343 research outputs found
What is this thing called 'community'?: an example in far north Queensland
No full text[Extract] The Bloomfield River region lies in tropical north Queensland, Australia (see Figure 1.1). It is a mountainous area adjacent to the coast and bordered by the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The catchment is vulnerable to flooding, bushfires and tropical cyclones. In the process of conducting an appraisal of community awareness and preparedness for natural hazards (Cottrell et al., 2001), it became apparent that it was necessary to ask the question: what is a community, and what are the implications for hazard studies and practice
Living with bushfire: what do people expect?
No full text[Extract] The physical and economic impact of bushfires has been well documented, particularly in the United States of America. A National Interagency Fire Centre (NIFC, 2003) report revealed that in 2002, more than 88,450 recorded fires burned 6.9 million acres and 2,381 structures, and the total suppression cost for the federal agencies reached US1.6 billion. Figures for preceding years are similar, but suggest that these impacts from bushfire are growing in magnitude. Similar bushfire impacts have been recorded in Australia. The Ash Wednesday bushfires of 16 January 1983 are perhaps the most renowned in Australian history, and the following statistics suggest why: in Victoria and South Australia 76 people died; 2,463 houses were destroyed; and 360,000 hectares of land was burned (Ramsay & Rudolph, 2003), total property loss were estimated to be over A400 million (Willis, 2004). The January 2003 bushfires, in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, rivalled Ash Wednesday in terms of widespread destruction and property loss (Gilbert, 2004), where four lives were lost, over 500 homes destroyed and total damage cost more than $A300 million (Willis, 2004). The 2003 fires were also a harsh reminder of how susceptible Australia is to bushfire. In a global context, Australia is widely regarded as the most fireprone country (Rohrmann, 1999; Gilbert, 2004). Furthermore, the situation may be worsening due to long-term droughts and higher average temperatures (Whittaker & Mercer, 2004)
Engaged and resilient communities: AEMI workshop 17-19 May 2011
No full textDr Alison Cottrell from the Centre for Disaster Studies at James Cook University in Queensland presents some of the key issues tackled at the Australian Emergency Management Institute's Engaged and Resilient Communities Workshop. This article is the first and overarching summary, of a series of articles that will appear in future editions of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management. These articles will be identified by the origami logo that appears here. At the outset of the workshop Dr Cottrell gave a presentation that framed participants' understanding of resilience, vulnerability, sustainability, indicators and engagement, and on the final day, she presented participants with considerations for measuring engagement and resilience success. A full report of the workshop proceedings and the participants' conversations and responses to questions raised can be found at www.em.gov.au
Roswell F. Cottrell
No full textPhotographic reproduction of a head and shoulders portrait of Roswell F. Cottrell. Cottrell was a minister and evangelist. He was an author and wrote for the Review & Herald. He also served as President of the New York Conference
Fire risk in Aboriginal peri-urban landscapes in northern Australia: case studies from western Cape York Peninsula
No full text[Extract] This chapter focuses on characterisation of the peri-urban areas of remote Aboriginal communities in northern Australia; fire behaviour and the fire risks associated with Aboriginal peri-urban landscapes; and the sociopolitical and infrastructural aspects of remote Aboriginal communities that are relevant to fire hazard management.
In particular, it focuses on Pormpuraaw and Kowanyama as these towns have been a subject of research by the author for more than 12 years; more than five years of this time having been spent living and working in both communities (Figure 9.1)
Recommended from our members
A connectionist model of metaphor by pattern completion
No full textBook synopsis: This volume features the complete text of all regular papers, posters, and summaries of symposia presented at the 18th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Papers have been loosely grouped by topic, and an author index is provided in the back. In hopes of facilitating searches of this work, an electronic index on the Internet's World Wide Web is provided. Titles, authors, and summaries of all the papers published here have been placed in an online database which may be freely searched by anyone
'So many sparks of fire': Dorothy Cottrell, modernism and mobility
No full textThe broad brush strokes of Dorothy Cottrell's paintings in the National Library of Australia mark her as a modernist artist, although not one who painted the burgeoning Sydney Harbour Bridge or bright still-life paintings of Australian flora. Rather, she captured the dun surrounds of Ularunda Station, the remote Queensland property to which she moved in 1920 after attending art school in Sydney. At Ularunda, Cottrell eloped with the bookkeeper to Dunk Island, where they stayed with nature writer E.J. Banfield, then relocated to Sydney. In 1924 they returned to Ularunda and Cottrell swapped her paintbrush for a pen, writing The Singing Gold. After advice from Mary Gilmore, whom her mother accosted in a pub, Cottrell send it to the Ladies Home Journal in America. It was snapped up immediately, optioned for a film and found a publisher in England, who described it as 'a great Australian book, and a world book'. Gilmore added, 'As an advertisement for Australia, it will go far - the Ladies Home Journal is read all over the world'. Cottrell herself also went far, emigrating to America, where she wrote The Silent Reefs, set in the Caribbean. Cottrell's creative, intellectual and physical peregrinations - all undertaken in a wheelchair after she contracted polio at age five - show how the local references the international, and vice versa. Through an analysis of the life and writing of this now little-known Queensland author, this essay reflects the regional and transnational elements of modernism as outlined in Neal Alexander and James Moran's Regional Modernisms, illuminating how a crack-shot with a rifle once took Queensland to the world
- …
