http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11871 The Green Mist is a floating international blues entity which evolved in the deep south of Tasmania. Featuring former members of the Violent Femmes and Beasts of Bourbon, the Mist’s first album Next Stop Antarctica represents a vivid evocation of the peculiar strangeness of the island’s atmosphere, history and environment. Musician Julien Poulson’s father Bruce was a historian who lived in a derelict organic garlic farm in the small town of Southport; an area that is often bitterly cold, perpetually gloomy, bleak yet strangely beautiful. Bruce was one of the people who discovered the remains of a garden built in 1792 by French explorers in Recherche Bay, and this discovery was later used to help protect the site from logging. While his dad was dying of cancer, Julien helped him put together his final book about Recherche Bay’s history and later many of these old stories formed the basis of album tracks. Using The Green Mist as a case study, this paper will explore the links between physical place of production and creation; the use of both individual memory and historical narratives in song writing; and the extent to which these factors form part of a conscious or deliberate strategy. 2012-10-31T23:43:40.147Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11312 The last 35 years have seen rapid advances in our knowledge of climate change during the Quaternary Period in Tasmania. Extensive mapping and new dating studies, particularly since the advent of exposure dating, have revealed that maximum ice advance occurred 1 Ma ago and later advances were less extensive. Ice advances occurred several times during the last 100 ka, not only during the Last Glacial Maximum. Deglaciation was rapid after 18 ka and complete by 14 ka. Ice strongly affected limestone and produced extensive glaciokarst with deranged surface drainage. Glacial sediment plugged conduits to underground passages partially filled with glaciofluvial gravels. Periglacial erosion, and human impact since late oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 3, enhanced sediment influxes. New pollen records, particularly from Lake Selina, provide a 125 ka vegetation and climate record representative of the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, stable isotope studies of speleothem growth have revealed wide swings in climate. The climate was warm and moist during OIS 5e and early in OIS 1. Climate was cold and dry during OIS 5d and 4, and prevented speleothem growth during OIS 3 and OIS 2. 2012-08-22T00:50:04.807Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11210 The Black War in Tasmania 1823–1834, is widely perceived by historians as one of the best documented of all Australia’s colonial frontier wars. Yet debate still rages about whether massacres were a defining feature and whether they accounted for the deaths of many Aborigines. As Keith Windschuttle has pointed out, this is an important debate because it reflects on the character of the Australian nation and the behaviour of its colonial forbears in seizing control of Aboriginal land. 2012-08-09T03:00:55.172Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:7547 The Black War in Tasmania 1823-1834, is widely accorded by historians as one of the best documented of all Australia’s colonial frontier wars. Yet debate still rages about whether massacre was its defining feature and whether it accounted for the deaths of many Aborigines. As Keith Windschuttle pointed out in 2002, this is an important debate because it reflects on the character of the Australian nation and the behaviour of its colonial forbears in seizing control of Aboriginal land. To understand how the debate took shape and where it stands today, this paper reviews its origins in 1835 and then shows how it was played out over three historical periods: 1835-1870; 1875-1939; and 1948-2008; by focussing on the key protagonists and how they used the available sources and methods and explanatory frameworks to make their case. The paper finds that in the first period, the belief in widespread massacre dominated the debate, drawn from oral testimony from the victorious combatants. In the second period, the belief in massacre denial took hold, based on the doctrine of the self-exterminating Aborigine. In the third period however, the protagonists engaged in a fierce contest for control of the debate. One side argued for massacre denial, based on the belief that more settlers than Aborigines were killed in the Black War while the other argued for the opposite case, based on the belief that the evidence for massacre was now too overwhelming to be dismissed. The paper concludes that the massacre debate today is a microcosm of the wider debate about the impact of settler colonialism on indigenous peoples; and in particular about the humanity of the Tasmanian Aborigines as a hunter gatherer people. Above all it reflects the reluctance of many white Australians today, to come to terms with incontrovertible evidence about our violent past and to seek reconciliation with the Aboriginal survivors. 2012-01-30T05:18:16.537Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6969 Today, optimism about preserving Tasmania’s cultural heritage has evaporated. Cultural heritage politics is now conducted as a lopsided battle between a cabal of the logging industry, developers and Federal and State governments on one side and a cluster of heritage advocates on the other. In his latest book, John Mulvaney shows just how difficult the process has become in Tasmania, by providing a cultural history of Recherche Bay in the state’s southeast, as part of the campaign to have it preserved on the National Heritage Register. This book not only makes the case for the preservation of Recherche Bay as a cultural heritage site, it is also a call to arms to restore Australia’s position as a world leader in cultural heritage legislation. I would like to hope that Peter Garrett, the Federal Minister for Arts, Environment and Heritage, reads this book and acts to restore the National Heritage Commission Estate to its previous pre-eminent position. It would be a fitting conclusion to John Mulvaney’s illustrious career and acknowledgment of his vital role in promoting the nation’s cultural heritage. 