Northern Beaches Declared Natural Disaster Zone
June 8, 2016
Member for Pittwater Rob Stokes today said the Northern Beaches is among 37 local government areas across NSW to be declared a natural disaster zone.
The joint declaration has been made by the State and Federal Government in response to the damaging storms which swept across the northern beaches over the weekend and means financial assistance is now activated for local families, small businesses, community organisations and the Northern Beaches Council.
“Unfortunately parts of our community are among the most affected areas in NSW,” Rob Stokes said today.
“The amount of damage and disruption we’ve seen is frightening and many families are still doing it really tough.
“Whilst most of the attention is on coastal properties damaged by the ocean surge – there’s many other properties impacted by damaged roofs and flooding.
“With the clean-up now underway the State and Federal Governments are seeking to provide financial assistance to those with limited means to recover on their own.
“Our local emergency service personnel have done an outstanding job – but there’s still lots more work to do.
“Essential council infrastructure is among the key priorities and support is now available to assist with rebuilding and repair works.
“Information on the disaster assistance programs which have now been activated is available by visiting www.emergency.nsw.gov.au ,” Rob Stokes said.
Greenland Set Melt Records in 2015 Consistent with ‘Arctic Amplification’
June 9, 2016
Following record-high temperatures and melting records in northwest Greenland in summer 2015, a new study provides the first evidence linking melting in Greenland to the anticipated effects of a phenomenon known as Artic amplification.
Arctic amplification, in the simplest terms, is the faster warming of the Arctic compared to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere as sea ice disappears. It is fueled by a feedback loop: rising global temperatures are melting Arctic sea ice, leaving dark open water that absorbs more solar radiation, and that warms the Arctic even more. Arctic amplification is well documented, but its effects on the atmosphere are more widely debated. One hypothesis suggests that the shrinking temperature difference between the Arctic and the mid-latitudes will lead to a slowing of the jet stream, which circles the northern latitudes and normally keeps frigid polar air sharply separated from warmer air in the south. Slower winds could create wilder swings of the jet stream, allowing warm, moist air to penetrate farther north.
The new study, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, shows that those anticipated effects occurred over northern Greenland during the summer of 2015, including a northern swing of the jet stream that reached latitudes never before recorded in Greenland at that time of year.
A river of meltwater on the Greenland ice sheet. Photo: Marco Tedesco
A stream of meltwater flows across the Greenland ice sheet. Photo: Marco Tedesco
“How much and where Greenland melts can change depending on how things change elsewhere on earth,” said lead author Marco Tedesco, a research professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and adjunct scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “If loss of sea ice is driving changes in the jet stream, the jet stream is changing Greenland, and this, in turn, has an impact on the Arctic system as well as the climate. It’s a system, it is strongly interconnected and we have to approach it as such.”
The Greenland ice sheet, earth’s second largest after Antarctica, holds enough ice that, if it were to melt entirely, it would raise average global sea level by about seven meters. Understanding the drivers of melting is critical to understanding how quickly and by how much sea level will rise in the future and how Greenland’s freshwater runoff will affect ocean circulation and ecology.
Northwest Greenland’s summer of melt
Northwest Greenland’s summer of melt started in June 2015, when a high-pressure ridge squeezed off from the jet stream, the study shows. It moved westward over Greenland until it sat over the Arctic Ocean and affected weather across the island through mid-July.
That high-pressure system, called a cut-off high, brought clear skies and warmed northern Greenland, helping set records for surface temperature and meltwater runoff in the northwest, the study shows. With less summer snow falling and melting underway, northern Greenland’s albedo, or reflectivity, also decreased. A less-reflective surface absorbs more solar energy, which feeds more melting, as Tedesco illustrated in a study earlier this year on the darkening of Greenland.
The map shows changes in runoff from the Greenland ice sheet during July 2015 compared to the 1981-2010 mean. The bar chart focuses on the northwest sector, showing standardized anomalies for mean July runoff (black line), surface temperature (red bards) and surface broadband albedo (blue bars) over time. Source: Tedesco et al., 2016
The map shows changes in runoff from the Greenland ice sheet during July 2015 compared to the 1981-2010 mean. The bar chart focuses on the northwest sector, showing standardized anomalies for mean July runoff (black line), surface temperature (red bars) and surface broadband albedo (blue bars) over time. Source: Tedesco et al., 2016.
Northern Greenland also set an unusual July record for wind: the winds blew east to west on average, rather the usual west to east; only two other years on record show easterly winds on average in July, both near zero. At the same time, the jet stream’s northernmost ridge swung farther north than ever recorded for that month, passing 76 degrees North latitude, nearly 2 degrees farther north than the previous July record, set in 2009, the authors write.
The same atmospheric pattern had a different impact on southern Greenland, where new melting records have been set over the past decade. The south saw more snow during summer of 2015 and less melting than previous years.
What drove the changes?
The authors stop short of confirming Arctic amplification as the cause of the warming, but they say the results fit the anticipated effects of Arctic amplification described by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University and Stephan Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin in a 2012 paper.
Recent studies exploring the potential effects of Arctic amplification have showed that high-pressure blocks connected to northward swings of the jet stream have become more common near Greenland. Edward Hanna of the University of Sheffield, a co-author of the new Nature Communications paper, released a study in May using the Greenland Blocking Index to measure the strength of stationary high-pressure systems over the past 165 years and found that seven of the top 11 systems had occurred since 2007.
