Pittwater Online News

CSIRO: Published on 5 May 2015

There is no doubt that Australia's environmental problems appear huge and overwhelming. Not only is our unique natural heritage under threat but the consequences for agriculture, tourism and the economy may be catastrophic. Can anything be done to halt the destruction?

In this powerful and passionate book, On Borrowed Time, David Lindenmayer argues that Australia does have the knowledge and resources to tackle our environmental problems. In addition, he outlines creative and impressive solutions we can all be a part of. As one of Australia's leading ecologists, Professor Lindenmayer delivers a timely message about the scale and urgency of the crisis we face.

View the online Learning Resource -www.publish.csiro.au/onborrowedtime/sections/

More info - www.publish.csiro.au/pid/5691.htm

 NSW Govt.Office of Environment and Heritage  - HAVE YOUR SAY

Shenhua coal mine on Liverpool plains challenged over impact on Koalas

May 4, 2015: EDO (Environmental Defenders Office NSW, Media Release 

A local community group has launched a legal challenge in the NSW Land and Environment Court to the approval of Chinese mining company, Shenhua’s open cut coal mine on the Liverpool Plains in north-western NSW, which is one of Australia’s most productive farming areas.

The Upper Mooki Landcare group, represented by EDO NSW, argues the NSW Government approval failed to properly consider whether the mine was likely to significantly affect Koalas, a threatened species, as required under the law. If the mine goes ahead it will clear 847 hectares of koala habitat.

EDO NSW principal solicitor Sue Higginson said the group will argue that the NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC), that approved the mine on behalf of the Minister for Planning, failed to assess whether the mine would place a viable local population of Koalas at risk of extinction, as required by the NSW Planning laws.  

Koalas are currently listed as vulnerable to extinction in NSW under State and Federal law after numbers dropped a third over the past 20 years. This means they are facing a high risk of extinction in NSW in the medium-term future.

The PAC stated: “The [Gunnedah Koala] population has reduced significantly, as a result of droughts and heatwaves, with the estimated reduction of up to 70% since 2009.”

Ms Higginson said the evidence before the PAC was widely varying in terms of the estimates of Koalas within the Gunnedah Local Government Area. Shenhua used population estimates of 12,753 animals for the entire Gunnedah Local Government Area. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are only 800-1,300 animals in the Gunnedah Local Government Area.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, in its submission to the mine assessment process, stated: “The assessment of significance [impacts] for the Koala is totally inadequate. No details of the actual Koala population to be impacted upon, nor what impact the Project will have on the population is provided.”

The plan for managing the impact of clearing 847ha of the Koala habitat noted in the PAC’s report is that “the animals will be encouraged to naturally move away from the habitat that is being cleared. If the animals do not naturally move, then a translocation plan will be implemented”. There was evidence before the PAC that translocation programs have resulted in significantly high mortality rates. 

 Slowdown after Ice Age sounds a warning for Great Barrier Reef's future

May 5, 2015 – University of Sydney

Environmental factors similar to those affecting the present day Great Barrier Reef have been linked to a major slowdown in its growth eight thousand years ago, research led by the University of Sydney shows.

"Poor water quality, increased sediments and nutrients -- conditions increasingly being faced by the modern day reef -- caused a delay in the Reef's growth of between seven hundred and two thousand years duration," said Belinda Dechnik, lead author of an article published in Marine Geology in May.

"It took hundreds more years then we would have expected to establish itself and even longer to attain the complex level of biodiversity that much of the Reef has become famous for."

"While that may appear inconsequential in the 700,000 year history of the Reef even a decade of such delayed growth would have a rapid impact on today's Reef and the experiences of the estimated two million people who visit it every year," Dechnik said.

The research was led by the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences. It was conducted at the University's research station at One Tree Island on the Reef.

The researchers sampled 15 reef cores from the Southern Great Barrier Reef. The cores were radiocarbon dated to establish their ages. Species of reef corals were also identified to establish any coral community changes over the past eight thousand years.

