Motivations, expectations and experiences of Australian rural and regional planners

Despite playing an extremely important role in shaping communities, the role and contribution of planners is not widely understood or acknowledged. At the same time, there is a shortage of planners in Australia, especially in non-urban areas. Thus, though an online survey of 185 rural and regional planners, this research explores their motivations, expectations and experiences. Most enjoyed and felt confident in their role, explaining that they valued the relaxed family orientated rural lifestyle and the varied nature of the planning work. Although they sometimes felt isolated, the non-urban location provided quicker progression to senior roles, the ability to engage directly with the community and to see the consequences of their decisions. Only half felt their education had prepared them well for their role, citing gaps in terms of computerised modelling, team leadership and conflict resolution skills. Their feedback centred on providing a more practical course, focussing more on regional planning, and encouraging urban and rural experience placements. As the first study to quantifiably explore rural and regional Australian planners perceptions of their role and challenges, the findings illustrate current experiences, key planning challenges, perceived educational gaps and future priorities

The accidental mentor: Australian rural nurses developing supportive relationships in the workplace

improved rural nurse retention as an outcome of recognising and developing such supportive relationships in the workplace. Strategies include: performance review and development processes that account for all forms of supportive relationships conducted in the workplace; recognising the importance of developing supportive relationships and allocating time for these; and continuing professional development designed to meet local needs for developing a culture of support in the workplace

Motivations, expectations and experiences of Australian rural and regional planners

Despite playing an extremely important role in shaping communities, the role and contribution of planners is not widely understood or acknowledged. At the same time, there is a shortage of planners in Australia, especially in non-urban areas. Thus, though an online survey of 185 rural and regional planners, this research explores their motivations, expectations and experiences. Most enjoyed and felt confident in their role, explaining that they valued the relaxed family orientated rural lifestyle and the varied nature of the planning work. Although they sometimes felt isolated, the non-urban location provided quicker progression to senior roles, the ability to engage directly with the community and to see the consequences of their decisions. Only half felt their education had prepared them well for their role, citing gaps in terms of computerised modelling, team leadership and conflict resolution skills. Their feedback centred on providing a more practical course, focussing more on regional planning, and encouraging urban and rural experience placements. As the first study to quantifiably explore rural and regional Australian planners perceptions of their role and challenges, the findings illustrate current experiences, key planning challenges, perceived educational gaps and future priorities.Rural and regional planners; expectations; experiences; Australia

Agriculture: a case study in industrial relations reform

Organised Australian labour first demonstrated its power in the shearing industry just over 100 years ago. The system of arbitration developed over the last century continues to have a profound impact on agriculture. This article profiles the Australian rural labour market and identifies some continuing regulatory impediments to the proper functioning of the rural labour market. A brief review of the links between agriculture and other industries in Australia concludes that the greatest improvement in farm profitability from a better functioning labour market is to be had from productivity increases in industries outside the farm gate.Agribusiness,

Discussion paper and working paper series : Motivations, expectations and experiences of Australian rural and regional planners

Despite playing an extremely important role in shaping communities, the role and contribution of planners is not widely understood or acknowledged. At the same time, there is a shortage of planners in Australia, especially in non-urban areas. Thus, though an online survey of 185 rural and regional planners, this research explores their motivations, expectations and experiences. Most enjoyed and felt confident in their role, explaining that they valued the relaxed family orientated rural lifestyle and the varied nature of the planning work. Although they sometimes felt isolated, the non-urban location provided quicker progression to senior roles, the ability to engage directly with the community and to see the consequences of their decisions. Only half felt their education had prepared them well for their role, citing gaps in terms of computerised modelling, team leadership and conflict resolution skills. Their feedback centred on providing a more practical course, focussing more on regional planning, and encouraging urban and rural experience placements. As the first study to quantifiably explore rural and regional Australian planners perceptions of their role and challenges, the findings illustrate current experiences, key planning challenges, perceived educational gaps and future priorities

An exploration of tertiary education and community experiences for persons living in Australian rural areas

Jillian Marchant studied the tertiary education and community experiences of persons in Australian rural areas. She presents an account of individualised experiences in rural contexts to provide rich, detailed descriptions that are grounded in each person's narrative. Such an account complicates what is known about rural peoples and their activities

Oxygen uptake and heart rate during simulated wildfire suppression tasks performed by Australian rural firefighters

