist in the environment, in some cases indefinitely.

The devastating effects of environmental warfare can continue long after the conflict is resolved, jeopardising or destroying the lives and livelihoods of those reliant on the natural environment.

Resource wars Moreover, access to natural resources – or the lack of access – can itself be the trigger for conflict.

Approximately five million people were killed during the 1990s in armed conflicts relating to the exploitation of natural resources such as timber, diamonds, gold and oil. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found that, over the last 60 years, at least 40% of all internal conflicts have been linked to the exploitation of natural resources.

Recent conflicts in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Angola were not only fought over natural resources, but the exploitation of those resources in turn funded the combating parties to acquire weapons.

This has given rise to the phenomena of “conflict resources ”, where natural resources commercialise and prolong conflict. It becomes a vicious selfperpetuating cycle.

Defending the environment Environmental degradation and exploitation can thus be both a cause and a consequence of armed conflict. The International Court of Justice has clearly recognised that damage to its environment may constitute an “essential interest” of a state. Such recognition will only increase as the world gains further insights into the broader state of the global environment, including the disastrous effects of climate change.

Despite all of the evidence, however, deliberate environmental destruction during warfare is still largely regarded, as rape once was, as an unfortunate

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consequence of war.

The existing rules under international humanitarian law, international environmental law and international criminal law purporting to limit deliberate environmental destruction have largely been ineffective and inappropriate. The impact of environmental destruction has paled when measured against perceived military advantages. The United Nations International Law Commission is currently looking at this issue in an attempt to establish the relevant applicable principles.

It is, of course, true that war and armed conflict are inherently destructive of the environment. But that is no reason to allow leaders to deliberately or recklessly target the environment in order to achieve their military goals.

Deliberate destruction is no longer acceptable, particularly given the ongoing development of weapons capable of widespread and significant damage.

There is therefore much more that should be done. Just as international law has made great strides forward by classifying rape during armed conflict as a war crime, a crime against humanity, or even genocide in certain circumstances, we should recognise that intentional environmental destruction can also constitute an international crime. Proper modes of accountability should be incorporated into the mechanisms of international criminal justice. “Crimes against the environment� should therefore be incorporated as a separate crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, in order to better protect our most cherished assets for future generations.

Professor Freeland is a researcher and teacher with the School of Law, Western Sydney University.  

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Neil Perry THE NSW GOVERNMENT IS CHOOSING TO UNDERMINE NATIVE VEGETATION AND BIODIVERSITY

While everyone’s eyes were turned to the Federal budget last Tuesday, the NSW government released a very controversial piece of draft legislation that will remove restrictions on land clearance and, despite their claims, threaten biodiversity.

The new reforms implement the recommendations made in the NSW Biodiversity Legislation Review but the economic assumptions underlying both documents are not accurate or acceptable.

The reforms aim to “conserve biodiversity” and “facilitate ecologically sustainable development”. However, they will only do so in a perfect world where farmers have complete knowledge about the value of native vegetation, where there are no spillover effects from land clearance, and where landowners care about the long-run condition of the land as much as they care about current income. Outside of this world, the Baird government’s reforms will lead to large increases in land clearance, increased carbon emissions and more threats to endangered species.

While some aspects of the new legislation are informed by ecological science, the main approach derives from economic theory. Essentially, the government will repeal the Native Vegetation Act, 2003 (NVA), which restricted land clearance on farms, and replace it with a market-based approach that provides flexibility for farmers to clear land.

While the NVA had certain exemptions where land clearance was allowed, the new Biodiversity Conservation Act has many more and applies a riskbased approach. The risk is loosely framed around threats to endangered species or communities. For example, low-risk vegetation includes land that has been cleared at some point in the last 25 years, and grasslands assessed as being of low conservation value.

Based on a farmer’s self-assessment of risk, land clearance is allowed at the lower risk levels while it requires approval at higher risk levels from Local Land Services – administrative bodies that can include other farmers as members (itself a possible conflict of interest). A biodiversity market can be used to offset land clearance impacts at these high-risk levels. That is, landowners who clear land can either buy credits in the Biobanking scheme

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or pay money into a biodiversity trust fund.

In contrast, under the NVA, any approved land clearance had to be offset by improving the environmental condition of other areas on the property. This ensured protection for biodiversity at the local level.

Thus, the new approach will “broaden and deepen” the use of biodiversity markets and it will apply offsetting at the regional and State level rather than the local level, which means that local biodiversity will be lost.