“The significant increase in Greenland high-pressure blocking that has occurred in the last 20 to 30 years is clearly related to recent record warming over the region, as well as jet-stream changes,” Hanna said. “This makes it more likely than not that within the next five to 10 years we will witness further record Greenland melt events like in 2012 and 2015.”
“The Arctic is full of climate surprises, and Greenland is a key player,” said James Overland, an oceanographer and climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in the new study. “Climate models suggest a 4 degree Celsius Arctic temperature increase by mid-century, but such jet stream related surprises acting on Greenland as reported by Tedesco et al. can accelerate Arctic climate change.”
Whether the patterns seen in 2015 will continue in the future remains to be seen. This spring, Arctic sea ice set another record low for its maximum extent for the year. "Greenland also experienced early season melt in early April of this year comparable to April 2012. Record setting melt occurred later that summer, but it is too early to tell whether the same will hold true in 2016,” said co-author Thomas Mote of the University of Georgia.
“The conditions we saw in the past aren’t necessarily the conditions of the future,” Tedesco said. “If humans change the forcing, we are going into uncharted territory.”
The other co-authors of the new paper are Xavier Fettweis of University of Liege; Jeyavinoth Jeyaratnam, James Booth, and Rajashree Datta of City College of New York; and Kate Briggs of University of Leeds. The study was supported by funding from NASA's Interdisciplinary Data Science Program, NASA’s Cryosphere Program and the National Science Foundation.
M. Tedesco, T. Mote, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, J. Jeyaratnam, J. F. Booth, R. Datta, K. Briggs. Arctic cut-off high drives the poleward shift of a new Greenland melting record. Nature Communications, 2016; 7: 11723 DOI:10.1038/ncomms11723
Lock the Gate calls on EPA to investigate risk of contamination at AGL’s flooded CSG wells in Camden
Published: June 07, 2016: by Lock the Gate Alliance
Local people in the Menangle Park area have contacted Lock the Gate with serious concerns about more than six CSG wells that have been submerged in floodwaters, south-west of Sydney, in areas adjoining the Nepean River, and CSG water tanks and containers that have been transported by flood waters and upended.
Dan Robins, from Lock the Gate Alliance, has been out on site over the past two days and witnessed first hand the flooding and upended waste water tanks
Lock the Gate is calling on the NSW EPA to urgently investigate the contamination risk posed to nearby residents, the adjoining Nepean River nearby creeks and waterways.
“We believe that there is a high risk that untreated waste water from AGL’s Camden CSG wells has been dumped into the Nepean River during the flooding, as tanks have been upended.
“According to AGL’s own water monitoring data, the waste water they produce from the Camden gasfield is extremely salty and also contains pollutants like barium and boron.
“This looks like a pollution event that never should have happened, and we don’t believe AGL has any licence or authority which allows it to pollute the Nepean River, so we are calling for urgent action from the EPA to investigate.
“AGL need to immediately advise how much wastewater has been released into the Nepean River, and provide full disclosure on the contaminants it contains.
“People in the Menangle Park area have repeatedly raised concerns about AGL’s CSG wells in floodwaters near Sydney in areas adjoining the Nepean River, and the real risk that poses to our water.
“CSG and unconventional gas should not operate in important water sources - it should be banned from floodplains and water catchments - and all nationally significant water sources should be fully protected.
“Mining on floodplains is a crazy idea, and it should never have been allowed, the risk to water just isn’t worth it.
“AGL should display some corporate responsibility and shut-down these wells immediately, rather than continuing to risk NSW water.
“It is because of these serious risks to water that unconventional gas is a major federal election issue across Australia, from south-west Western Australia to South Australia and along the eastern seaboard.
“This is exactly why CSG should not go ahead on the Liverpool Plains or in the recharge zone of the Great Artesian Basin,” said Mr Robins.
Research proves Aboriginal Australians were first inhabitants: Conflicting theories of Mungo Man debunked
June 6, 2016
Lake Mungo region, Australia. A new study refutes an earlier landmark study that claimed to recover DNA sequences from the oldest known Australian, Mungo Man. Credit: © markrhiggins / Fotolia
Griffith University researchers have found evidence that demonstrates Aboriginal people were the first to inhabit Australia.
The work refutes an earlier landmark study that claimed to recover DNA sequences from the oldest known Australian, Mungo Man.
This earlier study was interpreted as evidence that Aboriginal people were not the first Australians, and that Mungo Man represented an extinct lineage of modern humans that occupied the continent before Aboriginal Australians.
Scientists from Griffith University's Research Centre for Human Evolution (RCHE), recently used new DNA sequencing methods to re-analyse the remains of Mungo Man from the World Heritage listed landscape of the Willandra Lakes region, in far western New South Wales.
Professor Lambert, from RCHE, said it was clear that incorrect conclusions had been drawn in relation to Mungo Man in the original study.
"The sample from Mungo Man which we retested contained sequences from five different European people suggesting that these all represent contamination," he said.
"At the same time we re-analysed more than 20 of the other ancient people from Willandra. We were successful in recovering the genomic sequence of one of the early inhabitants of Lake Mungo, a man buried very close to the location where Mungo Man was originally interred.
"By going back and reanalysing the samples with more advanced technology, we have found compelling support for the argument that Aboriginal Australians were the first inhabitants of Australia."