Objective: Australian rural fire crews safeguard the nation against the annual devastation of wildfire. We have previously reported that experienced firefighters identified seven physically demanding tasks for Australian rural fire crews when suppressing wildfires. These firefighters rated the operational importance, typical duration, core fitness components, and likely frequency of the seven tasks. The intensity of these duties remains unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify the oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR) and movement speed responses during simulations of these physically demanding wildfire suppression tasks. Method: Twenty six rural firefighters (20 men, six women) performed up to seven tasks, during which time their HR and movement speed were recorded. The VO2 for each task was also calculated from the analysis of expired air collected in Douglas bags. Firefighters’ HR and movement speed were measured using HR monitors and portable global positioning system units, respectively. Results: The hose work tasks elicited a VO2 of 21-27 mL·kg-1·min-1 and peak HR of 77-87% age-predicted maximal HR (HRmax). Hand tool tasks were accompanied by VO2 of 28-34 mL·kg-1·min-1 and peak HR of 85-95%HRmax. Firefighters’ movement speed spanned 0.2 ± 0.1 to 1.8 ± 0.2 m·s-1 across the seven tasks. The cardiovascular responses in the hand tool tasks were, in most cases, higher (P < 0.05) than during those elicited by the hose work tasks. Conclusions: The cardiovascular responses elicited during simulations of physically demanding wildfire suppression approximated those reported for similar tasks in urban and forestry fire fighting jurisdictions. The findings may prompt Australian rural fire agencies to consider cardiovascular disease risk screenin

Educational needs of Australian rural and remote doctors for intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound

Introduction: The aim of this research was to determine the educational needs of Australian rural and remote doctors for intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound. The main research questions were: what educational topics would rural and remote doctors prefer to learn about in intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound, and what were those doctors' preferred methods of delivery for an ultrasound education program. Method: A self-administered postal questionnaire containing a pre-paid return envelope was mailed to 344 Australian rural and remote doctors in December 2003. Results: 107 completed questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 32.7%. This was after the denominator was adjusted for the 17 doctors whose letters were returned to sender. The respondents included 23 (21.5%) female and 84 (78.5%) male doctors. Eighty doctors (74.8%) stated that they used ultrasound, and 27 (25.2%) said they did not. Seventy-seven (72%) indicated they had previously participated in some ultrasound education and training. The respondents stated that their main areas of educational need in intermediate obstetric ultrasound were ectopic pregnancy (76.6%), miscarriage (72%), intrauterine growth restriction (65.4%), transvaginal scanning (47.7%), detecting fetal abnormalities (47.7%) and morphology scanning at 18-20 weeks (41.1%). The main areas of educational need in emergency medicine ultrasound were focused abdominal sonography in trauma (63.5%), detecting foreign bodies (40.2%), gynecological ultrasound (39.2%), gall bladder and biliary tract (37.4%), abdominal aortic aneurysm (32.7%) and trauma bleeding (31.7%). Conclusion: Australian rural and remote doctors are using ultrasound technology to improve the clinical investigation and diagnosis of a large variety of clinical conditions in their family medical practices. This paper describes the results of research into the educational needs of this target group of doctors

Frequency, intensity and duration of physical tasks performed by Australian rural firefighters during bushfire suppression

The current study combined, for the first time, video footage of individual firefighters wearing heart rate monitors and personal GPS units to quantify the frequency, duration and intensity of tasks performed by Australian rural fire crews when. suppressing bushfires. Across the four fireground \u27shifts\u27, the firefighters performed 34 distinct fireground tasks. Per shift, the task frequency ranged from once (raking fireline in teams, carrying a quick fill pump) to 103 times {lateral repositioning of a 38-mm charged firehose) .. The tasks lasted between 4 &plusmn; 2 s (bowling out 3-8-mm firehose) and 461 &plusmn; 387 s (raking fireline in teams). The task intensity~ as measured by average heart rate ranged between 97 &plusmn; 16 beats&middot;min-1 (55.7 &plusmn; 8.7. %HRmax) and 157 &plusmn; 15 beats&middot;min-1 (86.2 &plusmn; 10.8 %HRmax)&middot; The tasks were performed a speeds that ranged from 0.12 &plusmn; 0.08 m&middot;s-1 (manual hose retraction of 38-mm charged firehose) to 0.79 &plusmn; 0.40 m&middot;s-1 (carrying a 38-mm coiled hose). Tasks found to be simultaneously frequent, long and intense (or two of these three) are likely to form the basis for job-specific testing of Australian rural firefighters suppressing bushfires.<br /

Renegotiating gender and the symbolic transformation of Australian rural environments

A notable feature of contemporary approaches to ameliorating rural environmental degradation (such as Australia’s National Landcare Program) is the involvement of women to a degree not witnessed in other mainstream farming issues and organisations. At the same time, rural women’s networks are calling for greater recognition of the contribution women make to agriculture and rural communities – to recognise women as ‘farmers’ in their own right – and for a broadening of the agri-political agenda to give greater recognition to non-‘ production’ issues such as social services, workplace health and safety and environmental care. Given the traditional construction of agricultural labour processes in highly masculinised and phallocentric terms, this raises a number of questions regarding the degree to which rural environments are undergoing a sort of symbolic transformation. More specifically, we might question the degree to which these developments provide evidence that human relationships with rural environments – as embodied in the labour process and other day-to-day activities – are being reconceptualised and restructured. To explore this question, we explore data from a variety of sources including ethnographic research conducted with community Landcare groups and organic farmers, and textual analysis of the popular rural press. We conclude that while the renegotiation of gender relations in the labour process is in itself culturally and socially profound, a range of other sociocultural processes may stand in the way of fundamental transformation of the relationships with rural environments implied in those labour processes