The government’s argument for taking this approach is that the current system “doesn’t deliver”. This is simply not true. Since the NVA was implemented in 2004/5, land clearance for agriculture has reduced from an average of 21,500 hectares to 16,000 hectares per year. A 2009 review of the NVA stated that from 2006-2008 the legislation led directly to the conservation or rehabilitation of 250,000 hectares.

Thus, if the aim is to conserve biodiversity and deliver ecologically sustainable development, the NVA certainly has delivered. Of course, the NVA may not be delivering maximum short-term economic gains for some farmers and large agribusiness firms, but that is another matter.

The underlying economic assumptions don’t stack up to reality The government claims that the new legislation will both facilitate economic development and protect the environment. By giving farmers more freedom, they say, native vegetation will be preserved and protected.

The old legislation creates perverse outcomes, they argue, and limits the actions of responsible farmers. If we put trust in the farmers, they state, the environment will be conserved.

However, for these environmental benefits to be realised under the looser, market-based approach, the following three conditions need to apply. First, farmers would need to have perfect knowledge about the impact of native vegetation on their current and future incomes. For example, farmers would need to understand the value of native vegetation in halting erosion and salinity, providing wind breaks, harbouring bird diversity, restricting pest invasions and supporting current and future agricultural productivity. Only then can farmers accurately value the conservation of native vegetation.

The second condition that the draft legislation assumes to be true is that land clearance creates no spillover effects. However, native vegetation does not simply provide benefits on a farmer’s own property. It provides spillover benefits such as pest resistance, flood control, wind protection and

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pollination services to other properties in the local area. Native vegetation also provides regional benefits, such as climate and water regulatory functions, and it houses threatened and endangered species and biodiversity valued by other citizens.

Unless farmers are forced to consider these spillover effects, as they were forced to do under the NVA, they will make decisions on the basis of private benefits and costs only. Thus, they will clear too much relative to the desires and needs of society and other local land users. The legislation does require offsetting of high-risk land clearance which in some way internalises the spillover cost, but the market-based offset price is not equal to the social impact and spillover costs occur when low and medium-risk vegetation is cleared as well.

The third unrealistic assumption of the draft legislation is that the ‘discount rate’ of landowners is identical to society’s. That is, it is assumed that the rate at which farmers discount future income compared to current income is the same as society’s rate of discount. In contrast, if landowner’s rate of discount is greater than society’s, too much land will be cleared relative to the needs and desires of society and future generations.

The impact of high discount rates can be seen in the extreme in the clear cutting of tropical forests where farmers are poor and desperate. NSW farmers may not be as poor and desperate as landowners bordering the Amazon, but as they frequently tell us, they are highly indebted and being squeezed from all sides between multinational input suppliers and highlyconcentrated domestic food wholesalers and retailers. Thus, according to their own evaluation, farmers have high discount rates and as such a focus on short-term economic interests rather than environmental sustainability will drive decisions under the proposed legislation.

The Baird government is undermining the long-run condition of the land The theory underlying the government’s reforms assumes that farmers know best. That is, farmers know how to best manage their land (perfect knowledge), they will incorporate their neighbour’s needs and the broader public interest (zero or internalised spillover effects), and they will act in the long-run interest of the land (discount rate equal to society’s). Because these assumptions are untrue in reality, the new legislation will lead to a vast increase in land clearance and loss of biodiversity. This exact result occurred in Queensland when similar changes were made to land clearance laws.

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Aware of the devastating effects of the Queensland legislation on land clearance, the government has claimed that NSW is “not Queensland” and that more checks and balances are in place. But these checks and balances are still designed for a world with perfect knowledge, no spillover effects and perfectly forward-thinking landowners. Thus, the checks and balances will not “deliver”.

Ultimately, the major impact of the reforms is to free up land clearance, to make it easier to clear and to reduce regulation. As all environmental problems stem from unrestrained economic activity, the removal of regulation can only be seen as a decision to accept a lower land condition – a land with more erosion and salinity, less species and biodiversity, and eventually less economic productivity as well.

The Baird government seems to believe that we exist within an unrealistic, textbook version of a free-market economy and is setting policy on the basis of free-market ideology and in response to the demands of large agribusiness firms and food retailers who want still lower farm-gate prices. In setting policy this way, the Baird government is promoting a less sustainable land condition and undermining the prosperity of future generations. This is no way to manage the commons.

Dr Perry is a research lecturer in economics with Western’s School of Business.

