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Associate Professor Scott Johnston ARC Future Fellow 2011

VC welcomeSouthern Cross University continued to develop

its research profile in 2011, building on its

success in the 2010 Excellence in Research for

Australia national report. Receiving the top rating

of ‘well above world standard’ in the field of

geochemistry, and at or above world standard in

the areas of earth sciences, agriculture, forestry

and nursing, was an exceptional result for a

University of our size and age.

Our overall research income through the

Australian Competitive Grants also increased

significantly during 2011 and as a result we are

now in the category of a Research Intensive

University. Our researchers also continued to

gain national acknowledgement. Among these

achievements were an Australian Research

Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, awarded to

Associate Professor Scott Johnston in Southern

Cross GeoScience, and an ARC Discovery

Early Career Researcher Award to Dr Joanne

Oakes in the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry

Research.

A key event during 2011 was the inaugural

Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. These

awards provided an opportunity to recognise the

outstanding achievements of our staff. Reflecting

their contribution to the University’s ERA success,

the joint winners of the Vice Chancellor’s Award

for Excellence in Research were Professor

Leigh Sullivan and Professor Richard Bush, co-

directors of Southern Cross GeoScience, and

Professor Bradley Eyre, director of the Centre

for Coastal Biogeochemistry Research. The

2012 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in

Research has been awarded to Professor Anne

Graham, director of the Centre for Children and

Young People in the School of Education.

As you will read in this Research Report, the

impact of our research is widespread, from using

plants to help counter cancer and heart disease

to helping problem gamblers. We are also

investing in our early and mid-career researchers,

placing increased emphasis on research training

and in our emerging research areas including

health and nursing, cognitive neuroscience and

forest science.

Professor Peter Lee FTSE

Vice Chancellor Front cover: Associate Professor Scott Johnston was awarded a highly prestigious ARC Future Fellowship in 2011 to conduct his project ‘Sea-level rise as a driver for arsenic mobilisation: unravelling the fundamental hydrogeochemical controls’ ($709,000). The ARC’s Future Fellowships aim to attract and retain the best and brightest mid-career researchers whose work is deemed of critical national importance. See full story, page 9.

Welcome 2

Year in Review 3

Excellence in Research Australia 5

Southern Cross GeoScience 6

Southern Cross Plant Science 10

Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry Research 14

Marine Ecology Research Centre 17

Centre for Children and Young People 22

Centre for Gambling Education and Research 25

Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work 28

Emerging research 31

Research training 33

Citizen science 34

Contacts 35

The information contained in this publication is correct at the time of printing. Copyright Southern Cross University 2012.

2

Year in review

Research Income by Category

Rese

arc

h Incom

e

$0  

$2,000,000  

$4,000,000  

$6,000,000  

$8,000,000  

$10,000,000  

$12,000,000  

$14,000,000  

$16,000,000  

2002  

2003  

2004  

2005  

2006  

2007  

2008  

2009  

2010  

2011  

Research  In

come  

Years  

Research  Income  by  Category  

CRCs  

Industry  &  Other  

Public  Sector  

NCG  (Cat  1)  

CRC’s

Industry & Other

Public Sector

NCG (Cat 1)

Years

Weighted Publication by Category

Years

Pu

blic

ati

on

s

Conference Papers

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Books0  

50  

100  

150  

200  

250  

300  

350  

2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011  

Publica(

ons  

Years  

Weighted  Publica(ons  by  Category  

Conference  Papers  Journal  Ar;cles  

Book  Chapters  

Books  

I am delighted to present the 2011 Research

Report. The data provided in this introduction

highlights an important shift in the research profile

of Southern Cross University.

The Higher Education Research and Development

Collection (HERDC) has indicated an increase

of nearly $1.5 million (68 per cent) in research

income derived from Category 1, Australian

Competitive Grant income. The University has

now moved into the category of a Research

Intensive University according to the Sustainable

Research Excellence assessment. Indeed all

categories of research income increased in 2011,

except CRC income, which resulted in an overall

increase in research income of approximately

$2.9 million (30 per cent).

Our outstanding research success continues

in the field of geochemistry, with the Special

Research Centre, Southern Cross GeoScience

and the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry

Research being the main contributors to this area.

Another important success for SCU in 2011 was

an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage

Grant in the Centre for Children and Young

People, in the School of Education, signalling

growing strength in other areas of SCU’s

research profile.

There was also a significant increase (nearly

50 per cent) in publications in 2011, especially

in the important category of journal articles.

The Schools of Health and Human Sciences,

Environment, Science and Engineering and

Tourism and Hospitality Management were major

contributors to this increase. This significant

increase in publications provides confidence

that SCU will improve its standing in the 2012

Excellence in Research for Australia assessment

of research quality.

SCU began to receive Collaborative Research

Network (CRN) funding in 2011. SCU was

3

awarded approximately $4.6 million in funding

to assist with the development of close research

relationships with The University of Queensland in

the area of economic sustainability, The University

of New South Wales in the area of social policy

and The University of Sydney in the area of

health. These collaborations are proving to be an

important catalyst to improving SCU’s research

performance as our researchers partner with high

quality research groups.

The 2010 Research Report noted the importance

of SCU’s participation in CRCs to its research

strategy. Indeed, CRCs are still important to

SCU’s research profile. The University is currently

a core participant in the following CRCs:

• CRCforWoundManagement

• CRCforInfrastructureandEngineering

Asset Management

• CRCforRemoteEconomicParticipation

• CRCforContaminationAssessmentand

Remediation of the Environment

• CRCforRailInnovation.

In 2011 the Research Training Unit continued

to co-ordinate improvements in all aspects of

candidate management. One notable result was

that on-time completion rates for HDR students

were 23 per cent higher as a result of increased

efforts to streamline completion processes and

timelines.

Finally, the changing nature of research at SCU

was evidenced by the appointment of Professor

Leigh Sullivan to the ARC College in Physics,

Chemistry and Earth Sciences.

Professor Neal Ryan

Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

Num

ber

of

candid

ate

s

0  

10  

20  

30  

40  

50  

60  

70  

80  

2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011  

Num

ber  o

f  Can

dida

tes  

Year  

Comple4ons  By  Research  Degree  

DBA  

PhD  

Masters  

DBA

PhD

Masters

Completions by Research Degree

Years

Total Enrolments by Research Degree

Years

Nu

mb

er

of

candid

ate

s

0  

100  

200  

300  

400  

500  

600  

700  

2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011  

Num

ber  o

f  Can

dida

tes  

Years  

Total  Enrolments  by  Research  Degree  

DBA  

PhD  

Masters  

DBA

PhD

Masters

Year in review

4

ERA results raise University research profileSCU has experienced significant positive

flow-on effects from its results in the

federal government’s 2010 Excellence

in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise,

according to Pro Vice Chancellor

(Research) Professor Neal Ryan.

SCU was rated at or above world

standard in the research areas of

geochemistry, earth sciences, agriculture,

forestry and nursing in the 2010 ERA

exercise conducted by the ARC.

“It has raised the whole profile of the

University in terms of being a serious

research university and puts us into a new

category of research funding. It signals our

commitment to being a research-intensive

university,’’ Professor Ryan said.

“SCU was founded as an independent

university in the mid-1990s. The ERA

assessment has had strong benefits

for SCU researchers, and aspiring

researchers.

“In the areas in which we are

demonstrating good ERA ratings, we are

finding that prestigious grant funding is

being awarded to our ERA recognised

research teams. Also higher degree

research students are increasingly seeking

opportunities to be involved with these

world-class researchers.’’

ERA has turned SCU researchers’

attention towards producing quality

outputs - not just quantity - in high

quality journals and achieving national

competitive grants from high prestige

granting agencies.

“The major change is reflected in our

publication data which shows that

academics are tending to publish in higher

quality research publications. There has

been an increased focus on publishing

as an academic output,” Professor Ryan

said.

One positive outcome from ERA is that

there has been an increase in the overall

number of publications in high quality

scholarly journals.

The SCU research culture has also been

improved through the ERA encouraging

more communication between senior

researchers and early career researchers

and PhD candidates.

“I am noticing a lot more mentoring from

the senior researchers to assist those

researchers. There’s more mentoring

going on across the whole University. It is

likely that senior researchers are trying to

assist early career researchers publish in

good quality journals,’’ he said.

Professor Ryan said the University

was seeking to repeat SCU’s ERA top

rating in geochemistry, win a new ‘well

above world standard’ rating in another

discipline, and was working for two more

‘above world standard’ rankings.

SCU expects to be stronger in areas

including nursing, forestry, zoology and

crop and pasture production, he said.

5

6

Southern Cross GeoScienceDuring 2011, Southern Cross

GeoScience enhanced its status as a

world class research centre. The Special

Research Centre, led by Professor

Richard Bush and Professor Leigh

Sullivan, experienced outstanding

success in obtaining Australian

Competitive Grants, publishing in high

impact research journals and attracting

new staff. The Centre also continued

its focus on the education and training

of undergraduate and postgraduate

students as well as external industry

representatives.

Southern Cross GeoScience, established

in 2008, is dedicated to improving the

understanding and management of the

natural environment. The Centre conducts

fundamental and applied research into a

wide range of earth sciences, including:

advanced geochemistry of acid sulfate

soils; iron-sulfur biogeochemistry of

wetland soils; aqueous environmental

chemistry; climate-paleo reconstruction;

and carbon biosequestration.

During 2011 there were a number of

large, prestigious grants awarded to

Southern Cross GeoScience. In late

2011, the Centre received five ARC

grants, including an ARC Fellowship to

Associate Professor Scott Johnston,

an ARC Linkage Project to Associate

Professor Scott Johnston and Associate

Professor Ed Burton, and an ARC

LIEF project to develop a cutting-edge

analytical laser awarded to Professor

Bush and colleagues.

Southern Cross GeoScience was

one of the major contributors to the

research code 0402 geochemistry for

the University, which received the highest

rating of five in the ERA 2010 report.

