Violent crime worse in the bush: new figures

November 30, 2006

New evidence that regional and rural areas have higher rates of violent crime than the big cities was revealed during a conference at The University of New England today.

UNE's Professor Kerry Carrington, in a keynote address to the conference, said that 39 of the top 50 "hot spots" for sexual assault in NSW were in regional or rural areas, 10 in coastal areas, and only one in metropolitan Sydney.

The pattern for domestic assault was similar, with 39 of the "hot spots" being in rural or regional areas, seven in coastal areas, and four in Sydney. For assaults generally, 40 of the top 50 "hot spots" were in rural or regional areas.

Professor Carrington was speaking to an international audience at the conference on "Crime in Rural Communities: The Impact, The Causes, The Prevention". At the beginning of this year, she and her UNE colleague Associate Professor Russell Hogg published the book Policing the Rural Crisis, which alerted the community to what Professor Carrington calls the "cloak of silence" surrounding rural crime.

She told the conference delegates that the differences in rates of violent crime between country and metropolitan areas were likely to be even greater than the statistics indicated. "Our statistics are based on crimes reported to police," she said, "and a range of informal social controls (constituting the 'cloak of silence') result in a greater level of under-reporting of violent crime in the country than in the city.

She quoted from interviews with service providers conducted during the research. A police officer had said that, even if a girl were to report a sexual assault, others in the town were likely to say that "she probably deserved it", or "she's made it up", or "it never happened at all - she just did it for attention".

The statistics for property crime are the reverse of those for violent crime. "Without exception, the largest concentration of 'hot spots' for crimes such as theft, robbery, and stealing motor vehicles is in metropolitan Sydney," Professor Carrington said. She said the statistics for both violent crime and property crime in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and - to a lesser extent - Victoria, followed the same pattern as those for NSW.

She concluded her address by saying that "much more work is needed in order to satisfactorily map patterns of crime in rural and regional Australia. Indifference will serve to perpetuate certain comforting myths, although this is unlikely to serve the interests of those either living in rural Australia or otherwise committed to its future."

Experts on rural crime from the United States, the UK, and Australia are challenging some of these "myths" about the "idyllic" rural lifestyle during the two-day conference. Tomorrow [Friday 1 December], Professor Ralph Weisheit from Illinois State University, USA, will deliver a keynote address on "the growing problem of methamphetamine". His talk will examine the impact on rural communities of a drug problem that is reported to be expanding rapidly in Australia and New Zealand.

A highlight of the conference is a field trip tomorrow afternoon to see and discuss some of the latest technological approaches to the prevention of farm crime. The excursion, to the Laureldale research farm at UNE, is open to farmers and other interested people as well as the conference delegates. For more information, go to:
http://www.ruralfutures.une.edu.au/rurcrime/conference.htm.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor Ralph Weisheit (Illinois State University, USA) and Professor Kerry Carrington (UNE) at the conference.

Posted by at 05:17 PM

Country cousins "hold solution" to cities' water woes

November 29, 2006

Some of Australia’s largest cities should buy water from their country cousins rather than investing in costly recycling or desalination schemes, researchers have concluded.

The researchers – Joel Byrnes from The University of New England’s Centre for Local Government and Dr Lin Crase from La Trobe University – presented these controversial findings at a national urban water conference in Brisbane today.

They argue that the cost of buying water from nearby irrigators represents only a fraction of the money and energy consumed in recycling waste water for domestic use or in building and operating a desalination plant.

“Melbourne could buy water from irrigators for around 50 cents a kilolitre, whereas water from a desalination plant would be supplied at a much higher cost of something like $3.30 a kilolitre,” said Mr Byrnes (pictured here). “The cost of recycling is much harder to pin down, but estimates range from around $3 to $4 a kilolitre. Melbourne residents currently pay around $1.20 a kilolitre for their water. Clearly, for Melbourne, the cheapest option for securing urban water supplies in times of drought is to buy water from irrigators upstream.”

Mr Byrnes and Dr Crase suggest that the current enthusiasm for water recycling is driven by “politicians’ search for a ‘silver-bullet’ solution to Australia's ‘water crisis’”.

“Many State governments and the Federal Opposition have set water recycling targets either for the nation, entire States, or capital cities,” Mr Byrnes said. “Considering the current evidence, meeting these recycling targets may actually squander taxpayers’ dollars while a cheaper alternative exists in simply buying water from irrigators. Opposition to such schemes in Australia usually rests on claims that farmers’ livelihoods would be put at risk by transferring water from rural to urban communities. However, recent research by the Productivity Commission has shown that a small transfer from irrigation districts to urban communities may be adequate to meet urban water needs.”

He pointed out that, in California, a metropolitan water authority had recently entered into an options contract with a surrounding irrigation district to buy water from irrigators from time to time. Rather than decimating the irrigating communities, these arrangements had led to 70% of rural land remaining in production, while those farmers who had entered options contracts had received more income per hectare than they otherwise would have.

“Farmers are not forced to give up their water,” Mr Byrnes said. “They sell it only when the price is right, and for the period of time that suits them. It’s a flexible solution because urban communities simply pay the market price for that time instead of investing in fixed infrastructure.”

The conference – “Urban Water Sustainability: Securing Australia’s Urban Water Future” – continues in Brisbane tomorrow.

Posted by at 04:30 PM

New flexibility for Bachelor of Nursing degree program

November 28, 2006

The University of New England has responded to the changing needs of health services – particularly in regional areas – with a new program for its highly-regarded Bachelor of Nursing degree.

“We’re introducing a whole new level of flexibility to suit the learning requirements of our students,” said the coordinator of UNE’s Bachelor of Nursing program, Dr Glenda Parmenter. “The new degree program offers four entry and exit points to give students a wider range of choice regarding their academic and professional qualifications.”

“First: students can study for two years to gain an Advanced Diploma in Nursing and eligibility for enrolment as a nurse,” Dr Parmenter said.

“Second: students can complete a third year of study to gain a Bachelor of Nursing degree and Registered Nurse status.

“Third: the course allows Enrolled Nurses to study for two years to upgrade their qualification to degree and Registered Nurse status.

“Fourth: students will have the option to study electives within the degree program that may be credited towards future studies in UNE’s postgraduate nursing courses."