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Juan Francisco Salazar, Paul James, Liam Magee FIVE CITIES THAT COULD CHANGE THE FUTURE OF ANTARCTICA

Antarctica is at a crossroads. This frozen continent at the bottom of our planet has the potential to either become one of the most fiercely contested zones in the world, or the most collaborative.

Antarctica is one of four internationally recognised global commons along with the atmosphere, the high seas and outer space. These are all areas that have historically been guided by the principle of the common heritage of humankind.

The continent is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System, a complex set of arrangements developed to regulate relations between states with interests and territorial claims in the region. As of today, 29 states are “consultative parties” to the treaty. They demonstrate their interest in Antarctica by carrying out substantial scientific activity there.

Several states have very specific and long-standing interests in Antarctica, which not only determine national policies about engaging with the continent, but can also complicate those engagements. Seven have territorial claims including the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile.

In 2007, the UK made a submission to the United Nations to claim more than a million square kilometre of seabeds, and in 2012 it renamed an area as Queen Elizabeth Land. Both instances led to diplomatic tension with Argentina.

Despite ongoing competing claims over the Antarctic and increasing interest in its resources, this is also a moment of remarkable opportunity for collaboration.

One example of such collaboration is the possibility of creating a large marine protected area in the Ross Sea in East Antarctica.

Meet the five gateway cities Which path will Antarctica take? The answer may lie with five cities in the planet’s deep south: Cape Town (South Africa), Christchurch (New Zealand), Hobart (Australia), Punta Arenas (Chile), and Ushuaia (Argentina).

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These cities are the most connected to the Antarctic in the world. They are formally recognised international gateways through which most travel to the region flows. All significant engagement with the Southern Polar Region is co-ordinated through them, but the ensuing competition for economic advantage that this traffic offers is not always constructive.

We rarely consider the role that urban centres play in humanity’s relationship with the world’s most desolate, extreme continent. But in these cities, Antarctica has exercised a powerful hold on the urban imagination since the late 19th century.

All five cities are small in size and population and, with the exception of Cape Town, do not fit the profile of a global city. But that might change if we consider their influence over an entire region; the high percentage of residents employed in the scientific research and logistics sector; and the fact that they host some of the best educational, tourism, and entertainment facilities in relation to the Antarctic region.

Ushuaia Ushuaia (population 67,600) is the capital of the Argentinean province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctic and South Atlantic Islands. It is commonly referred to as the southernmost city in the world.

The city is located on the Beagle Channel, in an area that had been occupied

by Yamana – or Yaghan – Indigenous people for more than 10,000 years.

Due to its proximity to Antarctica – around 1000 kilometres – Ushuaia is today by far the most popular gateway for Antarctic tourism, capturing close to 90% of the more than 35,000 tourists who travel each year to the Antarctic. But it has yet to act as a base for any national Antarctic science programmes.

Since 2007, Ushuaia has hosted the Biennial of Contemporary Art at the End of the World an international arts forum with the motto “Think at the end of the world, another world is possible”.

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (population 125,000) was founded in 1848 as a penal colony by the Chilean government, and later served as destination for the settlement of European immigrants. Until the construction of the Panama Canal in 1910, its port was key in the commercial route linking the Atlantic and the Pacific.

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Punta Arenas was a key site and principal point of reference for many of the early Antarctic scientific expeditions. The city is dotted with these stories.

Among the most important is the 1916 failed Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton. This year Punta Arenas celebrated the centenary of the rescue by the Chilean Navy officer Piloto Pardo of Shackleton’s stranded crew in Antarctica.

Most important, the national Antarctic programmes of more than 20 countries use Punta Arenas as a gateway to the continent – a higher number than any other gateway city.

This is partly due to logistical advantages and the geographical proximity to the Antarctic Peninsula (about 1,300 kilometres), the area of Antarctica that hosts the largest concentration of scientific research stations on the continent, and arguably the world.

Punta Arenas is at the centre of a new ambitious development plan seeking to improve its infrastructure and generate new forms of Antarctic culture and identity in the Magallanes region. These include a School Antarctic Fair, a unique initiative in which school students compete for a coveted trip to the frozen continent to work with scientists.

Christchurch Christchurch (population 360,000) is a key gateway to the Antarctic as the logistics centre for a number of national programmes (most importantly, for the United States, Italy and South Korea).

Christchurch’s historic links with Antarctica and tributes to early explorers – such as Captain Robert Falcon Scott – are evident, and made accessible through central city walking trails. While it has yet to attract significant Antarctic tourism operations, Christchurch has arguably the most developed cultural sector of all Antarctic cities – perhaps only comparable to Hobart.