In 2011 the staff in Southern Cross

GeoScience published a total of 18

journal articles, of which 13 were in the

highest ranked journals in ERA 2010, and

seven major consultancy reports.

Highlights of 2011 included:

Arsenic mobilisation on coastal floodplains under sea level

During 2011, a highly prestigious ARC

Future Fellowship was awarded to

Associate Professor Scott Johnston to

conduct his project ‘Sea-level rise as a

driver for arsenic mobilisation: unravelling

the fundamental hydrogeochemical

controls’ ($709,000). The ARC’s Future

Fellowships aim to attract and retain the

best and brightest mid-career researchers

whose work is deemed of critical national

importance.

More than 100 million people in south-

east Asia rely on arsenic-contaminated

groundwater for drinking and other

domestic purposes. Arsenic is a highly

toxic element found naturally in the

environment, however its behaviour is

poorly understood, particularly in iron-

rich, coastal floodplains and lowlands

with dynamic hydrology. The problem

is particularly acute in the coastal

floodplains and lowlands of Asia, such as

on the Ganges and Mekong deltas. For

the next four years Professor Johnston’s

investigation will explore how arsenic

behaves in these complex coastal

environments. Research undertaken by

Southern Cross GeoScience has shown

that when these lowlands are inundated

with seawater, the iron oxides dissolve

causing associated arsenic to be released

into the groundwater, surrounding soil

and in some cases into waterways.

Understanding geochemistry of freshwater floodplain wetlands

Also awarded in 2011 was an ARC

Linkage project to Professor Johnston

and Associate Professor Ed Burton to

reveal how major re-flooding will influence

the cycling of iron, sulfur and carbon in

acidic, freshwater wetlands ($250,000).

The project was one of only five ARC

Linkage Projects awarded in the earth

sciences field of research, and is being

delivered in partnership with Port

Macquarie-Hastings Council and Great

Lakes Council. The three-year project will

generate the necessary knowledge to

underpin wise long-term management of

these sensitive and unique landscapes.

Cutting-edge analytical geochemical facility

One of Southern Cross GeoScience’s

other major successes of 2011 was

an ARC LIEF project awarded to

Professor Bush, Associate Professor

Burton, Associate Professor Andrew

Rose, Associate Professor Anja

Scheffers, and Dr Sanders Scheffers,

to develop a cutting-edge analytical

geochemical facility ($200,000). This

project is led by new research associate,

Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau.

Special Research Centres

6

The new facility will feature a high-

resolution laser ablation (LA) attached

to an inductively coupled plasma mass

spectrometer (ICP-MS), specifically

designed for trace element analyses.

The LA-ICP-MS facility will enhance the

Centre’s reputation as a leader in its field.

Exploring the availability of iron in the world’s oceans

During 2011, Associate Professor Rose

was a recipient of an ARC Discovery

Grant, through collaboration with

colleagues at the University of NSW. The

project was awarded $450,000 to explore

iron bioavailability and contaminant

mobility in aqueous environments. The

project continues Professor Rose’s 2009

ARC QE11 Fellowship, exploring the

aqueous environmental chemistry of the

world’s ocean and the possible impact of

climate change.

Investigating the extinction of Australia’s megafauna

Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau, one of

Southern Cross GeoScience’s newest

research associates, was a recipient

of an ARC Discovery Grant through

collaboration with colleagues at the

University of Queensland. The project

will explore several new methodologies

to date fossils to determine the

chronological sequence and the timing

of extinction of the Pleistocene

megafauna in Australia. The project

was awarded $115,000.

Innovative products from sugar cane waste

Southern Cross University’s Dr Malcolm

Clark and Southern Cross GeoScience’s

Dr Jeff Parr were awarded $193,000

from the Sugar Research & Development

Corporation in 2011 to investigate

innovative products from sugar cane fly

ash. In particular, they will be investigating

the production of zeolites for industrial

applications such as detergents and

water filtration, as well as the production

of geopolymers as chemically resistant

alternatives to concrete. This project

is also supported with an additional

$45,000 of funding from a local small

enterprise, Australian Biorefining.

Investigating past climatic eventsDuring 2011, Associate Professor

Scheffers continued work on her Future

Fellowship investigating past climatic

events along the Western Australia

coastline. Natural hazards such as

cyclones and tsunamis leave storm

induced deposits along the coastline,

which in turn provide a historical

record going back 7,000 years. By

reconstructing this history, storm and

cyclone risk under changing future

climates can be better assessed.

Successful grants were obtained from the

German Research Foundation and AINSE

in 2011 to further Professor Scheffers’

investigations.

Unraveling iron-sulfur biomineralisation

In June 2011, Associate Professor Burton

started a prestigious five-year ARC

Australian Research Fellowship (ARF)

examining iron-sulfur biomineralisation

processes in soils and sediments.

The project involves field studies and

laboratory experiments on the impact

that key environmental variables

play in controlling the formation and

transformation of reactive iron sulfide

minerals, and the effect of these iron

sulfide transformations on trace element

dynamics. This work has been supported

by additional grants from the Australian

Synchrotron Organisation and the

National Radiation Research Centre in

Taiwan.

New appointmentsSouthern Cross GeoScience’s successes

have attracted new research staff

including Dr Peter Kraal, from Utrecht

University in the Netherlands, and Dr

Renaud Joannes-Boyau, from the

Australian National University and

previously the University of Bordeaux III

in France. Southern Cross GeoScience

and Southern Cross Plant Science also

welcomed Dr Terry Rose as a joint post-

doctoral research fellow appointment.

Education and TrainingA special focus of Southern Cross

GeoScience is to actively engage with

students, professionals and the wider

community on geoscience-related issues.

Education and training continued as a

focus for the Centre in 2011, with the

following major highlights.

7

8

Acid Sulfate Soil Short Courses

Building upon its success in 2010, a

further five professional short courses

on acid sulfate soil management were

delivered across the country. Although

the Caring for our Country pilot program

has concluded, demand for the course

is high and Southern Cross GeoScience

will continue to run the course on an ‘as

needed’ basis. The program has many

benefits for GeoScience including the

opportunity to interact and communicate

with the end users of much of the

Centre’s research. The courses are led

by Professor Sullivan and organised by

Chrisy Clay.

Summer School

In January 2011, Southern Cross

GeoScience held its inaugural Summer

School. This new initiative was developed

to provide high achieving undergraduate

students enrolled at Australian universities

with an opportunity to experience

research life alongside Southern Cross

GeoScience scientists.

3rd National Acid Sulfate Soil Conference

During 2011, Southern Cross

GeoScience announced it would host the

3rd National Acid Sulfate Soil Conference

in March, 2012, the first national

conference held in Australia for 16 years.

Special Research Centres

Southern Cross GeoScience

Contact: geoscience@scu.edu.au

Website: scu.edu.au/geoscience

Phone: 02 6620 3519

8

Wetlands are ecologically productive and dynamic

systems, forming a critical part of the biosphere.

They are an interface between soil, water, air and

living organisms and are zones of intense cycling of

elements. In their natural state they provide critical

habitat and act as landscape-scale water filters.

ARC Future Fellow Associate Professor Scott

Johnston’s research has focused on improving the

understanding of interactions between the hydrology

and biogeochemistry in coastal floodplain wetlands

with acid sulfate soils.

“In Australia, many of our wetland systems are highly

degraded with their natural hydrological cycles

altered by artificial drainage,” Profesesor Johnston

said. “This is particularly the case in many coastal

floodplain wetlands, where acid sulfate soils are also

common. Alteration of natural hydrology by drainage

has led to a cascade of biogeochemical changes that

have caused acute degradation of water quality via

acidification, release of toxic metals and large-scale

de-oxygenation.”

“The research career I have had so far has very

practical dimensions and has helped various state and

local government and industry partners to quantify the

effectiveness of various wetland remediation strategies

that aim to improve water quality.

“Coastal wetlands with acid sulfate soils are truly

fascinating landscapes. Their seasonally dynamic

hydrology and abundant organic matter speed up

the generation and neutralisation of acidity and drive

rapid cycling of redox sensitive elements. This makes

them ideal natural laboratories to study redox sensitive

elements like iron, sulfur and arsenic.

“Many of our coastal wetlands have very low elevation,

making them vulnerable to seawater incursion

associated with sea-level rise. Seawater inundation has

big implications for water quality and geochemistry in

these systems.

“One really interesting feature is that behaviour of

redox sensitive elements in these systems is highly

interlinked. For example, our coastal floodplain

wetlands are naturally rich in iron-oxides. Arsenic

has a very strong affinity for iron oxides and is often

chemically bound with them.

However, when inundated, with freshwater or with

seawater, the iron oxides can undergo mineralogical

transformation or bacterially mediated dissolution. This

can release the associated arsenic into groundwater,

surrounding soil and in some cases into waterways.

Where the arsenic ends up and in what form greatly

depends on the local hydrology, so it is vital to study

the both geochemistry and hydrology in an integrated

manner.”

Exploring how hydrology and biogeochemistry control arsenic in floodplain wetlands

ARC Future Fellow Associate Professor

Scott Johnston

9

10

Southern Cross Plant Science Southern Cross University is becoming

a regional hub for a knowledge-driven

renaissance in primary plant production,

especially in crop and forestry science.

Southern Cross Plant Science (SCPS),

a Special Research Centre, addresses

the key strategic research drivers of food

security, human health and nutrition,

climate change, regional sustainability and

native plant conservation. The Centre’s

vision is to‘innovate and communicate’

by carrying out internationally competitive

research that adds value to the

conservation, cultivation and utilisation of

plants and other natural products, and so

underpins resilient regional development.