The findings show that when the Great Barrier Reef started its current regrowth, following the sea level rise when the ice sheets last melted eight thousand years ago, it was acutely sensitive to the turbulent conditions.

The increase in sediments and nutrients following the flooding of the pre-existing reefs is likely to have been responsible for the poor water quality.

"Not only was there a lag in reef growth of up to two thousand years following the flooding of the previous reef platforms but the reef communities that grew there were much less complex than those inhabiting those areas of the reef today. It took another two to three thousand years for the rich diversity that we see in those reef areas today to become established."

The researchers believe the findings have important implications for the future health of the Great Barrier Reef, as port expansions and high nutrient runoff is expected to increase over the coming decades, particularly in Gladstone, adjacent to where the reefs that were studied are located.

This research was done in collaboration with the University of Granada and Queen's University, Belfast.

Belinda Dechnik, Jody M. Webster, Peter J. Davies, Juan-Carlos Braga, Paula J. Reimer. Holocene “turn-on” and evolution of the Southern Great Barrier Reef: Revisiting reef cores from the Capricorn Bunker Group. Marine Geology, 2015; 363: 174 DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2015.02.014

 QLD GOVERNMENT SHOULD HEED MARKET OUTLOOK AND END SUPPORT FOR UNNECESSARY ABBOT POINT EXPANSION THAT WILL HARM THE REEF

Tue 5 May 2015: Media Reease, Australian Marine Conservation Society

A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis released today finds Adani’s Carmichael mine proposal is likely to become a stranded asset due to the company’s own restructuring and changes in the global coal market.

These significant changes raise serious questions about the need for additional port capacity at Abbot Point, according to Felicity Wishart, Great Barrier Reef campaign director at the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

“Adani’s new corporate structure will mean its Carmichael mine project will need to be competitive in the global market and the reality is it’s not. This means the last thing the Queensland government should be doing is supporting the Abbot Point coal port expansion alongside our troubled but precious Great Barrier Reef,” she said.

“The Queensland government has the opportunity to stop the Abbot Point coal port expansion dead in its tracks, rather than leaving it to slowly wither away, creating uncertainty for years to come.

“The Queensland Government should give tourism operators and concerned local communities certainty and reject its support for the Abbot Point port expansion plan.

“It should also stop wasting the tax payer funded time and resources of the Department of State Development on Abbot Point expansion.

“The government should review the capacity of all the ports along the Reef coast to determine if there is a need for any further expansion, rather than follow in the footsteps of the Newman Government.

“It has always made little sense to expand massive coal ports on the doorstop of the Reef, placing the Reef’s wetlands, marine life and $6 billion tourism icon at risk.

“It makes even less sense now there’s mounting evidence the extra port capacity may never be needed,” she said.

 Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby documentary launching in Kangaroo Valley 

Members of the public, near and far, are invited to the launch of a new documentary about the efforts, over two decades, of a Kangaroo Valley community group to help save the endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby.

The launch of the documentary is on Saturday, May 16, at 4:30pmat the Kangaroo Valley Village Hall, followed by refreshments and live music. The film was produced for the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage using a NSW Environmental Trust Grant.

The Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby was established in 1995 after community members alerted the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to a diminishing number of Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies within the Valley.

Subsequent surveys by the NPWS revealed a handful of rock-wallabies survived in the Shoalhaven and were in danger of disappearing altogether because they were being preyed upon by foxes. So the Friends worked with NPWS in starting a coordinated fox control program which continues today.

President of Friends Ms Chris Pryor believes the film highlights the unique partnership between the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, the NPWS and the local community, and their dedication over 20 years ensuring the conservation of this endangered species.

“The documentary shows footage of local conservation measures such as multi-tenure fox control programs and a captive breeding and release program. The film is a tribute to all the work that has been done by many dedicated individuals over 20 years,” Ms Pryor said.

