1,720,975 research outputs found
"Skinnin' the pots": A history of the Western Rock Lobster Fishery
No full textOff the west coast of Australia between approximately North-West Cape (21°S) and Cape Leeuwin (35°S), from the shoreline to the edge of the continental shelf wherever suitable reef exists, the western rock lobster Panulirus cygnus occurs in prodigious numbers. Although this resource was apparently untapped by the aboriginal Australians of the area its presence became known, at least in part, to early European settlers and efforts were made to harvest some as an adjunct to scale-fisheries for the small local market. More concerted efforts were made near the tum of the century as appropriate catching technology was introduced and local population grew. The potential for a major industry was soon recognised, but efforts to establish processing factories and export markets for a canned or frozen product did not prosper until World War 2 changed the course of events. Since then an intensive fishery has evolved that, as well as being Australia's most valuable single-species fishery, has for several decades been widely recognised as one of the most productive, well-managed and lucrative in the world. Despite its apparent consistency it is anything but static, barely a year passing without significant new developments.
This thesis presents a maritime history of the western rock lobster fishery. It provides the first fully researched narrative account of the fishery, chronicling effort, catch and efficiency, demand and marketing, economic conditions, research and management, the life of the fisher at different periods and related social and cultural developments and interactions. Key determinants of the nature and course of this uniquely successful fishery are investigated, including biological, environmental and geographical factors, fishing knowledge, technology, skill and strategy, processing, marketing and economic opportunities and trends, scientific research and management, social, cultural and political influences, innovation, entrepreneurship and the less tangible1 element of luck.
This thesis argues that the western rock lobster fishery, until now largely neglected in historical treatises, is deserving of a place in the mainstream history of ll1 Western Australia. It further contends that a multi-disciplinary approach is essential to understanding the nature and course of the fishery and its wider historical context.
This study is based on thorough research of official records, contemporary accounts and reports, interviews with fishers and others in the industry from past and present, and first-hand experience gained on vessels fishing for the lucrative, and delectable, western rock lobster
Port regulation in Australia
Get PDFAs an island nation, Australia is heavily dependent on its ports. Ports are essential infrastructure, acting as a gateway connecting domestic and international markets. However, the resources boom has highlighted significant bottlenecks in the supply chain. Port regulation has at times been criticised for impeding port development and investment. There are concerns that the level of investment in port infrastructure in Australia is insufficient to sustain the increase in trade we will see in the future. It therefore seems an appropriate time to review port regulation in Australia. This paper seeks to analyse the existing port regulatory framework against a theoretical backdrop. By considering the theories of competition, equilibrium, market failure and regulation, it is hoped an assessment of the current regime can be made
Charles Edward Broadhurst (1826-1905): A remarkable nineteenth century failure
No full textThis study began in 1983 with my archaeological investigations at the wreck of the SS Xantho (1848-1872), the first steamship to be operated out of the Colony of Western Australia. The excavation revealed, among other things, that the vessel was poorly and inefficiently engineered, and that to drive the vessel forward the engines had to be run in reverse. The historical records showed that the SS Xantho had a very short existence as the colony’s pioneering steamship. The records also showed that it was operated in a remarkable and almost innovative fashion, firstly as a transport in the pearling industry, and secondly as a ‘tramp’ steamer.
These considerations prompted me to take a close look at Broadhurst, a man about whom little has been written.
He has since proved to be an extraordinary and poorly understood colonial entrepreneur who was involved in many activities central to the development of the North of Western Australia. Broadhurst was described by his peers as ‘a capitalist and trader who would go out of the ordinary grooves in search of wealth’, and when he died in 1905, he was eulogized in the local press as one of the ‘most indefatigable and persevering exploiters of the infant industries of Western Australia in his day’. Despite this, a striking feature of Broadhurst was the ‘grand’ and almost naive approach he had to his business ventures, one that led him to fail in almost everything he attempted. Like many others in Western Australia, he was a man whose decisions were based on imperfect information and who suffered greatly from the problems of effective decision making at a distance. He was also a complex man, and was described in the press on the one hand, as ‘a man out of 10,000’, and on the other, as a villain and perpetrator of dark deeds and injustices.