SCPS achieved high international

academic standards during 2011 in

research focused on the genetics,

genomics and phytochemistry

underpinning the selection, cultivation

and utilisation of plants. SCPS director

Professor Graham King was recruited in

2011 from the UK’s largest agricultural

research centre, Rothamsted Research,

where he was deputy scientific

director of the Centre for Crop Genetic

Improvement. Professor King is an

internationally renowned scientist in

the fields of crop genetics, quantitative

genetics, genomics and epigenetics

research underpinning plant breeding and

genetic diversity. He has a particularly

strong research record in brassica crops.

In 2011 SCPS refocused its research

effort and investment to fields of research

where SCU is able to achieve a critical

mass of internationally competitive

research excellence. For SCPS this

involved placing increased emphasis

on delivering to the fields of research

encompassed by crop production

and forestry science. In the next few

years, SCPS is well placed to extend

its research approach to deliver into

horticultural science and associated

added value natural products such as

‘functional foods’.

The Centre has an integrated portfolio

of research themes covering genetics,

genomics and phytochemistry

underpinning selection, cultivation and

utilisation of plants. Two major themes

focused on how plants interact and

adapt to the environment, and natural

product composition and quality.

Research infrastructure includes high

quality facilities for plant growth, pilot

scale extraction, analytical chemistry,

high throughput DNA sequencing,

genotyping and bioinformatics. This is

complemented by expertise in agronomy

and soil science. The production and

supply chain of natural products can be

followed from farm to human health by

integration with pharmacological analysis

and clinical trials. SCPS’s commodities

include nutritional food, bioactives and

other high value natural products from

oilseed, grain, horticultural and plantation

crops, forestry,herbal medicinal products

and functional foods.

SCPS worked with the University’s

National Marine Science Centre in Coffs

Harbour and other areas within the

University to understand and develop

natural products from the marine

environment, including molluscs and

algae.

In 2011, Professor King led more than

40 research and technical staff and

PhD students. With 15 post-doctoral

scientists, SCPS drew on expertise

and infrastructure in: agronomy and

plant physiology focused on soil

nutrition; bioinformatics crop, forest and

native plant genomics; DNA banking;

epigenetics; quantitative and diversity

genetics; and natural products and

medicine. SCPS research harvested

knowledge of how genetic and

environmental factors contribute to end-

use properties of crops and other added-

value natural products.

SCPS scientists published in high impact

refereed journals including: Proceedings

of the National Academy of Sciences

(PNAS USA), Nature Genetics, Plant

Physiology, Plant Biotechnology Journal,

Plant Journal, Genetics, New Phytologist,

Food Chemistry, and Journal of Cereal

Science.

The highlights of the Centre’s activities for

2011 included:

Tackling developing world hunger through richer soils

Much of the world’s arable soil is already

deficient in phosphate, so this fertiliser –

essential for plant DNA, lipids and energy

transfer processes – is required even for

decent crop yields.

Western agriculture and nutrition is built

on phosphate fertilisers, but low fertiliser

Special Research Centres

10

use and poor human sewage recycling

in Third World countries means African

soils are being ‘mined’ of the essential

phosphate needed for crop production

and nutrition.

Africa suffers typically poor crop yields

due to very low phosphate in the soil.

However, the phosphate-based fertiliser,

irrigation and mechanisation common

in developed countries are beyond the

means of typical small-holder, low-input

African and South-East Asian farmers.

To make matters worse, much of the

phosphate that crops take up is then

removed off-farm in the grain. Grain

phosphorus has little nutritional value

because it is mostly indigestible. After

human consumption, grain phosphorous

is deposited in local waterways as

sewage, where the excess phosphorous

becomes an environmental pollutant.

SCU research fellow Dr Terry Rose – an

early career researcher working on the

problem for three years – says Africans

are mining their soils of phosphorous. The

time will come when crops will no longer

grow because there is no phosphate left

in the soil.

Similarly, under Australia’s high-input

agricultural practices, expensive imported

fertiliser is stripped off in the grain, and

then exported overseas in what amounts

to a highly inefficient system.

Dr Rose is a part of a $750,000 Global

Rice Science Partnership consortium

comprising the Japan International

Research Centre for Agricultural Science,

AfricaRice, Yara International and the

International Rice Research Institute in

the Philippines.

The consortium is one of the few

research collaborations in the world

addressing the phosphorous problem

by making Third World small-holder

agriculture more sustainable through

nutritional, physiological, biochemical and

genetic management of plant phosphate

processes.

The primary aim of the research is to

reduce the amount of phosphorus

partitioned into rice grains, while

simultaneously increasing the amount of

phosphorus returned to the soil in leaf,

stem and root residue.

Dr Rose is investigating genetic diversity

in rice grain phosphorus content, which

will lead to identification of cultivars for

use in future rice breeding programs.

Other members of the consortium are

investigating the molecular processes

that drive the loading of phosphorus into

grains.

Better soil to crop matching through bioinformatics

Soils play a key part in shaping plant

growth, yield and composition. Plants

locally adapted to particular soil types

tend to perform better and have greater

chance of survival under adverse

conditions. For example, a crop plant

originating from Italy may not be suited to

red soils in Australia.

Traditionally, crops were based on local

selections or ‘landraces’ developed

over generations in particular farming

communities and locations.

However, industrialisation and exponential

population growth have focused crop

improvement on yield and uniformity.

Intensive agriculture has also resulted in

‘genetic erosion’ or less natural genetic

diversity within crop species.

Advances in DNA sequencing technology

is providing a detailed understanding

of the underlying genetics for crops

and other plants from across the globe.

Bioinformatics is the science of using

computer databases and algorithms to

analyse, manage, and store biological

data, especially genomes and protein

sequences.

SCPS researchers are confident they can

combine bioinformatics with emergent

geographic information systems to map

the distribution of plants with variation in

their genetic make-up. This will provide

far more ‘intelligence’ on how to breed

crops for specific regions.

Strengthening citizen science through nature Atlas

SCPS is making significant contributions

to the six-year-old national Atlas of Living

Australia (ALA). The project is aimed at

unlocking and integrating data on plants,

animals, fungi and microorganisms which

are currently distributed within diverse

platforms and media across Australia.

The Southern Cross Medicinal Plant

Herbarium, managed by Dr Hans

Wohlmuth, is now registered with the ALA

and is commencing a systematic process

of imaging specimens to make them

available in the public domain.

A unique collection of Eucalypt

specimens – made in a bequest to

SCPS some years ago – is now being

processed with high resolution images to

feature in the ALA.

SCU researchers – representing one of

the two university partners in ALA – are

also searching across various ‘layers’ of

geographically-based ALA information in

terrestrial and marine environments, to

yield new lines of enquiry and research.

All Australians have been invited to add

sightings and samples to the growing

scientific knowledge of Australian species

through the online encyclopaedia

www.ala.org.au

Understanding how geography drives new bird species

The DNA sequencing, bioinformatics

expertise and facilities in SCPS are

also being used to better understand

the forces driving species diversity in

Australasian birds, and helping to secure

their future.

National Marine Science Centre director

Professor Les Christidis is developing a

research program that will compare the

patterns of diversification in bird species

and their associated plant ecosystems.

During 2011 Professor Christidis,

together with colleagues in Denmark, 11

Sweden, the United States and Australia,

published five papers that explored

the processes and mechanisms by

which species diversity is generated in

Australasian birds.

Although much focus is on conserving

extant biodiversity, Professor Christidis

believes it is also important to conserve

the ecological and evolutionary processes

that will generate future diversity.

New species evolve when a geographical

barrier arises that splits a population

into two. Such barriers typically include

mountain ranges, habitat breaks and

rivers.

Professor Christidis found ecological

separation along a habitat cline can also

lead to the formation of new species,

which is especially the case in the

mountains of Papua New Guinea.

Further, the impacts of geographical

barriers were found to vary, even within

closely related species. Ground-doves

in the Philippines do not cross water

barriers and each island appears to have

a distinct species or race of ground-dove.

Conversely, in the Pacific, ground-doves

have colonised islands that are separated

by water barriers over 1200km.

Understanding why birds can cross

some water barriers and not others has

implications for studies looking at invasive

species and pests. As part of his research

Professor Christidis and colleagues

described two new subfamilies and one

new genus of Australasian robins.

The journey to domesticate home-grown native rice grass

SCU scientists presented the latest

research outcomes on native wild rice

relatives to plant breeders, geneticists

and commercial growers from Australia

and around the world.

SCPS researchers Dr Frances Shapter,

a molecular scientist investigating

Australian native grasses as an alternative

food source, and Dr Daniel Waters, a

rice molecular geneticist, presented

the outcomes of their work at the 2nd

Australian Wild Rice Symposium.

“Australia is the custodian of a globally

significant treasure of naturally occurring

rice relatives which are poorly understood

and under threat,” said Dr Shapter.

Australian wild rice grows in a diverse

range of environments and its grain has

unique starch and nutritional properties.

Most importantly, Australian wild rice is

geographically isolated from cultivated

rice and so it contains much more genetic

diversity in comparison to Asian wild rice.

‘These unique species are an invaluable

resource which can contribute to world

food security by being used as sources of

disease resistance and stress tolerance.’

Cultivating native rice may have

environmental benefits and could offer

new employment opportunities for the

communities of northern Australia. Where

these species can be developed as new

crops for commercial production it will

enhance sustainable diversification of

agricultural practice.

SCU has worked with Australian wild rice

since the late 1990s. During this time,

research projects have characterised the

diversity of grain morphology and quality

and investigated the genetic diversity at

the gene and genomic level across the

Australian wild rice relatives.

The work of SCPS on the Australian

wild rices has been supported through

national and international collaborative

research grants, and important links have

been developed with industry.

An example has been SCPS collaborative

research with Native Seeds Pty Ltd

on Microlaena stipoides, or Weeping

Ricegrass, which has been undertaken

for the past eight years through a variety

of nationally competitive grants.

M. stipoides is a perennial dryland relative

of the Australian Oryza, which has been

targeted for domestication because of

its production of rice-like grains, good

nutritional properties, amenable plant

architecture and its intrinsic adaptation to

the Australian environment.