“This enjoyable film shows footage of the enigmatic Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in their natural habitat as well as sweeping views of the valley itself.

“Interviews with Friends members, community members and NPWS staff are featured throughout the film and we are excited to share this knowledge and experience with the broader community.

“The film makes it very clear that had the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby not formed 20 years ago and worked with NPWS in starting a coordinated fox control program, there would be no Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in the Kangaroo Valley today. The ongoing support and participation of the local community in the fox baiting and shooting program has been vital to this success”.

The Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby is listed as ‘endangered’ under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

The Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby aim to raise support for, and public awareness of, the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, to raise funds for projects aimed at recovering the species and to promote the control of feral species impacting on rock-wallabies. The Friends hope the documentary will help with this important cause.

Please visit the website to find out more about the group. A tax deductible donation can also be made on the site:http://www.rockwallaby.org.au/

“Come along and help us celebrate our 20 year anniversary and the launch of this wonderful documentary.”

 "On the edge" 

By NSW National Parks: Published on 27 Apr 2015

Coming soon - to be launched May 16

Twenty years ago the small rural community of Kangaroo Valley, south of Sydney, discovered a handful of endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies were just hanging on in the face of fox and cat predation. Without action it was a virtual certainty the wallabies would be wiped out in the valley. A handful of local residents formed the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby and started working with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to see if something could be done to ensure the wallabies survived into the future. Twenty years down the track "On the edge" looks at what happened and why the Brush-tailed Rock- wallaby lives on in Kangaroo Valley. Produced for the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and supported by a NSW Environment Trust grant.

 Blue Star Sustainability Awards - Keep NSW Beautiful

Calling all people dedicated to our environmental future - Our Blue Star Sustainability Awards are now open! These annual awards aim to reward both individuals and group projects in NSW which are committed to promoting responsible environmental practices in their local areas. There are 10 different award categories, each with a regional and metropolitan winner. To enter, all you have to do is submit a short form online - it couldn't be easier!

Entries close on Wednesday the 20th of May 2015, so if this sounds like you, someone you know, or a project currently underway in your local area, head to our page and get entering! See:http://ow.ly/KO0vE

 Reef Trust boost for Great Barrier Reef protection

Media release: 7 May 2015

New projects worth more than $15 million will strengthen protection and management of the Great Barrier Reef under Phase II of the Federal Government's Reef Trust.

Projects include remediating gullies in grazing landscapes to control erosion, a competitive tender to reduce fertiliser run-off from sugar cane farms in the Burdekin region and a further $7 million to help control the outbreak of coral eating crown-of-thorns starfish on high value reefs.

Last year the Government delivered on a key election commitment to establishing the Reef Trust with an initial injection of $40 million. Just last month the Prime Minister announced an additional injection of $100 million - this brings the total Reef Trust commitment to $140 million.

The Reef Trust invests in important projects with a focus on improving water quality, coastal habitats and the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef.

This second phase of Reef Trust projects will help to directly address the greatest threats to the Great Barrier Reef. They will make an important contribution to implementing the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan to protect and manage the Reef for future generations.

We've drawn on advice from a range of sources in development of phase two of the Trust investments, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Outlook Report and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Future investments will be informed by an Independent Expert Panel chaired by the Commonwealth Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb.

The projects announced today build on the Trust's initial investment of $15 million.

As part of the first phase of Reef Trust investments, funding of $1.4 million is being provided to farmers over the next three years for improved fertiliser application practices to reduce the runoff of harmful nitrogen into the Reef lagoon.

The projects will result in a significant reduction of nitrogen fertiliser applied to participating farms with the benefits expected to extend well beyond the three-year period, including demonstrating best practice across the industry.

Reducing nitrogen runoff from fertiliser is top priority for the Reef Trust, given its link to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks - which we are also directly targeting.

To date, we have culled over 360,000 crown-of-thorns starfish with specialist divers directly targeting each one. The Reef Trust continues to invest in this important work.