“These new and flexible options are combined with completely new units within the degree program that have been developed after wide consultation with expert clinicians, and that reflect contemporary nursing practice,” Dr Parmenter said.

“The new program addresses the needs of the health care industry with regard to the shortage of both Enrolled and Registered Nurses,” she continued. “It also provides students with extensive clinical experience in rural and metropolitan health care settings and encourages them to base their careers in the rural areas they come from.”

UNE will introduce the new Bachelor of Nursing degree program at the beginning of the 2007 academic year.

Posted by at 04:07 PM

Faculty celebrates success of community focus

November 27, 2006

The University of New England’s Faculty of Economics, Business and Law has celebrated a year of research achievements that will benefit rural and regional communities both in Australia and abroad.

Staff of the Faculty gathered last Thursday [23 November] to share experiences, view publications, and listen to short talks by representatives of each of the Faculty’s three Schools: the School of Economics, the New England Business School (NEBS), and the School of Law.

The Faculty’s Executive Dean, Professor Roley Piggott, said the research effort had been largely focused on rural and regional issues of contemporary importance, while extending that “rural and regional” focus to the Asia-Pacific region – particularly Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. “When you look at our publications, they’re all of immediate relevance to contemporary communities,” he said.

This was the Faculty’s third annual Celebration of Publications and Research and, for the first time, representatives of government, business and community organisations were among the guests. These organisations included NSW Farmers, the Northern Inland Regional Development Board, the NSW Department of State and Regional Development, and the Australian Poultry Cooperative Research Centre. “We’re acknowledging the importance to us of such organisations,” Professor Piggott said. “Our three Schools are increasingly focused on strong relationships with business and the community.”

UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Peter Flood, confirmed that the Faculty was “deeply engaged with industry and the community (including the international scholarly community)”.

The talks revealed the extent of that engagement: they dealt with projects that are helping small-scale farmers and market gardeners in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, addressing problems associated with the policing and judicial handling of rural crime, analysing the impact of women as members of regional development boards, and establishing the importance and validity of “non-formal learning” as a vocational qualification.

During her talk, Lou Conway from NEBS emphasised the interdisciplinary nature of the School’s research, and the high level of community engagement. “We don’t see business development as an end goal in itself,” Ms Conway said.

Professor Flood noted the increasing importance of “quality” rather than mere “quantity” of publications in obtaining research funding. “We can see examples of such quality here today,” he said. These included reprints of papers in some leading international journals, including Corporate Governance: An International Review, The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agribusiness: An International Journal, and Agricultural Economics.

The books on display included Emergency Law by Michael Eburn (The Federation Press, 2nd edition), Sustainable Strategy by Paul Martin and Miriam Verbeek (The Federation Press), and Mobility, Labour Migration and Border Controls in Asia, edited by Amarjit Kaur and Ian Metcalfe (Palgrave Macmillan).

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Lou Conway (centre) with Bobbi Ballas from the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and Don Tydd from the Northern Inland Regional Development Board at last week's celebration.

Posted by at 05:14 PM

George Negus to speak at UNE on world affairs

November 24, 2006

George Negus, the well-known Australian journalist, television presenter and author, will give this year’s Sir Robert Madgwick Lecture at The University of New England.

His lecture, titled “The world was never going to be the same again”, will be, he says, “a sometimes tongue-in-cheek survey” of the past decade-and-a-half of world history – with a serious point. “There have been monumental changes since the dismantling of the Berlin Wall,” Mr Negus says. “From a world in which the great divide was that between ‘communist’ and ‘non-communist’, we’ve moved to one divided between ‘Muslim’ and ‘non-Muslim’. This did not happen suddenly on September 11, 2001; it had been building up for decades, and we kept our collective head in the sand about it. So, during all that time, the world WAS never going to be the same again.”

The free public lecture will be at 6 pm on Friday 1 December in UNE’s Arts Building (Lecture Theatre A1). To book a seat ring (02) 6773 2223.

After an early career as a high-school teacher in Queensland, George Negus (pictured here) entered journalism with several years of reporting for The Australian and The Australian Financial Review newspapers. Moving to television, he became familiar to national audiences as a presenter on the current-affairs programs This Day Tonight (ABC) and the Today show (Channel Nine), as the founding presenter of 60 Minutes (Channel Nine) and Foreign Correspondent (ABC), and for his ABC program George Negus Tonight. He has been the presenter of Dateline (SBS) since 2005. His latest book is the highly-successful The World From Islam.

UNE’s Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences hosts the annual Sir Robert Madgwick Lecture, which is named in honour of the University’s first Vice-Chancellor.

Posted by at 05:09 PM

High-performing grain seed becomes commercially available

November 23, 2006

The University of New England is ready to make one of its high-performing strains of triticale commercially available.

Visitors to the University’s annual Triticale Field Day last week learnt that seed from this year’s 200-hectare crop on UNE rural properties near Armidale and Warialda would soon be available for purchase.

Associate Professor Robin Jessop, the agronomist who leads UNE’s triticale research program, said that several of the graziers attending the field day had placed orders on the spot. “Interest in triticale (a hybrid cross between wheat and rye) is growing,” Dr Jessop said. “More than 30 people – mainly from the Northern Tablelands, but a few from the surrounding slopes – came to the field day at UNE’s Laureldale Farm. While some of them have been growing triticale for several years, others tried growing it for the first time this year and were very impressed with the results.” (Dr Jessop is pictured here at the field day.)

UNE has been a leader of the national Triticale Improvement Program ever since it was established by the Grain Research and Development Corporation in the early 1990s. While most triticale is grown in southern NSW and northern Victoria, there are already more than 20 growers in the New England region. Dr Jessop said that triticale thrived in “somewhat adverse conditions” such as the cool Northern Tablelands climate.

The seed available from early next year is UNE’s “Everest” variety, and even higher-yielding varieties will be available in subsequent years. “We plan to build up a major operation, based at our McMaster Research Station near Warialda, for the commercial production of triticale to be used as stock feed,” Dr Jessop said.

Visitors to the field day saw experimental crops of 40 spring grain varieties, and received a detailed introduction to a dozen of the more recent ones. They also inspected and discussed six longer-season varieties used for grazing as well as for grain. Dr Jessop said the main topics of discussion during the day had been the improved level of disease resistance in many of the UNE strains, and improvements in spring grain yields. (Last year UNE announced that one of its experimental triticale crops had broken the elusive “10-tonnes-per-hectare” barrier for a wheat-related grain crop.)