It is hoped this species can be developed

into a valuable speciality crop which

delivers both human grain food and

animal fodder.

Chairing the Rice Symposium was

Professor Robert Henry, director of the

Queensland Alliance for Agriculture

and Food Innovation (QAAFI) based at

the University of Queensland and the

former head of SCU’s Centre for Plant

Conservation Genetics.

Dr Shapter has recently been appointed

as an adjunct research fellow at UQ, a

move that will pave the way for greater

collaborative research opportunities with

QAAFI.

Southern Cross Plant Science

Special Research Centres

Contact: scps@scu.edu.au

Website: scu.edu.au/scps

Phone: 02 6620 3356

12

Broccoli family has greater potentialSouthern Cross Plant Science director Professor

Graham King delivered a keynote address in Spain at a

a conference attended by representatives of the food

industry from around the world.

It may seem overkill to stage an international event

for the popular member of the brassica family

which – along with its brassica relatives, cauliflower,

cabbage and Brussels sprouts – is avoided by children

worldwide.

But the scientifically demonstrated role of these leafy

greens in helping counter cancer and heart disease,

as well as their ‘bio-fortification’ potential to deliver

extra calcium and magnesium, to pregnant women for

example, had the conference abuzz.

“There are chemicals within the brassica family called

glucosinolates, known to reduce the growth of tumours.

There’s a growing industry in Australia and elsewhere

for fresh broccoli, broccoli sprout powder and

extracts,’’ Professor King said.

Studies have established that consumption of some

brassicas can change the metabolism of humans

activate different enzymes within the liver, resulting in a

protective anti-tumour effect.

While the science on brassica’s anti-cancer properties

is two decades old, Professor King – part of an

international project to improve mineral nutrition

in humans – estimates that at most only a quarter

of Australians are aware of their potential. Billions

worldwide consume insufficient minerals such as

calcium and magnesium.

Calcium deficiency reduces bone strength and so

increases fracture-risks and osteoporosis, while

magnesium deficiency is related to hypertension,

cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure in

pregnancy.

Modest increases in the concentrations of these

minerals in brassicas would yield significant beneficial

effects for people in Western countries, and especially

the malnourished in developing countries, he says.

Professor King – published in Nature Genetics and

Genetics and recognised internationally for his

contribution to understanding the domestication of the

cauliflower – has been working on bio-fortification for

more than eight years.

Researchers have shown that leafy brassica crops are

ideal to fortify with calcium and magnesium.

“We are looking at the genetic variations we know exist

in wild relatives of brassica and in different crop types,

and trying to use the understanding of the genetics

to enhance the levels of calcium and magnesium

available,” he said. “We are also aiming to understand

how those levels may vary depending on the soils and

how the plants are grown.’’

The driver is to increase calcium because many people

just don’t get enough of this essential mineral from

other dietary sources, including dairy products.

“We know from our studies of the diversity within

brassica that there’s a considerable variation in the

amount of calcium taken up by the plant,” Professor

King said.

“We want to harness that, and to be able to predict how

cultivation practices and soil types affect the delivery of

the glucosinolates and minerals.”

His research with colleagues in the UK is focused

on two fronts. First, the screening of wild relatives of

domesticated brassica for promising variations likely to

promote uptake of the desired minerals in the plant.

“We have been screening genetic resource collections

for variation in mineral content, especially among wild

kales,” he said.

“Some of these wild relatives of brassica are very

distinct and quite unrecognisable compared with the

familiar vegetable forms. Since all these forms are inter-

fertile, there is huge potential to transfer the beneficial

attributes to each of the commonly consumed crop

types.’’

Second, matching promising crops to target soils:

“Where you grow a particular crop has a significant

effect on its chemical composition.’’

Professor King said people could get past the

sometimes bitter taste of many brassicas if they

considered the very stuff they disliked actually

contained active components, the protective

glucosinolates, which were good for them.

So eat your sprouts, he says.

Professor Graham King

13

14

Research Centres

Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry ResearchThe Centre for Coastal Biogeochemstry

Research (CCBR), within the School of

Environment, Science and Engineering,

conducts high quality, innovative research

contributing to a better understanding

of coastal biogeochemical cycles,

and improved management of coastal

waterways. These important areas are

impacted by nitrogen cycle changes,

climate changes, ocean acidification and

land use.

Biogeochemistry is a new, but rapidly

growing scientific discipline that studies

the interaction of biological, geochemical

and physical processes to better

address the major environmental issues

of global change. The CCBR was a

major contributor to SCU’s ERA rating

of five in geochemistry in the Australian

government’s last Excellence in Research

for Australia 2010 report.

Five core research programs contributed

to the rating including carbon and

nitrogen cycling in coastal systems,

stable isotopes, permeable sands and

submarine groundwater discharge,

alternative wastewater treatment systems

and ocean acidification.

During 2011 the Centre also undertook

consultancies for a range of groups

from local councils to international

organisations across Australia and

overseas.

Dirk Erler is working with a range of

international donors to develop and

evaluate on-site wastewater treatment

systems in the South Pacific. About

$150,000 of research consultancy

funding has been provided to complete

this work.

Centre director Professor Bradley Eyre

undertook a contract biogeochemistry

project in the Caboolture River Estuary for

Moreton Bay Regional Council which led

to the ARC Linkage grant highlighted on

the following page.

In 2011 the Centre received $815,203

of Category 1 funding including ARC

Discovery, Linkage and DECRA

Fellowship grants and an Australian

Centre for International Agricultural

Research grant. The Centre also received

$414,500 in other state and local

government research grants.

The CCBR published 25 journal articles

in 2011, including 10 ERA ranked A-star

journals and 14 in A-ranked journals.

A further five SCU PhD candidates,

three external PhD candidates and four

Honours students were supervised

through the Centre.

Highlights of 2011 included: Tracing nitrogen and carbon through coastal systems

Dr Joanne Oakes won an inaugural

Australian Research Council Fellowship

valued at $375,000 to conduct

groundbreaking research tracing key

nitrogen and carbon interactions that

underpin the health of coastal rivers and

estuaries.

Dr Oakes’ new Discovery Early Career

Researcher Award (DECRA), builds upon

her previous work which showed how

a highly sensitive chemical tracer can

be used to monitor key environmental

impacts on rivers and estuaries from

industrial plants, scores of kilometres

upstream.

Under the three-year DECRA project, Dr

Oakes will trace and model the typical

transformation pathways and the ultimate

fate of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON)

and dissolved organic carbon (DOC)

within sediments at Brunswick Heads and

Heron Island.

Much of the global nitrogen and carbon

reservoir is in the oceans, with a large

fraction represented by DON and DOC.

With humans modifying global nitrogen

and carbon cycles at rates generating

unacceptable environmental change*,

understanding how DON and DOC are

processed in coastal environments is

critical to preventing oxygen-depleting

algal blooms, managing fisheries

production, and better understanding

oceanic carbon emissions and sinks.

In Dr Oakes’ project – with CCBR

director Professor Eyre – exceedingly

rare and harmless forms of DON and

DOC will be created from algae to act as

highly sensitive tracers introduced into

chambers sitting on the muds and sands

of the Brunswick River and Heron Island

test sites. From there, this DON and

DOC will be subject to all the interactions

experienced by naturally-occurring DON

and DOC, including transformations

within the sediments – which, being

at the crucial intersection of rivers and

oceans, may play a key role in regulating

these compounds.

In the case of DON, significant amounts

14

come down rivers and can be taken up

by microscopic organisms within coastal

sediments. This may be particularly

important in coral reef sediments where

other inorganic forms of nitrogen are rare.

The nitrogen within DON can remain

within sediments for a time, or may be

transformed and re-released as DON, or

as inorganic nutrients which can stimulate

plant growth, contributing to fisheries

production or potentially stimulating

phytoplankton blooms.

Rivers are also a significant source

of DOC and coastal sediments may

also be important in the uptake and

transformation of DOC. The carbon

from DOC may be retained within

sediments, acting like a carbon sink,

or can be transformed and released to

overlying water as DOC, or as carbon

dioxide which may be released to the

atmosphere. *(IPCC 2007, Rockstrom et al. 2009)

First tracing of nitrogen along river system

SCU’s world-leading biogeochemist

Professor Eyre has begun

groundbreaking research expected to

establish new methods of identifying the

sources and pathways of nitrogen, which

cause algal blooms and help regulate

ocean and atmospheric chemistry.

The CCBR director has won an ARC

Linkage grant of $396,761 to investigate

nitrogen from the headwaters of the

Caboolture River Estuary to the sea.

Humans have increased the amount of

nitrogen going into terrestrial systems by

an estimated 157 million tonnes.

The Caboolture catchment-river-estuary

has natural forest in the upper

catchment, agriculture in the middle,

rural, residential and urban areas in the

lower catchment, and agriculture on

the floodplain. It also has cattle and

poultry production, and wastewater and

wastewater septic outlets.

Nitrogen finds its way to coastal systems

or estuaries from catchments via rivers,

groundwater flow and point-sources. It

is typically derived from many sources

including organic and inorganic fertilisers,

urban areas, atmospheric nitrogen

deposition, animal manure, human

wastewater and soils.

The Caboolture river estuary – otherwise

considered a typical example of a

subtropical east Australian estuary –

has been officially classified with an F

grade, meaning most key processes are

not functioning and most of its critical

habitats are severely impacted.

The study will be the first to use

sophisticated dual isotopes of nitrogen

to trace nitrogen sources in a tropical/

sub-tropical or Australian catchment or

estuary and the first to use it along a

terrestrial-marine system.