This examination of Broadhurst’s career will lead to a better understanding of him and of the ventures and industries in which he was involved. Many of these have aspects which are poorly understood. One of these was the settlement of the North of Western Australia by Victorian interests, such as the ill-fated Camden Harbour Pastoral Association and the Denison Plains Pastoral Company. Another little understood development in which he was involved was the pearling industry out of Nickol Bay (Cossack), where he introduced ‘diving apparatus’ and used ‘Malay’ labour and ‘volunteer’ Aboriginal convicts in the pursuit of shell. At one time Broadhurst was also the leading pearler at Shark Bay. He was a pioneering steamship owner, a Member of the Legislative Council, a Justice of the Peace, an acting Resident Magistrate and was involved in fish canning and in other pursuits, such as coconut growing, shopkeeping and guano mining.
During his life in Western Australia, Broadhurst was embroiled in many controversies and was considered by the Colonial Administration to be a man ‘most unfortunate in all his enterprises’. It is possibly for these reasons that he has not been previously studied in any depth.
Despite his business failures, Broadhurst was one of Western Australia’s most intriguing, influential and poorly understood nineteenth century entrepreneurs. A study of him, not only leads to a greater appreciation of the ventures in which he was involved, but also to an appreciation of the value of examining the careers of those who failed
The NSW Steam Trawl Fishery on the South-East Continental Shelf of Australia, 1915–1961
No full textHow was modern fishing methods, in the form of steam trawling, introduced in Australia? And what were the consequences for the fish stocks found on the South-East Continental Shelf? Through historical catch records and archival resources, the history of the NSW Steam Trawl Industry from 1915 to 1961 is unfolded. This reveals that government initiatives played a surprisingly decisive role in founding and sustaining the industry. Also that early signs of depletion of stocks and overfishing happened within the first decade of the fishery and, in the case of flathead, overfishing was so severe that flathead biomass on the South-East Continental shelf was permanently reduced. The study furthermore reveals how the trawl industry was influenced by government policy, market conditions, war and fishing effort with little understanding of the marine resources which they relied on
Economic strategies for coastal disaster risk reduction: A case study of Exmouth, Western Australia
Get PDFRecent major natural disasters in Australia have highlighted how some of the economic costs of living in risk-prone areas are borne by the rest of society. This study used the town of Exmouth, in north-western Australia, to investigate economic strategies for coastal disaster risk reduction, as it typifies expanding development in coastal areas prone to extreme weather events. Using a GIS, coastal inundation scenarios from cyclonic storm-surge were investigated relative to coastal property, infrastructure and shire planning. It showed that some areas developed in the past decade are at high risk of storm-surge inundation. There has been a loss of disastermitigating ecosystem functions as well as increased risk to previously unaffected areas. The extent to which risk perceptions of cyclonic storm-surge inundation and flooding influenced the price buyers paid for residential property in Exmouth over the period 1988-2010 was examined using a Hedonic Price Model. This incorporated dwelling variables, proximity to the coast, cyclone Vance storm-surge and 1-in-100 year flood levels and indicated that prices did not reflect the real societal cost of risk. To internalize these costs, a mandatory private insurance scheme for high-risk properties (with a time-phased government subsidy) and penalties for local councils undertaking new high-risk developments are proposed. Further, a hybrid economic instrument aimed at correcting the market failure in coastal land which comprises an environmental offset by developers, a propertyowner tax and special disaster risk mitigation fund, is also proposed. This study is highly relevant in view of the planned revision of the Western Australian Coastal Planning Policy, the expansion of industry along the coast of northern Australia and the predicted effects of climate change on sea levels and extreme weather events
Agricultural productivity and domestic food availability in Bangladesh
Get PDFThis thesis sheds light on the economic aspects of agricultural technological progress in meeting the challenges of sustainable food security in rural Bangladesh. The key question at the heart of this research is to explore how Bangladesh could increase its food production in a sustainable manner to feed its ever increasing population in the long run, despite facing increased natural resource constraints and increasing climate variability. One well demonstrated method by which to increase food production using fewer resources is to increase the productivity of factors of production. The impact or relationship between productivity and long-run sustainable output growth can be captured or measured with the growth accounting framework pioneered by Solow (1956, 1957).
