James Thomas Walker: banker, Federation father, Australian senator

Australian history offers few biographies of Federation Fathers other than those of outstanding figures such as Edmund Barton or Alfred Deakin; biographies of conservative politicians in early Federal Parliament and of middle-class white-collar workers are also scarce. Nor is there a study of the history of William Walker & Company and Walker Brothers & Company, influential firms in the wool industry and mercantile affairs of early New South Wales. Based on the diaries and papers of James Thomas Walker, which have been virtually ignored by scholars to date, this study contributes new knowledge on these topics. Walker was a prominent banker and financier—indeed the last outstanding member of a family prominent in Australian commercial history for a century—and a Federation Father, now virtually forgotten, who served as an Independent Freetrader in the first Federal Parliament. The thesis traces Walker's background and identifies the influences that shaped his career. Born in Leith (Scotland) in 1841, he died in Sydney in 1923, a few weeks before his 82nd birthday. He came to Australia first at the age of four years in a sailing ship; he died only twelve years before British Imperial Eastern Airways instituted a regular service from Britain to Australia. In 1859 he joined the staff of the Bank of New South Wales in London; returning to Australia in 1862 he was appointed Accountant at the Rockhampton Branch. In 1866 he received instructions to leave immediately to open and manage the first branch of the Bank at Townsville, then barely eighteen months old. Subsequently he served in managerial positions with the Bank at Toowoomba and Brisbane, but resigned m December 1885 after twenty-five years service, to become General Manager of the newly-established Royal Bank of Queensland. In 1886 his cousin Thomas Walker, one of Australia's wealthiest men at the time, died leaving a daughter lacking both the experience and the training to manage her father's extensive interests. In 1887, bowing to family pressure, Walker resigned his position and moved to Sydney to become Managing Trustee of the Thomas Walker estate. There he became a well-liked and respected figure in the world of finance and economics, a board member of a number of companies, notably the Australian Mutual Provident Society, Burns Philp & Company, and the Bank of New South Wales of which he served as President from 1899 to 1901. He was also a noted philanthropist with a keen interest in education and health; he served on the Councils of both St Andrews College and Women's College of the University of Sydney and of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and supervised the building and management of the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital at Concord. Long a supporter of Federation of the Australian colonies, he was elected in 1897 one of the ten delegates from New South Wales to the Federation Convention; he was in fact the only member of the Convention who was not a politician. He was responsible for ensuring that the Upper House of Federal Parliament should be called 'The Senate' and for devising the plan that formed the basis for solution of the fiscal problems that had impeded agreement on Federation. Elected as a Senator in the first Commonwealth Parliament, Walker was particularly notable for his staunch opposition to racist legislation; he was the first man to state in Federal Parliament that the Aboriginal people had owned the land before the arrival of European settlers

