Vulnerability to Bushfire Risk at Melbourne's Urban Fringe: The Failure of Regulatory Land Use Planning

The 7 February 2009 bushfires in the peri‐urban region to the north of metropolitan Melbourne heralded what many have called an entirely new epoch in terms of weather‐related disasters in Australia. A total of 173 people and 2000 properties were destroyed and, as with the 1939 fires in Victoria, a Royal Commission was subsequently instituted to inquire into the causes and responses to the fire. The Royal Commission has heard much evidence about alleged failings of fire response, communication and administration. It also considered land use planning issues and the associated regulatory framework. Using the Shire of Murrindindi as a case study, this paper argues that the location of population growth, and associated regulatory failure, are contributory, yet under‐researched, factors associated with life and property losses. The adoption of more robust planning tools which incorporate climate change considerations, we argue, is essential to anticipate and minimise the impacts of disastrous natural events such as bushfires. In the latter part of the paper, attention is drawn to a recent Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision which is groundbreaking in its use of the precautionary principle to prevent dwelling construction in an ‘inappropriate’ location as well as to some major inconsistencies between planning for flood and bushfire threats.     

Multiproxy environmental archaeology of Neolithic settlements at Osłonki,Poland, 5500–4000 BC

Abstract

Archaeological research on Neolithic settlements (ca. 5500–4000 cal BC) at and near Os?onki, Poland, is complemented by palaeoenvironmental investigations in three basins with biogenic sediments adjacent to the archaeological sites. Research included sedimentology, palynology, malacology and cladoceran analysis. Complementary lines of evidence indicate that Linear Pottery pioneer farmers of the late 6th millennium BC caused minimal environmental impact, but intensive settlement and land use by the Brze?? Kujawski Group during the 5th millennium BC triggered pronounced human-induced effects on the local landscape. Of particular significance is the evidence for erosion and aeolian ablation of exposed soil in the vicinity of the Neolithic settlements, presumably reflecting widespread land clearance, agricultural activity and settlement construction.     

Scotland's wartime airfields: Conflict and legacy

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 there were very few active military airfields in Scotland but with the end of Appeasement in 1938 a major programme of expansion was underway. This paper traces the origins of the airfields used in World War 2 and discusses wartime roles and duties undertaken. Spatial distribution and socio‐economic effects are considered along with post‐war uses of this substantial legacy.     

Geographical notes

An earlier reference to the term ‘social geography’ than those described by Dunbar (Scot. Geog. Mag., 93 (1977) 15–20) has been identified in a MS. by H. Gougeon dated 1873. The broader circumstances of the movement to reform geography teaching and the secondary school curriculum at the beginning of the IIIrd Republic are described as a necessary context for evaluating the Gougeon MS. An English translation of Gougeon's views of ‘social geography’ is provided, and although his outline provides no more than a sketch of the possible content of social geography several of the traditional topics of this sub‐field are readily recognizable.     

Glasgow university library Sölch collection : A note

EUROPE

The Soils around Jedburgh and Morebattle. By John W. Muir. 9 ¾×6 ¾. Pp. 878. 2 maps. 20 tables. 11 diagrams. 32 plates. 8 colour plates. Edinburgh : H.M.S.O., 1956. 30s.

The British Moorlands : A problem in land utilisation. By John Fraser Hart. 8 ½×5 ½. Pp. viii+98. 25 figures. University of Georgia Monograph, No. 2. Athens (U.S.A.) : Georgia University Press, 1955. $2.00.

European Refugees : A Study in Forced Population Movement. By Malcolm J. Proudfoot. 5 ½×8 ½. Pp. vi+542. 49 tables. 2 maps. London: Faber &; Faber Ltd, 1957. 52s 6d.

East Norway and its Frontiers. By Frank Noel Stagg. 8 ¾×5 ¾. Pp.285. 15 plates. 6 maps. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 18s.

La Yougoslavie : Aperçu Géographique. By B. Z. Milojevic. Translated by Mila Dordlvic. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp. xi+89. I folded end map and numerous figures and plates. Beograd : La Commission pour les relations culturelles avec l'étranger, 1956.

ASIA

The Pakistani Way of Life. By I. H. Qureshi. 8 ¾×5 ¾. Pp. xi+81. 23 plates. London : William Heinemann Ltd, 1955. 12s 6d.