Dr Jessop said that interest in triticale was increasing around the world. “At a recent international conference in South Africa, delegates from many countries were interested in the potential of triticale for ethanol production,” he said. “This is because of the unusually high energy content of the grain.”

UNE’s triticale research is funded by the Pork Cooperative Research Centre as well as the University itself.

For more information on triticale seed sales, contact Milton Curkpatrick, UNE’s Rural Properties Manager, on (02) 6773 2648 or 0427 247 045.

Posted by at 12:00 PM

A quacking good time had by all

November 22, 2006

Total fundraising for UNE's annual Celebration of Sharing has now topped $8,000, following fierce bidding at the “Bucks for Ducks” charity auction held today in the Central Courtyard at UNE.

The figure easily eclipses the previous record for Celebration of Sharing: $6,527.

The money – raised by the auction, a sausage sizzle, duck sales, and generous donations – will go to St Vincent De Paul and Street Beat, a charity that helps street kids get off the streets and back into school.

Under the capable hammer of auctioneer J.G.A Kauter, the ducks offered for auction realised some sizeable amounts. (The photograph displayed here shows the auction in progress.) Ms Sasha Mahboub won the prize in the associated Lucky Duck Draw: a scenic helicopter flight over Armidale, donated by Fleet Helicopters.

Celebration of Sharing, an initiative of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor at UNE, is organised by the University’s Marketing and Public Affairs Directorate. Event coordinator Kerry De Jong said she was delighted with the response to this year's event. "It was a huge success, and we're so pleased to be able to hand this money over to two worthy charities,” Ms De Jong said. “We just want to thank everyone who supported the event by buying ducks and coming to the barbecue. We're also very grateful to our sponsors, who have done so much to make this event a success."

An observer of - and participant in - today's activities said she thought it was "a great way of involving the whole university community in a worthwhile event".

Celebration of Sharing is proudly supported by the NSW Premier's Department, West End Wholesalers, Fleet Helicopters, and UNE staff and students.

Posted by Leon Braun at 04:32 PM

Waddle you bid?

November 22, 2006

Be in the Central Courtyard at lunchtime today for the 2006 Celebration of Sharing "Bucks for Ducks" barbecue and auction. At the auction you will be able to bid on exclusive, one-of-a-kind ducks including girl and boy hippie ducks (pictured), a Halloween duck, Village People ducks, Irish ducks and a very cute baby duck.

A gold coin donation will buy you a sausage sandwich at the barbecue, which begins at 12pm. The auction begins at 12.30pm.

The Lucky Duck Draw will also be drawn at the barbecue. The prize is a scenic helicopter flight over Armidale, donated by Fleet Helicopters.

All proceeds from the auction and barbecue will go to charity.

"Bucks for Ducks" is an official UNE fundraising event in aid of Street Beat and St Vincent De Paul. More than $1500 has been raised in the past week by the UNE community.

"Bucks for Ducks" is proudly supported by West End Wholesalers, Fleet Helicopters, the NSW Premier's Department, and UNE staff and students.

Posted by Leon Braun at 11:31 AM

Book helps pave the way to world-wide educational goal

November 21, 2006

The University of New England has celebrated the publication of a book that will help pave the way to a world-wide goal: “Education For All” (EFA).

The book focuses on "multi-grade teaching" - the simultaneous teaching of more than one grade by a single teacher. This kind of teaching is an essential tool for extending education to small, isolated communities throughout the world – including parts of Australia. UNE has an international reputation for research on multi-grade teaching and the education and professional development of multi-grade teachers.

Reaching EFA Through Multi-grade Teaching: Issues, contexts and practices, is edited by Linley Cornish (a Senior Lecturer in UNE's School of Education), and published by Kardoorair Press, Armidale. There are chapters from 20 researchers and practitioners in both developed and developing countries – from England, Finland and Australia to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Mongolia. “Some of the contributors work in agencies with responsibility for Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, making the coverage of issues, contexts and practices wide-ranging and relevant,” Ms Cornish said.

“The idea for the book was originally discussed at the Second International Multi-grade Teaching Conference, held in Bangkok in 2004 and jointly organised by staff from Chulalongkorn University and the School of Education at UNE,” she explained.

“The book describes a number of research and professional development projects to improve the status and provision of multi-grade education in a range of different contexts,” she continued. “In addition, it discusses broad issues such as language of instruction, access to education (in the context of gender, refugee status, nomadic lifestyle, etc.) and support (including the provision of suitable curriculum materials and teacher education). Teaching strategies for successful multi-grade practice are highlighted – strategies that also have general applicability to single-grade classes.”

The Regional Director for the New England Region of the NSW Department of Education and Training, Mr Des Gorman, launched the book at a special function in UNE's School of Education earlier this month. The Head of the School, Professor Ian Hay, speaking at the launch, praised Ms Cornish's dedication both to the book project and to her work within the School. One of the Directors of Kardoorair Press, Mr Tony Bennett, acted as MC for the book-launch function.

Ms Cornish is pictured here signing a copy of the book at the launch.

“While multi-grade classes are usually formed by necessity, some teachers in developed countries adopt them by choice because of a belief that the increased diversity can be harnessed to provide positive benefits for learning,” she said. “In fact, successful teaching strategies in multi-grade classrooms are directly applicable to classes everywhere because all classes have a range of diverse learners."

Posted by at 05:41 PM

"Flores woman" star of new permanent display

November 20, 2006

A life-sized reconstruction of the tiny woman known as “Flo” (for “Flores woman”) will be part of a permanent display at The University of New England about the momentous discovery of the extinct human species Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores.

A team of Australian and Indonesian scientists, assisted by local Mangarrai people, discovered the skeletal remains of the metre-tall woman when excavating in Liang Bua Cave, Flores, in 2003. The team, led by UNE archaeologist Professor Mike Morwood, has since unearthed the remains of other H. floresiensis individuals in the cave. The media were quick to nickname the new species “the Hobbit”.

Professor Morwood will talk about the discovery and its implications during a function on Monday 27 November to celebrate the mounting of the display. This public event, at which everyone is welcome, will be at 5 pm on the mezzanine floor of UNE’s Dixson Library. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, will officially launch the display, which has been assembled by representatives of UNE’s Museum of Antiquities.

