The Little Revolution in New South Wales, 1808

In this article, ‘Development’ and developmentist ideas, two increasingly fashionable areas of historical inquiry, are explored in the context of relations between the United States and Brazil through the middle decades of the twentieth century, with three arguments made along the way. First, and in contrast to much academic and extra-academic received wisdom (as well as the official pronouncements of US diplomats), the United States government offered no singular or consistent approach to ‘development’ in its dealings with Brazil. Second, an unofficial vision of development (here termed ‘market developmentalism’) that has so far eluded the attention of historians of developmentalist ideas emerged earlier than the official developmentalisms that have been the main object of historiographic interest to date. Third, this unofficial, largely private, consumption-oriented developmentalism is shown to have enjoyed an outsized influence in Brazil, dwarfing the influence enjoyed by those inconsistent varieties of developmentalism espoused by US diplomats between the 1940s and the 1960s.     

Pleistocene foraminifera from Botany Bay,New South Wales

Unconsolidated sediments from a borehole in Botany Bay have been analyzed for their foraminiferal content. Faunas from between 41 and 54 m below sea level are interpreted as Pleistocene in age. The foraminiferal assemblage from 54 m indicates marine conditions of moderately deep water (25–30 m), and a climate warmer than at present. The higher assemblages indicate a more brackish environment

The foraminifera, belonging to 123 species in 67 genera, are tabulated and 24 are discussed and illustrated. Three species, Oolina bifidocostata, Fissurina alatoquadrata and Elphidium botaniensis and one subpecies, Quinqueloculina affinis atrata, are described as new.     

Legislating nature for biodiversity offsets in New South Wales,Australia

In the contemporary environmental management landscape, legislation is a principal means through which sustainable outcomes are negotiated. Yet the relations between legislation (as a social practice), nature and justice have been subjected to limited scrutiny. This paper explores these relations through consideration of a system of biodiversity offsets currently being implemented in New South Wales, Australia, following the enactment of the Threatened Species Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Act 2006 (NSW). In this paper we investigate the work this legislation does in enacting the materiality of nature in order to explore the interrelations of materiality, law and concerns for environmental and ecological justice. We argue that the act of ‘legislating nature’ is simultaneously a ‘mode of matter-ing’ (Law 2004) that in the case of biodiversity banking (BioBanking), resituates biodiversity within new meanings, spatialities, human–nature relations, and which accounts for biodiversity at a state, rather than local, scale. Utilising the work of Latour, we examine the processes of ‘translation’ required to generate abstracted ‘biodiversity values’ that can be traded and moved between locations. Examination of these processes leads to a consideration of the broad requirements of environmental and ecological justice as a theoretical and political response to BioBanking.     

Late Quaternary ostracods from Lake George,New South Wales

Fossil ostracods from the uppermost 3m of core LG4 from Lake George all have modern living representatives. This part of the core is thought to represent deposition during the last 60,000 years (see Singh et al., 1981b) and the lake hisotry is traced from a knowledge of the ostracod ecology.

The following distinct phases, and their respective timing, are postulated for Lake George (the timing of events should be considered with caution as few ¹⁴C dates are available): water fresh and lake full for the periods of 10,200 – 12,000 yBP and 19,100 – 20,700 yBP, water fresh, ephemeral at times, for the periods of 3,200–4,000 yBP, 7,000 yBP, 7,500 yBP, 8,500–10,200 yBP, 12,000–13,500 yBP, 20,700–23,500 yBP, 23,800–27,600 yBP and at some stage between 27,000 and 60,000 yBP; ephemeral saline water for a few short episodes between 3,200 and 4,000 yBP and for the periods of 15,600–17,400 yBP and 23,800–27,600 yBP; lake definitely dry between 17,400 and 19,100 yBP.

Data obtained from the ostracods correlate reasonably well with those of lake level fluctuations based on the study of ancient shorelines by Coventry (1976) and others based on facies analyses and the record of plant microfossils by Singh et al. (1981b).     

Renewable Energy Innovation and Governance in Wales: A Regional Innovation System Approach

This paper draws on research commissioned to investigate the regional innovation system of Wales on green innovation, focusing on the renewable energy sub-sectors of wind, solar and biomass. It shows how many innovative firms operate within regional networks, cooperating and interacting not only with other firms such as suppliers, customers and competitors, but also with research and technology resource organizations, innovation support agencies, venture capital funds, and local and regional government bodies. The paper argues that within the region there is the presence of various renewable energy production platforms, usually based on core technologies (wind, solar, biomass, marine, etc.) at different levels of development. They involve a mix of established energy utilities and new sustainable energy businesses that are positioned at different levels within the renewable energy supply chain. The research shows that the regional government is playing an important role in supporting the renewable energy industry; nevertheless, more needs to be done to facilitate planning control, provide skills and create new demands for renewable energy that will further foster business growth and further strengthen the existing manufacturing base and innovation in Wales. The paper identifies some weaknesses in the Welsh energy innovation system, not least that energy is not a devolved responsibility and it argues that there is some scope for the Welsh Assembly Government to further investigate gaps within the green innovation supply chain and act on strengthening regional capabilities within the industry but also to support and investigate further opportunities for inward investment.     