Professor Lambert explained that the results proved that the more advanced genomic technology was capable of unlocking further secrets from Australia's human past.
"We now know that meaningful genetic information can be recovered from ancient Aboriginal Australian remains," he said.
"This represents the first time researchers have recovered an ancient mitochondrial genome sequence from an Aboriginal person who lived before the arrival of the Europeans."
The research, which has just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was planned and conducted with the support of the Barkindjii, Ngiyampaa and Muthi Muthi indigenous people.
There has been considerable debate in Australia and around the world about the origins of the first Australians since the publication in 1863 of Thomas Henry Huxley's Man's Place in Nature.
Tim H. Heupink, Sankar Subramanian, Joanne L. Wright, Phillip Endicott, Michael Carrington Westaway, Leon Huynen, Walther Parson, Craig D. Millar, Eske Willerslev, and David M. Lambert. Ancient mtDNA sequences from the First Australians revisited. PNAS, 2016 DOI:10.1073/pnas.1521066113
Independent PAC to decide on second IMAX building and hotel option
08.06.2016: Departmental Media Release - Department of Planning and Environment
A second proposal to redevelop the IMAX site as part of Darling Harbour’s revitalisation has been recommended for approval by the Department of Planning and Environment, with conditions responding directly to issues raised during consultation.
The independent Planning Assessment Commission will make the final decision on Grocon Pty Ltd’s second application which proposes to construct a new 25-storey hotel and serviced apartment complex with updated IMAX theatre and some retail to replace the existing cinema.
Key issues raised during consultation include use of public land, building design, traffic, access and safety.
These issues have been addressed in the Department’s assessment by recommending strict conditions in response, including:
- a legal restriction prohibiting permanent residential use of the building, consistent with City of Sydney Council’s standard practice which would also be placed on serviced apartments if individually sold in the future
- certification for the building façade glazing to achieve high-levels of noise protection and glare reduction for pedestrians and motorists on the Western Distributor
- a requirement for the building to achieve a five star Green Star rating certification from Green Building Council of Australia within two years of the final occupation certificate
- a management and operational plan for the car stacker, loading dock, valet service and porte de cochere will be prepared in consultation with government agencies before a construction certificate can be issued
- a Road Safety Audit and Traffic Impact Assessment be prepared in consultation with government agencies before a construction certificate can be issued
- a requirement to provide minimum footpath width on the building’s western side improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians.
A three storey car stacker would provide 170 car parking spaces for the hotel and apartments, with 295 bicycle spaces also included.
Public space upgrades are also part of the plans including a new playground, a public display screen on the western façade of the building to televise information or events such as sporting matches, and an updated Harbour Street pedestrian walkway.
The Department carefully considered issues of building design and considers the new application to be largely consistent with the previous approval and is of a high architectural quality.
“Consultation with the community is enshrined into the process for assessing applications like these,” a spokesperson from the Department said.
“The Planning Assessment Commission is an important part of the NSW planning system ensuring major developments are subject to expert, independent review and assessment.
“The Commission will now consider the Department’s report and recommended conditions as well as community submissions to make a final decision.”
The Department publicly exhibited the second application between January and February 2016. There were four public submissions received objecting to the proposal and ten submissions from government agencies.
Grocon’s initial application to demolish the existing IMAX theatre included office building plans for city workers. This original consent remains while the applicant seeks approval for a second application.
Under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act an applicant may hold more than one development consent for the same site.
For more information please visit the Major Projects website
Appointment of new electoral commissioner
3rd June 2016: NSW Government
NSW Premier Mike Baird today announced the appointment of John Schmidt as the State’s new Electoral Commissioner.
Mr Schmidt has held senior roles in the Commonwealth and NSW public service, including as chief executive officer of the Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre. AUSTRAC is Australia's financial intelligence unit with regulatory responsibility for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
“As part of our reforms to clean up politics in NSW, we established a new Electoral Commission with appropriate investigative functions and a clear mandate to institute criminal and civil proceedings for breaches of electoral laws,” Mr Baird said.
“In John Schmidt we have a person with the right skills and experience to lead the organisation into the future.”
Mr Schmidt will commence in the role on 8 August 2016. His term runs for seven years.
Linda Franklin will remain as Acting Commissioner until Mr Schmidt commences, and will continue to oversee the management of local government elections scheduled for 10 September.
New understanding of plant growth brings promise of tailored products for industry
June 9, 2016: University of Melbourne
Section of wild-type stems and stems in which the function of the STL proteins are abolished (mutant). Cells are outlined by their surrounding cell walls (white traces). Please note the substantial reduction in cell wall thickness surrounding cells in the mutants (highlighted by yellow arrowheads). The reduced cell wall thickness corresponds to a substantial reduction in the woody biomass of the plant. Credit: Staffan Persson (University of Melbourne ) PaulDupree (University of Cambridge)
In the search for low-emission plant-based fuels, new research could lead to sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based products.
Scientists have identified new steps in the way plants produce cellulose, the component of plant cell walls that provides strength, and forms insoluble fiber in the human diet.
The findings may lead to improved production of cellulose and guide plant breeding for specific uses such as wood products and cellulosic ethanol fuel, which is estimated to have roughly 85 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel sources.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the work was conducted by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge.