We are committed to protecting the Great Barrier Reef for future generations. We know that the reef still retains the values for which it was listed as a World Heritage Property in 1981.

The tourism and agriculture industries are leading the charge locally in protecting our Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Government is proud to be supporting local communities who care for their environment.

Investment in the Great Barrier Reef by the Australian and Queensland governments for protection, management and research is projected to be more than $2 billion over the coming decade.

 AMCS calls on Environment Minister to seek injunction on further development of Port Melville on the Tiwi Islands

Thursday 7 May 2015

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) today expressed shock and dismay that the extension and upgrades of Port Melville on the Tiwi Islands have apparently occurred without any form of environmental approval.

“AMCS is appalled a port development so close to pristine tropical waters has gone ahead with no environmental assessment,” AMCS Northern Campaigner Jacqui Taylor said.

“It appears our Northern Territory Environmental Assessment Act is not worth the paper it’s written on. It does not hold anyone accountable for not undertaking essential environmental impact assessments,” she said.

“The Northern Territory Government and the Federal Government lack effective processes to adequately assess development impacts in our waters.

“AMCS has asked Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to urgently seek an injunction from the Federal Court, prohibiting any further development, works or use of the port until such time as an appropriately formulated environmental assessment procedure is followed.

“The Port is surrounded by near pristine waters, some of the last untouched waters on the planet. They are abundant in wildlife, corals, seagrass, extensive mangroves, healthy fisheries, and species whose range and distribution is restricted to northern Australia.

“The endangered Olive Ridley turtle nests on the shores of the Tiwi Islands.

“The NT Minister for the Environment and Minister for Lands and Planning must explain how a development of this scale in such an environmentally sensitive region was able to proceed without following due environmental assessment procedures.

“Our Top End coastlines deserve better. The NT Government needs to step up and commit to stronger protection to keep our seas healthy,” she concluded.

 Warm oceans caused hottest Dust Bowl years in 1934/36

May 4, 2015 – University of New South Wales

Two ocean hot spots have been found to be the potential drivers of the hottest summers on record for the Central US in 1934 and 1936. The research may also help modern forecasters predict particularly hot summers over the central United States many months out.

The unusually hot summers of 1934/36 broke heat records that still stand today. They were part of the devastating dust bowl decade in the US when massive dust storms travelled as far as New York, Boston and Atlanta and silt covered the decks of ships 450km off the east coast.

Research by Dr Markus Donat from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and colleagues has revealed that unusually warm sea surface temperatures occurring at exactly the same time in two very specific locations were likely responsible for creating the record breaking heat.

"In the Pacific, there were anomalously warm ocean temperatures along the coastline of the Gulf of Alaska stretching down as far as Los Angeles," said Dr Donat.

"On the other side of the country in the Atlantic Ocean, in a relatively small area off the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia, the ocean surface was also unusually warm. Together they reduced spring rainfall and created perfect conditions for scorching hot temperatures to develop in the heart of the US."

As part of their study, the researchers compared the large-scale climate conditions in 1934 and 1936 with those of the extensive recent hot drought years of 2011 and 2012 to see if there were any similarities to the dust bowl years.

They found that in 2011 / 2012 while there were definitely warm ocean temperatures off the coast of Nova Scotia and Maine, the same was not true along the coastline of the Gulf of Alaska, where ocean temperatures were below normal.

"The large scale ocean conditions in 2011 and 2012 were very different from 1934 and 1936, suggesting an event of a quite different nature," Dr Donat said.

"Only very rarely have we seen these very specific ocean regions warm at the same time over the past century, but those combined warm anomalies were never as strong as during the two record breaking years of 1934 and 1936."

This unusual ocean warming in two regions compounded the impacts on the atmosphere and pressure gradients across the continental US, profoundly changing the weather systems during the spring and summers.

The Atlantic warming off Nova Scotia and Maine meant southerly winds shifted further north-east and the transport of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the Central US was weakened. At the same time, the Pacific Ocean warming expanded a large Pacific high that also contributed to reduced transport of moist air into the central US.