Gateway to a golden land: Townsville to 1884

This thesis is a study of the development of the townscape of Townsville during the first twenty years of settlement, necessary to appreciate how the area appeared before settlement in order to understand the changes brought about by European intrusion, it commences with the descriptions from the journals of early explorers, from Captain Cook onwards, and ends in 1884 with the township beginning to develop into the city we know today. Normally, the author of such a study can rely on one or more histories of the city with which he is concerned for background data. In the case of Townsville, no properly documented history existed and all popular histories were found to contain inaccuracies or to be mainly repetitions of earlier works. The most reliable source was found to be the Christmas Supplement published with the Townsville Herald of 24 December 1887. It was therefore necessary to work from original documents to obtain accurate background history, so that this work includes more discussion of such material than might otherwise have been the case. It is divided into two parts. Part One deals with exploration, foundation, and survival, and Part Two with consolidation and expansion. Part One contains descriptions of Cleveland Bay before settlement. It was discovered that the explorer and botanist, Allan Cunningham, was the first European to land in Cleveland Bay when official Botanist with Phillip Parker King's expedition in the Mermaid in 1819. Cunningham's Journals provided excellent descriptions of the area, while his collecting lists, located in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, provided a record of many of the plants then growing in the region. The reasons for Townsville's foundation and why it was not founded earlier are then examined. This includes a brief discussion of the shortcomings of Bowen, Wickham and Cardwell, in order to account for Townsville's comparatively rapid growth. It was discovered that the township was founded by Black and Company, with partners John Melton Black and Robert Towns, not by Towns and Company with Black as local Manager, as previously believed for over a century. The activities of John Melton Black and his relationship with Robert Towns are examined, extensive use being made of the surviving correspondence of both Black and Towns. The problems involved in founding the town and the difficulties Black and Towns experienced in persuading the Government to provide assistance are described. It was discovered that Black had presented the Government with fairly detailed maps of the proposed townsite and that Captain Heath from the Harbours and Rivers Department had made a survey of the bay before settlement. Black's maps are reproduced in the endnotes and Heath's report examined in the text of this work. The early settlement, development of a town plan, extension of amenities and facilities and first buildings are described with some account of life in the township in 1866 derived from the diary of J.T. Walker, the first Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, which the author located in the Mitchell Library. Other reminiscences of early settlers and visitors, such as C.S. Rowe, R.B. Howard, Andrew Carroll, Lucy Gray, Catherine Robinson, James Gordon jnr and members of the Hodel family, are also quoted. The township's slow growth until the discovery of gold in 1867, and its remarkable survival of the pastoral crisis of the 1860s, the cyclone of 1867 and the departure of Black, is next detailed. Part One ends with a discussion of the effects of the discovery in subsequent years of several major goldfields in the hinterland and their effect on Townsville until 1870. Part Two deals with the effects on Townsville of the discovery of further goldfields, the expansion of settlement in the north and in particular the growth of Cooktown. and other northern ports and discusses why Townsville continued to grow during the 1870s, emerging clearly by 1884 as the dominant town in north Queensland, and possible capital of a new northern state. The growth of industries, both in the town and surrounding districts, is discussed together with the expansion of facilities and amenities in the town. This includes brief histories of the Great Northern Railway, harbour improvements, schools, churches, newspapers, hospital and other facilities and amenities. Changes in the townscape axe described, in particular the slow change from corrugated-iron and timber buildings to brick structures, the extension of roads and the evolution of suburbs. Many of Townsville's early buildings are described with accompanying illustrations, and it has been possible to identify for the first time most of their architects and builders. The thesis concludes with a description of Townsville in 1884 and looks sadly at the irreparable damage to the surrounding scenery wrought by the settlers' apparently insatiable need for wood, and their lack of appreciation of the natural flora

An interprofessional nurse-led mental health promotion intervention for older home care clients with depressive symptoms.

BackgroundDepressive symptoms in older home care clients are common but poorly recognized and treated, resulting in adverse health outcomes, premature institutionalization, and costly use of health services. The objectives of this study were to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a new six-month interprofessional (IP) nurse-led mental health promotion intervention, and to explore its effects on reducing depressive symptoms in older home care clients (≥ 70 years) using personal support services.MethodsA prospective one-group pre-test/post-test study design was used. The intervention was a six-month evidence-based depression care management strategy led by a registered nurse that used an IP approach. Of 142 eligible consenting participants, 98 (69%) completed the six-month and 87 (61%) completed the one-year follow-up. Outcomes included depressive symptoms, anxiety, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and the costs of use of all types of health services at baseline and six-month and one-year follow-up. An interpretive descriptive design was used to explore clients', nurses', and personal support workers' perceptions about the intervention's appropriateness, benefits, and barriers and facilitators to implementation.ResultsOf the 142 participants, 56% had clinically significant depressive symptoms, with 38% having moderate to severe symptoms. The intervention was feasible and acceptable to older home care clients with depressive symptoms. It was effective in reducing depressive symptoms and improving HRQoL at six-month follow-up, with small additional improvements six months after the intervention. The intervention also reduced anxiety at one year follow-up. Significant reductions were observed in the use of hospitalization, ambulance services, and emergency room visits over the study period.ConclusionsOur findings provide initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and sustained effects of the nurse-led mental health promotion intervention in improving client outcomes, reducing use of expensive health services, and improving clinical practice behaviours of home care providers. Future research should evaluate its efficacy using a randomized clinical trial design, in different settings, with an adequate sample of older home care recipients with depressive symptoms.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01407926

NanoSIMS opens a New Window for Deciphering Organic Matter in Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Samples