Dr Carol Lentfer, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, created the figure of Flo using scientific data published by the research team. The display also contains stone tools found alongside the human bones, a cast of Flo’s skull and lower jaw, and a cast of her 380 cc brain. (Her brain size is graphically compared with that of modern humans: 1,300 cc.)

Scientific work illustrated in photographs includes that of UNE’s Professor Peter Brown, the palaeoanthropologist who determined that the remains were those of a hitherto unknown human species. There are photographs showing the reconstruction of Flo’s head and face, and the association of H. floresiensis bones, stone tools, and the bones of pygmy stegodon (an extinct type of elephant) in deposits laid down 15,000 years ago. There is also a three-dimensional model of the excavation site.

To assist with catering for next Monday's event, at which drinks and finger food will be served, people intending to attend should contact Sharyn Lansley on (02) 6773 2166 or e-mail: hobbitevent@une.edu.au.

THE PICTURE displayed here is an impression of Homo floresiensis published in 2004 at the time of the original research reports. Visitors to the new display will be able to compare this image with the recreation of "Flo".

Posted by at 05:52 PM

Successful school program attracts more government funding

November 17, 2006

Research supporting an intervention program that has helped more than 600 middle-school students to improve their basic reading and calculating skills has just received a further grant of $78,000 from the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST).

About 300 students in Years 5 to 8 at more than 20 schools throughout northern NSW and the Northern Territory are currently benefiting from the program, called “QuickSmart”. Over the past six years, “QuickSmart” has received about $800,000 in funding, including $475,000 earlier this year from State and Federal governments.

The recent DEST grant went to Professor John Pegg and Dr Lorraine Graham in the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) based at The University of New England. Awarded under the 2007 Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Scheme, it will enable researchers to draw on experiences in the Northern Territory to improve the basic mathematics skills of Indigenous students in Years 5 and 6.

A group of experienced teachers and consultants from northern NSW visited UNE last week to discuss future directions for the “QuickSmart” program with SiMERR staff. One of the teachers – Lyn Alder, a support teacher at Orara High School in Coffs Harbour – said: “Since our involvement with the ‘QuickSmart’ program, the students at Orara High have improved significantly in their State-wide testing results.”

The “QuickSmart” program is designed to enhance students’ fluency in reading and basic mathematics. It focuses on accuracy, the use of efficient strategies (rather than inefficient ones, like counting on fingers), understanding, and the automatic application of basic skills.

Dr Graham, a project director for “QuickSmart”, said that students generally experienced “significant academic gains” after six months in the program. “It’s as if they were using clear and well-travelled pathways to understand and to remember,” she added.

Professor Pegg, the Director of SiMERR, said that last week’s meeting had planned procedures that would enable schools to implement “QuickSmart” with large cohorts of students.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows (from left) Lyn Alder (from Orara High, Coffs Harbour), Mary Walsh (from Mary Help of Christians, Sawtell) Anne Bellert (from the Catholic Education Office, Lismore), and Dr Lorraine Graham (SiMERR) at last week's "QuickSmart" meeting.

Posted by at 05:15 PM

The duckies have landed

November 16, 2006

A mass migration of yellow rubber ducks has descended on the University of New England. The ducks landed in Armidale yesterday, where they were immediately declared fit for introduction into the community by internationally renowned poultry expert Professor Mingan Choct.

"These beautiful ducks will thrive in our clean and green environment in Australia," Professor Choct said.

"They look healthy and happy, and will do well in your backyards."

The ducks, which go on sale today at Booloominbah and Marketing and Public Affairs, are of various breeds, including surfer ducks, princess ducks, sports ducks, academic ducks and student ducks.

The "Bucks for Ducks" sale, as the event will be known, is part of UNE's Celebration of Sharing, an annual event that raises money for local charities. This year, proceeds will go to Street Beat and St Vincent De Paul.

Event coordinator Kerry De Jong said the ducks had already generated tremendous interest, with many people ordering whole sets for their family and friends.

"People are just going crazy for these little yellow duckies," she said.

Ms De Jong said the ducks were suitable not only for bath time play, but also for decorating your office cubicle or hanging on your Christmas tree.

"You could even get creative and make earrings out of them," she said.

The ducks sell for $3 each or $10 for a set of four. Squeezable academic "stress" ducks are also available for $5. With every purchase you will be entered into the Lucky Duck Draw to win a scenic helicopter flight, donated by Fleet Helicopters.

The Lucky Duck Draw will be drawn at a barbecue to be held in the Central Courtyard on Wednesday, November 22 at 12pm, where you will also be able to bid on a number of exclusive, one-of-a-kind ducks, not available elsewhere.

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Leon Braun at 12:56 PM

Meetings aim to inform migration policies in Asia-Pacific

November 15, 2006

An international workshop at The University of New England on “Migration Challenges in the Asia-Pacific in the 21st Century” will conclude with a public lecture on the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in the region.

The two-day, UNESCO-funded workshop will bring together influential researchers and policy analysts from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Australia to discuss approaches to the ever-increasing flow of people across international borders in the region.

“This large-scale cross-border movement of people is one of the biggest challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region in the 21st century,” said one of the conveners of the meeting, Professor Amarjit Kaur. “Key issues include international labour migration, migration flows provoked by political instability and natural disasters, other refugee flows, human trafficking, and people smuggling.”

The workshop, organised under the auspices of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, will be at UNE on 28 and 29 November. Father David Holdcroft of JRS, whose visit to Armidale is being sponsored by UNE’s Asia Centre, will be participating in the workshop as well as presenting the public lecture. The lecture will be in UNE’s Arts Building (Arts Lecture Theatre 2) at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 29 November.

Father Holdcroft will outline the work of JRS with refugees in the region over the past 25 years. “Our work has grown in size, complexity and diversity over the past 25 years,” he says, “reflecting the increasing complexity of need in the region. We commonly provide humanitarian aid, informal and formal education, post-trauma and other counselling, vocational training, income generation, and legal and policy advocacy.

“In Australia, JRS finds similar complexity in its work, with community-based asylum seekers presently emerging as the most needy group. At the same time we question our nation’s response of radical intolerance of people attempting to cross our border and the huge expense incurred in order to retain the fiction of a controlled frontier.”