This thesis concentrates particularly upon household level crop productivity by empirically estimating medium term growth in eight different regions of Bangladesh. This is because statistical research conducted from a macro perspective on growth accounting will never be able to offer a complete account of the growth process, but case studies based on field surveys can provide an important (or perhaps a deeper) complementary understanding of agricultural productivity.
The findings of this study, using secondary source-based data, show a very low level of average total factor productivity (TFP) growth, of only 0.24 per cent per year between the 2009-2014 period. In addition, empirical results of TFP growth in diverse regions of Bangladesh show considerable variation, ranging from on an average 0.38 to 0.14 per cent per annum during the same period. In addition, a combination of primary and secondary source-based TFP growth analysis shows TFP grew at an average of 0.46 per cent per annum in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh during 2009 to 2015. This relatively impressive performance sets a benchmark target for other regions. Although achieving similar TFP growth levels across the regions may be difficult mainly due to environmental differences, minimizing the TFP growth gap through appropriate policy initiatives will make a valuable contribution to food security in Bangladesh.
Overall, the findings in this thesis suggest that agricultural output growth in all the study areas are technology or TFP driven, including sustainable food production
Hunting “Big Fish”: A marine environmental history of a contested fishery in the Bohol Sea
Get PDFThe Bohol Sea in the Philippines has a high biodiversity of large marine vertebrates. It is also one of the primary fishing grounds in the Central Visayas. This is a study of the history of interactions of the fishers of the Bohol Sea with the ‘big fishes’ living within it. These ‘big fishes’ are the large marine vertebrates, namely whales, dolphins, whale sharks and manta rays. It is the story of the changes in the Bohol Sea and how the communities who depended on it affected these changes. Similarly, it discusses how the Bohol Sea and the large marine vertebrates shaped the lives of the coastal peoples living around it. This study aims to determine the extent of the fisheries for whales, dolphins, whale sharks and manta rays in the Bohol Sea from the 19th century to recent times. It focuses on the fishing communities of southern Bohol, Camiguin and Southern Leyte in the Central Visayas, who are known to hunt these large marine vertebrates, and aims to describe the characteristics and trace the evolution of these fisheries. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this study uses a combination of ethnographic and historical research methods, together with biological data, from published and unpublished sources. The study aims to determine if the abundance and distribution of large marine vertebrates in the Bohol Sea changed in the long-term. It also examines how the fishing communities adapted to the ecological, socio-economic and political changes over time.
From its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, the hunting of whales, dolphins, whale sharks and manta rays, in the different communities around the Bohol Sea underwent very similar and, for some, identical technological developments. These fishing technologies and patterns were adapted to the nature of their target species. By the late twentieth century, with increasing population, worsening economic conditions, and declining fish stocks in the country, the Bohol Sea fishing communities’ dependence on the fisheries for large marine vertebrates also increased. Likewise, fishery policies and legislative frameworks were also evolving with a more protectionist and conservationist stance. The implementation of fishery bans in the 1990s compelled most fishers to comply and adapt, however others resisted. Communities who lived in an environment endowed with more diverse and abundant resources proved to be more resilient. While those who heavily depended on the fishery and had little else to turn to have continued to hunt up to the present day. Despite continuing protests and public clamour for a total ban on hunting for all other species of rays in the Philippines, the ray fishery in the Bohol Sea continues.