The three-year project – to report in

2014 – will make a significant contribution

to the understanding of the process

of coastal eutrophication. The release

of nitrogen and phosphorous into the

environment drives the production of

excess organic matter (eutrophication),

considered one of greatest threats to

coastal ecosystems worldwide.*

This will be the first study to measure

denitrification (microbial conversion of

fixed N to N2 gas which is lost to the

atmosphere), along a freshwater-marine

continuum, and will quantify the role of

groundwater as a N pathway.*(Howarth, 2008)

Nothing subterranean about Santos award

The groundbreaking research of CCBR

deputy director, Dr Isaac Santos, was

recognised internationally with a major

award from the US-based Coastal and

Estuarine Research Foundation (CERF),

the world’s largest federation of coastal

scientists.

The Cronin Award recognises the

significant accomplishments of a coastal

scientist who is in the early stages of his/

her career development.

Dr Santos’ PhD work provided new

insights into the drivers and implications

of submarine groundwater discharge into

the coastal ocean, CERF found. His more

recent work has linked the hydrology and

biogeochemistry of coral reefs.

This is only the second time this award

has been given to a scientist outside

the USA. CCBR director Professor Eyre

was the first scientist outside the USA to

receive the award in 1999.

Dr Santos has 35 peer-reviewed

publications including 21 first-authored,

many of which are in top journals.

15

16

Research Centres

The CERF award identified Dr Santos

as a potential leader in coastal and

estuarine research, especially for his

novel approaches that bridge different

disciplines and ability to win insights into

how coastal systems function.

Greenhouse gas cycling under bioactive beach sands

The coastal ocean plays ‘a major, but

unknown role’ in climate change and will

be the subject of an ARC Discovery grant

by deputy director, Dr Santos.

Under his new $260,000 Discovery

grant, Dr Santos will investigate the role

that the subterranean estuaries running

under beaches play in the cycling of

key greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide,

methane and nitrous oxide.

Potent methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide

(N2O) combined may account for about

30 per cent of man-made greenhouse

gases, even though their inputs are much

lower than those of CO2 (IPCC, 2007).

The microbial activity on beach

groundwater associated with organic

matter from marine and terrestrial sources

is increasingly recognised as forming

a significant biogeochemical reactor,

termed a subterranean estuary.

In collaboration with world-leading

colleagues in the US, Dr Santos will

determine whether these coastal

subsurface “bioreactors” act as a source

or sink of the key greenhouse gases.

The research is also expected to shed

new light on the role of submarine

groundwater discharge (SGD) on

oxygen-depleting eutrophication, or the

production of excess organic matter

associated with algal blooms.

Some international research contends

that SGD is potentially a major source

of carbon to the ocean. But Dr Santos

believes that when recycling processes

are taken into account, saline SGD

may be a net sink for CO2 in carbonate

subterranean estuaries. Carbonate

sediments cover much of the world’s

tropical continental shelves.

The biogeochemistry of subterranean

estuaries is thought to be unique and

dominated by pathways that potentially

represent a major source of CH4 and N2O

to the oceans.

Dr Santos and his colleagues will test

whether seawater recirculation into

coastal aquifers, that is via saline SGD,

yields a net greenhouse forcing by

preferentially converting regenerated

organic matter into greenhouse gases

such as CH4 and N2O.

The research – to use the combination

of isotope tracing and modelling for the

first time – will be conducted off the

Queensland coast at Heron Island and

Moreton Island.

CCBR to investigate greenhouse gases litorally

The CCBR won a $250,000 infrastructure

grant from the ARC to perform

automated, long-term greenhouse gas

measurements in coastal waters.

Lead chief investigator, Dr Santos,

expects the outcome of research at

the emergent facility to be a better

understanding of how the coastal ocean

acts as a source or sink of carbon

dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and

volatile organic carbon.

The new ARC LIEF project will be

undertaken with fellow SCU chief

investigators Professor Eyre, Dr Simon

Dworjanyn, Dr Joanne Oakes and

Dr Dirk Erler.

The latest grant builds on a previous

ARC LIEF grant of $170,000 for an Eddy

Correlation Lander Array.

The array – expected to become

standard over the next decade – allows

scientists to measure production of

primary producers, such as seagrasses,

macro-algae and benthic micro-algae,

on estuarine and ocean floors, without

having to disturb the sediments.

Contact: bradley.eyre@scu.edu.au

Website: scu.edu.au/coastal-biogeochemistry

Phone: 02 6620 3773

Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry Research

16

Marine Ecology Research Centre (MERC)The Marine Ecology Research Centre

(MERC) was established in 2010 and

builds on the internationally recognised

reputation of marine science within the

School of Environment, Science and

Engineering.

Directed by Professor Peter Harrison, it

incorporates the former Whale Research

Centre and the Coral Reef Research

Centre.

Dr Kirsten Benkendorff and Associate

Professor Steve Smith have joined Dr

Sander Scheffers as MERC co-deputy

directors.

MERC supports 22 academic and

postdoctoral research staff and more than

45 PhD, Masters and Honours students.

Research focuses on:

• CoralReefEcology

• WhaleandDolphinEcology

• MarineChemistryandPollution

• SustainableFisheriesandAquaculture

• MarineBiodiversity

Reef sex restoring damaged Asian reefs

Professor Peter Harrison – who co-

discovered the mass coral spawning

phenomenon on the Great Barrier Reef

published in Science in 1984 – has been

developing techniques for mass rearing of

coral larvae to restore damaged reefs.

Up to 20 per cent of the world’s coral

reefs – globally significant ecosystems

and centres of marine biodiversity – have

been destroyed by human activities in

recent decades. Growing coastal human

populations are severely degrading many

other reefs.

This is particularly true in some areas

of South-East Asia. A combination of

blast fishing, cyanide fishing, habitat

destruction, mass coral bleaching and

severe storm impacts have led to a

catastrophic loss of the living corals that

build the reef framework, and supply

essential habitats for thousands of fish

and other reef species.

Successful reproduction by reef corals

is critically important to the survival of

coral communities that build reefs, and

can enable damaged reefs to recover

through natural recruitment processes.

But this natural coral recruitment and

subsequent reef recovery can take many

decades, and is highly variable between

reef patches.

Professor Harrison is helping kick-start

coral reef recovery on damaged reefs by

capturing some of the billions of eggs and

sperm that are released by corals during

their annual spawning periods.

In 2011, Professor Harrison won

$149,000 from the Australian Centre for

International Agricultural Research for a

new research project to determine the

effectiveness of using millions of coral

larvae to reseed and restore damaged

coral communities on reefs in the

Philippines.

Reef sites for restoration have been

selected in Northern Luzon in the

Philippines and experiments are

determining rates of settlement and

survival of juvenile corals reared in the

Bolinao Marine Laboratory from spawned

eggs and sperm.

The results from this collaborative

research will lead to enhanced recovery

of damaged coral reefs in the Philippines

through manipulative experiments to

massively increase coral recruitment

rates. Other results will include improved

techniques for mass rearing of coral

larvae and increased coral recruitment,

and assessment of the ecological

and cost-effectiveness of mass larval

reseeding for future global reef restoration

management strategies.

Old corals record historic climate events

A very old, large and still living coral

suffered significantly reduced growth

beyond natural variations in 1870, just

20 years after the Industrial Revolution,

MERC deputy director Dr Sander

Scheffers has reported.

Dr Scheffers – an expert in using coral

core skeletons thousands of years old

to investigate the world’s climatic history

– also helped directly link a slowdown

in the one of the world’s most influential

transoceanic currents to the start of the

Little Age that froze Europe for hundreds

of years.

The two revelations have emerged from

analysis of scores of metres of coral cores

drilled by Dr Scheffers and colleagues at

separate sites off Thailand and the Dutch

Caribbean respectively, over recent years.

Corals grow like trees on land, and

17

18

like trees their annual growth rates are

recorded in bands of rings, which vary

in size according to diet, season and

prevailing climate and weather conditions.

In the case of the significantly reduced

growth in the Thai brain coral* from the

northern Indian Ocean, Dr Scheffers is

not yet linking the limitation directly to

human-induced climate change.

These findings are consistent with other

research previously reported in Nature

linking increased atmospheric carbon

from the Industrial Revolution to ocean

acidification, and reduced coral growth

rates.

Dr Scheffers eliminated natural variation in

coral growth as an alternative explanation

by analysing variations with co-located

cores over 300 years, and allowing for

these smaller, on-average periods of

minimum growth.

Meanwhile, dramatic shifts in the

thermohaline circulation have previously

been associated with the Little Ice Age

that ran from the 1300s to as late – in

some estimates – as the mid 19th

century. The present day thermohaline

current makes western Europe liveable.

In this second breakthrough, SCU’s

Dr Scheffers has been part of a team

including colleagues at Bremen University

that has used Caribbean coral cores to

provide strong evidence directly linking

the current to the Little Ice Age for the

first time.

At this report’s publication time, the

findings were under review by an

international journal, and the age of corals

documenting the influential slowdown

in the thermohaline circulation remained

confidential.

However the evidence has been derived

from fossil corals sometimes thousands

of years old, and thrown up on land in the

southern Caribbean by huge tsunamis in

the distant past.

The discovery of the coral with the key

historical time-set, was made from

among thousands of huge coral heads

on the shoreline at Bonaire, in the Dutch

Antilles.

With Southern Cross GeoScience

colleagues, Dr Anja Scheffers, Associate

Professor Andrew Rose, Professor

Richard Bush, Associate Professor Ed

Burton and Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau,

Dr Scheffers was part of the team that

also won a $200,000 ARC infrastructure

grant for a laser spectrometer. The

purchase was supplemented by

$300,000 from SCU. The huge machine

will speed up analysis of coral cores and

potentially increase the documentation of

historic weather events down to weekly

cycles from the present monthly or two

monthly periods.

*When done on very large live corals, core drilling removes a six-cm diameter of coral to a depth of a few millimetres; the rest of the core is dead skeleton. The core is then sealed with concrete to allow coral tissue to regrow over the plug.

Molluscs, dominant invertebrates, and key biodiversity indicators

During 2011, MERC researchers Dr

Kirsten Benkendorff, Dr Daniel Bucher

and Associate Professor Steve Smith

expanded their research on molluscs as

biodiversity indicators to help improve

the sustainability of Australia’s molluscan

fisheries and aquaculture industry.