Professor Kaur (pictured here), from UNE’s School of Economics, said the workshop would examine both the governance of migration and the human rights of migrants. “The governance of migration is evolving,” she explained, “with increased emphasis on both border security and international cooperation.”

She said she hoped information presented at the workshop would help in the development of future policies and regional collaboration. “Here in Australia, the Government needs to know about the policies of other countries,” she added. “We’re updating them.”

Immediately after the workshop, UNE will host the 14th Colloquium of the Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia. The Colloquium, on Thursday 30 November and Friday 1 December, will continue the theme of migration, and will include contributions from some of the workshop participants. Titled “Boundaries and Shifting Sovereignties: Migration, Security Issues and Regional Cooperation”, the Colloquium has attracted speakers from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, as well as from around Australia. It will include a special postgraduate workshop with presentations by students from six Australian universities, including UNE.

Included in the colloquium program will be an illustrated public lecture, titled “Caves and Cave Temples of Peninsular Malaysia”, by UNE’s Professor Ian Metcalfe (who is a co-convener of both meetings). “The caves contain spectacular dripstone and flowstone formations, have yielded important archaeological and palaeoanthropological finds, and contain significant cave art,” Professor Metcalfe says. “The use of caves for religious purposes in Peninsular Malaysia will be discussed and illustrated, including the spectacular Thaipusam Hindu festival held each year at Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur.”

The lecture will be in UNE’s Arts Building (Arts Lecture Theatre 2) at 7.45 pm on Thursday 30 November.

For details of the meetings, see:
http://www.une.edu.au/asiacenter/MigWshp.html
http://www.une.edu.au/malaysiasoc/14thColl.html

Posted by at 05:31 PM

Challenging the 'myths' that hide rural crime

November 14, 2006

Experts on rural crime from the United States, the UK, and Australia will challenge some of the “myths” about the “idyllic” rural lifestyle when they meet at The University of New England at the end of the month.

Professor Kerry Carrington and Associate Professor Russell Hogg, from UNE, will address what they call "the myth that rural communities are less violent than urban communities" by breaking down Australian crime statistics into regions and localities and analysing them in a way that highlights violent crime.

Professor Joseph Donnermeyer from Ohio State University in the United States will extend this “myth-busting” to other countries – including America and England. Professor Donnermeyer says his talk will “challenge age-old presumptions about the nature of rurality and crime: myths that still hold firm in the minds of the public, politicians, policy-makers, media pundits, the police, and professors who study crime”.

Another of the overseas speakers, Professor Rob Mawby from the University of Plymouth in the UK, will discuss crime “hot spots” in rural England and explain why such spots exist.

The Centre for Rural Crime, within UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures (IRF), is hosting the event at UNE on November 30 and December 1. Dr Elaine Barclay, Director of the Centre for Rural Crime and convener of the conference, has collaborated with Professor Donnermeyer over the past eight years in an extensive program of research into rural crime, and safety and security. (Dr Barclay and Professor Donnermeyer are pictured here.)

“The theme of the conference is crime and other risks to the safety and security of rural communities,” Dr Barclay said, “with a particular focus on drug crimes, the criminal justice system and Indigenous people, crime prevention and rural policing, farm crime, and biosecurity.”

One highlight of the conference will be a field trip to see and discuss some of the latest technological approaches to the prevention of farm crime. The excursion, to the Laureldale research farm at UNE, will be open to farmers and other interested people as well as the conference delegates. It will begin at 2 pm on Friday 1 December and continue till about 4.30 pm. It will feature demonstrations of farm security cameras (including the real-time system recently developed by IRF and Telstra Country Wide) and electronic readers for livestock identification, and discussions on farm security with representatives of NSW Police.

Professor Ralph Weisheit from Illinois State University, USA, will deliver a keynote address at the conference on “the growing problem of methamphetamine”. His talk will examine the impact on rural communities of a drug problem that is reported to be expanding rapidly in Australia and New Zealand. Two of the conference’s 11 workshop sessions will deal with “drug and alcohol use and misuse” in rural and regional areas, and will include the presentation of findings from a 12-month study by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Australian Institute of Criminology on the policing of cannabis, amphetamine and other illicit drug use in rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

For more information on the conference and the field excursion, go to: http://www.ruralfutures.une.edu.au/rurcrime/conference.htm.

Posted by at 05:28 PM

UNE-based invention makes light work of goal shifting

November 13, 2006

Proving the old adage “Necessity is the mother of invention”, groundsmen from The University of New England have come up with an idea that has won a New South Wales Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Award and is to appear this week on the ABC television program The New Inventors.

The cost-and-injury-saving “Goal Shifter” is the brainchild of UNE Grounds Assistant Terry Farrell and OHS Officer Graham Bruce who, between them, thought of a solution to a major workplace problem and contracted a local engineer, Greg Johnson, to make their concept a reality. Previously, it took at least three people to handle the heavy steel soccer goals manually; the new invention, using a tractor’s three-point linkage, makes it a one-man job.

The photograph displayed here shows Mr Farrell demonstrating the "UNE Goal Shifter" for the New Inventors team on a UNE soccer field. The “UNE Goal Shifter”, quickly adaptable to suit many situations, will be featured on The New Inventors this Wednesday evening (15 November) at 8 pm.

“Mostly it was born out of necessity – and mainly for OHS reasons,” Mr Farrell said. “Two people used to shift the goals, until one injured his back and then the rules required three people to do the job. It used to take three people three-and-a-half hours to move 12 goals, and now it’s only about one hour’s work for one person, saving more than nine hours each time. That adds up over a season.”

Mr Farrell’s co-worker Brad King agreed that the invention freed up a lot of time between October and March when the job needed to be done twice a week. “It’s really important when you consider it could also save a $60,000 back injury,” he said.

The UNE invention was selected for an award by OHS experts from WorkCover NSW. The Chief Executive Officer of WorkCover, Jon Blackwell, said the OHS awards “reaffirmed a collective commitment to reducing the incidence of death and injury in the workplace”.

Posted by at 04:02 PM

UNE language courses find another home in north Queensland

November 10, 2006

An innovative program based at The University of New England (UNE) is making it possible for university students in north Queensland to study a range of modern languages through a blend of online and on-campus tuition.

