Notes on freshwater Entomostraca from South Australia

The Entomostraca here described were collected by Professor Ralph Tate, of the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and by Mr. T. Steel. Prof. Tate's specimens were sent by him to Prof. T. Rupert Jones, P.R.S., to whose kindness I am indebted for the opportunity of describing them. ..

Annual performance indicators of enforced driver behaviours in South Australia, 2007

This report was produced to quantify performance indicators for selected enforced driver behaviours (drink driving, drug driving, speeding and restraint use) in South Australia for the calendar year 2007. The level of random breath testing (RBT) in South Australia in 2007 decreased slightly but remained at a relatively high level. The proportion of tests conducted using mobile RBT continued to increase. The detection rate based on evidentiary testing increased in 2007 to the highest level on record, while the detection rate for screening tests decreased. Detection rates in South Australia were comparable with those in other states. Just over 12,000 drug tests were conducted during 2007, the first full year of random drug testing. Relative to other Australian jurisdictions supplying comparative data, South Australia had the highest testing rate per head of population. Around 24 drivers per 1,000 tested were confirmed positive for at least one of the three prescribed drugs with methylamphetamine the most commonly detected drug. Of the fatally injured drivers who were drug tested in 2007, 25 per cent tested positive for illicit drugs. There was a slight decrease in the number of hours spent on speed detection in 2007. Nevertheless, the total number of speed detections increased, with increases observed for speed camera and red light/speed cameras, the latter most likely due to the expansion of the program. The detection rate (per hour of enforcement and per 1,000 vehicles passing speed cameras) increased by around 30 per cent. Data from systematic speed surveys, introduced in 2007, indicated that travelling speeds on South Australian roads were increasing. The number of restraint offences in 2007 decreased by 14 per cent. Males were charged with more restraint offences and were more likely to be unrestrained in fatal and serious injury crashes than females, indicating that males remain an important target for restraint enforcement. The 2007 publicity campaign focused on the consequences of not using restraints rather than increasing the perceived risk of detection.LN Wundersitz, K Hiranandani, MRJ Baldoc

A fossil byblidaceae seed from eocene South Australia

Copyright © 2004 by The University of ChicagoA single mummified angiosperm seed is described from a middle Eocene clay lens deposit at the Monier East Yatala Sand Pit, Golden Grove, South Australia. The seed is small (0.7 mm long and 0.45 mm wide), elliptical, black, and shows complex raised reticulate honeycomb sculpturing with deeply excavated cell floors and verrucate sculpturing on the anticlinal ridges. The fossil was compared against extant species of Byblis and the Droseraceae, especially the Drosera indica L. complex, common annual carnivorous plants that grow in seasonally damp environments in northern Australia and that have similarly small sculptured seeds. The combination of deep reticulately honeycombed cells and the verrucate anticlinal walls places the seed close to extant taxa in the Byblis liniflora Salisb. complex. However, in the absence of a larger sample and/or of definitive features to assign the fossil unequivocally to an extant species, as well as nomenclatural restrictions preventing the typification of a fossil by an illustration, the specimen is described as a parataxon and placed in Byblidaceae but without a formal name.Conran, John G., and David C. Christophe

Policy Innovation and Institutional Capacity Building: Putting Market-Based Instruments Into Practice in South Australia

As market-based instruments (MBIs) become a buzzword, there is an emerging expectation among policy makers and natural resource managers that MBIs should be more widely adopted. However, without the change of existing ideas and institutions, governments tend to continue to use the default regulatory and voluntary instruments. This paper provides an overview of policy instruments and the general expectations about the instrument choice when governments face policy implementation. Although it does not provide specific choice of individual instruments, some key issues and opportunities are identified for the wide adoption of MBIs in South Australia for sustainable NRM and economic development.Market-based instruments, Institutional capacity building, Policy instrument, Instrument compatibility, Natural resource management, South Australia, Political Economy,

Climate change mitigation by Greater Adelaide councils

This paper reports on carbon mitigation actions adopted by Greater Adelaide councils (n=14) in South Australia. A survey of environmental officers profiled carbon mitigation actions, emissions auditing, and motives for emissions reduction by councils. The main reasons for carbon actions were a climate change plan, showing climate leadership, and cost savings

The Path to Otopia: an Australian Perspective

This paper is a response to an invitation from SASA to deliver a keynote address on the topic: "The History of Innovative Organic Knowledge: Past, Present (and Future?)” to the Soil Association of South Australia (SASA) on the occasion of the launching of the SASA Historical Research Archive at the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. It identifies three waves of organic advocacy in Australia. It describes the author's recently published research on the Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society (1944-1955), the world's first society to call itself an "organic farming" society, the first society to publish an organic journal (the "Organic Farming Digest"), and the first society to publish a set of organic agriculture principles. Looking to the future, the term "Otopia" is coined to describe a state of 100% organic agriculture. At the historical rate of growth exhibited by the organic sector (data available for the past 8 years), it will take 584 years to reach a global state of Otopia if we assume arithmetic growth (of 27.1% pa), or 27 years if we assume compounding growth (of 16.4% pa)