"Not only did the warming amplify summer temperatures, it also reduced spring rainfall," Dr Donat said.

"To make matter worse, past research has shown the atmospheric dust over Western North America once summer was underway had a positive feedback that intensified the high pressure system even further."

"The US has been very fortunate that it has not seen a repeat of this coincident ocean warming at such a level. Should this ocean warming reoccur in exactly the same constellation, because of climate change it is likely the temperature impacts would be even more devastating and those old records may be surpassed."

Markus G. Donat, Andrew D. King, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Lisa V. Alexander, Imke Durre, David J. Karoly. Extraordinary heat during the 1930s US Dust Bowl and associated large-scale conditions. Climate Dynamics, 2015; DOI: 10.1007/s00382-015-2590-5

Never grown a beard before? This is your chance to grow a new beard this Winter!

Already got a beard? Get it sponsored and keep it growing!

Register Today and set up your page for The Winter Blanket Challenge 2015 today.

Beardson.org’s aim is to start a Conversation about Conservation using the beard as the talking point. You can be part of this movement by growing your very own Winter Blanket for free in support of conservation and help raise $20,000 for Landcare Australia to plant native Australian trees.

Starting your beard on the 1st June and finishing on the 31st August, you will have the opportunity to create a very warm winter blanket for your face and raise funds at the same time! It’s free to grow and you will save a lot of money on shavers for three months! Already got a beard? Great! Get it sponsored and keep on growing!

Register here

May 7, 2015 - A group of researchers from the U.S. and Australia have announced the completely unexpected discovery of exotic "vinegar flies" (drosophilids) in urban Los Angeles in a paper appearing in the journal PLOS ONE, titled "Strange Little Flies In The Big City: Exotic Flower-Breeding Drosophilidae (Diptera) In Urban Los Angeles."

Two species, previously known only from outside the U.S., were collected by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County project, Biodiversity Science: City and Nature (BioSCAN). "I was as surprised as anyone when such unusual flies were found in our samples," said Brian Brown, NHM Entomology Curator and one of this study's authors. "But urban biodiversity is an almost unknown frontier."

Flies in the insect genus Drosophila (the "fruit" flies, more accurately called "vinegar flies") are among the world's most-studied organisms -- over 16,000 research papers were published in the last five years with the word "Drosophila" in the title. "Drosophila" is probably the only insect genus name most people have heard. Yet we still know little about their natural history, this study shows.

One of the newly-noted species, Drosophila gentica, is the second-most common fruit fly in the Los Angeles BioSCAN traps. This species was described in 1962 based on specimens collected in El Salvador in 1954, the first and last time it's been recorded anywhere until now. "Los Angeles is definitely not the first place I'd have started looking for new specimens of this species," said David Grimaldi, Curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, also an author on the paper.

The other newly-noted species, Drosophila flavohirta, has its origin in Australia, but has accompanied transplanted eucalyptus from Australia to South Africa and Madagascar. That might also explain its presence in California, given the popularity of eucalyptus trees and shrubs there.

How could these species of one of the world's most studied organisms have escaped notice for so long in a place like Los Angeles? It all depends on how you look. Previous surveys used fruit or other baits to catch vinegar flies. This study's authors think that may be why these species were missed -- both of these newly-noted flies breed on flowers, not fruit. This study uses a tentlike insect trap called a "Malaise trap," thirty of which are housed in L.A. backyards, two gardens (including the NHM Nature Gardens), and one school. "The citizen scientists that host these traps share in the credit for this discovery," said Brown," as do the Museum and the Seaver Foundation, both of whom fund the BioSCAN project."