From next year, students at James Cook University (JCU) will be able to study a number of languages through courses provided by UNE: German has been available this year, and Chinese and Italian will begin in 2007. UNE is providing all the tuition in these three languages at JCU. (UNE will also be assisting in the teaching of French at JCU by providing a first-year course from 2007, while a JCU staff member looks after the other French courses.)

The Head of UNE’s School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Associate Professor Herman Beyersdorf (pictured here), together with UNE lecturers Isabel Tasker (Chinese) and Anna Cavallaro (Italian), visited JCU’s Cairns campus last month to make final arrangements for the introduction of Chinese and Italian next year. They discussed the program with Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Janet Greeley and other JCU staff members.

The “UNE Blended Model” combines distance education – much of it online – with face-to-face tuition. While in Cairns, the UNE lecturers conducted interviews that resulted in the selection of local tutors. “The Chinese and Italian communities are long-standing components of north Queensland society,” Dr Beyersdorf said. “Representatives of these communities were involved in our discussions with JCU about the new language courses.”

“Languages are vulnerable at many universities in the current tertiary-education climate,” he continued. “Our ‘Blended Model’ offers other institutions a cost-effective alternative to setting up their own language-teaching programs. UNE even hires and pays the local tutors.”

He explained that, while students at the collaborating university studied the same program (with the same lecturers, course materials and exams) as UNE students, their courses were credited as being from their home university.

This collaborative program began in 2005 with the delivery of UNE German courses to students at the University of Newcastle. The program extended to Queensland this year, with students at JCU’s Townsville campus studying UNE German courses. Earlier this year UNE won a Commonwealth Government grant of $195,000 to enable a team led by Associate Professor Kerry Dunne to develop innovative new teaching materials for the program.

Dr Beyersdorf pointed out that while the program would inevitably grow “vertically”, with the succession of second-year and third-year courses, he expected it to grow “horizontally” as well – i.e., to extend to other universities. Talks were already under way with a number of Australian universities as well as a university in New Zealand, he said. “UNE has the necessary infrastructure – including that for online teaching – and decades of experience,” he added.

Posted by at 04:50 PM

UNE hosts Taiwanese academics

November 10, 2006

The University of New England has hosted a flying visit by Taiwanese academics from the National Pingtung University of Education.

During their one-day stay, the four academics toured UNE's School of Education, enjoyed an official lunch with the Vice-Chancellor and the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Development and International), and met the directors of the National Centre of Science, Information & Communication Technology & Mathematics Education for Rural & Regional Australia and International Marketing and Pathways.

Professor Shyan-Jer Lee, the Dean of Academic Affairs at Pingtung University, said he was very glad that he and his colleagues could visit UNE and talk to academics in the School of Education.

"I think your university has a very strong background in education," he said. "I wish we could stay longer."

Professor Lee said he hoped to establish an exhange program between the two universities.

"I think from next semester we will see how many students we can start to send here. Also, we would like the chance for your students to come to our university. I think there is an opportunity for both our students to not only learn language but also to learn about each other's culture."

Professor Lee also took the opportunity to extend an invitation to UNE's Vice Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, to visit Pingtung University when he travels to Taiwan in March next year.

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photograph is available to accompany this story.

Pictured: Professor Ian Hay, Head, School of Education, UNE; Professor John Pegg, Director, SiMERR; Dr. Shyan-Jer Lee, Dean of Academic Affairs, NPUE; Mr. Tung-Fu Huang, Vice-President, NPUE; Professor Alan Pettigrew, Vice-Chancelor, UNE; Dr. Shu-Ing Chang, Director, Language Centre, NPUE; Dr. Ming-Chieh Wu, Director, Academic Development Division, NPUE; Professor Robin Pollard, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Development & International), UNE.

Posted by Leon Braun at 10:44 AM

UNE student a finalist in national essay competition

November 09, 2006

A student from The University of New England was one of six finalists this year in the Governor-General's Essay Prize – a national competition conducted by the Constitution Education Fund of Australia (CEF-A).

David Furse-Roberts, a second-year external student studying for a Bachelor of Laws degree, was recognised by the Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, at a ceremony held at Admiralty House, Sydney, last week.

More than 600 students from tertiary institutions across Australia entered the competition, which was judged by Justice Susan Crennan of the High Court of Australia, Professor George Winterton, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney, and Sir Guy Green, who has held the positions of Governor of Tasmania, Chief Justice of Tasmania, and Chancellor of the University of Tasmania.

Mr Furse-Roberts, who comes from Wahroonga in Sydney, is the only one of this year’s finalists studying at a regional university. His essay dealt with the public policy issues involved in government regulation of religious symbols and dress within Australian schools.

Dr Jim Maher, a UNE political scientist who is a member of CEF-A’s Educational Reference Group, said: “David's achievement is a great recognition of his abilities, and brings honour to The University of New England.”

"To reach the finals in this highly-regarded and highly-competitive essay competition speaks volumes for his capacity and dedication," Dr Maher continued. "It also indicates that UNE students are up there with the best in the country."

Mr Furse-Roberts is the first UNE student to be a finalist in the Governor- General’s Essay Prize, which has been running for three years and which carries significant prize money. Dr Maher urged UNE students to continue to enter the competition.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows David Furse-Roberts (centre) at Admiralty House in Sydney with the Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery (right) and UNE's Dr Jim Maher.

Posted by at 05:16 PM

Entries impress in writing and photography competitions

November 08, 2006

Judges of this year's Services UNE photography and short story competitions were so impressed with the quality of the entries they awarded an extra prize.

Communications student Rebecca Lally picked up first and second prize in the short story competition with her stories "Endued Unto That Element" and "Breeding Harness", causing competition sponsor United Campus Bookshops to award prizes down to fourth place, instead of the customary third.

Judge Wendy James, whose novel Out of the Silence won this year's Ned Kelly Award for best first crime novel, said Ms Lally was a "writer of great promise".

"These competitions are so important for young writers," Ms James said, noting that her own writing career had begun with winning a competition at university.

"There was an impressive range of stories to deal with and the quality was commendable," Ms James said. "Choosing winners was difficult."

Ms Lally said it felt "pretty awesome" to win, especially since this was the first writing competition she had entered.

She said, "I write a lot about younger people and the sort of things people come up against growing up: addictions, social evils."

Third prize in the writing competition went to Helen Machalias for "The Way Home" and fourth prize went to Jason Green for "The Tenement".