Indian Climatology. By S. B. Chattergee. 9 ½×6 ¼. Pp. 417. 36 tables. 80 diagrams. Calcutta : Commercial Printers, 1955. 20s.

Asia : Sketch Map and Exercise Books for upper forms. Book VII. By Thomas Pickles. 7 ¼×9 ¾. Pp.48. London : John Murray Ltd, 1956. 3s.

AMERICA

The Industrial Structure of American Cities : A geographic study of urban economy in the United States. By Gunnar Alexandersson. 10×7 ½. Pp. 134. 40 figs. 13 maps. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 40s.

CARTOGRAPHY

Topographical Maps and Photographic Interpretation. By P. T. Silley. 9 ½×6 ½. Pp. vii+76. 8 maps with 8 plates. 3 plates. 53 figs. London: George Philip and Son Ltd, 1955. 10s 6d.

Map and Photo Reading. By T. W. Birch. 10×7 ½. Pp.64. 24 maps and photos. London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1956. 16s.

Mapping the World. By Erwin Raisz. 6 ½×9 ½. Pp. 112. 72 figs and 7 plates. London : Abelard‐Schuman, 1956. 12s 6d.

GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY

Introduction to Physical Geology. By Chester R. Longwell and R. Foster Flint. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp.vii+432. Plates and figs. 2 end paper maps. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1955. 40s.

Geology and Ourselves. By F. H. Edmunds. 9 ¼×6 ½. Pp. 256. 12 plates. 15 figs. London : Hutchison's Scientific and Technical Publications, 1955. 21s.

Der Bodenfrost als Morphologischer Faktor. By Josef Schmid. 9 ½×7 ½. Pp. viii+144. 27 figs. 5 plates. Heidelberg : Dr Alfred Huthig Verlag, 1955.

Vocabulaire Franco‐anglo‐allemande de Geomorphologie. By Henri Baulig. 9 ½×6 ¼. Pp. xxv+230. Publications de la Faculte des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg. Fasc. 130. Paris: Société d'edition: Les Belles Lettres, 1956. 1,200 fr.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

World Economic Geography. By Earl B. Shaw. 8 ¾×6 ½. Pp. vii+582. Maps, diagrams and plates. New York : John Wiley and Sons Inc. London : Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1955. 52s.

Chisholm's Handbook of Commercial Geography. Re‐written by L. Dudley Stamp and S. Carter Gilmour. 15th Edition. 8 ¾×6. Pp. viii+915. 30 maps and diagrams. London : Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd, 1956. 70s.

La Pêche maritime el le Pêcheur en Mer. By Auguste Dupouy. 6 ½×4 ¼. Pp. 216. [Collection Armand Colin, No. 300.] Paris : Librairie Armand Colin, 1955. 250 fr.

GENERAL

A Concise Glossary of Geographical Terms. By J. C. Swayne. 6 ¼×4. Pp. 164. London : George Philip and Son Ltd, 1956. 6s 6d.

Worlds Beyond the Horizon. By Joachim G. Leithauser. Transl. by Hugh Merrick. 9 ½×6. Pp. 371. 46 plates+frontispiece. London : Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1956. 40s.

A Guide to Earth History. By Richard Carrington. 8 ½×5 ½. Pp. xvi+240. 44 figs. 16 plates, including coloured frontispiece, by Maurice Wilson. London : Chatto and Windus Ltd, 1956. 21s.

Puzzle of the Past. By Ronald Jessup. 12 ¾×9 ¾. Pp.68. Illustrations (colour/black and white). London : Rathbone Books, 1956. 15s.

ATLASES AND MAPS

The Oxford Home Atlas of the World. By Geoffrey Cumberlege. 10×7 ¾. Pp. viii+104+xxxi. London: Oxford University Press, 1955. 15s.

Map of Roman Britain : 16 miles to one inch. Third Edition. Text 11×8 ¼. Pp.43. 4 maps+Map of Roman Britain. Chessington : Ordnance Survey, 1956. 7s 6d.

Penguin Atlas. Edited by J. S. Keats. 8×5 ¾. Pp. xv+156. 80 colour maps. Harmondsworth : Penguin Books Ltd, 1956. 10s.

Oxford Regional Economic Atlas of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. Oxford : Clarendon Press. London : Cumberlege, 1956. 42.s.     