1. David Grimaldi, Paul S. Ginsberg, Lesley Thayer, Shane McEvey, Martin Hauser, Michael Turelli, Brian Brown. Strange Little Flies in the Big City: Exotic Flower-Breeding Drosophilidae (Diptera) in Urban Los Angeles. PLOS ONE, 2015; 10 (4): e0122575 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122575

Picture: Meet a newly recognized Los Angeles neighbor -- vinegar fly Drosophila gentica. Credit: Kelsey Bailey, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

 EURO VISION TURNS REALITY FOR AUSTRALIA'S ICONIC 'GREEN WHISTLE'

8 May 2015 

Patients around the world will soon benefit from a unique Australian invention, with emergency pain killer Penthrox (commonly known as 'the green whistle') receiving initial regulatory approval for sale in the European and UK markets.

Australian healthcare company Medical Developments International (MDI) will use a new low-cost manufacturing process developed with CSIRO to increase their production of Penthrox's underlying drug methoxyflurane by ten-fold in order to meet this large-scale demand. 

Penthrox is made in Melbourne and has significant advantages over other analgesics such as nitrous oxide and morphine in that it is rapid, self-administered, non-addictive, non-narcotic, safe to use and provides strong pain relief.

MDI's CEO John Sharman believes that regulatory approval to sell the product in England, France, Ireland and Belgium is a company-making achievement that has opened the door to supplying it globally.

"Hospitals, ambulances, defence forces, national sporting leagues, life savers and other emergency services have been using 'the green whistle' in Australia for more than 30 years," Mr Sharman said.

"We believe that Penthrox offers an effective alternative to established products already used in Europe and expanding into this market has substantially increased our business overnight.

"Our partnership with CSIRO has been integral to up-scaling our production capacity ahead of this opportunity. Together, we've come up with a new, smarter process to manufacture Penthrox." 

CSIRO and MDI have been working together for more than 15 years, having developed the initial production process together, to now vastly improving it. The technology will secure their market position as the only global manufacturer of methoxyflurane.

"It's through long-term research collaborations that we can help forward-thinking businesses like MDI jump on new opportunities and remain globally competitive," CSIRO's biomedical research program director Dr Paul Savage said.

"Our goal is to develop new or improved high value products and smarter, more efficient processes that establish local companies as world leaders in their respective markets."

CSIRO invested $750,000 in MDI's technology development through its Australian Growth Partnership (AGP) program, which awards innovative Australian small and medium businesses with access to the organisation's world-class research and facilities to significantly grow their business.

Penthrox is sold in 11 countries around the world with regulatory applications pending approval in another 13 countries.

Every year, CSIRO works with more than 1000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 100 biomedical companies.

About Penthrox

Penthrox is a fast onset, non-opioid analgesic indicated for pain relief by self-administration in patients with trauma and those requiring analgesia for surgical procedures. Penthrox has been used safely and effectively for more than 30 years in Australia with excess of five million units sold. There is growing interest in Penthrox being used in patients undergoing investigatory procedures, as well as operational procedures such as colonoscopy.

About Medical Developments International

MDI is an Australian company delivering emergency medical solutions dedicated to improving patient outcomes. MDI is a leader in emergency pain relief and respiratory products. The Company manufactures Penthrox, a fast acting minor trauma and emergency pain relief product. It is used in Australian hospitals including emergency departments, Australian ambulance services, the Australian Defence Forces, sports medicine and for analgesia during short surgical procedures such as dental and cosmetic surgery as well as in other medical applications. MDI is expanding internationally and manufactures a range of world-leading asthma respiratory devices.

 Head On Photo Festival

Head On turns the city of Sydney into a living cross-section of cutting edge photography and video media. Exhibiting across all genres and experiences, Head On is a platform for the passion of the photographers, the excitement of the audiences, the beauty of the medium and the issues photography addresses.

Head On is a bridge between Australian and International photographic markets. In 2014 alone, Head On exhibited 55 artists from 18 countries. Festival tours in America, China and New Zealand introduced the international photographic elite and audiences in excess of 500, 000 to the wealth of photographic talent Australia possess with great acclaim.

We know photography matters and we show it.