In 1992, the International Antarctic Centre – an education and outreach facility – was opened in a precinct that includes the passenger terminals of Christchurch Airport and the New Zealand Antarctic programme offices.

The city also hosts the NZ IceFest – a public festival celebrating all things Antarctica. And since 2016, it houses a new Antarctic Office tasked with developing plans to become a world-leading research hub.

Hobart Hobart (population 225,000) was founded in 1803, also as a penal colony. It’s

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Australia’s second-oldest capital city after Sydney.

It has the most complete infrastructure of any gateway city, hosting the largest critical mass of Antarctic scientists and scholars anywhere in the world with world-class research and education institutions. This is the result of a decision made in 1981 to move the Australian Antarctic Program to Hobart from Canberra, which in hindsight marked an economic and cultural turning point for both the city and the state of Tasmania.

In the early 1990s, the local government created the Tasmanian Polar Network, which represents the considerable Antarctic and Southern Ocean business and science sector. Hobart’s claim to its gateway status is logistical, economic and scientific (primarily for the French and Chinese Antarctic programmes).

In the Southern Hemisphere summer of 2011/12, Hobart hosted a range of big cultural events celebrating the centenary of Antarctic expeditions by Sir Douglas Mawson and Roald Amundsen. Today, the city’s gateway status is also increasingly shored up by heritage tourism: a growing list of polar tourist attractions including permanent museum exhibitions and a new Australian Antarctic Festival launched in 2016.

Cape Town Cape Town (population 3.75 million) has a completely different history to the other four gateway cities. Founded in 1652 as a key site in the commercial route between Europe and the East Indies, Cape Town is an order of magnitude bigger than the next largest gateway and is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

Situated further from Antarctica than the other cities, Cape Town sees its potential in building up research and logistics services, and in being closer to both European tourist-generating regions and key national Antarctic programmes, such as those of Russia, Germany, Belgium, Norway and Japan.

International co-operation Each of these cities has a complex relationship with the Antarctic that goes back hundreds of years. But they have only recently acquired international relevance as entry points for tourists and workers travelling to Antarctica.

A formal statement of intent between the five cities was signed in 2009, binding them to explore the benefits of exchanging expertise about the continent. Nonetheless, a substantive relationship between them remains

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tenuous.

It is time we rethink both the outlook of these cities – not as five far-flung ports competing for the same northern hemisphere capital and investments, but as members of a network that can learn from and benefit each other.

The future of the Antarctic hangs in the balance and these cities have a key role to play in securing the future of this fragile continent.

A new approach is crucial. The cities should not just act as thoroughfares, but also as urban centres that embody the cosmopolitan values associated with Antarctic custodianship: international cooperation, scientific innovation, and ecological protection.

Through ecological stewardship, political cooperation, cultural vibrancy and economic prosperity – benefits that can be mutually reinforcing – these cities could change their future relationship with Antarctica, and each other.

Associate Professor Salazar works in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. Professor Paul James is the Director of Western’s Institute for Culture and Society, where Dr Magee also works.

Education and Aspirational Change Research within our Education and Aspirational Change: access, equity and pathways theme draws on the population diversity of Western Sydney to underpin research that explores educational access on a global scale. This research theme supports individuals and communities in achieving their economic, social and cultural aspirations through education.

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Denis Burnham WHY BABY TALK IS GOOD FOR YOUR BABY

People often tell new parents to avoid sing-song “baby talk” with their new addition to the family because it will slow the child’s language development.

But evidence shows it does the opposite; baby talk plays an important role in development and babies prefer it to other types of speech.

Who uses baby talk?

Scientists used to call baby talk “motherese”. Now it’s referred to as infantdirected speech because not only mothers, but fathers, strangers and even three-year-old children use it when talking to a baby. Just about everyone uses it, even if they’re trying not to.

What is baby talk?

Baby talk has shorter sentences, simpler words and more repetition. But it’s not only baby words like “tummy” that make it attractive to babies.

Much more important, especially in the first 18 months or so, are the sounds of baby talk. Baby talk has a characteristic structure, rhythm and use of emotion.

Recollect John Travolta reading the stockmarket listings in a sing-song voice to baby Mikey in Look Who’s Talking. It wasn’t the words that made baby Mikey happy, but the sounds and intonation.

Compared with adult-directed speech, infant-directed speech has more emotion, irrespective of the actual words used. It has a higher pitch and more up-and-down patterns, which attract infants’ attention. It also has more hyperarticulated vowels and consonants, which exaggerate the differences between sounds.

