Gully Initiation and Implications for Management of Scour Holes in the Vicinity of the Jabiluka Mine, Northern Territory, Australia

A track across a burnt grass swale was used intensively on the Jabiluka Mineral Lease (located adjacent to Kakadu National Park in the seasonally wet tropics of the Northern Territory, Australia) for a short time period during the 1998 dry season. Repeated vehicle passes over the burnt grass increased soil bulk density and locally disrupted the root and algal mat, lowering the critical shear stress for sediment transport. Overland flow during the next wet season was above average and eroded eleven discontinuous, flow‐aligned scour holes in the wheel ruts where the track crossed grassed sandy swales. Although the site was burnt again during the next dry season, the scour holes did not coalesce during the second wet season, which was wetter than the previous one, because infrequent traffic bypassed the eroded section allowing grass to re‐establish. Scour holes on vehicle tracks in the Kakadu region are an intermediate but reversible stage in the development of gullies in grassed swales. Treatment of scour holes by soil conservation works may prevent gully formation.     

Micro-Basins on Slopes in Arnhem Land,Northern Territory,Australia: Characteristics and Development

The development of micro-basins on quartzite ridges in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, is presented. It is suggested that micro-basin development depends on the complex interaction of tree growth and decay, rock fabric and termite activity. The micro-basins have a role in the morphological development of slopes on the quartzite.     

Sinkholes (Dolines) in lateritised sediments, western Sturt plateau, Northern Territory, Australia

Sinkholes up to 50 m diameter and 15 m deep are developed in the lateritised Mullaman (Lower Cretaceous) quartzitic and argillaceous beds of the western Sturt Plateau, in the monsoonal north of the Northern Territory, Australia. Some sinkholes are degraded and of some antiquity: though their age is not precisely known, they formed during the late Cenozoic following the uplift and desiccation of the latertte. Others are fresh and a few have formed in living memory. Some sinkholes may be due to collapse of the Mullaman beds into voids in the underlying Cambrian limestone, but most have evolved wholly within the highly siliceous Mullaman beds, which have been dissolved or altered, creating either voids or compartments filled with uncosolidated material. Subsequent water-table lowering and collapse of the overlying beds into the low-density zones caused the formation of sinkholes.Fractures have significantly influenced the location, pattern and detailed plan shape of sinkholes. Sinkholes also occur within and at the margins of old drainage lines. The water table stood higher in the late Pleistocene, bringing alkaline groundwaters into contact with the country rock. A late Cenozoic fall in regional water table caused slacking or disaggregation. Litter derived from a Eucalyptus-dominated woodland facilitated iron mobilisation. Biogenic agents may have accelerated the weathering of the silica, silicates and iron oxides of which the country rock and laterite are largely composed.     

Fire and cyclone damage to woody vegetation on the north coast of the Northern Territory,Australia

Tree stem (>2 m tall) mortality was assessed following a late dry‐season wildfire across a seasonally flooded elevation gradient at Workshop Jungle, near Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia. For all species combined, dead stems had significantly smaller diameter at breast height (dbh) than living stems. Assessment of tree‐stem damage following a tropical cyclone at Cobourg Peninsula, NT, revealed that damaged stems had significantly greater dbh than undamaged stems for all tree species sampled across a boundary between monsoon rainforest and savanna. A greater proportion of stems were damaged by the cyclone than by the fire (28 per cent as against 18 per cent), although there were considerable between‐community differences in the proportion of damaged stems at the two sites. The fire caused little impact (<10 per cent) on total basal area of three different forest communities on the elevation gradient at Workshop Jungle. The cyclone was found to cause >50 per cent damage to total basal area of three different communities on Cobourg Peninsula. It is suggested that the combination of a cyclone followed by an intense fire in storm debris could potentially destroy a monsoon rainforest through its impact on all tree‐size classes. This may explain why some monsoon rainforests rapidly contracted following Cyclone Tracy that destroyed the city of Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974.     