Recognition of the earliest morphological or chemical evidence of terrestrial life has proved to be challenging, as organic matter in ancient rocks is commonly fragmentary and difficult to distinguish from abiotically-produced materials (Schopf, 1993; Van Zuilen et al., 2002; Altermann & Kazmierczak, 2003; Cady et al., 2003; Brasier et al., 2002, 2004, 2005; Hofmann, 2004; Skrzypczak et al., 2004, 2005). Yet, the ability to identify remnants of earliest life is critical to our understanding of the timing of life's origin on earth, the nature of earliest terrestrial life, and recognition of potential remnants of microbial life that might occur in extraterrestrial materials. The search for earliest life on Earth now extends to early Archean organic remains; these tend to be very poorly preserved and considerably more difficult to interpret than the delicately permineralized microfossils known from many Proterozoic deposits. Thus, recent efforts have been directed toward finding biosignatures that can help distinguish fragmentary remnants of ancient microbes from either pseudofossils or abiotic organic materials that may have formed hydrothermally or in extraterrestrial processes (House et al., 2000; Boyce et al., 2001; Kudryavtsev et al., 2001; Schopf, 2002; Schopf et al., 2002, 2005a,b; Cady et al., 2003; Garc a-Ruiz et al., 2003; Hofmann, 2004; Brasier et al., 2005; Rushdi and Simoneit, 2005; Skrzypczak et al., 2005). An exciting area of biosignature research involves the developing technology of NanoSIMS. NanoSIMS is secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for ultrafine feature, elemental and isotopic analysis. Its resolution approaches 0.05 micrometers for element mapping, which is 10-50 times finer than that attainable with conventional SIMS or electron microprobes. Consequently, NanoSIMS has the potential to reveal previously unknown, chemical and structural characteristics of organic matter preserved in geologic materials. Robert et al. (2005) were the first to combine NanoSIMS element maps with optical microscopic imagery in an effort to develop a new method for assessing biogenicity. They showed that the ability to simultaneously map the distribution of organic elements [such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S)] and compare those element distributions with optically recognizable, cellularly preserved fossils could provide significant new insights into the origin of organic materials in ancient sediments. This chapter details a recent NanoSIMS study which was designed to acquire new data relevant to establishing critical biosignatures (Oehler et al., 2006a-c). In this study, NanoSIMS was used to characterize element distributions of spheroidal and filamentous microfossils and associated organic laminae in chert from the approx. 0.85 billion year old (Ga) Bitter Springs Formation of Australia. Previous work established preservation of a diverse microbiota in the Bitter Springs Formation (Schopf, 1968; Schopf and Blacic, 1971), and there is no dispute within the scientific community regarding the biogenicity of any of the Bitter Springs structures evaluated in this new study. Thus, the NanoSIMS results described below provide new insight into - and can be used as a guide for assessing - the origin of less well understood organic materials that may occur in early Archean samples and in meteorites or other extraterrestrial samples

Pro-inflammatory cytokines play a key role in the development of radiotherapy-induced gastrointestinal mucositis

Background: Mucositis is a toxic side effect of anti-cancer treatments and is a major focus in cancer research. Pro-inflammatory cytokines have previously been implicated in the pathophysiology of chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal mucositis. However, whether they play a key role in the development of radiotherapy-induced gastrointestinal mucositis is still unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterise the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the gastrointestinal tract using a rat model of fractionated radiotherapy-induced toxicity. Methods: Thirty six female Dark Agouti rats were randomly assigned into groups and received 2.5 Gys abdominal radiotherapy three times a week over six weeks. Real time PCR was conducted to determine the relative change in mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF in the jejunum and colon. Protein expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF in the intestinal epithelium was investigated using qualitative immunohistochemistry. Results: Radiotherapy-induced sub-acute damage was associated with significantly upregulated IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF mRNA levels in the jejunum and colon. The majority of pro-inflammatory cytokine protein expression in the jejunum and colon exhibited minimal change following fractionated radiotherapy. Conclusions: Pro-inflammatory cytokines play a key role in radiotherapy-induced gastrointestinal mucositis in the sub-acute onset setting.Zhi Yi Ong, Rachel J. Gibson, Joanne M. Bowen, Andrea M. Stringer, Jocelyn M. Darby, Richard M. Logan, Ann S.J. Yeoh, Dorothy M. Keef

Investigation of effect of nutritional drink on chemotherapy-induced mucosal injury and tumor growth in an established animal model