See for yourself from the 1st – 31st May, 2015.

Head On Photo Festival: www.headon.com.au

Below: Photo by Shunzan Fan from the exhibition ‘Between Heaven and Earth’ at The Stanley Street Gallery from until 16th Mayhttp://bit.ly/1F78ug6

 New course helps veterans striving to succeed in the civilian workforce

7 May 2015

A new course at the University of Sydney will give recently returned veterans the skills they need to transition to non-military work.

The Skills Training and Reintegration Initiative for Veterans Education (STRIVE) program - free for ex-servicemen and women who have returned or been discharged in the past five years - is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia.

The program is supported by founding partner SoldierOn and chief patron Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir, and will run through the University's Centre for Continuing Education.

"As we often focus on the important historic contribution of our ANZACs, we can overlook the needs of veterans who are serving Australia in the present day," said Professor Michael Biercuk, who co-founded the program.

"Properly honouring our ANZACs requires more than staring admiringly at sepia-toned photographs, or buying commemorative merchandise. It requires us to take action and support the brave men and women sacrificing so much on our behalf right now. Leveraging the infrastructure of the University was the best way I could see to make a contribution."

Professor Biercuk, an experimental quantum physicist, first saw the need for an educational program while working as a civilian contractor in a US Defence agency during the height of the Iraq war.

"Working alongside recently returned veterans and active-duty military personnel highlighted not only how much we owe these men and women, but how we can collectively fail to assist those in need of assistance."

"There is a critical gap in supporting ex-service personnel who don't have the same urgent needs as those suffering from post-traumatic stress, and who are simply trying to transition the skills developed through many years of military service into a career environment with which they're unfamiliar. With STRIVE, we hope to provide tailored skill development and education to fill this gap," Professor Biercuk said.

STRIVE, which will launch as a short-form pilot in late May, will cover skills from how to apply for a job in the civilian market to planning time and balancing priorities, communicating effectively in the workplace, thinking and writing critically, and using information technology.

Organisers hope the full program will be rolled out within the next year, and will form the beginning of a signature initiative at the University focusing on the needs and challenges faced by contemporary veterans.

"Ensuring we address the needs of our service members will require the support of the public. We intend to keep this free for veterans and need assistance to accomplish this."

Members of the public who are interested in supporting the program can do so via http://cce.sydney.edu.au/STRIVE

Viewing violent news on social media can cause trauma

May 6, 2015 - Viewing violent news events via social media can cause people to experience symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This is one of the findings by Dr Pam Ramsden from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bradford that will be presented today, Thursday 7 May 2015, at the Annual Conference of the British Psychology Society being held in Liverpool.

Dr Ramsden explained: "The negative effects of exposure to other people's suffering have long been recognised in roles such as professional healthcare workers. Various studies have documented the negative psychological reactions following indirect exposure to traumatised people called vicarious traumatisation."

"Social media has enabled violent stories and graphic images to be watched by the public in unedited horrific detail. Watching these events and feeling the anguish of those directly experiencing them may impact on our daily lives. In this study we wanted to see if people would experience longer lasting effects such as stress and anxiety, and in some cases post-traumatic stress disorders from viewing these images."

Some 189 participants (participant's mean age was 37 years old with an almost even gender split) completed clinical assessments for PTSD, a personality questionnaire, a vicarious trauma assessment and a questionnaire concerning different violent news events on social media or the internet. These included the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks, school shootings and suicide bombings.

Analysis indicated that 22 per cent of participants were significantly affected by the media events. These individuals scored high on clinical measures of PTSD even though none had previous trauma, were not present at the traumatic events and had only watched them via social media. Those who reported viewing the events more often were most affected.

Dr Ramsden said: "It is quite worrying that nearly a quarter of those who viewed the images scored high on clinical measures of PTSD. There was also an increased risk for those with outgoing, extroverted personalities. With increased access to social media and the internet via tablets and smartphones, we need to ensure that people are aware of the risks of viewing these images and that appropriate support is available for those who need it."