Public policy and aboriginal population mobility: insights from the Katherine region,Northern Territory

In spite of the potential influence on the mobility and location of Aboriginal population implicit in the formulation and conduct of Aboriginal affairs policy, little attempt has been made to evaluate or monitor the extent of this relationship. In recent years the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory has been the focus of government efforts to encourage and facilitate Aboriginal employment in the construction of the new RAAF Tindal airbase and associated urban development. This paper describes the pattern and character of Aboriginal mobility induced by these efforts and concludes that the effect of government policy has been to stimulate long‐distance migration from other urban areas. Surrounding rural communities have been largely by‐passed and a transfer of rural population in search of jobs has not occurred.     

Capital,the state and rural land holdings: the example of the pastoral industry in the Northern Territory

Large capital interests have a long history of ownership of rural land in Australia. There have been many changes in this kind of ownership in recent decades. The rationale for various forms of ownership of large leasehold areas in the Northern Territory is presented. New financial structures operating in local and international capital markets and the opportunities presented by the state are important parts of this rationale.     

Evidence of a threshold in soil erodibility generating differences in vegetation development and resilience between two semiarid grasslands

The typical patchy structure of dryland vegetation is a result of soil–plant feedbacks occurring in water-limited areas. The resilience of dryland ecosystems depends largely on the persistence of fertility islands associated with vegetated patches, which determines the efficiency of the vegetation regarding recolonising the gaps that result from disturbances. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying soil–plant interactions throughout the process of the growth and senescence of alpha grass (Macrochloa tenacissima) and the subsequent disintegration of islands of fertility and microtopography formed during the process at two nearby alpha grass communities exhibiting different degrees of development. The life cycle of alpha grass and the rise and disintegration of the underlying microrelief were accompanied by feedback changes in the content of soil C fractions presenting different times of cycling and incorporation to the soil, the collection of particles from splash erosion, redistribution phenomena related to particles of different sizes, and erosion of the most easily erodible materials. Despite their ecological and geographical proximity, the study sites differ with respect to the persistence, after plant death, of fertility islands, which almost disappear in one case, while they remain in the other, constituting a resource for the growth of new plants and resulting in greater development and resilience in the community. A subtle erodibility threshold emerges as a cause of the considerable differences in vegetation between the two sites.     

High (ground) water levels and dune development in central Australia: TL dates from gypsum and quartz dunes around Lake Lewis (Napperby), Northern Territory

An episode of high lake levels prior to the last maximum glaciation has been identified at many localities in wastern Australia. Similar events have been recognized at playa lakes in central Australia, where gypsum dunes along playa margins formed during one or more episodes of high groundwater discharge, with a large influx of calcium sulphate.At Lake Lewis, exposures at two islands show similar sediment sequences: three pedogenic gypcrete layers interbedded with aeolian quartz and gypsum sand horizons form three units within gypsum dunes up to 7 m high. The lowest unit has cliffed edges buried by the upper units, indicating a significant time break. Four TL dates (coarse-grained quartz) show that this lowest unit was deposited at or before 70–80 ka. The middle unit of mixed gypsum and quartz sand capped by gypcrete represents the major phase of gypsum dune formation, and 6 TL dates range from 33 to 46 ka with overlapping error bars. These are slightly younger but statistically similar to TL dates (from 39 to 59 ka) of the shoreline gypsum dune at Lake Amadeus in the same region. The top unit of the two islands, up to 1 m thick, has not yet been well dated. One date is inconsistent with the well dated middle layer below, possibly because of incomplete bleaching, and has been rejected. The other date (17 ± 5 ka) is much younger which possibly indicates a minor and local reactivation of old gypsum sediments. At the lake margin, there are quartz dunes overlying the gypsum dunes, and a buried aeolian quartz sand layer occurs in a lake-margin terrace. These represent reactivation of the regional quartz dune field after the major gypsum dune formation. Two consistent TL dates (21 ± 4 ka and 23 ± 6 ka) indicate that regional dunes were active at about the time of the Last Glacial Maximum.     