In the photography competition, first and second prize went to Emma Rowles for her photographs of street scenes in China. Third prize went to Kelley Atkinson for "Will You", depicting a young boy brandishing a toy gun. Theodore Maczi won the People's Choice Award for his photograph, "Ducks in the Water".

Services UNE CEO Sue Paini said she was delighted with the level of interest in this year's competitions.

"It's pleasing to report that we received a record number of entries this year," she said. "This clearly indicates the support and demand for these competitions."

Ms Paini also took the opportunity to thank United Campus Bookshops and The Armidale Express for their continued sponsorship of the competitions.

"Without our sponsors these competitions could not exist," she said.

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photograph is available to accompany this story.

Pictured: Third prize winner Kelley Atkinson with her photograph "Will You".

Posted by Leon Braun at 03:34 PM

Two Armidale icons placed on State Heritage Register

November 08, 2006

Two of Armidale’s best-known buildings – the C.B. Newling Building and “Booloominbah” – have been placed on the State Heritage Register.

The new heritage status of the buildings was formally recognised last Friday during a two-day visit of the Heritage Council of New South Wales to Armidale.

In a special ceremony at “Booloominbah” – the historic house at the heart of The University of New England – the Chair of the Heritage Council, Mr Mike Collins, presented certificates to the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, marking the inclusion of the two buildings in the Register. Mr Collins said the buildings, with their strong educational and pastoral associations, were “very representative of what New England means to NSW”.

The Minister for Planning, the Hon. Frank Sartor MP, signed the authorisation last week for the two buildings to be placed on the Register. During the presentation ceremony, Mr Collins, on behalf of the Minister, congratulated the University on its custodianship of the buildings. “UNE has demonstrated, through its refurbishment program, that it understands the importance of its custodianship role,” he said.

Professor Pettigrew said UNE was “very proud” of the two buildings – “their historic value to the community, and their role as the centrepieces of the University”. He paid tribute to the work of Michael Quinlan, Director of Facilities Management Services at UNE, who has managed the program of maintenance, conservation and productive re-use of the buildings.

The photograph displayed here shows Mr Quinlan (left) and Mr Collins at the C.B. Newling Building.

Mr Quinlan, in introducing the Heritage Council members to “Booloominbah”, explained that the University’s aim in the refurbishment program had been to create a working environment within a building that, after restoration, retained much of its original, late 19th century character – including features such as paint colours, wallpaper and carpets.

John Carr, the heritage conservation architect from Tamworth who planned the restoration work on “Booloominbah”, was an honoured guest at the presentation ceremony. All 15 members of the Heritage Council, accompanied by eight staff members, travelled to Armidale.

“Booloominbah”, built as a home for the pastoralist Frederick White and his family in 1888, became a university college in 1937 and now forms the administrative nucleus of UNE. The C.B. Newling Building, completed in 1929, is still commonly referred to as “the Old Teachers’ College”. UNE is now the Reserve Trust Manager of the C.B. Newling Building which, as an educational and cultural centre for the region, houses the New England Conservatorium of Music, UNE Music, TAFE film and television schools, and UNE Partnerships.

Posted by at 09:46 AM

UNE research centre completes social plan for Tamworth region

November 07, 2006

A newly-prepared report by researchers at The University of New England will provide Tamworth Regional Council with the information it needs to lobby for improved services - particularly for its rural communities - over the next five years.

The leader of the UNE team, Dr John Scott, said the report revealed the "diverse and vibrant" nature of communities in the Tamworth region. "It also reveals the difficulties that many of those communities face - in common with their counterparts throughout regional Australia - in gaining access to an adequate level of services such as health care and transport," Dr Scott continued.

Prepared over the past eight months, the 150-page Draft 2006 Tamworth Regional Social (Community) Plan provides a "snapshot" of community services in mid-2006. "It will be a very useful reference point when we are advocating changes in service levels," said the Council's Cultural and Community Services Manager, Meg Larkin. "We're very happy with the work the UNE team has done. It included some good research on the demographics of our region, and a great deal of consultation."

UNE's Centre for Applied Research in Social Sciences (CARSS) carried out the research in collaboration with the Council's Community Services Division. Visiting communities throughout the Tamworth region, the team of five UNE researchers convened community meetings and focus groups, and interviewed more than 300 people representing more than 100 organisations. They also carried out an extensive mail survey.

Tamworth Regional Council approved the draft plan at its meeting on Tuesday 24 October. Professor Kerry Carrington (the Director of CARSS), who presented the draft to Council, said: "The 175 recommendations, if adopted, will significantly enhance regional residents' quality of life by improving access to services. I am delighted that UNE has been able to provide Tamworth Regional Council with the solid evidence base it needs to lobby for more and better services for rural communities in the region."

The draft plan is available for viewing at all of the Council's Customer Service Offices, at the libraries in Barraba, Kootingal, Manilla, Nundle, Tamworth and South Tamworth, and on the Council's Web site. The Council is seeking community feedback during the 28-day display period, after which it will send the final version of the plan to the NSW Department of Local Government.

"Our work in CARSS provides an example of how UNE can commercialise its expertise and engage with regional communities, achieving a real and sustained impact that improves the quality of life in our region," Dr Scott said. "It also emphasises the fact that regional experts have a better understanding of regional issues. There used to be a 'rural cringe', prompting local business and government to use city-based research consultants, but groups like CARRS are creating a better alternative."

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here, taken outside UNE's "Booloominbah", shows the five members of the CARSS research team. They are (from left) Ron Reavell, Ruth Bohill, Professor Kerry Carrington, Santi Owen, and Dr John Scott.

Posted by at 03:13 PM

Website teaches UNE staff the meaning of equity

November 06, 2006

The University of New England has launched a new, Web-based equity training program for its staff. The program, called EO Online: Fair Play, aims to raise awareness of equity and diversity issues in higher education and promote an inclusive work environment.

EO Online: Fair Play, which is used in 17 universities throughout Australia, was developed by a consortium of Australian universities specifically for use in the higher education sector.

University EEO Officer Lyn Tucker said the program was “an excellent resource for us all”.

The program contains two modules, one for all staff and one for supervisors. It includes quizzes, real-life examples, scenarios and learning summaries for each section. The module for supervisors also takes the participant through the procedure for handling a grievance.

EO Online: Fair Play will be incorporated into a number of training programs across the university and in some cases will be a prerequisite to further training.