Our research identified several proteins that are essential in the assembly of the protein machinery that makes cellulose, said Prof Staffan Persson from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
"We found that these assembly factors control how much cellulose is made, and so plants without them can not produce cellulose very well and the defect substantially impairs plant biomass production."
"The ultimate aim of this research would be breed plants that have altered activity of these proteins so that cellulose production can be improved for the range of applications that use cellulose including paper, timber and ethanol fuels.
The newly discovered proteins are located in an intracellular compartment called the Golgi where proteins are sorted and modified.
"If the function of this protein family is abolished the cellulose synthesizing complexes become stuck in the Golgi and have problems reaching the cell surface where they normally are active" said the lead authors of the study, Drs. Yi Zhang (Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology) and Nino Nikolovski (University of Cambridge).
"We therefore named the new proteins STELLO, which is Greek for to set in place, and deliver."
"The findings are important to understand how plants produce their biomass," said Professor Paul Dupree from the University of Cambridge.
"Greenhouse-gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol, which is derived from the biomass of plants, are estimated to be roughly 85 percent less than from fossil fuel sources. Research to understand cellulose production in plants is therefore an important part of climate change mitigation."
"In addition, by using cellulosic plant materials we get around the problem of food-versus-fuel scenario that is problematic when using corn as a basis for bioethanol."
"It is therefore of great importance to find genes and mechanisms that can improve cellulose production in plants so that we can tailor cellulose production for various needs."
Previous studies by Profs. Persson's and Dupree's research groups have, together with other scientists, identified many proteins that are important for cellulose synthesis and for other cell wall polymers.
With the newly presented research they substantially increase our understanding for how the bulk of a plant's biomass is produced and is therefore of vast importance to industrial applications.
Prof. Persson was group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology until January 2015. Since then he is at the School of Biosciences at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Yi Zhang, Nino Nikolovski, Mathias Sorieul, Tamara Vellosillo, Heather E. McFarlane, Ray Dupree, Christopher Kesten, René Schneider, Carlos Driemeier, Rahul Lathe, Edwin Lampugnani, Xiaolan Yu, Alexander Ivakov, Monika S. Doblin, Jenny C. Mortimer, Steven P. Brown, Staffan Persson, Paul Dupree. Golgi-localized STELLO proteins regulate the assembly and trafficking of cellulose synthase complexes in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications, 2016; 7: 11656 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11656
Aussie Students Take Home Haul At US SCience Fair
June 6, 2016: from CSIRO
When Hannah Sutton started investigating how a peptide from the skin glands of the Australian tree frog could be used in a possible treatment for Alzheimer's disease, she never imagined how far her Year 9 research project would take her.
But the little tree frog that could (potentially treat Alzheimer's disease) just earned Hannah a trip to compete in Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in the USA – and brought her back an Intel ISEF Grand Award.
Hannah, who conducted her project with the assistance of the Menzies Institute in Tasmania, was one of nine BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Award finalists who were selected to attend Intel ISEF, and one of six who returned home with a prize.
Image: The Australian students at Intel ISEF in the USA. (Back row L-R: Terence Johnson, Lachlan Wilson, Hugh McKay. Front row L-R: Madeleine Maloof, Hannah Sutton, Hayden Goodwin)
CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall congratulated the returning students, saying all the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Award finalists had made Australia proud.
"The innovation delivered by these students highlights importance of STEM education to the future of Australia," Dr Larry Marshall said.
"The diversity of projects from our award winners, from tree frogs and Alzheimer's, to inventing a solar powered device to deliver clean energy and water for remote communities, shows you never know where a STEM project or career may lead you.
"CSIRO has been proud to manage the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards for the past 35 years.
"Every year the projects grow more innovative and imaginative than the year before, it's a true evolution of innovation, and I can't wait to see what the next year's awards will bring," he said.
The students attending Intel ISEF were finalists of the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards, a partnership between BHP Billiton, CSIRO and the Australian Science Teachers Association.
"I am proud of what the awards aim to achieve in encouraging students to explore, research and delight in the study of science, and challenge their understanding of the world around them," BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said.
The awards reward young people who have undertaken practical research projects which demonstrate innovative approaches and thorough scientific or engineering procedures.
The awards are sponsored by the BHP Billiton Foundation and managed by CSIRO.
For more information on the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards visit www.scienceawards.org.au
Crinkly News – National Newspaper (Online) For Kids!
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Women’s Suffrage Crowd Funding Campaign
National Library of Australia: June 8, 2016
This photograph is part of an album held in the papers of Bessie Rieschbieth at the National Library, an extraordinary collection of material relating to the suffragette movement of the early twentieth century. Also among Bessie’s papers are letters from well-known Australian suffragettes Vida Goldstein and Dame Enid Lyons and British campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, as well as a plethora of other items, from medals and brooches to sashes and banners.
These women’s suffrage collection items are becoming increasingly fragile, so we’re raising funds to preserve and improve access to them. Digitisation of these items will make them accessible online, giving researchers and the general public easy access to this unique part of our heritage.
Donate now: http://www.nla.gov.au/support-us/womens-suffrage
Donate online or phone the Development Office on 02 6262 1336 to make a donation. Donations over $2 are tax-deductible.
Votes for women!
Suffrage, or the right to vote, is not something women have been able to take for granted. We owe our freedoms today to the tireless efforts of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Australia played a leading role in the international suffrage movement and in 1902 non-Indigenous Australian women gained the right to vote at federal elections and to stand for election to federal parliament.