Molluscs are one of the dominant

groups of invertebrates in marine and

estuarine habitats and are important both

commercially and as critical components

of healthy ecosystems. Mollusc-related

research is a high priority by members of

SCU’s MERC and falls into two areas.

Dr Benkendorff and her postgraduate

students have been investigating the

impacts of ocean climate change on

disease resilience in abalone and oysters.

The immune system of these molluscs is

compromised after exposure to severe

heat and low pH, thus making them

more susceptible to disease under future

climate change conditions.

Professor Smith and his postgraduate

students have been using molluscs

as surrogates for wider patterns of

biodiversity and interpreting these

with respect to natural gradients and

measures of human impact. A key

component of this work is to establish

baselines against which to measure the

effects of climate change and increasing

coastal urbanisation.

In collaboration with Lake Macquarie

Municipal Council, they also commenced

an investigation into the reasons for the

rapid increase in populations of razor

Marine Ecology Research Centre (MERC)

Research Centres

18

clams in Lake Macquarie.

Using molluscs as surrogates, Dr Bucher

and students have been testing the

sufficiency of protection for soft-sediment

habitats in the Cape Byron Marine Park.

While the park’s sanctuary zones contain

most of the common species found in the

region, there were many combinations of

species that are not represented.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture

With collaborators at Melbourne and

Flinders universities, Dr Benkendorff has

been investigating the underlying causes

of mortality in the abalone aquaculture

industry.

High density (of abalone) and the use of

anesthetics were both found to suppress

the immune system, leaving abalone

more susceptible to bacterial disease.

Abalone were also found to produce a

baseline level of antiviral activity in the

blood, that was not influenced by diet,

temperature or infection by the abalone

herpes virus. Ongoing research funded

by the Australian Seafood CRC will

investigate the heritability of these antiviral

compounds, in hope of identifying

disease resistant populations.

Professor Smith and one of his students

completed an assessment of marine park

protection on the size and abundance of

harvested turban shells. They concluded

that ease of access was as important as

protective zoning in explaining standing

stocks and size distributions.

Dr Bucher commenced a project to fill

critical gaps in the biology and ecology

of harvested bivalves (clams) in southern

NSW. The project focuses on gaining

basic information on the size, age and

growth of the three most important

species in the fishery.

Impacts of fuel pollution in Antarctic waters

Over the 2011-12 summer season,

Professor Harrison and PhD candidate

Kathryn Brown travelled to Antarctica and

finished off experiments that confirmed

key fuels are toxic to Antarctic marine life.

The $1.6m research project – supported

by grants from the Australian Antarctic

Division – will provide critically important

information to establish water quality

guidelines for managing pollution in

Antarctic waters.

The project is led by Professor Peter

Harrison, with Dr Catherine King from

AAD, Associate Professor Simon George

from Macquarie University, consultant Dr

Alison Lane and PhD student Kathryn

Brown.

Oil pollution is a growing problem in

Antarctic waters. Large quantities of fuels

are transported and used in Antarctic

shipping operations and stored for

research station operations, but fuel

behaviour in Antarctic waters and impacts

of fuel spills on marine biota are largely

unknown.

Antarctic oil spills are a major potential

problem. There have already been

incidents of ship grounding and ice

crushing leading to 600,000 litres of

diesel being spilled into the Antarctic

polar waters in the late 1990s, and the

sinking of the Explorer Antarctic cruise

ship in 2009.

Contact: peter.harrison@scu.edu.au

Website: scu.edu.au/marine-ecology

Phone: 02 6620 3774

19

National Marine Science Centre: uncovering the future of our oceans

In 2011, the National Marine Science Centre (NMSC)

secured more than $700,000 in new research grants, with

$400,000 of this from Australian Government category-1

sources. Staff published 24 ERA ranked publications

along with two papers in conference proceedings, and six

technical reports.

Developing new aquaculture industries in northern NSW

Mulloway perform extremely well in prawn ponds, reaching

market size in two years with high survival, good growth,

minimal disease and high production rates, according to

research by Dr Jeff Guy and Dr Ken Cowden. The first

stage of their mulloway fish aquaculture project, funded

by the Rural Industry Research Development Corporation,

yielded 14 tonnes of mulloway per hectare, enabling

existing prawn farmers to diversify and re-invigorate their

industry.

The next phase will focus on helping northern NSW

prawn farmers adapt their existing on-site prawn hatchery

facilities for marine fish production. See https://rirdc.

infoservices.com.au/items/11-178

Anemones in the sea and in the aquarium

The causes and impacts of coral bleaching on reef

ecosystems have been much researched over the past

decade. However, little work has been done on the

vulnerability of symbiotic sea anemones. These Harbour

Symbiodinium, which play a key role in helping the host

tolerate changing environmental conditions. Dr Anna

Scott in collaboration with Dr Ross Hill (University of

Technology Sydney) evaluated the susceptibility of the

symbiotic sea anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, to rising

ocean temperatures under different irradiances. Located

on Australia’s east coast, the Solitary Islands provided

an ideal location for investigating these cnidarians in a

region highlighted as a hot-spot for climate change. This

project addressed knowledge gaps and highlighted the

potential ecological impacts on subtropical reefs where

E. quadricolor dominate the reef substrate and provide

essential habitat for anemone-fish.

Dr Scott also published research that could help enable

the captive-breeding of sea anemones for the aquarium

trade, and documented a substantial increase in anemone

and anemone-fish numbers at North Solitary Island, which

contrasts with declines that are occurring in many other

areas of the Indo-Pacific.

Food security in the Pacific

Dr Steve Purcell acquired funding from the Australian

Centre for International Agricultural Research Centre

(ACIAR) to a coordinate a major research program.

With partners in Tonga, Kiribati, Fiji and the University of

Adelaide it is aimed at improving the income of Pacific

Islanders from fishing and processing of sea cucumbers.

As an extension of this program, Dr Purcell coordinated a

technical workshop in Fiji, in which he mentored 15 fishery

managers on strategies to improve management of Pacific

sea cucumber fisheries.

Sustainable seaweed aquaculture

As a part of another ACIAR grant, Dr Symon Dworjanyn

has been working with Dr Ben Liu from Southern Cross

Plant Science and colleagues from Hasanuddin University

and Mars Symbioscience in Indonesia, on ways of making

seaweed aquaculture more profitable and sustainable.

The team has isolated and quantified growth stimulating

hormones called cytokinnins from seaweed processing

waste. They are running trials to test whether these waste

products boost the growth of rice and cocoa seedlings.

If they show promise, it is hoped that seaweed farmers in

rural coastal Indonesia will be able to produce a profitable

fertiliser product to enhance their income, reduce poverty

and contribute to food security in the region.

Sustainable fishing

With collaboration from Dr Paul Butcher (NSW Fisheries)

and Dr Danny Bucher, from SCU’s School of Environment,

Science and Engineering, Dr Purcell won NSW Saltwater

20

Recreational Fishing Trust funding to oversee a PhD

project examining the fisheries biology and ecology of

mangrove jack in northern NSW. Toby Piddocke’s PhD

project is using acoustic tagging to monitor the movement

of mangrove jack, which will help to better refine

management plans for the species.

The impacts of fish hooks

Shane McGrath completed his PhD on the effects of

wire material and modifications to hooks – and on their

breakage and ejection – after ingestion by key recreational

fish species in NSW. He also looked at the absorption

of metals by mulloway during the oxidation of ingested

nickel-plated hooks. Shane’s project was funded by a

NSW Saltwater Recreational Fishing Trust awarded to

his external supervisors, Dr Matt Broadhurst and Dr Paul

Butcher, from the Fisheries Conservation Technology Unit

(NSW Department of Primary Industries).

Science for the management of marine ecosystems

Associate Professor Steve Smith continued his

involvement with marine parks in NSW through a range of

collaborative projects. In the Solitary Islands Marine Park

Hamish Malcolm’s PhD generated important publications

that help objective management of biodiversity of fish

assemblages. This work identified community types

across cross-shelf and depth gradients and defined

indicator groups of fish for ongoing monitoring. The

recommendations of these studies have already been

applied to management models for other marine parks in

NSW.

Dr Steve Dalton and Dr Andrew Carroll undertook a

quantitative investigation on the impact of recreational

divers on marine benthic communities at popular diving

sites within the Solitary Islands Marine Park.

The ecology and global importance of subtropical reefs

Dr Purcell identified critical habitats for six threatened

and vulnerable fishes at Lord Howe Island. The research

has improved the understanding of their vulnerability to

population decline and is helping to prioritise research and

management of marine habitats.

The project was funded by the Northern Rivers Catchment

Management Association (NRCMA) with collaboration from

the NSW Marine Parks Authority.

Drs Steve Dalton and Andrew Carroll evaluated the

impact of a thermal anomaly in 2010 at Lord Howe Island

which resulted in extensive bleaching of several dominant

coral species. The project was funded by the NRCMA,

Department of Climate Change and Water and NSW

Marine Parks Authority.

In collaboration with Professor Harrison, Dr Anya Salih

and Dr Sandra Diamond, from the University of Western

Sydney, documented levels of thermal stress on coral

communities and the recovery potential of susceptible

species. The project outlined management procedures

that could increase coral community resilience to climate

change, and highlighted areas for further research.

Professor Smith and his team continued their work on the

long-term evaluation of changes in biodiversity of near-

shore reefs throughout the Solitary Islands Marine Park.

This work was part of a larger body of research by marine

scientists across Australia that identified subtropical reefs

as critical habitats in a changing climate.

Impacts of ocean acidification on marine life

On the south-east coast of Australia, a sea urchin called

Centrostephanus rodgersii plays an important role in

maintaining biodiversity. By grazing on seaweed it creates

a patchwork of habitats with and without kelps that

increases the number of available ecological niches. In

work funded by grants from the Australian Research

Council (Discovery) and the NSW Environmental Trust, Dr

Symon Dworjanyn and colleagues highlighted how climate

change might influence the important larval phase of this

sea urchin.

