Teaching and learning responses to a new professional degree : the case of the Bachelor of Planning, Macquarie University

First offered in 2008, Macquarie University's Bachelor of Planning offers an interdisciplinary social and environmental orientation to planning which seeks to differentiate itself from more traditional programs which focus more on urban design and architecture. Delivered from a board social science basis, the planning program seeks to build on existing University strengths in urban studies, to integrate economic, social, environmental and cultural dimensions of planning and urban management. As part of the program, in addition to a set of core planning subjects, students are required to enrol in a number of elective units ranging from Demography to Development Studies. While this degree structure offers students a firm foundation in the social sciences, it simultaneously present a challenge to teaching staff in these elective courses ncreasingly required to teach and assess planning students. This diverse set of units also represents a challenge to students trying to complete their qualifications and develop appropriate skills for their future lives as planners. This paper explores the opinions and experiences of students over the implementation of the Macquarie University Bachelor of Planning. Emphasis is placed on the learning and teaching challenges and responses obvious in the early stages of the degree.28 page(s

Southeast Australia: a Cenozoic continental margin dominated by mass transport

The Southeast Australian continental margin extends for 1,500 km northward from Bass Strait to the Great Barrier Reef. Mass transport dominates the continental slope, which stretches from the shelf break around 150 m depth to the abyssal plain around 4,500 m depth. The continental slope has average slopes of 2.8–8.5° and extends seaward from the shelf break an average distance of 50 km. Margin structure results from Late Cretaceous rifting, producing exposed fault blocks and igneous complexes on the lower slope, and an overlying sediment wedge around 0.5 km thick, centered at the shelf break. Recent collection of multibeam echosounding and high-resolution seismic data provide a detailed view of mass-transport features over a 900 km length of the margin. The features are mostly slab slides, box canyons, and linear canyons. They are ubiquitous along the steep rifted margin, but absent in regions of gentler slopes such as submarine plateaus and failed rift arms. Submarine landslides range in scale from hundreds of small slides of <0.5 km³ volume, up to the largest documented slide of 20 km³. However, potential future slide masses of basement blocks up to 105 km³ have been identified. Cores that penetrated the basal-slide surface show variable sediment accumulation, since the mass-movement event, but four penetrations show accumulations of <2 m, and one of <0.6 m. At current accumulation rates, these data indicate that many landslides occurred less than 25 ka, with some as recent as 6 ka. Mass movements appear to follow a pattern of box canyon development exploiting structural trends in pre-rift and syn-rift strata, until the canyon head intersects the toe of the Tertiary sediment wedge. Once this occurs, sediment creep, faulting and failure of the wedge toe migrates up slope, finally reaching the upper slope and Quaternary deltaic depocenters

Southeast Australia: A Cenozoic continental margin dominated by mass transport

The Southeast Australian continental margin extends for 1,500 km northward from Bass Strait to the Great Barrier Reef. Mass transport dominates the continental slope, which stretches from the shelf break around 150 m depth to the abyssal plain around 4,500 m depth. The continental slope has average slopes of 2.8–8.5° and extends seaward from the shelf break an average distance of 50 km. Margin structure results from Late Cretaceous rifting, producing exposed fault blocks and igneous complexes on the lower slope, and an overlying sediment wedge around 0.5 km thick, centered at the shelf break. Recent collection of multibeam echosounding and high-resolution seismic data provide a detailed view of mass-transport features over a 900 km length of the margin. The features are mostly slab slides, box canyons, and linear canyons. They are ubiquitous along the steep rifted margin, but absent in regions of gentler slopes such as submarine plateaus and failed rift arms. Submarine landslides range in scale from hundreds of small slides of \u3c0.5 km3volume, up to the largest documented slide of 20 km3. However, potential future slide masses of basement blocks up to 105 km3 have been identified. Cores that penetrated the basal-slide surface show variable sediment accumulation, since the mass-movement event, but four penetrations show accumulations of \u3c2 m, and one of \u3c0.6 m. At current accumulation rates, these data indicate that many landslides occurred less than 25 ka, with some as recent as 6 ka. Mass movements appear to follow a pattern of box canyon development exploiting structural trends in pre-rift and syn-rift strata, until the canyon head intersects the toe of the Tertiary sediment wedge. Once this occurs, sediment creep, faulting and failure of the wedge toe migrates up slope, finally reaching the upper slope and Quaternary deltaic depocenters

Delving into the Aftermath of a Disease-Associated Near-Extinction Event: A Five-Year Study of a Serpentovirus (Nidovirus) in a Critically Endangered Turtle Population

Bellinger River virus (BRV) is a serpentovirus (nidovirus) that was likely responsible for the catastrophic mortality of the Australian freshwater turtle Myuchelys georgesi in February 2015. From November 2015 to November 2020, swabs were collected from turtles during repeated river surveys to estimate the prevalence of BRV RNA, identify risk factors associated with BRV infection, and refine sample collection. BRV RNA prevalence at first capture was significantly higher in M. georgesi (10.8%) than in a coexisting turtle, Emydura macquarii (1.0%). For M. georgesi, various risk factors were identified depending on the analysis method, but a positive BRV result was consistently associated with a larger body size. All turtles were asymptomatic when sampled and conjunctival swabs were inferred to be optimal for ongoing monitoring. Although the absence of disease and recent BRV detections suggests a reduced ongoing threat, the potential for the virus to persist in an endemic focus or resurge in cyclical epidemics cannot be excluded. Therefore, BRV is an ongoing potential threat to the conservation of M. georgesi, and strict adherence to biosecurity principles is essential to minimise the risk of reintroduction or spread of BRV or other pathogens

New Middle Permian - Early Triassic U-Pb zircon CA-IDTIMS isotopic ages of tuffs in the Sydney Basin, Australia: International calibration of stratigraphy and biostratigraphy

The Middle Permian-Early Triassic (MP-ET) of Eastern Australia contains a predominantly endemic biota precluding precise correlation with standard international biozones and System/Stage boundaries. The Permian-Triassic boundary, other MP-ET stage boundary levels, and the major end-Guadalupian and end-Permian mass extinction levels in Australia remain poorly constrained. Attempts to calibrate the MP-ET of Australia using Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe techniques have resulted in controversial radioisotopic ages with percent-level uncertainty and compromised accuracy due to the use of an unsuitable standard. We here report eighteen new high-precision

Becoming Reading Group: reflections on assembling a collegiate, caring collective

In neoliberalising universities, collegial and collective practices such as reading groups are often positioned by students, staff and managers as less important than meeting individual KPIs (such as producing research publications, seeking research grants, or meeting the increasing demands of producing quality teaching outcomes.) However, reading groups can be vital for cultivating caring collectives and spaces of collegiality. In this paper we use assemblage thinking to explore 25 years of a Geography reading group at the University of Newcastle. The paper addresses two questions: what does reading together do and make possible; and how might we think about the labours of reading together as a way of building caring collectives. The paper draws on reflections from 24 past and present members of reading group to explore how these kinds of academic practices nourish our working lives