In 1893, New Zealand, then a self-governing British colony, granted adult women the right to vote. The self-governing colony of South Australia, now an Australian state, did the same in 1894 and women were able to vote in the next election, which was held in 1895. South Australia also permitted women to stand for election alongside men. In 1901, the six British colonies of Australia federated to become theCommonwealth of Australia, and women acquired the right to vote and stand in federal elections from 1902, but discriminatory restrictions against Aboriginal women (and men) voting in national elections were not completely removed until 1962.
Leading figures in the suffrage movement in Australia included Vida Goldstein, Rose Scott, Bessie Rischbieth, and Louisa Lawson.
National Library of Australia’s suffragette collection
Our collection holds extraordinary material relating to the story of women’s suffrage, including the personal papers of Bessie Rischbieth (1974-1967). When bequeathing her papers to the Library, Mrs Rischbieth wrote: ‘It is my wish that they form the nucleus of a permanent history of … Women’s struggle for enfranchisement and citizen rights.’
Alongside letters from Vida Goldstein, Dame Enid Lyons and Sylvia Pankhurst, the collection includes photos, medals, embroidered banners and cloths, and papers relating to the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance and the United Nations. Of special interest is the collection on the suffragette movement in England between 1906 and 1928, including Letitia Withall’s hunger striker medal and Louise Cullen’s Holloway Prison brooch.
Suffragette or suffragist?
Although known more commonly these days as suffragettes, those in the women’s suffrage movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s were generally known as suffragists. The term suffragette was first used as a term of derision by journalists to belittle the work of activists in the movement. The term was embraced however by some in the movement, in particular the more militant groups such as the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), who chose to pronounce the word ‘suffraGETte’. The WSPU named their journal The Suffragette and in the 1 May 1914 issue published an editorial which commented:
We have all heard of the girl who asked what was the difference between a Suffragist and a Suffragette, as she pronounced it, and the answer made to her that the ‘Suffragist jist wants the vote, while the Suffragette means to get it’.
________________________________________
A Few Notes on the Long Battle for Women's Right to Vote
It may be easy for younger readers today to take for granted many of the rights they have. Women could not own property until the 19th century and they didn't have the right to vote until the 20th century. Even into the 1950's they were expected to 'obey their husbands', as in, the men were in charge, even if not fitted to be, and women were 'owned' by them.
Although Australia was among the first places in the world to give women the right to vote for themselves on matters that concerned them, thus making their viewpoint worth considering, women having 'their place' prevailed, a place they were expected to stay in!
Elsewhere, in places long known for their 'enlightenment' and rights of all citizens, the struggle to have the same rights as their fellow human beings, such as getting to attend university and earn a degree, or vote, continued way past the point it should have.
One sample of ‘the tone of the debate’, so succinctly relegating women’s, especially if they are mothers, 24/7 role in life to ‘greater leisure’!, in this report from the United Kingdom of what was happening in London - was this written by a man?:
WOMANHOOD SUFFRAGE.
A silent revolution took place last week (says the "Queen" of January 19), when the House of Lords sanctioned the bestowal of the suffrage on women, bringing six million new voters on to the Parliamentary resistor. As we have said before, it is not, in our opinion, probable that this additional voting power will be used in any way startlingly different from that of the former electorate. In other words, we do not expect any revolutionary movement breaking out or any violent departure from accepted political conditions. The bulk of women, who will probably vote, will be prompted by very much the same motives as those which have prevailed with men. There will be an added interest in all special women's subjects, and in return men will be forced to take more notice of such questions. So also all movements of a philanthropic and perhaps of a sentimental nature are more likely to receive support. It will not be only by their votes that women will aid in humanitarian movements. Owing to the greater leisure that many of them possess as compared with men, the organisations which control these movements will be better manned, and greater attention will be given to the detail of the work. No, the revolution that we speak of as a silent one is the inevitable change introduced into the lives of enormous numbers of women who must, from now on, begin to give a great deal more attention to national affairs which the responsibility of their vote will entail. No educated woman in future can confessedly neglect this duty, and very naturally the scope of their education will change to meet it, and the amount of time and attention devoted in future to subjects outside their own family interests will increase. Any change of this kind will only come slowly, and probably imperceptibly, but its advent is inevitable. One thing which we expect it to bring about is a very considerable change is women's journalism. The abnormal attention given to the suffrage questions by journals founded to plead women's cause will direct anew its energy in numerous and, we hope, more peaceful channels. For ourselves we believe there will be less occasion for alteration than in other cases. We shall still devote our-selves primarily to specially feminine interests, and very little to those activities which are shared in common with men. On the other hand, we shall always strongly oppose any attempt to found a feminist party, as a project which will defeat itself. A party of this kind is sure to encounter an opposition even stronger than itself, which will not depend on the support of men only, but also on that of the women who believe that any antagonism between the sexes is harmful to both. WOMANHOOD SUFFRAGE. (1918, April 27). The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), , p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22360368
Even once women had secured the right to vote they still lost their name in many cases, and until quite recently, once married - they lost their surname and they lost their christian name, even when attending a conference all about extending the rights of women! - No 'Mrs. Blanche, Mary or Gertrude' Williams here, oh no, she was 'Mrs. Jamieson Williams'! Some of this was by personal choice by these ladies of course, and at other times, it was expected as part of them being in 'their place'.