The team is following this work by examining if sea urchins

can adapt to predicted changes in ocean chemistry.

21

Research Centres

The Centre for Children and Young

People (CCYP), within the School of

Education, generates research into some

of the most challenging concerns and

issues facing children and young people

in their everyday lives.

Professor Anne Graham leads a

multidisciplinary team of researchers and

PhD students who work collaboratively

with practitioners, policy makers and

researchers from a wide range of

local, state, national and international

organisations. The Centre contributes to

the improved wellbeing of children and

young people through its multidisciplinary

research, education and advocacy

activities.

Underpinning the work of the Centre

is the understanding that children and

young people are entitled to the provision,

protection and participation afforded

them in the United Nations Convention

on the Rights of the Child. Such is its

standing that the Centre won backing in

2011 for an influential research project

with UNICEF’s Innocenti Research

Centre and Childwatch International.

This project will result in the development

of an International Ethics Charter and

Guidelines for research involving children

that can be used in a wide range of social

and cultural contexts.

The strong reputation and future potential

of the CCYP was further recognised

in 2011 with the successful funding

of a partnership with the Social Policy

Research Centre at the University of New

South Wales under the Collaborative

Research Network (CRN) program.

This partnership attracted $1.5m in

funding over three years. It has opened

up exciting opportunities to increase the

number of research staff involved with the

CCYP, as well as to engage in research

capacity building through internal

research fellowships, staff exchange,

mentoring of early career researchers,

visiting fellowships, writing workshops

and other research training.

The CRN funding brought the total

earned by the CCYP for 2011 to $2.17m.

In 2011 the CCYP was also successful

with an ARC Linkage application

focused on understanding and improving

wellbeing in schools. Partners in this

research are the Catholic Schools Office,

Lismore, Interrelate Family Centres and

Good Grief Ltd. This study is nationally

significant in that it is the first Australian

study to ask students their views about

wellbeing.

The CCYP is served by a distinguished

Advisory Board which includes senior

representatives from major regional

organisations, working alongside leading

academics, members of the judiciary and

business, to provide expert guidance in

relation to the Centre and its continued

development.

The work of the Centre is also supported

by a young people’s consultative

committee, ‘Young People Big Voice’

(YPBV). Members of YPBV continued

their work in 2011 under the skillful

mentoring of Dr Robyn Fitzgerald.

The committee provided constructive

feedback to agencies including the NSW

Commission for Children and Young

People, and the Child Rights Taskforce in

its reporting to the UN Committee on the

Rights of the Child.

International Ethics Charter and Guidelines to support the participation and protection of children involved in research

International charter and ethics guidelines

have resulted from a major research

initiative undertaken by the CCYP in

partnership with the University of Otago,

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre and

Childwatch International.

The push for more explicit standards

to guide research involving children

and young people emerged from a

landmark study involving 257 researchers

in 46 countries - the first of its kind to

investigate the ethical issues facing

researchers internationally when

undertaking research involving children.

The report was written by Professor

Graham, University of Otago’s Associate

Professor Nicola Taylor, and SCU’s Dr

Mary Ann Powell and Dr Fitzgerald.

Significant findings of the study are that

researchers in a wide range of contexts

are now more aware of the importance of

considering children’s views in research,

and that the inclusion of children in

research is increasing.

The study uncovered a diversity of ethical

issues, challenges and dilemmas facing

these researchers, with the tension

between children’s participation and

protection very evident in both developing

and developed world contexts. The study

also found that access to ethical review

processes, information and resources –

especially to help navigate some complex

ethical issues - were not always readily

available.

Professor Graham says more needs to

be done in ensuring any kind of research

involving children honours the dignity and

respects the rights and wellbeing of every

child, irrespective of context.

This means critically engaging with

important issues. These are whether the

research is necessary and should be

undertaken in the first place, whether

it benefits children and researchers’

readiness and capacity to conduct

the research. Also assumptions about

childhood and the children involved, and

disparities in power and status between

researchers and the child research

participants.

Professor Graham hopes the ethics

Charter and Guidelines will not only

generate further dialogue internationally

around some of the more difficult issues

and questions that shape the work of

researchers, but also improve the quality

of research involving children in a wide

range of contexts.

Centre for Children and Young People

22

Contact: ccyp@scu.edu.au

Website: ccyp.scu.edu.au

Phone: 02 6620 3605

‘Wellbeing’ – what does this really mean in the context of schools?

Schools have increasingly become sites

for developing student ‘wellbeing’. But

what does this mean? A major ARC

Linkage project being undertaken by

researchers in the CCYP is investigating

how students, teachers and principals

understand the concept of wellbeing and

how it is best enabled in schools.

The research is focusing closely on the

relationship between ‘recognition’ and

wellbeing, especially how the experience

of being cared for, respected and valued,

in the context of schools, impacts on

wellbeing. In this way, the study is

important not only because it will shed

light on how ‘wellbeing’ is understood,

but also on the tacit as well as explicit

ways wellbeing is addressed in schools.

The research – in schools on the New

South Wales North Coast, Melbourne

and north Queensland - involves policy

analysis, interviews with about 90

teachers and principals, focus groups

covering over 700 primary and secondary

students, and surveys of more than 600

teachers and 2500 students. The study

is nationally significant as it is the first

Australian research to include student

views about their wellbeing, and how

schools can help with this.

The study received funding of

$186,611 from the ARC and the

partner organisations are the Catholic

Schools Office, Lismore, Interrelate

Family Centres and Good Grief Ltd. The

Chief Investigators on this project are

Professor Graham and Dr Fitzgerald,

with the international Partner Investigator

Professor Nigel Thomas, from the

University of Central Lancashire.

CCYP expands its research interests via collaborative research win

CCYP success in winning $1.5m in

Collaborative Research Network funding

to work in partnership with the Social

Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at

UNSW has opened up opportunities

to expand research activity into areas

including disability, rural childhoods and

educational disadvantage.

The expanded areas of research follow

the appointment of new researchers in

the Centre including Dr Sally Robinson

specialising in disability, Dr Mary Ann

Powell specialising in rural childhoods

and Dr Astghik Mavisakalyan in

educational disadvantage.

The CCYP is also utilising its CRN

partnership with the SPRC at UNSW to

develop further capacity in social policy

research related to children, young

people and families.

One of the first CRN initiatives in 2011

was a writing fellowship program. This

supported and mentored academic staff

from across SCU to successfully submit

a publication to a high quality journal or

edited book within a 12-week period.

The program, led by Professor Deb

Brennan, Dr Jen Skattebol and Dr Gerry

Redmond from the SPRC, involved 13

SCU staff from different disciplines writing

up research related to children and young

people. The outstanding success of

this first writing fellowship program has

resulted in two further writing programs

planned for 2012.

International experts partner with CCYP

The CRN has also promoted visits to the

CCYP by leading international scholars

in the area of policy related research

concerning children, young people and

families.

Professor Nigel Thomas, from the

University of Central Lancashire, is

working with the CCYP as a partner

investigator on an ARC project.

Professor Fiona Williams, from the

University of Leeds, is providing capacity

building at SCU in policy-related research,

and Professor Malcolm Hill, from the

University of Strathclyde, is partnering on

two current grant applications.

During their visits these Visiting Fellows

provided seminars, research roundtables,

consultations with postdoctoral and PhD

researchers, and advice on current and

future CCYP research projects.

23

24

Ensuring research involving children is relevant, respectful and leads to change

SCU Professor Anne Graham believes research has an

important contribution to make in improving the dignity,

status and wellbeing of children and young people,

consistent with the call made by the UN Convention on

the Rights of the Child some 22 years ago.

The foundation Professor of SCU’s Centre for Children

and Young People recently participated in an invitation-

only expert consultation in Stockholm convened by the

special representative of the UN Secretary-General on

violence against children.

The forum aimed to improve data and research on

violence against children, and explore how this can be

translated to effective policy and action on the issue.

The meeting “drew attention to children who have

been murdered, abused, physically punished, married

at 12, trafficked for sex, used in child pornography

rings, bullied, exploited as child labour. You name it,

such violence is very real in some parts of the world,’’

Professor Graham said.

Her role was to advise on ethical issues in undertaking

research with children who are in such vulnerable

situations. Given several years of collaborative research

with colleagues at the CCYP and the University of

Otago, New Zealand – including a study involving child

researchers in 46 countries – she is in a good position to

know how complex such research can be.

“While it is critically important we hear directly from

children about their experiences, it is also imperative we

ensure they are not harmed by doing so. Researchers

in many countries are looking for guidance to help them

navigate the complex ethical issues they face,” she said.

To this end, Professor Graham and her colleagues have

been working on a major project with UNICEF Innocenti

Research Centre, and Childwatch International, to

develop an international ethics charter and guidelines

for research involving children.

“We are now at a time in the relatively short history of

child research where we need to move beyond simply

relying on an ethics ‘checklist’. We need to consider

the kind of attitudes, values and practices required of

researchers to ensure the human dignity and wellbeing

of children isn’t further diminished through research.”

Despite the often necessary but uneasy tensions

between children’s participation and protection,

Professor Graham is heartened by the increased

international dialogue concerning relevant, respectful

approaches to research involving children.

“We need to make sure our work as an international

research community is inspired by the spirit of the UN

Convention on the Rights of the Child and that we

don’t shy away from the harder questions and issues

concerning children and childhood that so often frame

our work,” she said.

The CCYP is now held in high regard within Australia.

Professor Graham points to the number of requests it

receives to contribute to parliamentary inquiries, partner

with metropolitan universities in research, participate

in expert advisory groups, provide expert commentary

in the media and undertake joint activities with a range

of government and non-government organisations.