2012-01-30T05:04:32.758Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6726 A combination of factors blended to facilitate the removal of the sodomy laws in Tasmania. The founding of the United Nations in the aftermath of the atrocities committed during World War II gave rise to an International Bill of Human Rights consisting of the Universal Declaration (a General Assembly resolution reflecting the consensus of the global community) and two important international treaties - the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). These provided the preliminary basis for fostering the observance of basic human rights. Prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is gaining greater currency as another potential extension of the growth of the international human rights movement but has also encountered resistance in both international and domestic environments. While sodomy laws have been repealed in many nations, such as Australia, as of May 2008, such laws still exist in 86 states which are members of the United Nations. 2010-09-12T23:40:03.093Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6198 The Sorell Causeway Bridge spanned the Pittwater Esturay in Tasmania, Australia until 2002 when it was replaced after 45 years of service. Demolition occured due to the formation of longitudinal web cracks along some beams, appearing to follow the trajectory of the post-tensioning tendons, which were suspected to be caused by corrosion. Three beams of varying condition and location were salvaged and load tested to destruction. The beam in the worst condition achieved only 51% of its good-condition counterpart and failed catastrophically. It was confirmed that the longitudinal web cracking followed the tendon trajectory. Generally, corrosion was most severe in areas where concrete cracking was significant, however however the majority of rust staining stemmed from the conventional reinforcement. The most severely corroded post-tensioning strands had lost between 75–100% of their cross-section. Corrosion varied from general corrosion to elongated, irregular and deep pitting. Evidence of green rusts, chloride weeping and silvery-gold zones on steel surfaces were also observed. 2010-05-07T06:00:27.936Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4631 The unexpected death of wildlife biologist, Dr Irynej Skira, at the age at the age of 54 in February 2005, sent shockwaves through the scientific community. His longitudinal study of Short-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris), also known as mutton-birds, was about to receive international recognition, while his recent second marriage appeared to open up a new chapter in his personal life. Who was this remarkable man, what was his contribution to science and what is his legacy? This article draws upon the funeral notes and memories of his family, friends and colleagues, to provide an overview of his personal and professional life. It shows how his two periods of fieldwork on Macquarie Island developed his interest in wildlife biology and how he extended it to assume responsibility for the longitudinal study of shearwaters. It explores his particular contribution to the study over nearly three decades and then discusses his wider contribution to conservation and preservation of wildlife in Tasmania. The article concludes with an assessment of his legacy. 2010-04-27T05:32:27.569Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4745 Reviews of: [1] John Mulvaney and Hugh Tyndale- Biscoe (eds.): Rediscovering Recherche Bay. The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia: Canberra, 2007. 156 pp., ISBN: 9780908290222 (PB), $29.95 ; and [2] John Mulvaney: ‘The Axe Had Never Sounded’: Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay, Tasmania. ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Inc.: Canberra, 2007. 141 pp., ISBN: 9781921313202 (PB), ISBN: 9781921313219 (Online). 2010-04-27T05:31:03.180Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3199 Tasmania is important for understanding Quaternary climatic change because it is one of only three areas that experienced extensive mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere glaciation and it lies in a dominantly oceanic environment at a great distance from Northern Hemisphere ice sheet feedbacks. We applied exposure dating using ³⁶Cl to an extensive sequence of moraines from the last glacial at Mt. Field, Tasmania. Glaciers advanced at 41-44 ka during Marine oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and at 18 ka during MIS 2. Both advances occurred in response to an ELA lowering greater than 1100 m below the present-day mean summer freezing level, and a possible temperature reduction of 7-8°C. Deglaciation was rapid and complete by ca. 16 ka. The overall story emerging from studies of former Tasmanian glaciers is that the MIS 2 glaciation was of limited extent and that some glaciers were more extensive during earlier parts of the last glacial cycle. 2010-04-27T05:24:54.219Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:3363 Only limited parts of Tasmania were glaciated during the late Pleistocene. The extra-glacial regions exhibit many landforms and deposits that were developed at least partly by periglacial processes. Block streams, block fields and screes are well developed above 900 m on the dolerite plateaux of central and eastern Tasmania, while slope deposits of angular clasts occur on the siliceous rocks of western mountain areas. Extensive fossil solifluction deposits extend down to c. 500 m in central Tasmania, whereas modern frost-creep terraces and solifluction lobes occur only locally above 900 m in poorly vegetated areas. Active sorted polygonsmay occur on bare areas down to 600 m, and contemporary snowpatch erosion occurs above 1000 m. Fossil ice-pushed shoreline features occur on some lakes on the dolerite Central Plateau, while stabilized terrestrial sand dunes occur at lower altitudes in theMidlands and east. Few of these landforms and deposits are yet well dated, and many may have been formed during several cold stages of the Pleistocene. There is little evidence for Pleistocene permafrost below 1000-1200 m on the island. 2010-04-27T05:04:02.427Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4988 The transformation of Risdon Cove from the site of first British settlement to that of the first massacre of the Aborigines underscores the major shift that has been taking place in Tasmanian historiography in recent years. For most of Tasmania's history, settler narratives of exile and possession dominated our understanding of the past. Now Indigenous discourses of dispossession, segregation and survival have forced historians to reconceptualise the colonial encounter and to assess its impact on Aborigines as well as colonists. But this shift has not yet been entirely accepted. In this context, Risdon Cove holds a unique position in Tasmanian history. 2010-04-27T04:41:19.976Z ]]>