It turns out this exaggeration helps language development. When mothers use more exaggerated vowels in baby talk their babies are better able to distinguish speech sounds. And exaggerated vowels help children acquire larger vocabularies What about other cutesy-wutsey speech?

Baby talk differs from other cutesy-wutsey speech, such as that directed to

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pets. We increase emotion and raise the pitch of our voice when talking to dogs and cats. But while this makes it sound cutesy-wutsey, research shows we don’t exaggerate the vowels as we do in infant-directed speech. This is perhaps because most animals can’t learn human speech (parrots being one exception).

We also exaggerate vowels to computer talking heads, but we don’t raise the pitch.

And when talking to foreigners, we exaggerate vowels but show more negative emotion.

So we adjust the ingredients of our speech (pitch, emotion, vowel exaggeration) to suit the needs of the audience.

How old is too old for baby talk?

We adjust the ingredients mix within baby talk over infants’ first year to match their developmental level. We continue to do so as children become older and their language knowledge becomes more advanced.

The developmental adjustments mothers make follow infants’ speech preferences across ages: more emotional at three months, approving at six months, and directive (“yes, look at the doggie”) at nine months.

How mothers talk to their baby is automatically in synch with their baby’s preferences.

So don’t worry about knowing when to stop using baby talk – your child’s behaviour will guide you. This is not because parents are following some child development manual; mother and infant have a highly developed conversational dance, and under normal circumstances each responds to the nuances of the other’s speech.

Is all baby talk the same?

Baby talk can differ from the norm under certain circumstances. Baby talk by postnatally depressed mothers, for instance, tends to have less exaggerated pitch intonation.

And baby talk to hearing-impaired infants does not contain exaggerated vowels.

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Is baby talk the same in all languages?

Some form of baby talk seems to be used across all languages, though it has only been studied in only a few of the world’s 7,000 languages. Nevertheless, we know baby talk differs as a product of linguistic and cultural factors.

Quiché Mayan baby talk, for instance, does not have heightened pitch because high pitch is reserved for people of higher status.

Cantonese baby talk has no vowel exaggeration but it does have exaggerated tones. These pitch differences signify meaning changes Cantonese and many other Asian, African and Central American languages.

Japanese baby talk appears to have no vowel exaggeration but when talking to babies Japanese speakers make adjustments that emphasise the unique rhythm of Japanese speech.

Caretakers and infants work as a team to provide an optimal developmental context. In English, this entails baby talk with a mix of pitch, emotion and sound exaggeration optimal for each infant. Other ingredients are most certainly involved, at least in other languages.

Irrespective of the ingredients or language, participation in the parent-infant dance results in baby talk. When each party attends, observes, listens, the dance is smooth. When one party doesn’t or can’t act on feedback from the other, toes get stepped on.

Professor Burnham was the Foundation Director of the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, where he continues to conduct research.

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Meg Smith DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE: MYTHS ABOUT THE GENDER PAY GAP

Recently released earnings data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) indicated a gender pay gap as high as 45% among managers. Yet basic myths continue to obstruct informed debate about why the gap exists.

Myth 1: Women are less qualified due to interrupted careers.

This myth has been debunked by a wide range of labour market studies which investigate whether women receive the same labour market rewards as men with similar qualifications, experience and personal characteristics.

Both in Australia and internationally, such studies consistently show that only a small proportion of the earnings differences between women and men can be explained by differences in education and work experience or other productivity-related characteristics.

While it has been assumed that women’s poorer earnings relate to their lower levels of education and qualifications, recent data demonstrates clearly that the earnings gap has persisted despite women’s increased entry into higher education. Today a higher proportion of women (26%) than men (22%) hold a bachelor degree or higher qualification, while a higher proportion of women (42%) than men (36%) are engaged in undergraduate education.

Grading earnings data indicates also that the gender earnings gap cannot be simply equated to women choosing to have children. Relevant here is the evidence of a persistent gender pay gap among graduates in their 20s, a period that predates career interruptions due to child care.

Myth 2: The statistics are wrong. Organisations treat all employees equally and pay them fairly.

The statistics are not wrong. The WGEA data is derived from the data organisations have provided to the agency. The strong story to come out of this evidence is of ongoing gender pay inequity and its cumulative impact on women’s current and lifelong earnings. Even allowing for the different labour economics paradigms used to investigate the gender pay gap, a significant proportion of the earnings gap remains unaccounted for by what economists term “measurable characteristics”.

