Integrating Landsat and Land Systems for Cover Maps in Southern Inland Queensland

Digital analysis of Landsat data is applied to up-dating land cover maps for the Goondiwindi district of southern, inland Queensland. The imagery was paired with climax cover maps obtained from land systems reports with analysis conducted separately for each of three climax cover types (open forest, woodland and open woodland). Computer classification using this approach produced readily interpreted and reliable results. This work demonstrates that Landsat can be used in conjunction with existing, land systems derived maps to produce data that combine the advantages of two approaches to environmental survey, the former being based on current land cover/land use and the latter on the original environment and its land use potential.     

Is Von Thunen Alive and Well? A Transport-Cost Surface for South Australian Wheat

Economic geography has undergone a number of paradigm shifts since the Von Thunen model was at the peak of its popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. This study examines the cost of moving wheat from farm to ship in South Australia and constructs a transport-cost surface for the season 1991/92. Transport costs still exert a very important influence on farm returns and land values. Governments and other authorities, when making decisions in the name of rationalisation, or microeconomic reform, should examine very carefully the spatial consequences of their actions. In the short-run at least, the farmer's world is very much a normative and partial equilibrium one. At least in respect of a significant Australian agricultural enterprise, normative and partial equilibrium models should not be seen as obsolete.     

Gender and Household Economic Strategies in Rural Appalachia

In recent decades, many Appalachian households have experienced declining incomes due to the loss of traditional male jobs in the mining and manufacturing sectors. One response to this decline has been an increase in female employment in formal sector activities. Another response is homework, or the home-based production of goods and services for sale in the formal and informal sectors. In rural Appalachia, where formal jobs are often unavailable or inadequate to support a household, many women are engaging in homework as an economic strategy. Consequently, economic restructuring cannot be fully understood without analyzing household strategies and gender relations. This paper examines the intersection of gender, households, and economic restructuring as it relates to women's homework and employment shifts in rural Appalachia. Research for this paper entailed qualitative interviews with 50 West Virginia women who are engaged in the home-based production of goods and services. The study analyzes the variety of homework activities done by rural women, their contribution to household incomes, and the effect of these activities on gender relations and divisions of labor in the home. The research forwarded in this study advances a conceptual understanding of household economic strategies and has some practical applications for women and economic development in underdeveloped regions .     

Revegetated Sand Mining Areas,Swamp Wallabies and Remote Sensing: North Stradbroke Island,Queensland

Mining of mineral sands has taken place on North Stradbroke Island for over 40 years. Revegetation of mined areas creates a mosaic of seral classes. For a mine site in the northwest of the island, Landsat Thematic Mapper data were used successfully to map the distribution of seven seral classes resulting from mining rehabilitation. Faecal pellet counts were used to assess usage of these areas and surrounding natural forest by swamp wallabies, Wallabia bicolor. Results indicated that revegetated sites from 2 to 4 years in age were heavily used by wallabies. Older revegetated sites, dominated by senile Acacia cunninghamii, and offering little or no forage, were avoided. Swamp wallabies used revegetated sites for night-time feeding sessions and rested, during the day, in surrounding eucalypt forest.