Evidencing a large body of ice in a rock glacier,Vanoise Massif,Northern French Alps

The Sachette rock glacier is an active rock glacier located between 2660 and 2480 m a.s.l. in the Vanoise Massif, Northern French Alps (45° 29′ N, 6° 52′ E). In order to characterize its status as permafrost feature, shallow ground temperatures were monitored and the surface velocity measured by photogrammetry. The rock glacier exhibits near‐surface thermal regimes suggesting permafrost occurrence and also displays significant surface horizontal displacements (0.6–1.3 ± 0.6 m yr^–1). In order to investigate its internal structure, a ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) survey was performed. Four constant‐offset GPR profiles were performed and analyzed to reconstruct the stratigraphy and model the radar wave velocity in two dimensions. Integration of the morphology, the velocity models and the stratigraphy revealed, in the upper half of the rock glacier, the good correspondence between widespread high radar wave velocities (>0.15–0.16 m ns^–1) and strongly concave reflector structures. High radar wave velocity (0.165–0.170 m ns^–1) is confirmed with the analysis of two punctual common mid‐point measurements in areas of exposed shallow pure ice. These evidences point towards the existence of a large buried body of ice in the upper part of the rock glacier. The rock glacier was interpreted to result from the former advance and decay of a glacier onto pre‐existing deposits, and from subsequent creep of the whole assemblage. Our study of the Sachette rock glacier thus highlights the rock glacier as a transitional landform involving the incorporation and preservation of glacier ice in permafrost environments with subsequent evolution arising from periglacial processes.     

Contrasting characteristics and origin of Danxia arched rock shelters in Zhejiang,China, and natural arches and bridges on the Colorado Plateau,USA

The red beds in Zhejiang province of China host the highest concentration of Dan-xia arched rock shelters in the world,just as the Colorado Plateau in the western USA hosts the world's largest concentration of natural arches and bridges.This study investigated the geological background of the arched rock shelters and compared them to the natural arches and bridges,based on field study and a literature review.It was found that Zhejiang arched rock shelters differ from Colorado Plateau natural arches and bridges in geometry and for-mation mechanism.Statistical geometric data on arch geometry shows that Danxia arched rock shelters in Zhejiang tend to be relatively flat.They are relatively low features with long spans,and great depth.The natural arches and bridges on the Colorado Plateau are similar to each other,but the bridges are larger than the arches.The geometric differences between the arched landforms could be attributed to their different geologic history and to their differ-ent formation mechanisms.The arched rock shelters in Zhejiang are formed by differential weathering between sandstone and conglomerate due to moisture-induced tensile stresses.In contrast,natural arches on the Colorado Plateau are closely related to the Salt Valley an-ticline,vertical tectonic fractures,and horizontal discontinuities in rock fins.The Colorado Plateau natural bridges were formed by river erosion.     

Recurring natural fire hazards : a case study of the Blue Mountains,Wew South Wales,Australia

Many regions of the world have climatic and vegetation regimes conducive to wildfires which damage urban property, but south eastern Australia is foremost in terms of such hazards. The Blue Mountains Region near Sydney has experienced 25 fire seasons since 1875 in 11 of which damage occurred to urban property. On four occasions since 1951 a single fire run has destroyed more than 50 dwellings. While fire cycles themselves are unpredictable, degree of fuel accumulation, annual and monthly rainfall and daily weather charts can signal various degrees of hazard and need for protective action to well informed householders. Knowledge of fire history in fire-prone regions is essential not only for professional firefighters but for all households.     

A comparison of classification systems for the conservation of sparsely wooded plains on Melville Island,Northern Australia

A floristic quadrat study of sparsely wooded plains on western Melville Island was conducted and used to define and describe floristic and structural vegetation types and identify their associated environmental correlates. The results were compared with an existing land‐unit survey of the area in order to identify the relative merits of these schemes for conservation planning. All schemes identify a range of broad structural types including Acacia shrubland, Grevillea pteridifolia low woodland, Lophostemon lactifluus low woodland, and Banksia dentata low woodland. However, some of the structural and land‐unit types are composed of two plant communities with distinctive environmental relations. Despite being structurally distinctive, some community types are floristically indistinguishable from surrounding forest dominated by Eucalyptus miniata and E. tetrodonta. The number of species captured by randomly selecting sites from each classificatory type revealed little difference between schemes. All the classificatory approaches were less effective at species capture than a simple iterative procedure. Some of the plant communities seem to be unique and require preservation initiatives in the face of current forestry operations and planned horticultural development.     

