Late Silurian trace fossils from the Melbourne Formation,Studley Park,Victoria, southeastern Australia

An ichnoassemblage of 10 ichnospecies is described for the first time from the Late Silurian Melbourne Formation at Studley Park, Victoria, southeastern Australia. The ichnofauna is preserved in a typical deep-water turbidite succession of alternating thin- to thick-bedded sandstone and thin- to medium-bedded mudrocks. Trace fossils observed within the study site have been assigned to three main ichnofacies. Ichnofacies 1 is best developed on the linguoid-rippled upper surface of thin sandstone beds and includes Laevicyclus, Aulichnites, Nereites, Helminthoidichnites, small Chondrites and possible Zoophycos. Ichnofacies 2 is very similar to Ichnofacies 1 in ichnospecies composition but instead contains large forms of Chondrites together with other thin burrow types usually poorly preserved and in very low abundance compared with Ichnofacies 1. Ichnofacies 3 is preserved mainly as casts on the underside of medium- to thick-bedded turbiditic sandstones, and has a very low diversity, with Planolites being the most common trace. A detailed analysis of the ichnofabrics and tiering structures of these ichnofacies suggest that Ichnofacies 1 and 3 represent ‘simple tiering’, in contrast to Ichnofacies 2, which is more characteristic of ‘complex tiering’. Despite the differences in ichnospecies composition and ichnofabrics between the three recognized ichnofacies, the collective ichnoassemblage from the study site can be assigned confidently to the Nereites ichnofacies and is, therefore, interpreted to have formed in a distal submarine fan environment of lower bathyal to abyssal depth. Further, it is possible to recognize two main subenvironments within this deep-sea setting to account for the differences between the ichnofacies. Ichnofacies 1 and 2 are interpreted to represent a typical Nereites ichnofacies located on a level basin floor subenvironment of relatively low energy conditions at the distal end of a submarine fan deposit. In comparison, Ichnofacies 3 is dominated by Planolites with rare other facies-crossing trace fossil forms, and lacks Nereites. It is, therefore, best interpreted as representing a relatively high-energy environment, possibly a distributary channel near the distal end of the submarine fan system.     

Conflict in Water Use in Victoria,Australia: Bolte's Divide

In 1964, the Premier of Victoria, Australia, Henry Bolte, announced that, in order to protect irrigation interests in the north of the state, he would prevent Melbourne from developing new water resources from the north of Victoria's Great Divide. Neither the water resource needs of Melbourne, the need for irrigation development nor the changing economic structure of the state provides a satisfactory explanation for this decision. Instead, Bolte's policy appears simply to have provided a means of improving the parliamentary position of the Victorian Liberal government. Bolte's principle has never been formally revoked and continues to influence water resource planning in the state. In order to make the most appropriate use of Victoria's limited natural resources, it is imperative that ‘Bolte's divide’ should not continue to influence future resource development and allocation.     

In These Days of Female Evangelists and Hallelujah Lasses: Women Preachers and the Redefinition of Gender Roles in the Churches in Late Nineteenth-Century Australia

The presence of two women amongst the seventeen international revivalists who visited Australia in the period 1863 and 1912 has been seen as unremarkable by religious historians, or read as evidence that the Christian churches were outside, or perhaps even in advance of, the nineteenth-century struggle for women's rights. However, only representations of their performance remain, representations which, this article argues, attempted to normalize both their presence and their message. A more critical reading of contemporary reports would suggest that the way in which female evangelists were reported should be seen as intrinsic to the attempt by church leaders to contain and control women's expanding role. The success of their endeavours rendered female evangelists largely invisible but the lengths to which they went to discount the challenge the female evangelists mounted to conventional constructions of gender, provide evidence of its power.     

Oligocene-Miocene calcareous nannofossils from the Torquay Basin,Victoria, Australia

Oligocene-Miocene rocks of the Torquay Basin contain at least 55 different species of calcareous nannofossils. These species allow zonation of an offshore subsurface section (Nerita No. 1 Well) and two onshore sections (near Torquay). The Angahook Formation and the base of the Jan Juc Formation in the Nerita No. 1 Well belong to Martini's (1971) NP 22 calcareous nannofossil Zone (early Oligocene). The NP 23 Zone could not be identified with certainty, but Zones NP 24/25 (late Oligocene) to NN 2 (early Miocene) were recognized in the Jan Juc Formation. The Oligocene-Miocene boundary is present between 122 m and 135 m below the sea floor at this site. The Puebla Formation, exposed at the sea floor, contains NN 5 spanning the early-middle Miocene boundary.