Woman's Suffrage
The ninth international Congress. of the International Suffrage Alliance will meet at Rome during May. New South Wales will be represented by three delegates.
THE fact of Australia being represented at the various international conferences and congresses held abroad is a good thing. In the first place, it brings Australia to the forefront and shows that we are something to be reckoned w i t h : and in the second it widens the outlook of those who have had little opportunities for travelling. There is 110 doubt that the women who have left the Commonwealth for specific purposes such as these have returned with expanded views and fresh enthusiasm to further the various causes. The New South Wales delegates to the conference 1in connection with the suffrage movement are Mrs. Jamieson Williams. Mrs. Emily Bennett, and Dr. Ethel Morris. All these women have the question at heart, and will be worthy representatives. It will be of interest to mention that the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance is calling upon its 28 national auxiliaries and upon the 20 new societies, either provisionally affiliated or applying for affiliation, to send to its ninth annual conference their full quota of accredited delegates, and also asks me Governments of all nations to send accredited representatives. Thus the movement will cover a. wide field. The alliance will cordially welcome fraternal delegates which support the objects of the movement. In 1920 a congress was held at Geneva, when 22 new victories for the cause were announced amid much enthusiasm. At Rome in May the alliance will celebrate the establishment of equal suffrage for women throughout the United States of America and Ireland, as well as in Bombay, Madras. Travancore, Jahalawar, Cochin, and Burmah — truly, a big step forward as far as the woman's voice is concerned. … The vote is, of course, the main objective; but much remains to be done to overcome man's prejudice to women entering a common field of labour and becoming what may be known as a co-worker.
MRS. JAMIESON WILLIAMS, One of the three delegates from New South Wales to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress. to be held in Rome during May. Mrs. Jamieson Williams is well known in connection with women's organisations. (Photo: Falke-Monte Luke.) Woman's Suffrage (1923, April 4). Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), , p. 24. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159024585
Australia's first female political candidate
Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. Called the "Greatest Australian Woman" by Miles Franklin and given the nomenclature of "Grand Old Woman of Australia' on her eightieth birthday, Spence was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia.
Spence had a talent for writing and an urge to be read, so it was natural that in her teens she became attracted to journalism. Through family connections, she began with short pieces and poetry published in The South Australian. She also worked as a governess for some of the leading families in Adelaide, at the rate of sixpence an hour. For several years, Spence was the South Australian correspondent for The Argus newspaper writing under her brother's name until the coming of the telegraph.
Right: South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence stood for office in 1897.
Her first work was the novel Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever. It was initially rejected but her friend John Taylor, found a publisher in J W Parker and Son and it was published in 1854. She received forty pounds for it, but was charged ten pounds for abridging it to fit in the publisher's standard format. Her second novelTender and True was published in 1856, and to her delight went through a second and third printing, though she never received a penny more than the initial twenty pounds. Then followed her third novel, published in Australia as Uphill Work and in England as Mr Hogarth's Will, published in 1861 and several more though some were unpublished in her lifetime including Gathered In (unpublished until 1977) and Hand fasted (unpublished until 1984).
In 1888 she published A Week In the Future, a tour-tract of the utopia she imagined a century in the future might bring; it was one of the precursors of Edward Bellamy's 1889 Looking Backward.
Her final work, called A Last Word, was lost while still in manuscript form.
Although Spence rejected both of the two proposals of marriage she received during her life, and never married, she had a keen interest in family life and marriage – as applied to other people. Both her life's work and her writing were devoted to raising the awareness of, and improving the lot of, women and children. She successively raised three families of orphaned children – the first being those of her friend Lucy Duval.
She was one of the prime movers, with C. Emily Clark (sister of John Howard Clark), of the "Boarding-out Society". This organization had as its aim removing destitute children from the asylum into approved families and to eventually remove all children from institutions except the delinquent. At first treated with scorn by the South Australian Government, the scheme was encouraged when the institutions devoted to the handling of troublesome boys became overcrowded. These two were also appointed to the State Children's Council, which controlled the Magill Reformatory. C H Spence was also the only female member of the Destitute Board.
Around 1850, having become disillusioned with some doctrines of the Church of Scotland, she began attending the Adelaide Unitarian Christian Church in Wakefield Street. She preached her first sermons there in 1878, (though she was not the first woman to preach there, that honour going to Martha Turner of Melbourne, sister of Gyles Turner)[6] and filled in for the pastor Dr John Crawford Woods during his absences 1884–90.
She was an advocate of Thomas Hare's scheme for the representation of minorities, at one stage considering this issue more pressing than that of woman suffrage.
She traveled and lectured both at home and abroad on what she called Effective Voting that became known as Proportional Representation. She lived to see it adopted in Tasmania. Catherine Helen Spence. (2016, June 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Catherine_Helen_Spence&oldid=724577412
Co-creating history
6 June, 2016: University of Technology Sydney
What do we want? It sounds like a simple question, but for Dr Heidi Norman, finding an answer has been far from easy.
Last May, after years of meticulous archival and ethnographic research, the Associate Professor in Social and Political Sciences released her first book What do we want?: A political history of Aboriginal Land Rights in NSW.