Understanding grower demographics,motivations and management practices to improve engagement,extension and industry resilience: a case study of the macadamia industry in the Northern Rivers,Australia

Research and development programs for improved productivity and profitability in horticulture have focused largely on understanding biophysical factors and production and harvest technologies. By contrast, relatively few studies focus upon the existing status of a rural community in terms of demographics, rationales and motivations underlying current farm management practices. Understanding such factors is increasingly important as pressures from climate change, globalised market forces, land-use competition and ageing workforces intersect on farms and for farmers. This paper explores experiences among macadamia growers in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, with the aim to better understand and improve the targeting of development programs to meet grower needs and aspirations, for improved industry resilience. Results suggest that growers are a diverse, ageing demographic who came into the industry with a variety of skill sets. Noting a lack of previous farming experience for many growers, we highlight the need to consider information transfer and succession planning, along with aspirations to consolidate properties and skills. New engagement approaches are recommended, with tailored extension to different grower groups. To aid with this process, a classification tree was developed for the purposes of separating growers into groups with different support needs.     

Integrated,Regional, Natural Resource and Environmental Planning and the Natural Heritage Trust Phase 2: a case study of the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council,Western Australia

Since 2002, the Australian Natural Heritage Trust Phase 2 (NHT2) has required community groups seeking funds for natural resource management projects to have developed nationally accredited regional strategies and investment plans. This case study reports on the progress of one such regional (and sub-regional) group, examining in particular the perceptions of the community group members and other stakeholders of the overall process. Through interviews, participant observation and document analysis in 2004–05, the process of developing a regional strategy and an investment plan by the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council in Western Australia, and the involvement of regional stakeholders in the process, were examined. While the concept of regional-scale management was perceived favourably by community interviewees, their concerns related to increasing bureaucracy, the need for further local involvement, more on-ground action instead of further planning, the relevance of the regional Council to local communities, and the motives of Council members. Communication with regional stakeholders was extensive in preparing the regional strategy, but fell short during the development of the investment plan. The success of the regional planning process will be evidenced by whether members of the regional community actively implement regional priorities, and whether long-term funding and support from the State and Australian governments are provided.     

Subsidence, sedimentation and sea-level changes in the Eromanga Basin, Australia

Abstract The Jurassic-Cretaceous subsidence history of the Eromanga Basin, a large intracratonic sedimentary basin in central eastern Australia, has been examined using standard backstripping techniques, allowing for porosity reduction by compaction and cementation. Interpretation of the results suggests that during the Jurassic the basin was subsiding in a manner consistent with the exponentially decreasing form predicted by simple thermally based tectonic models. By the Early Cretaceous, the rate of subsidence was considerably higher than that expected from such models and nearly half of the total sediment thickness was deposited over the final 20 Myr of the basin's 95 Myr Mesozoic depositional history. The Early Cretaceous also marks the first marine incursion into the basin, consistent with global sea-level curves. Subsequently, however, the sediments alternate between marine and non-marine, with up to 1200 m of fluvial sediments being deposited, and this was followed by a depositional hiatus of about 50 Myr in the Late Cretaceous. This occurred at a time when global sea-level was rising to its peak. A model is presented which is consistent with the rapid increase in tectonic subsidence rate and the transgressive-regressive nature of the sediments. The model incorporates a sediment influx which is greater than that predicted by the thermally based tectonic models implied by the Jurassic subsidence history. The excess sedimentation results in the basin region attaining an elevation which exceeds that of the contemporary sea-level, and thereby giving the appearance of a regression. The present day elevation of the region predicted by the model is about 100–200 m above that observed. This discrepancy may arise because the primary tectonic subsidence is better represented by a linear function of time rather than an exponentially decreasing form.     