This study demonstrates how state efforts to conserve whales, dolphins, whale sharks and manta rays in the Philippines have been ineffective. This is primarily because of the lack of legitimacy of these fishery policies in the eyes of the communities. This study also highlights the importance of using multiple and non-traditional data sources in evaluating fisheries that are data deficient. The study shows how it is important to examine the historical context of ecological and social systems in order to understand the causes of contemporary resource management problems
An empirical case study of strategic alliances in Malaysia
Get PDFThis study is premised on the assumption that cooperative partnerships or strategic alliances will become the dominant structure for business in future decades (Drucker, 1989). This is evident in the phenomenal growth in the establishment of alliances the world over despite high failure rates. The high failure rate not withstanding, both domestic and international alliances are critically important to firm success (Glaister and Buckley, 1999). Currently, the top 500 global business firms average 60 major strategic alliances each (Dyer et al., 2001). Results also indicate that more than 80% of surveyed top level managers view strategic alliances as a primary growth vehicle and expect alliances to account for 25% of their company's market value by 2005 (Schifrin, 2001).
The simultaneous developments that go under the name of globalization make alliances or entente necessary. Entente, the striking of an alliance, is a responsible part of every good strategist's repertoire (Ohmae, 2001). In a world of imperfect options, they are often the fastest, least risky and most profitable way to go global; and properly managed alliances are among the best mechanisms that companies have found to bring strategy to bear on these challenges. Although the use of alliances reduces entry risks, managing these alliances entails difficulties. Moreover, this entry strategy has some peculiarities of its own, especially when there are significant cultural differences between the partners. Under these circumstances, partner selection and initial steps toward managing the new relationship become critical factors for successful entry. At the partnership creation stage, the balance between the contributions each company will bring to the partnership and the difficulties they will face in managing their relationship need to be considered. As the relationship unfolds, social processes gain importance. The level of inter partner trust or 'perceived likelihood of the other not behaving in a self interested manner' (Madhok, 1995, p.120) influences the performance of the partnership (Gill and Butler, 1996).
Whilst research in the West has attempted to focus on such failings, few researchers have attempted to understand the state of alliances in developing country contexts and alliance partner selection. Malaysia is a successful developing economy with a distinct institutional environment. This thesis explores (1) the criteria used by Malaysian firms to select their partner, both task related and partner related criteria; (2) the contributions that Malaysian firms and their foreign counterparts bring to the partnership; and (3) management of the inter partner relationship, including the difficulties encountered, how the relationship management varies with the characteristics of the Malaysian partner, and the resulting effects on the process of trust building. The study's results suggest that Malaysia's stable and supportive institutional environment has helped Malaysian firms take a longer term view of alliance partner selection, focusing more on the potential partner's intangible assets along with technological and managerial capabilities rather than merely transaction cost concerns. The study also finds that Malaysian firms, when entering into strategic alliances, do not consider every option, that is, they use filters to reduce the potential choice. Thus the range of possible alliance partners is restricted in many ways, some of these being unconsciously employed. Furthermore, it is clear that, while Malaysian firms consider margins, ratios and percentages, relationships have a pre-eminent role in strategic alliances and that relationships are poised between ends and means to ends. It can therefore be surmised that the overall selection process in Malaysia is fundamentally shaped by the manner in which potential alliance partners are initially identified. Case study evidence from a sample of Malaysian firms seems to bear this out. This study therefore contributes to knowledge about the influence of the institutional environment on alliance partner selection decisions for firms domiciled in developing countries.
The study utilized phenomenology as its research paradigm, along with the case study method. These methods were found to be highly relevant for conducting exploratory research into strategic alliances because of the need to generate holistic data and for such data to be interpreted within context. Finally, Malaysia's economic performance to date has been impressive and the outlook for continued high growth rates is good. As Malaysia embarks on the next stage of development, the complementarities between the Malaysian firms and foreign economies will provide even greater opportunities for greater economic integration. The managerial implications for business managers are highlighted. Thus, the formation of strategic alliances to achieve or maintain a competitive advantage and enhance the firm's performance is an important issue warranting further study (Arino, 2001)
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