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The determinants of the gender earnings gap cannot be easily reduced to a single factor. Contributing factors to the gap include the undervaluation of feminised work and skills, differences in the types of jobs held by men and women and the method of setting pay for those jobs, and structures and workplace practices which restrict the employment prospects of workers with family responsibilities.

Looking at management and leadership positions within organisations, a number of key barriers to the earnings recognition of women in leadership positions and their progression within leadership structures have been identified. These include negative perceptions about competing work-life priorities and women’s ability to lead.

These perceptions not only rest with individuals within an organisation but are embedded in organisational structure and practices. Within organisational settings, unconscious biases specifically related to or informed by expectations about what is appropriate behaviour for men and women, including masculinised models of leadership, do have a systematic and sustained negative impact on women.

Myth 3: Women don’t ask for pay rises and don’t make their case well. Women lack competitive drive and this has an impact on their performance and their pay.

These myths blame women, linking the gender pay gap to women’s capacity to bargain rather than to institutional and workplace practices that fail to organise and value work and performance fairly. These practices include the assessment of the value of a job and performance including recruitment processes and selection criteria, as well as benchmarks used to assess promotion.

On the issue of negotiation, research has highlighted differences in negotiation styles, behaviour and outcomes between women and men. Such differences may contribute to gender differences in earnings, noting also that there is a larger gender pay gap among top income earners. Studies also suggest that these differences are not innate and can be shaped by the organisational environment, which includes cultural stereotypes about gender and negotiation styles.

Myth 4: Women have broader personal goals and benchmarks for success so they don’t care as much about their income.

This myth conflates a number of key factors. The disproportionately high

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burden of caring work that falls to women does shape the labour market choices made by women, including women in senior positions. Yet such choices are clearly constrained ones and are impacted by a range of factors including the impact of effectively high marginal tax rates (on the income of couple households), the availability of child care and gender norms about what constitutes good parenting.

Within workplaces, opportunities for women, particularly those who have caring responsibilities, can be enhanced or restricted by the availability and quality of flexible work practices that support rather than impede career progression. These factors are also linked with gendered constructions of what constitutes “leadership”. Hannah Piterman has noted that it is the fragility in the link between women and authority and between men and family responsibilities that continues to marginalise women’s position in the workforce.

The inequities in the distribution of unpaid domestic work do not mean that women in leadership lack interest in their career or the conditions that attach to it. Rather than a lack of interest, much of what shapes women’s aspirations to leadership lies in factors such as insufficient career development, promotion pathways and mentoring provision and the cost of child care.

Progress to gender pay equity is not assisted by myth-making. What is required is support for effective and sustained institutional and cultural reform capable of addressing the factors that shape the earnings gap.

Associate Professor Smith is the Director of Research at Western’s School of Business.

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Joanne Orlando IS TWO HOURS OF SCREEN TIME REALLY TOO MUCH FOR KIDS?

One of the most frustrating issues modern parents face is how to manage children’s screen time.

Official guidelines say kids aged five to 18 years should spend no more than two hours a day using screens, and children under two years should not use a screen at all. But in a world dominated by tablets and mobile phones, these limits are proving to be virtually impossible to uphold.

A recent online poll of 18,000 children by ABC children’s program Behind the News found that 56% of respondents exceed that two-hour daily limit.

A survey of 2,620 Australian children aged eight to 16 years had similar results. The study showed that 45% of eight-year-olds to 80% of 16-year-olds exceed the recommended less than two hours per day limit.

Guidelines obsolete We tend to justify children’s “overuse” in terms of the irresponsibility of youth. But a different and very plausible explanation is that the guidelines we use to benchmark how long children should spend on a screen are out of date.

They were actually developed years before tablets and the many devices we use today were even invented.

The screen time guidelines we currently use were developed by The American Academy of Pediatrics in the 1990s to direct children’s television viewing. In particular, they were a response to kids watching violent content.

While the guidelines may have been relevant at that time, screens have changed a lot in the past 20 years, and children are showing us that an ironclad two hours is no longer workable if you’re growing up circa 2016.

The continued use of these guidelines has left many parents feeling frustrated, guilty or simply unsure about what to think or what to do. Parents try to get their child to stick to the time limits but it’s just not possible when they still have three hours of homework left to do on their laptop.

Sometimes, guidelines, rules, and even laws, are legally binding but so out of

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date that they no longer provide meaningful support.

For example, it was once a requirement in some parts of the United States and Canada for producers to make their margarine different colours to ensure consumers didn’t mix it up with butter. The last place in North America to stop this requirement was Quebec, in 2008.