Geochemical reconstruction of late Holocene drainage and mixing in Kluane Lake,Yukon Territory

The level of Kluane Lake in southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, has fluctuated tens of metres during the late Holocene. Contributions of sediment from different watersheds in the basin over the past 5,000 years were inferred from the elemental geochemistry of Kluane Lake sediment cores. Elements associated with organic material and oxyhydroxides were used to reconstruct redox fluctuations in the hypolimnion of the lake. The data reveal complex relationships between climate and river discharge during the late Holocene. A period of influx of Duke River sediment coincides with a relatively warm climate around 1,300 years BP. Discharge of Slims River into Kluane Lake occurred when Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced to the present drainage divide separating flow to the Pacific Ocean via Kaskawulsh and Alsek rivers from flow to Bering Sea via tributaries of Yukon River. During periods when neither Duke nor Slims river discharged into Kluane Lake, the level of the lake was low and stable thermal stratification developed, with anoxic and eventually euxinic conditions in the hypolimnion.     

Industrial and Transport Development of the Territory of Russia in the Post-Soviet Period

The inventory of implemented investment projects was used as the basis for compiling a smallscale map to display the main features of industrial and transport development of the territory of post-Soviet Russia. An exceptional territorial differentiation of industrial construction is revealed, which implies primarily its overconcentration in Moscow oblast as well as in the north-west (St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast). The northern and eastern regions of the country are characterized by focal industrial development and the dominance of mining enterprises. In Asian Russia, large-scale industrial construction is allocated to Kuzbass, and Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs, but the “density” of development is small. In many areas, new enterprises are similar in their specialization to the economic profile of a given area. Signs of territorial-production integration of enterprises in the specific conditions of the Russian market are identified. The new economic conditions saw the emergence of new sectors and production facilities: development of oil and gas resources on the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Caspian, Baltic, Pechora and Black Seas; gas liquefaction plants, and automobile assembly enterprises. Only a quarter of the new industrial enterprises are located in regional capitals. The dispersion of industries within separate regions is determined by the high proportion of extractive enterprises, the formation of special economic zones outside the regional centers, and by the low cost of land and labor in small towns and villages. The new “village” industry has a broad spectrum of specialization and is not limited to processing agricultural raw materials. Analysis of the structure of the new industrial construction did not reveal any signs of its ecologization. Two thirds of the new facilities refer to basic, environmentally “aggressive” sectors. Most of the newly built transport infrastructure facilities are specialized in satisfying the export requirements of the country’s economy, rather than in enhancing connectivity of its territory. Intensive construction of ports and pipelines leads to the concentration of anthropogenic pressure on the water areas and the coasts, in particular the Baltic, Black and Azov Seas. The resulting map reveals new foci and areas of change in the natural environment and its large-scale transformation.     

Geomorphology, natural hazards, vulnerability and prevention of natural disasters in developing countries

The significance of the prevention of natural disasters is made evident by the commemoration of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). This paper focuses on the role of geomorphology in the prevention of natural disasters in developing countries, where their impact has devastating consequences. Concepts such as natural hazards, natural disasters and vulnerability have a broad range of definitions; however, the most significant elements are associated with the vulnerability concept. The latter is further explored and considered as a key factor in understanding the occurrence of natural disasters, and consequently, in developing and applying adequate strategies for prevention. Terms such as natural and human vulnerabilities are introduce and explained as target aspects to be taken into account in the reduction of vulnerability and for prevention and mitigation of natural disasters. The importance of the incorporation not only of geomorphological research, but also of geomorphologists in risk assessment and management programs in the poorest countries is emphasized.     

Mawson and Mirnyy Stations: the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory, 1954–61

This article focuses on the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory in the important 1954–61 period. Attending particularly to three key components of polar spatiality—geopolitics, international territorial law, and the built environment—the article analyses the development of the Territory as a unique Australian space. The 1954–61 period is particularly significant: during this period, the International Geophysical Year brought an unprecedented number of people to Antarctica; the continent's first permanent colonies were constructed; and, despite Cold War tensions, the 1961 Antarctic Treaty established the spatial configurations and rules which continue to govern the continent today. The article focuses particularly on two key stations in the Territory constructed during this period: Australia's Mawson Station and the Soviet Mirnyy Station. Mawson is a legal colony, designed to cement Australia's claim to 42 per cent of the Antarctic continent; Mirnyy, in contrast, is an anti-colony, designed to reject Australia's claim. How the individual spatialities of these two stations articulate to the broader politics of Antarctic territoriality—and particularly Australia's claim to the Australian Antarctic Territory—is the focus of this article.