What do we want? is the first published work documenting the fight for Land Rights legislation in NSW. It chronicles the political struggle of activists and discusses the ongoing impacts of the 1983 laws, which, at the time, heralded an entirely new and unprecedented involvement in government and governing by the state’s Aboriginal people.
Norman describes her work as a study of the “possibilities, tensions and entanglements” of Land Rights legislation.
“Aboriginal people took up the political demand of self-determination and worked to address their community disadvantage, all the while grappling with the expectations of government,” she says.
For the book, Norman’s research was conducted in collaboration with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC), local Aboriginal Land Councils and a number of community and academic partners. Among those partners were CEO of the NSWALC Lesley Turner, and Community Elder and NSWALC Community and Cultural Advisor Sol Bellear.
“I really enjoyed writing the book, and the endless cups of tea and conversation I shared with families and communities across NSW about the highs and lows of Land Rights and, more broadly, about the long struggle to escape the clutches of colonisation.”
For much of Australia’s history, Indigenous people have been treated as objects of academic study rather than as participants or co-collaborators. Such exploitation has generated levels of mistrust and resistance towards research.
Norman’s work, however, was different.
“When Heidi approached the NSWALC requesting access to archival materials for a research project on the NSW Land Rights network, our organisation was more than willing to assist,” explains Turner.
“There has been a lack of meaningful analysis of the cultural and political environment that informed the advocacy and the institutions that were established to deliver Land Rights.
“This is what makes What do we want? indispensable – Heidi’s research is unique in its scope and methodical in its approach.”
In recognition of her significant scholarly achievement, Norman received the 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence Through Collaboration.
Says Norman, “It’s great to gain that acknowledgement and to see UTS is a university that values contributions to improving understandings of Aboriginal worlds in all their complexity, messiness, madness and joy.”
For Norman, herself a Gomeroi woman, inquiry into social justice and inequality has been a life-long passion. It was something fostered by her upbringing in Western Sydney – Norman was the youngest of four children and a student at a progressive, experimental Catholic senior college.
“There were lots of great things happening at the school,” recalls Norman, “and we were all involved in this unique student democracy.”
It’s a feeling that academia still imparts in Norman.
“Research covers the highs and lows. At times it seems a painful, slow and monotonous struggle. At other times it’s the most fun you can possibly have.
“I mostly enjoy conducting in-depth interviews and working to make sense of the archive and ethnography. I love the tensions between the two sources and methods and the eventual clarity. That is the sweet spot; that feeling of swimming with the current.”
This research is funded by: Australian Research Council
Byline: Jack Schmidt, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
A Day In The Australian Museum: What's On And What's Always On
As listed above, FREE Museum weekend is coming up on June 25th and 26th – so what’s in the museum at present?
Right: David Attenborough’s First Life VR and David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive VR debut in Australia through Samsung Gear VR.
The Australian Museum (AM) will be the first venue outside of the UK to host David Attenborough’s First Life VR and David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive VR – fully immersive experiences created by pioneering content studio Alchemy VR. These screenings will employ cutting-edge technology from Samsung to put you side-by-side with the world-famous naturalist.
David Attenborough’s First Life VR and David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive VR, presented at the Australian Museum in partnership with Samsung, are the first two nature documentaries made exclusively for VR by Alchemy. The experiences premiere from 8 April, and visitors to the museum will be able to watch one or both with ticket prices starting from $15.
Both experiences represent the latest in innovative entertainment, having come direct to the AM in Sydney after the premiere, sell-out season at London’s Natural History Museum.
Equipped with the Samsung Gear VR headset and Galaxy S6 smartphones, visitors will be able to travel through time and deep in the ocean, experiencing the natural world in brilliant, 360-degree cinematic life.
“Virtual reality is a powerful new way of transporting us to the most extraordinary places on our planet, and David Attenborough is the perfect guide,” Kim McKay AO, CEO of the Australian Museum, said.
“David Attenborough’s Virtual Reality Experiences puts the AM at the forefront of museum innovation and revolutionises the way people experience museums.”
Anthony Geffen, CEO of Atlantic Productions and Alchemy VR added, “These experiences are truly trailblazing, and we are proud to be bringing them to Australian audiences in partnership with the Australian Museum. It’s an incredible opportunity to use technology to excite and educate people about the natural world.”
The VR experience, for visitors aged 13+, is a major coup for the AM, which has a long association with David Attenborough. Last year, Attenborough visited the AM’s Lizard Island Research Station 270km north of Cairns as part of filming for David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef documentary.
“In 2016, more Australians will experience virtual reality through the Samsung Gear VR than ever before,” said Philip Newton, Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung Electronics Australia.
“VR is opening new frontiers for how Australians create, consume and interact with content – and what better way to be fully-immersed in our innovative technology than through these experiences.”
David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive VR uses real-world footage and a host of pioneering technologies to shed new light on this magnificent habitat. Visitors will take a 360-degree, virtual reality tour deep beneath the waves, with Attenborough as a personal guide through the vibrant corals, darting fish and deadly sharks in the great natural wonder of the world. In a state-of-the-art submersible, Attenborough guides us through a wonderland, which has over 3000 reef systems and forms one of the most important natural resources on Earth. It is an extraordinary opportunity to come face to face with the incredible diversity and abundance of the Great Barrier Reef, and see how researchers are using historic corals, predicting how the reef will react to environmental changes.