The above story is based on materials provided by British Psychological Society.

 EMERGENCY SERVICES FIRED UP OVER NEW PREDICTION SOFTWARE

5 MAY 2015

A new software tool that can predict the severity and spread of destructive bushfires has been released today by CSIRO.

The software, known as 'Spark' will give fire-fighting agencies a more accurate view of fire behaviour, informing decisions that could minimise property damage and save lives.

Spark takes current knowledge of fire behaviour and combines it with state-of-the-art simulation science to predict the future location of bushfires and the spread of those already burning.

The framework uses geospatial data, such as vegetation types, topography and un-burnable elements such as roads and bodies of water, as well as weather data such as air temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction.Spark then uses this data to model the spread of a fire based on its specific location and current environmental conditions.

Dr Mahesh Prakash, one of CSIRO's computational modelling researchers, described the software as a highly flexible simulation environment. "Spark has the potential to be used operationally for real-time fire spread modelling of bushfires," he said.

"This information is invaluable for emergency management decision makers for predicting risk, deploying firefighting resources or planning evacuation routes.

"The next step is to work with the rural fire authorities and land management agencies to incorporate Spark into bushfire planning and management processes."

CSIRO's bushfire behaviour expert, Dr Andrew Sullivan said that Spark represents the state of the art in fire spread simulation. "We have had the capacity to model the spread of bushfires for more than 20 years. Spark takes that technology into the 21st century by marrying the foundation of our fire behaviour knowledge with the state of the art in simulation science," he said.

Spark provides the opportunity to use data and modelling tools to inform emergency management processes, save lives and reduce the financial burden of disasters on the global economy.

The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission conservatively estimated the cost of the Black Saturday disaster to be $4.4 billion. In southeast Australia the fire season is becoming longer, reducing the opportunities for hazard reduction burning.

Recent severe fires have been influenced by record hot, dry conditions and in the future, Australia is very likely to experience an increased number of days with extreme fire danger. It is crucial that communities, emergency services, health services and other authorities prepare for the increasing severity and frequency of extreme fire conditions.

Spark has been developed as an open framework for fire prediction and analysis, making it simple for fire agencies to incorporate the software into their existing systems and also more easily allow the fire science community to collaborate and keep adding new fire behaviour knowledge.

A demonstration version of Spark is available to download via the CSIRO website https://research.csiro.au/spark/ . Spark is being officially launched today at the Australian & New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference held on the Gold Coast.

 Local media helps communities to cope after traumatic events

May 6, 2015 - Local media's sensitive approach to communities trying to cope in the face of trauma helps local people adapt to the stressful events by strengthening community bonds.

This is one of the findings of a study by MSc student Suzanne Day from Lancaster University being presented today, Wednesday 6 May 2015, at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Liverpool.

The study examined how West Cumbrian communities coped with two local traumatic events in a short space of time (the November 2009 floods and June 2010 Cumbria shootings). A total of 77 adults who were living and still live in the area at the time of the events completed a questionnaire about how much they had been affected. Ten also took part in interviews.

Analysis found that that communities coped by sticking together and sharing experiences. The role of the media impacted on how the community responded, with local media reportedly being sensitive and helping to facilitate community resilience and the national media largely being invasive.

However, there were significant differences in how they reacted to the different tragedies.

Suzanne Day said: "The results for the two events were very different with the floods (a natural event) providing evidence of communities pulling together in some cases and being pulled apart in others. This was mainly a result of relative deprivation with communities who perceived they received little support feeling alienated from the rest of the area. The communities that did receive external support banded together with a shared sense of collective identity.

"During the shootings the community battened down the hatches not wanting support from any external agencies. Their strong sense of community was reinforced with the presence of national media, which at times they found intrusive. This was in contrast to the sensitive presence of local media which helped bond and strengthen the community."

________________________________________

Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided byBritish Psychological Society.