On completion of the training staff members will receive a certificate of attainment.

The university has set targets for its staff to complete the program and hopes to have half trained by the end of 2007 and all trained by the end of 2009.

Ms Tucker said equity training had a range of benefits for the university and its staff.

“In addition to promoting an inclusive environment, equity training assists all staff in understanding their rights and responsibilities in the workplace,” she said. “Managers will find guidance in dealing with difficult situations as well as meeting their equity-related performance objectives. The training will also assist the university in meeting its compliance obligations.”

For more information contact Lyn Tucker on (02) 6773 3242 or Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Pictured: Professor Alan Pettigrew and Ms Lyn Tucker.

Posted by Leon Braun at 10:40 AM

Understanding the ‘great mistakes’ of our history

November 03, 2006

The editors of a newly-published book, Great Mistakes of Australian History, say in their Introduction that it is “an act of national immaturity” to approach Australian history simply as a series of achievements, without recognising the “misjudgements, misconduct and missed opportunities” that are an inevitable part of any nation’s story.

Martin Crotty and David Andrew Roberts are historians based at the University of Queensland and The University of New England respectively. They say their book seeks to redress the balance in a cultural and political climate that encourages the writers and readers of Australian history to regard the mistakes of the past as “mere aberrations in a larger, more glorious story”.

They point out that “such mistakes have given us the rabbit, salinity, unsightly and unsound urban sprawl, social injustice and economic inequality, an abysmal history of race relations, ambiguous interactions with our Asian neighbours and, perhaps worst of all, far more dead bodies on the stage of Australian history than there should be”.

In 13 illuminating chapters by 14 Australian historians, the book explores the background and ramifications of all these mistakes – and more.

Popular demand for Great Mistakes of Australian History has been so great that the publishers – UNSW Press – reprinted it before its official launch. Bob Carr, former Premier of NSW and a champion of Australian history, launched the book at a function in Sydney yesterday evening.

Dr David Andrew Roberts (pictured here), who teaches colonial history at UNE, said his chapter, on “The Denial of Aboriginal Rights” – dealing with “a mistake that had its origins in the very first European encounters with the Australian coastline” – was an attempt “to set the record straight”. “Confusion and indecision about the status and rights of Aborigines within the new Australian colonies resulted in a history of dispossession and marginalisation that was instrumental in the process of Australian land settlement,” he said.

The 13 other authors include Richard Waterhouse, Bicentennial Professor of History at the University of Sydney (author of The Vision Splendid: a Social and Cultural History of Rural Australia), and Alan Atkinson, Professorial Fellow at UNE (author of The Europeans in Australia).

The principal “characters” of the book include William Shelley (the well-intentioned founder of the Parramatta Native Institution – the precursor of institutions and policies that led to the “stolen generations”), Burke and Wills (victims of the kind of “ill-conceived” schemes that were inconsistent with Australian realities and thus potentially fatal), the red fox and the cane toad (“grievous products of a failure to understand the delicacy of Australian ecosystems”), and Sydney’s Cahill Expressway (an “infamous example of urban blight”).

“By engaging with and understanding those errors,” the editors say, “we can better tackle the problems of the present and the challenges of the future.”

Posted by at 09:45 AM

Vice-President of Thai open university visits UNE

November 02, 2006

The vice-president of one of Thailand's leading open universities visited the University of New England last week, as part of an international “shadowing” program initiated by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee.

The Thailand Executive Leadership Program provides professional development opportunities for senior Thai university administrators and is intended to strengthen relationships between Thai and Australian universities.

Associate Professor Pranee Sungkatavat is the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Her responsibilities include curriculum and instruction, educational media development and student records.

Professor Sungkatavat said she had learned a good deal from her visit and that she felt UNE and Sukhothai Thammathirat had a lot in common – both universities are renowned for their expertise in distance education, for instance, and both face increased competition for students and are attempting to streamline their administrative structures.

“We have to find a suitable way to retain the quality of our courses, while also retaining the quantity of students enrolling,” she said.

Professor Sungkatavat said she hoped her visit would lead to stronger ties between the two institutions, especially in the form of exchanges and research collaboration.

“We might send our students here to experience more about your culture and academic areas,” she said. “We want to improve our HR development by sending our people here and exchanging our faculty staff and doing some joint research.”

UNE's Pro Vice-Chancellor (Development and International), Professor Robin Pollard, said: “We are delighted Pranee spent a week with us and talked to a number of academic staff. She offered a very good insight into some of the changes that are going on here at UNE.”

Professor Sungkatavat said: “I really appreciate my time at this university. A lot of the professors I met were so nice. I am impressed with what they are doing. The people here are nice, also. I think this is a good place not only for study, but for living also.”

For more information contact Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Pictured here: Professor Alan Pettigrew, Associate Professor Pranee Sungkatavat, Professor Robin Pollard.

Posted by Leon Braun at 09:41 AM

UNE students get the 'big picture'

November 01, 2006

A group of students from The University of New England (UNE) has made one of the world's biggest pictures - so big, in fact, that it could be seen from outer space. The picture (or 'geoglyph'), titled 'Dogs and Bones', is 1.4 km long and 0.6 km wide. It depicts a group of blue heeler dogs - and bones.

The image has been marked into paddocks adjacent to UNE with a combination of herbicide, mowing, digging, and marking paint, and using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology.

It is literally a huge undertaking and took UNE staff and students weeks to plan. The project is part of the curriculum in a unit titled 'Remote Sensing and Surveying', in which students learn about surveying technology and satellite images.

The unit's coordinator, Dr Paul Frazier, said: 'The project aims to make a picture big enough to be seen from space, and provides a unique opportunity for the students to combine surveying and navigation skills with satellite image analysis. But most of all it is simply an enjoyable way to end a semester of hard study.'

The project captured the interest of leading corporate entities, which offered sponsorship to help conduct the activity. Geosciences Australia provided satellite imagery from two new online satellite sensors (ALOS PRISM and AVNIR-2) and Sinclair Knight Mertz provided Quickbird satellite imagery. Pedigree Dogfoods liked the picture topic so much that it offered the project operational funds.

The satellite imagery is the same as that used by Google Earth, and the Dogs and Bones images should be available soon on Google Earth.

Posted by Leon Braun at 01:16 PM