In David Attenborough’s First Life VR, visitors travel back 540 million years as Attenborough reveals the dawn of life on Earth and introduces you to its earliest inhabitants, exploring ancient oceans and interacting with extinct sea creatures. Long-extinct animals such as the whimsically built Opabinia, the fearsome looking Anomalocaris and the spiny, worm-like Hallucigenia will be brought vividly alive in a fully immersive CG VR experience.
Tickets on sale 30 March 2016 via Ticketek http://premier.ticketek.com.au
Also in the Australian Museum at present
Trailblazers: Australia's 50 Greatest Explorers
Discover the stories of pioneers who pushed beyond the boundaries to change the way we see the world.
Adventure is at the heart of being Australian. In this immersive exhibition we celebrate early trailblazers including Captain Cook, Bourke and Wills, Emily Creaghe and Bennelong; modern pioneers such as Mawson and Kingsford Smith; and contemporary record-breakers like Dick Smith, Tim Jarvis, Andy Thomas and Jessica Watson.
Featuring over 360 objects, this exhibition brings some of Australia’s most incredible journeys to life, and puts you right in the centre. Whether they crossed oceans, tackled jungles, traversed mountains, braved the poles or went to space, be inspired by our nation’s greatest explorers who helped forge the intrepid Australian spirit.
Kids admission to Trailblazers now FREE on weekends and it's fun for all the family.
• Dress up or play ‘I spy’ in the Trekker’s Retreat
• Traverse the bouldering wall
• Plunge the ocean depths in the replica Bathysphere
• Test your skills with the polar glove challenge
• Survive the Trailblazers kids’ app
• Vote for your favourite explorer and enter the draw to win a family holiday
There’s even an App for that! See: australianmuseum.net.au/landing/trailblazers
Or explore one of the on every day and special events
Special events: Homo floresiensis display - David Attenborough's Virtual Reality Experiences - First Australians Aboriginal-guided tours - AMRI Seminar Series - Trailblazers Talks: The world's first space beer - Trailblazers Talks: Sherpa - Free Museum Weekend 2016
Kids: Kidspace for Families - Kids Birthday Parties - Mini Explorers: Slimy Science - Tiny Tots: Mess Makers!
Every day: Albert Chapman Mineral Collection - Birds Exhibition - Dinosaurs Exhibition - First Australians galleries - More than Insects Exhibition - Museum Mummy Exhibit - Long Gallery - Search and Discover Centre - Planet of Minerals Exhibition - Surviving Australia Exhibition - Tourist Packages - Garrigarrang: Sea Country - Pacific Spirit - Bayala Nura: Yarning Country - Wild Planet - Trailblazers: Australia’s 50 greatest explorers -Scott Sisters exhibition
Glass now has smart potential
June 7, 2016
Graphic representation of nanoparticles embedded in glass. Credit: University of Adelaide
Australian researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a method for embedding light-emitting nanoparticles into glass without losing any of their unique properties -- a major step towards 'smart glass' applications such as 3D display screens or remote radiation sensors.
This new "hybrid glass" successfully combines the properties of these special luminescent (or light-emitting) nanoparticles with the well-known aspects of glass, such as transparency and the ability to be processed into various shapes including very fine optical fibres.
The research, in collaboration with Macquarie University and University of Melbourne, has been published online in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.
"These novel luminescent nanoparticles, called upconversion nanoparticles, have become promising candidates for a whole variety of ultra-high tech applications such as biological sensing, biomedical imaging and 3D volumetric displays," says lead author Dr Tim Zhao, from the University of Adelaide's School of Physical Sciences and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS).
"Integrating these nanoparticles into glass, which is usually inert, opens up exciting possibilities for new hybrid materials and devices that can take advantage of the properties of nanoparticles in ways we haven't been able to do before. For example, neuroscientists currently use dye injected into the brain and lasers to be able to guide a glass pipette to the site they are interested in. If fluorescent nanoparticles were embedded in the glass pipettes, the unique luminescence of the hybrid glass could act like a torch to guide the pipette directly to the individual neurons of interest."
Although this method was developed with upconversion nanoparticles, the researchers believe their new 'direct-doping' approach can be generalised to other nanoparticles with interesting photonic, electronic and magnetic properties. There will be many applications -- depending on the properties of the nanoparticle.
"If we infuse glass with a nanoparticle that is sensitive to radiation and then draw that hybrid glass into a fibre, we could have a remote sensor suitable for nuclear facilities," says Dr Zhao.
To date, the method used to integrate upconversion nanoparticles into glass has relied on the in-situ growth of the nanoparticles within the glass.
"We've seen remarkable progress in this area but the control over the nanoparticles and the glass compositions has been limited, restricting the development of many proposed applications," says project leader Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heideprem, Deputy Director of IPAS.
"With our new direct doping method, which involves synthesizing the nanoparticles and glass separately and then combining them using the right conditions, we've been able to keep the nanoparticles intact and well dispersed throughout the glass. The nanoparticles remain functional and the glass transparency is still very close to its original quality. We are heading towards a whole new world of hybrid glass and devices for light-based technologies."
Jiangbo Zhao, Xianlin Zheng, Erik P. Schartner, Paul Ionescu, Run Zhang, Tich-Lam Nguyen, Dayong Jin, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem.Upconversion Nanocrystal-Doped Glass: A New Paradigm for Photonic Materials. Advanced Optical Materials, 2016; DOI:10.1002/adom.201600296