Chemotherapy-induced mucositis represents a significant burden to quality of life and healthcare costs, and may be improved through enhanced nutritional status. We first determined the safety of two nutritional drinks (plus placebo), and then potential gut protection in tumor-bearing rats in a model of methotrexate-induced mucositis. In study 1, animals were fed one of two test diets (or placebo or control chow pellets) for a total of 60 days and were monitored daily. All diets were found to be safe to administer. In study 2, after seven days of receiving diets, a Dark Agouti Mammary Adenocarcinoma (DAMA) was transplanted subcutaneously. Ten days after starting diets, animals had 2 mg/kg intramuscular methotrexate administered on two consecutive days; after this time, all animals were given soaked chow. Animals were monitored daily for changes in bodyweight, tumor burden and general health. Animals were killed 10, 12 and 16 days after initially starting diets, and tissues were collected at necropsy. In study 1, animals receiving diets had gained 0.8% and 10.8% of their starting bodyweight after 60 days, placebo animals 4.4%, and animals fed on standard chow had gained 15.1%. In study 2, there was no significant influence of test diet on bodyweight, organ weight, tumor burden or biochemical parameters. Only animals treated with MTX exhibited diarrhea, although animals receiving Diet A and Diet C showed a non-significant increase in incidence of diarrhea. Administration of these nutritional drinks did not improve symptoms of mucositis.Emma Bateman, Joanne Bowen, Andrea Stringer, Bronwen Mayo, Erin Plews, Anthony Wignall, Norman Greenberg, Eduardo Schiffrin and Dorothy Keef

Patients’ perceptions and experiences of living with a surgical wound healing by secondary intention : a qualitative study

Background: Most surgical wounds heal by primary intention, that is to say, the edges of the wound are brought together with sutures, staples, adhesive glue or clips. However, some wounds may be left open to heal (if there is a risk of infection, or if there has been significant tissue loss), and are known as ‘surgical wounds healing by secondary intention’. They are estimated to comprise approximately 28% of all surgical wounds and are frequently complex to manage. However, they are under researched and little is known of their impact on patients’ lives. Objectives: To explore patients’ views and experiences of living with a surgical wound healing by secondary intention. Design: A qualitative, descriptive approach. Settings: Participants were recruited from acute and community nursing services in two locations in the North of England characterised by high levels of deprivation and diverse populations. Participants: Participants were aged 18 years or older and had at least one surgical wound healing by secondary intention, which was slow to heal. Purposeful sampling was used to include patients of different gender, age, wound duration and type of surgery (general, vascular and orthopaedic). Twenty people were interviewed between January and July 2012. 2 Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted, guided by use of a topic guide developed with input from patient advisors. Data were thematically analysed using steps integral to the ‘Framework’ approach to analysis, including familiarisation with data; development of a coding scheme; coding, charting and cross comparison of data; interpretation of identified themes. Findings: Alarm, shock and disbelief were frequently expressed initial reactions, particularly to “unexpected” surgical wounds healing by secondary intention. Wound associated factors almost universally had a profound negative impact on daily life, physical and psychosocial functioning, and wellbeing. Feelings of frustration, powerlessness and guilt were common and debilitating. Patients’ hopes for healing were often unrealistic, posing challenges for the clinicians caring for them. Participants expressed dissatisfaction with a perceived lack of continuity and consistency of care in relation to wound management. Conclusions: Surgical wounds healing by secondary intention can have a devastating effect on patients, both physical and psychosocial. Repercussions for patients’ family members can also be extremely detrimental, including financial pressures. Health care professionals involved in the care of patients with these wounds face multiple, complex challenges, compounded by the limited evidence base regarding cost-effectiveness of different treatment regimens for these types of wounds

An Australian Aboriginal birth cohort: a unique resource for a life course study of an Indigenous population. A study protocol

BACKGROUND: The global rise of Type 2 diabetes and its complications has drawn attention to the burden of non-communicable diseases on populations undergoing epidemiological transition. The life course approach of a birth cohort has the potential to increase our understanding of the development of these chronic diseases. In 1987 we sought to establish an Australian Indigenous birth cohort to be used as a resource for descriptive and analytical studies with particular attention on non-communicable diseases. The focus of this report is the methodology of recruiting and following-up an Aboriginal birth cohort of mobile subjects belonging to diverse cultural and language groups living in a large sparsely populated area in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. METHODS: A prospective longitudinal study of Aboriginal singletons born at the Royal Darwin Hospital 1987–1990, with second wave cross-sectional follow-up examination of subjects 1998–2001 in over 70 different locations. A multiphase protocol was used to locate and collect data on 686 subjects with different approaches for urban and rural children. Manual chart audits, faxes to remote communities, death registries and a full time subject locator with past experience of Aboriginal communities were all used. DISCUSSION: The successful recruitment of 686 Indigenous subjects followed up 14 years later with vital status determined for 95% of subjects and examination of 86% shows an Indigenous birth cohort can be established in an environment with geographic, cultural and climatic challenges. The high rates of recruitment and follow up indicate there were effective strategies of follow-up in a supportive population