Onshore along the Torquay coast, NP 24/25 (late Oligocene) is present in the Angahook Formation; the Jan Juc Formation at Bird Rock also contains NP 24/25, except the uppermost 2.5 m which belongs to NN 1. The NN 2 Zone begins at the contact between the Jan Juc and Puebla Formations and continues upward for at least 3 m. After a covered interval, NN 4 was identified 10 m above the contact. The Oligocene-Miocene boundary is placed at the base of the hard band capping Bird Rock in the type section of the Jan Juc Formation.

Nannofossil assemblages in the Torquay sections suggest deposition in cool, shallow continental shelf waters. The assemblages in Nerita No. 1 Well also suggest cool shelf waters, although deeper than at Torquay.     

Poverty,Emigration And Family: Experiencing Childhood Poverty In Late Nineteenth-Century Manchester

The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge offered a place of sanctuary for destitute children. It expanded rapidly during the late-nineteenth century and established a number of homes that catered for a range of childhood needs. This article focuses on the experience of children admitted to the Refuge and subsequently emigrated from one of its orphan home. It considers the processes of child migration by examining the relationships between the home and the family. The analysis questions middle-class ideas about the parenting of poor families, the economic motives behind emigration, and introduces a number of case studies to evaluate whether emigration achieved its goal of leading children towards a respectable life away from the city.     

Symbols, Myth-Making, and Identity: The Red Hand of Ulster in Late Nineteenth-Century Paterson, New Jersey

Symbols are manipulated to express social identity and to reaffirm or create a sense of place. Smoking pipes recovered from late nineteenth-century privies in the Dublin Section of Paterson, New Jersey, bear the symbol of the Red Hand of Ulster. Today, the Red Hand of Ulster is ubiquitous on Unionist murals throughout Northern Ireland symbolizing Northern Irish Protestant identity. Originally, the Red Hand symbolized the dawn of the Irish High King of Ulster. In late-nineteenth-century Paterson, it is argued here, the symbol was embedded in ethnic politics involving the Irish Diaspora and Irish–American identity developed through the Gaelic revival and Irish–American organizations and labor unions.     

Gendered responses to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria,Australia

This paper presents findings from a gendered analysis of resident responses to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires (wildfires) in Victoria, Australia. One hundred and seventy‐three people lost their lives in the bushfires and more than 2000 houses were destroyed. Previous research on Black Saturday has largely focused on issues of resident preparedness and response, with limited consideration of the role of gender in household decisions and actions. This paper examines the gendered dimensions of risk awareness, preparedness and response among households affected by the bushfires. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews with over 600 survivors and a questionnaire of 1314 households in fire‐affected areas. Analysis revealed that women more often wanted to leave than men, who more often wanted to stay and defend property against the bushfires. Nevertheless, findings suggest that broad‐brush characterisations of staying to defend as a masculine response and leaving as a feminine response are misguided. Although some women expressed a strong desire to leave, others were resolute on staying to defend. Equally, while some men were determined to stay and defend, others had never considered it an option. Despite this, the research identified numerous instances where disagreement had arisen as a result of differing intentions. Conflict most often stemmed from men's reluctance to leave, and was most apparent where households had not adequately planned or discussed their intended responses. The paper concludes by considering the degree to which the findings are consistent with other research on gender and bushfire, and the implications for bushfire safety policy and practice.     

Miocene wood from the LaTrobe Valley coal measures,Victoria, Australia

An initial study of a collection of fossil conifer wood is reported from the late early Miocene Yallourn Clays, an interseam unit intergrading into the base of the early to middle Miocene Yallourn seam of the LaTrobe Valley, Victoria in southeastern Australia. The fossil wood shares characteristics with the modem genera Dacrycarpus and Dacrydium. On the basis of contiguous, uniseriate tracheid pitting and 1–2 podocarpoid cross field pits, it is placed in the form genus Podocarpoxylon, and the new species P. latrobensis. The wood is compared with extant Podocarpaceae and other Australian fossil woods. Its ring anatomy is consistent with low temperature or rainfall seasonality in the early Miocene.     

Renovating the Landscape and Packaging the Penguin: Culture and Nature on Summerland Peninsula,Phillip Island,Victoria, Australia

Changes in settler impacts on Summerland Peninsula, Phillip Island are examined, with an emphasis on the recent program of environmental restoration associated with the Penguin Parade, one of Victoria’s largest tourist attractions. Management strategies construct nature around an ideal of human absence, expressed in, for example, removal of residents and residential buildings; representations of the Aboriginal presence as both prehistoric and part of nature; and formalised rather than experiential environmental education. Paradoxically this encourages intensified tourism and its associated impacts, such that the economics of environmental preservation are dependent on its commodification. This paper draws on two traditions of cultural geography, with components undertaken more than 20 years apart. I argue that a combination of Sauerian and deconstructive approaches can be productively applied to many current environmental issues.