甘青地区史前用玉特征与进程

甘青地区是史前时期重要的用玉地区之一,其用玉进程表现为从前仰韶时期至马家窑时期,一直处于相对沉寂的状态,而大规模和较成体系用玉文化的兴起应始于齐家文化。齐家文化巫玉色彩浓重,玉器更多被用来祭祀。从用玉进程和用玉动机看,甘青地区用玉文化并非独立起源,而是从东部和中原引进与兴起,同时促进了甘青地区玉矿的开发与利用。     

The Experiments of Ramón M. Termeyer SJ on the Electric Eel in the River Plate Region (c. 1760) and other Early Accounts of Electrophorus electricus

Dr. Haakon Sæthre was a leader of Norwegian neurology and psychiatry. He was resourceful, compassionate and had immense pride in his independent homeland. He described Sæthre-Chotzen syndrome (acrocephalosyndactyly type III). When Nazi Germany occupied Norway during World War II, Sæthre fearlessly and actively resisted, from revoking his medical association membership, to hiding persecuted Jews as patients in his psychiatric ward and aiding in their escape to Sweden, to managing the largest “illegal” food warehouse in Oslo with Danish humanitarian aid. As a prominent and noticeable citizen, he was arrested and executed by the Nazis in reprisal for the resistance's assassination of a hated Norwegian Nazi. His legacy lives on in Norway, where he was honored by a scholarship fund, a portrait and multiple plaques at Ullevål Hospital, and a street and memorial statue in his hometown. He was a hero and should be remembered by all who practice neurology.     

Ground stone tool production and use in the Late Upper Palaeolithic: The evidence from Riparo Dalmeri (Venetian Prealps,Italy)

Abstract

The site of Riparo Dalmeri yielded numerous flint, bone, and shell artifacts, as well as faunal and botanical remains, which are evidence of the Late Upper Palaeolithic (or Late Epigravettian culture, ca. 16,000–12,000 cal b.p.) occupation of the Alps region. The importance of the site is related to the discovery of 267 stones painted with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric designs. Here we report on ground stone tools from Riparo Dalmeri investigated by means of an integrated technofunctional and experimental approach to reconstruct their production and use. The results support the hypothesis that the ground stone artifacts were employed in specialized activities (e.g., hide treatment, flintknapping) as well as in the production of some of the painted stone artifacts.     

Mobility,Land Use,and Leadership in Small-Scale and Middle-Range Societies

Over the past century, the fields of archaeology and anthropology have produced a number of different theoretical approaches and a substantial body of data aimed at ways to understand hunter-gatherer, horticultural, and agropastoral societies. This review considers four recent edited volumes on foraging and food-producing societies. These books deal in innovative ways with a broad array of issues, including transitions in human prehistory and history, mobility, land use, sharing, technology, social leveling strategies, leadership, and the formation of social hierarchies. Small-scale societies include hunter-gatherers or foragers, while middle-range societies may include complex hunter-gatherer (ones with storage and delayed return systems), horticultural, and agropastoral societies, some of them with institutionalized leadership, status hierarchies, and differential access to power and resources. An important set of themes in these books includes diversity in adaptations to complex social and natural environments, the significance of (1) matter, (2) energy, and (3) information in small-scale and middle-range societies on several continents, the persistence of foraging, and the development of inequality. The roles of sharing, exchange, and leadership in small-scale and middle-range societies are explored, as are explanations for social, economic, and political transformations among groups over time and across space.     

Comparative Macroscopic and Microscopic Gunflint Use-Wear Analysis

ABSTRACT

The present research is focused on a morphological and microscopic comparative analysis of the gunflints of the fur trade component of the Horseshoe Bay site (21CA201), Leech Lake, Cass County, Minnesota. Background information pertaining to the Horseshoe Bay site is followed by the research methodologies utilized in the current analysis of the gunflints. Morphological and microscopic patterns of use wear have identified two different functions for gunflints. The results of the analysis indicate that (1) gunflints can potentially retain use-wear associated ferric depositions for an extended period of time; (2) the ferric depositions retained on archaeologically recovered gunflints display diagnostic striation patterns and microspherule attachment remnants that match replicated samples; (3) gunflints utilized for fire starting in conjunction with a fire steel display morphological characteristics that can be visually identified; and (4) gunflints were utilized for the purposes of fire starting in northern Minnesota during the period circa 1784 to at least 1853.