Early Cretaceous chelids from Lightning Ridge,New South Wales

Fragments of plastron and vertebrae from the Griman Creek Formation (middle Albian) at Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, extend the Australian record for chelid pleurodires back in time by over 50 my. Contemporaneous with the oldest known occurrences of chelids in Patagonia, this record indicates that during globally warm intervals, pleurodire distribution included high palaeolatitude locations. Although referred to Chelidae, the material shows no characters to enable more detailed taxonomic assessment and it is unclear whether known genera are represented. The diverse and prolonged history of chelids in South America and Australia indicates that the basal eupleurodiran divergence occurred deep in the Jurassic.     

Roadside Memorials: Interpreting New Deathscapes in Newcastle,New South Wales

Over recent years, roadside memorials to commemorate people killed in motor vehicle accidents have become increasingly noticeable in parts of the Australian landscape. In Newcastle, New South Wales, roadside memorials are placed for young people. The age/gender group most at risk of road death, and those most memorialised, are young men. This is linked to spatially specific constructions of masculinity which circulate within youth milieux of Newcastle. Like other memorials and monuments these ‘deathscapes’ have multiple meanings, differing between those who build, maintain and interpret them. They function as conservative memorials of youth machismo; of heroic aggression, disregard for safety and egocentrism. Roadside memorials need to be re-read as symbolic of societal flaws; of a wasteful road toll, and a testament to dominant and problematic strains of masculinity.     

Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales,Australia

Abstract

Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in what is now Sturt National Park, western New South Wales, Australia. While we are able to demonstrate and quantify relationships between high artifact visibility and erosional surfaces, and low visibility and vegetated or depositional surfaces, our findings also indicate a high degree of local variability. This variability sometimes obscures the predicted relationships. The outcome of this research leads us to question the way some sampling designs for archaeological survey are constructed.     

Late Silurian pentameride brachiopods from Yass and Molong,New South Wales

The five known species of pentameride brachiopods from the Yass Syncline Ludlow (LateSilurian) succession, belonging to the superfamilies Pentameroidea, Gypiduloidea and Clorindoidea, are fully revised; no new species are recognised. The pentameroids Conchidium sp. cf. hospes and Aliconchidium yassi are confined to the Bowspring Limestone Member (Silverdale Formation). The gypiduloid Ascanigypa glabra and externally homeomorphic clorindoids Barrandina wilkinsoni and Clorinda minor replace them in the overlying Barrandella Shale Member, the last two extending into the Yarwood Siltstone Member (Black Bog Shale). Clorinda minor is also possibly present in the Rainbow Hill Member (Rosebank Shale). All except C. minor are uncommon to rare components of the Yass brachiopod fauna. Clorinda molongensis, a species of uncertain mid- to late Silurian age from the Molong Limestone, is also revised. Aliconchidium and Barrandina are known only from Yass, whereas Clorinda is cosmopolitan. Conchidium alsois widespread, but C. hospes is a species from the Prague Basin probably also known from the Urals and the Tien Shan. Ascanigypa is another Prague Basin taxon, recently recognised in Arctic Canada.     

Bank Erosion in the Bellinger Valley,New South Wales: Definition and Management

Lateral channel migration is normal or autogenic, with bank erosion often on concave and accretion on convex banks. Where bank erosion occurs, particularly at an accelerated rate through land abuse and an increase in flood magnitude and frequency or allogenic, it threatens human use of the flood plain. There is a demand for protection, often with very little understanding of the erosion hazard. Measurements based on photogrammetry were used to define bank erosion and accretion, as well as width changes, in eight meander arcs (11 sections in each) over 41 years. It was concluded that, if this rate continued over the next century, 82 ha of alluvial land, 6.2 km of roads, two bridges, 9 homes and 51 home sites could be lost. Various management options, costs and benefits are given in order to show how future planning and protection can be more rational.     

1. New South Wales and Victorian Politics

Ernie Chaples and Helen Nelson (eds), Case Studies in New South Wales Electoral Politics, Sydney, Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Sydney, 1985, pp. 109. $8.50 ($9.50 posted) (paper)

Ernie Chaples, Helen Nelson and Ken Turner (eds), The Wran Model: Electoral Politics in New South Wales 1981 and 1984, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp.289. $14.99 (paper)

Brian J. Costar and Colin A. Hughes (eds), Labor to Office: The Victorian State Election 1982, Melbourne, Drummond, 1983, pp.293. $17.95 (paper)

P.R. Hay, J. Halligan, J. Warhurst and B. Costar (eds), Essays on Victorian Politics, War‐mambool, Warrnambool Institute Press, 1985, pp.210. $9.00 (paper)