While interesting and even amusing, many question the relevance of these laws to modern life.

It seems traditional guidelines that advise parents and educators on children’s screen use have followed the same path and just don’t fit with reality of today’s technology driven world.

A rethink in the works In a nod to the increasing ubiquity of technology in our world, the American Academy of Paediatrics announced in October last year that it is beginning the process of revising its guidelines for children and screens. The academy says it has realised that in a world where screen time is becoming simply “time”, its policies must evolve or become obsolete.

The new formalised guidelines will be published later this year and many expect screen time allowed to be lengthened. It is unrealistic for high school students to only spend two hours per day on screens, particularly when school work obliges them to do that or more.

Time is also not necessarily the best measure to ensure children’s screen use is part of a healthy and balanced approach to life.

All screen use is not the same and it is expected that the new formalised guidelines will also acknowledge that children can use screens for very different purposes.

There’s consumption, there’s creation and there’s communication. There’s a big difference between endless hours of watching YouTube videos of chocolate sweets being unboxed to videochatting with a parent who is away from home.

Quality screen time A better alternative is to determine children’s screen use based on the quality of the activity and the level of stimulation that children are getting.

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There are more than 80,000 apps labelled as educational, but the quality of experience they offer differs. Activities that are creative, that stimulate imagination and that allow meaningful connection with others can and should be given more time than ones that offer little educational value.

We should still keep an eye out for excessive time online. About 15% of the respondents in the Behind the News survey reported they couldn’t go without technology for even one day.

Compulsive or non-stop checking of texts, emails, news feeds, websites or other apps can interfere with anyone’s daily life, work and relationships. If a child is spending most of their day and night on a screen, then that needs reassessment and management.

But the ultimate message is that whatever resource we use to manage children’s screen usage, they ultimately need to learn to manage it themselves.

We must introduce them to the concept of mindful usage. As children get older and accumulate more and more devices, and greater need to use technology, helping them recognise the importance of a balance becomes an important basic life skill.

Dr Orlando is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, Western Sydney University.

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Catherine Attard SAYING ‘I’M NOT GOOD AT MATHS’ IS NOT COOL – NEGATIVE ATTITUDES ARE AFFECTING BUSINESS

How many times have you heard people say “I’m not good at maths”?

Perhaps you’ve said it yourself. Often people make the statement with pride, almost implying it’s “cool” to be bad at maths.

Imagine if the same number of people claimed “I’m not good at reading”. I don’t think it would be deemed socially acceptable – in fact, most people would be embarrassed to make that claim.

So why is it okay to by openly negative about mathematics? Why do so many openly claim to dislike mathematics, and why is mathematics seen as a domain only accessible to an elite group of “smart” people?

Research has proven humans are born numerate, so what happens in those few years when children are in school to make them hate maths?

A new report by the Australian Industry Group claims that low literacy and numeracy skills in the Australian workforce are affecting business.

It calls for a renewed focus on literacy and numeracy skills to ensure we are able to address economic needs.

Does this mean teachers aren’t spending enough time on literacy and numeracy, or are there other issues?

The mere mention of mathematics within a social situation often strikes fear into the hearts of young and old. A lack of confidence with basic numeracy and mathematics has significant implications in any workplace that ultimately result in decreased profit and productivity, yet issues surrounding confidence and ability with mathematics can be addressed early.

Negative attitudes can impact on subjects children choose With the new school year looming, we need to promote more positive attitudes to mathematics and numeracy and turn things around for Australia’s economic future.

Parents need to think carefully about how they talk to their children about

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mathematics. Regardless of how they experienced school mathematics and how they perceive mathematics, claims like “I was never good at maths when I was at school” are not helpful. Children notice.

Molly, a year 6 participant in my research on student engagement, made this comment when asked about what her family think about mathematics: “My mum doesn’t really like me asking her because she thinks she doesn’t have a maths brain. She thinks that she’s got more of an English brain than anything else.”

Not surprisingly, Molly was not the only child who made that kind of comment.

Parents’ negative attitudes or beliefs do have the potential to negatively influence children – “not having a maths brain” can be used as an excuse for opting out of mathematics in the senior years of schooling.

Evidence of this influence on children’s thinking can be seen in this quote, where Kristie, another participant, was describing her friends’ attitudes towards mathematics: “Maybe some just don’t enjoy it the way I do, they just think maybe it’s not their subject. They might enjoy English.”

