Development of Trigger Levels to Assess Catchment Disturbance on Stream Suspended Sediment Loads in the Magela Creek Catchment,Northern Territory,Australia

Trigger levels for fine suspended sediment (FSS) load in streams are required to identify rainfall-runoff events that have significantly elevated FSS loads, compared with expected background loads, as a result of catchment disturbance. Stream FSS load data collected in the mine-impacted Magela Creek catchment in the wet-dry tropics were used to derive water quality management trigger levels for two approaches – a Before-After-Control-Impact Paired difference design (BACIP) and a regression relationship between observed FSS load and corresponding event discharge characteristics. The results indicate that both the BACIP and regression relationship approaches behave similarly, with similar FSS load events elevated above trigger levels. Notwithstanding this, it is recommended that in order to reliably assess the location and magnitude of a catchment disturbance on FSS load, a combination of BACIP and regression relationship approaches must be adopted. In this study, an event with a FSS load above trigger levels associated with both BACIP and the regression relationship fitted for the downstream site is considered to be significantly elevated as a result of a disturbance within the mine-impacted region. While this technique cannot conclusively determine whether the cause of the disturbance is mine-related or natural (such as fire or bank erosion), it is an efficient statistical method of identifying events that warrant further investigation and management action, if required.     

SOME DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DIFFUSION PATTERNS OF HUTTERITE COLONIES

This paper describes some developments in the diffusion pattern of Hutterite colonies in North America. Today, there are more than 300 colonies distributed over the four western provinces of Canada and five states of the United States. The spatial behaviour of the three Hutterite clan-groups is compared, and responses by the sects to the repeal of the Alberta Communal Property Act in 1973 are assessed. Finally, changes in the rate of diffusion and the management of colony division are examined.
Cette communication décrit quelques développements dans la diffusion des colonies ďHutterites en Amérique du Nord. Aujourd'hui, il y a plus de 300 colonies dispersées dans les quatre provinces de ľoeust canadien et dans cinq états américains. Nous comparons le comportement spatial des trois groupes, ou clans, principaux ďHutterites et nous évaluons les réactions des sectes àľabrogation de la législation, de 1973, de la loi pourtant sur la possession en commun de propriétés Finalement. on examine le gérance de la division des colonies, et les changements dans leurs taux de diffusion.     

Keeping the Gates? Women as Ministers in Australia, 1970-96

Contrary to expectations based on 1980s west-European research, women's representation in Australian cabinets over the last quarter century has exceeded their proportional strength in parliaments. The paper examines this and canvasses explanations. Consistent with west-European findings, Australian women ministers are overrepresented in social portfolio areas and underrepresented in defining and physical resource mobilisation areas. The paper considers implications and explanations of women's work in cabinet. 'There are only two ways of getting into the Cabinet. One way is to crawl up the staircase of preferment on your belly; the other way is to kick them in the teeth.' Aneurin Bevan quoted in Hennessy (1986, 94)     

THE POTENTIAL OF CARBONIZED GRAIN TO PRESERVE BIOGENIC 87SR/86SR SIGNATURES WITHIN THE BURIAL ENVIRONMENT*

Carbonized grains survive for millennia in many archaeological contexts. Their stable structure raises the possibility that they preserve biogenic strontium isotope signatures. This hypothesis was investigated using short‐term, laboratory experiments with modern grain immersed in Chalk solution. HCl leaching removed > 95% of secondary alteration from charred grain, and isotope ratios close to the starting value were recovered. This could not be achieved with uncharred grains. HCl leaching of archaeological carbonized grains produced comparable levels of decontamination. Although preliminary, these results suggest that strontium isotope analysis of archaeological carbonized grains from calcareous burial contexts could be used to investigate ancient trade and agriculture.     

LEAD ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF BRONZE AGE COPPER‐BASE ARTEFACTS FROM AL‐MIDAMMAN,YEMEN: TOWARDS THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN INDIGENOUS METAL PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN RED SEA REGION*

The results of the lead isotope analysis (LIA) of 15 copper‐base artefacts from the Bronze Age site of al‐Midamman, Yemen, are reported. The LIA data suggest the existence of an indigenous Bronze Age metal production and exchange system centred on the southern Red Sea region, distinct from those in neighbouring regions of Arabia and the Levant. These preliminary results are highly significant for the archaeology of the region, suggesting that local prehistoric copper extraction sites have thus far gone unrecorded, and highlighting the need for systematic archaeometallurgical fieldwork programmes in the countries surrounding the southern Red Sea.