Promoting positive attitudes to maths So what can parents do to promote positive attitudes towards mathematics?

Above all, they should never make negative comments about the subject.

If you are a parent and you are having difficulty with helping your child, seek help. In the primary years, many schools are happy to provide parent workshops to help parents understand new teaching methods. Workshops could also be held to help parents “brush up” on their own mathematics skills.

If your child is in secondary school and the mathematics they are learning requires more than a quick revision, don’t panic. It’s okay to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember how to do that”.

Try and find a way to assist your child in finding an explanation. This could be by seeking help online, encouraging them to seek help from their teacher, or, if required, finding an appropriate tutor who may be able to provide some remediation. It’s better to seek help early.

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One of the challenges with mathematics is that the concepts are hierarchical.

That is, if children don’t develop a deep understanding of foundational topics such as place value, gaps in learning begin to occur.

When mathematics becomes more complex, children who struggle with the foundations of mathematics cannot keep up with their peers and fall behind, often leading to negative attitudes, poor self-efficacy, and disengagement.

We need to stop allowing those around us, in our lives and in the media, to make such negative statements about mathematics – if we don’t take a stand things will never change.

Associate Professor Attard is lecturer and researcher in Western’s School of Education.

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Mark Antoniou DEBUNKING COMMON MYTHS ABOUT RAISING BILINGUAL CHILDREN

By the age of two, children are typically able to say a few hundred words. My son, Alexander, was able to understand almost everything in both languages – Greek and English – but he could say only six words.

Our concerns grew as we watched younger kids overtake his speaking ability.

Like many parents, we questioned if we were doing something wrong (even experts can’t escape the fear and guilt that comes with being a parent).

A number of enduring myths surround bilingualism, such as that it causes language delays and cognitive impairments.

However, research shows that raising a child bilingually does not cause language learning difficulties. Any lag in language development is temporary, so parents shouldn’t worry!

Here are some more common myths debunked: Raising your child bilingually can cause a delay in development Not true. In fact there are numerous advantages, such as improved executive function (mental planning), metalinguistic awareness (the ability to think about language as abstract units), mental flexibility (processing information adaptively) and creative thinking.

Bilingual children will generally meet developmental milestones within the normal range of language development, but may in some cases be towards the tail end (which was exactly the case with Alexander).

Bilingual children lag behind their peers and won’t catch up This is a contentious issue, as there is considerable variability within bilingual children. Some children will not show any lag at all.

It has been suggested that a temporary lag may stem from having to accommodate two language systems within the same brain, but these children will catch up within a few months (note that this is not the same as a language delay).

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But more research is needed to understand the exact mechanisms that are responsible.

My child will confuse the two languages False. Although there is some controversy concerning when the languages become separated.

It was long thought that the two languages are fused at first and begin to separate when the child is around five. Recent evidence suggests that the languages may separate a lot earlier than was previously thought.

For example, bilingual children as young as 10-15 months babble differently depending on who they are interacting with (for example, English babbling sounds to the mother, and French babbling sounds to the father).

This suggests that babies are sensitive to who they are talking to from a very young age. This is probably a precursor of code-switching (when bilinguals use two languages within the same utterance).

Five tips for parents raising a child bilingually 1.

Be encouraging and patient as you would with any infant, and be aware that a bilingual child faces a tougher task than one learning only a single language.

2.

It is very important that both languages serve a functional purpose.

Language is, after all, a tool for communication. If the child does not need to use the other language, they will probably stop using it. So, it is important to consistently place the child in situations that necessitate the use of both languages, and ideally with a variety of speakers.

Doing so will develop robust speech categories in each language and ensure that they learn to process speech efficiently - which will aid both listening and talking.

3.

Many parents worry about the issue of balance, meaning whether a child knows both languages equally well. In the past, it was thought that in order to be truly bilingual you needed to have an equal command of both languages. I conducted a series of studies on very proficient bilinguals and observed time and again that even fluent bilinguals have a dominant language. So, there is little point stressing about a child not having a perfectly equal command of each language because the truth is almost no one does.

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4.

Parents commonly become concerned when bilingual children mix their languages. Do not worry. This is a normal part of bilingual language development and not a sign of confusion. Even proficient bilinguals mix their languages.

5.

If you are concerned about your child’s language development, you should have your child assessed by a doctor and, if necessary, a speechlanguage pathologist. Bilingual children may present with language delays, just like any other children. If your child has a language delay, early intervention may be required to help them learn their languages.

Dr Antoniou is an ARC research fellow working in Western’s MARCS Institute.

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