Professor Graham is on the expert reference group

reviewing the research evidence for a National Action

Plan for Child & Youth Wellbeing. Most Australian

children fare relatively well, she says.

“(But) we’ve still got a considerable way to go in

securing better outcomes for Indigenous children as

well as those in out-of-home care, in refugee families or

experiencing disability. We are on the turn, but life is not

yet a level playing field for many of these children.”

Professor Anne

Graham, director

of the Centre

for Children and

Young People

(CCYP).

24

Research Centres

The Centre for Gambling Education and

Research (CGER) remains the leading

gambling research centre in Australia,

attracting more gambling research

funding than any other in the country.

The CGER, part of the School of Tourism

and Hospitality Management, is a multi-

disciplinary research centre at SCU

that pursues excellence through the

development and provision of quality

research and research training relating to

gambling, its operations, management,

policy and impacts.

The CGER’s major focus is on research

that informs policy and practice to

address problem gambling.

The CGER continues to grow its

capacity and performance. Twenty-

four SCU academics were involved in

CGER research in 2011, as well as 13

researchers from other Australian and

offshore research institutions.

Along with engaging established

researchers, the CGER mentors

several Early Career Researchers and

Postdoctoral Fellows and supervises PhD

and Honours students.

In 2011, the CGER managed $1.6 million

in external grants and collaborated on a

further two ARC linkage grants funded

for $436,000. It also successfully applied

for new grants for 2012 worth over

$600,000.

In 2011, CGER researchers published

one book, eight book chapters, 32

refereed journal articles, three book

reviews, nine research reports and six

published submissions. They presented

keynote/invited presentations in Canada,

New Zealand, Singapore and Australia,

as well as 18 other conference papers at

international and domestic conferences.

The CGER’s expertise in social policy

research was recognised by the Federal

Department of Families, Housing,

Community Services and Indigenous

Affairs, which appointed eight CGER

researchers to its Social Policy Research

and Evaluation Panel.

CGER researchers conduct a range of

other professional activities, including

editorial roles for several gambling

journals and prestigious appointments on

various government and industry advisory

boards.

Highlights of 2011 include:

Gambling messages reach new level in mass media

Television audiences in the millions watch

major football, rugby and cricket matches

most weekends, which increasingly

include live betting odds on game

outcomes, even down to in-match player

goal scoring.

These live betting odds – in the

form of on-screen pull-throughs, TV

commentators mentioning odds, and

even live-crosses to sports betting

agencies explaining how to place a bet

on the game – derive from sponsorship

of sports codes by the key gambling

operators.

However, it is not known whether and

how these mass market advertorials

impact upon gambling in the community,

especially upon underage television-

watching fans and problem gamblers.

Southern Cross University investigators

Professor Nerilee Hing, director of the

CGER, and Drs Peter Vitartas and

Matthew Lamont, will determine the

impact of televised odds on gambling and

problem gambling, and what elements in

advertorials trigger the desire to gamble.

Queensland’s Department of Justice and

Attorney General provided the $225,825

grant over 2012-14.

Investigators are concerned on a number

of levels about live betting odds. Sports

fans’ increasing exposure to gambling

messages from Keno, Sporting Bet,

TAB Sports Bet and CentreBet on

sportsgrounds, player uniforms and

televised advertorials, may come to

‘normalise’ gambling such that a game

cannot be enjoyed without a bet.

Gambling messages through other media

are normally restricted, and restricted

from being targeted at minors. But major

sports codes are in the anomalous

position where very considerable

numbers of minors watch football on

Friday night and Saturday and Sunday

afternoons with gambling messages

running through them.

Meanwhile, research among problem

gamblers has found that they find it very

difficult or even impossible to walk past

a TAB, see a machine or hear pokie

machine music, without it creating an

urge to gamble.

Yet gambling messages are now being

sent out via the mass media which can

trigger the urge to gamble in people with

problems, and among those who are

trying to address those problems.

Pre-commitment enables self-exclusion

Self-exclusion programs significantly

reduced problem gambling in a small pilot

study in South Australia, and promise

to be effective in locking out problem

gamblers if pre-commitment legislation is

introduced.

However little is known about its

effectiveness in jurisdictions such as

Queensland where the Department of

Justice and Attorney General has funded

the CGER to investigate self-exclusion

as a harm minimisation strategy with a

$263,625 grant over 2012-14.

Professor Hing, Dr Louise Holdsworth,

Dr Elaine Nuske and University of New

England’s Dr Barry Tolchard will assess

the effectiveness of gambling exclusion

programs operating in Queensland,

determine whether the effects are

sustained over time, assess whether

exclusion is more effective when

combined with counselling and support;

and examine overseas models.

Centre for Gambling Education and Research

25

26

Research Centres

Centre for Gambling Education and ResearchIn South Australia excluders can ban

themselves from a dozen venues close

to their homes, work and travel routes at

a central agency. However, an excluder

living in south-east Queensland has

access to literally hundreds of venues

in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and

Coolangatta risking exposure to powerful

gambling triggers.

Even then, self-exclusion is far from

fool-proof given that it relies upon staff

identifying breaches from passport-size

photos of excluders and enforcing the

self-imposed ban. Some venues can have

up to 600 problem gamblers registered

as excluders, creating real difficulties for

managing the voluntary program.

Professor Hing has backed the federal

government’s pre-commitment reforms,

especially the requirement that a special

card be issued to any individual wishing

to play a high-intensity poker machine.

These machines allow losses of up to

$1200 per hour.

Self-exclusion orders can be linked to

the cards, automatically locking out the

excluder from play.

Better educated, problem gamblers going online

The results of the first Australian internet

and problem gambling survey in over

a decade are being published by the

CGER’s Dr Sally Gainsbury and Professor

Hing, with input from researchers at the

Universities of Sydney and Lethbridge.

As a SCU Postdoctoral Research

Fellow, Dr Gainsbury has drawn national

attention to the problem of widespread

– but unregulated – illegal internet casino

sites through a study funded through a

Menzies Allied Health Grant for $25,000.

This study was a pilot for a $933,500

study on interactive gambling – believed

to be the largest funded by Gambling

Research Australia – and is expected to

be of interest to a wide range of national

and international stakeholders including

governments, treatment providers,

community organisations, the gaming

industry and researchers.

This large study is headed by Professor

Hing and Dr Gainsbury, and also involves

researchers from the University of Sydney,

University of Lethbridge and Turning Point

Alcohol and Drug Services.

Their evidence indicates internet gambling

might create new problem gamblers in

terms of credit card use, and losing track

of time and money.

There’s also evidence existing problem

gamblers are going online as an

additional way of gambling because of

ease of access.

Dr Gainsbury has also authored a

book on online gambling, “Internet

gambling: Current research findings and

implications”. (Springer, NY)

She has also made five submissions

to the Joint Select Committee for

Gambling Reform chaired by Tasmanian

Independent, Mr Andrew Wilkie, and met

them in person four times.

Ministerial Advisory Committee

Professor Hing and fellow Southern Cross

University researcher Ashley Gordon

were two of five researchers on the

Commonwealth’s 22-member Ministerial

Advisory Committee on Gambling.

Professor Hing and Mr Gordon provided

the committee – which also included

industry, community services and union

members – with a research-based

perspective on problem gambling.

Committee debate – that was not

subject to confidentiality – focused on

the Canberra pre-commitment trials, the

need for dynamic warning signage on

poker machines, and withdrawal limits on

co-located ATM machines.

These were all important issues

also raised by the 2010 Productivity

Commission inquiry into problem

gambling.

Mr Gordon provided the committee with a

perspective on the impacts of commercial

gambling on Indigenous populations,

while Dr Hing focused on responsible

gambling and harm minimisation.

Pokies ‘feminised’ problem gambling

The introduction of poker machines

in Victoria in the early 1990s saw the

“feminisation” of gambling and problem

gambling, as women were attracted to

the machines.

Where previously men dominated

problem gambling, counselling agencies

reported a big upsurge in women seeking

help for gambling problems.

Fortuitously, the Victorian Government

funded a very long-term epidemiological

26

Contact: nerilee.hing@scu.edu.au

Website: cger.scu.edu.au

Phone: 02 6620 3928

study on gambling a few years ago

involving 15,000 Victorian adults, and

representative by age, gender and region.

Professor Hing, Dr Louise Holdsworth,

Dr Elaine Nuske and Dr Barry Tolchard

(UNE), will use the huge Victorian

database to develop two models of risk

factors for problem gambling – one for

men and the other for women.

Women tend to gamble more for coping

and escape, rather than excitement and

challenge like many men. Women tend to

develop problems when older, but seek

help more readily and tend to have lower

financial debts.

The models are expected to have

important policy implications for more

effective public health interventions,

messaging and treatment services. The

Victorian Department of Justice provided

$109,985 for the 2012-13 project.

This project builds on earlier research

into women and gambling, funded by

the National Association for Gambling

Studies, and conducted by the CGER’s

Drs Breen, Holdsworth and Nuske.

Indigenous gambling prevalence investigated

Indigenous collectivist culture may amplify

problem gambling, causing harmful

effects to ripple out within the extended

family of the Indigenous problem gambler,

reducing the urgency to address their

addiction.

There are still big gaps in the research

on Indigenous gambling. Suspected

higher rates of gambling in the

Indigenous population – and their special

vulnerabilities – are being investigated as

part of the largest ARC Discovery project

on the subject to date.

Indigenous Australian Ashley Gordon

– who was also the Indigenous

representative on the Federal

government’s 22-member Ministerial

Advisory Committee on Gambling – is

working as a research consultant on

the $365,000, four-year ARC project.

Professor Hing, Dr Jeremy Buultjens and

Dr Breen are also working on the project.

Mr Gordon has visited 20 Indigenous

communities in NSW where he has

been running community awareness

workshops among health professionals,

service providers and community leaders.

Researchers have collected some 1200

surveys during Aboriginal sporting events

in New South Wales and Queensland and

interviewed 60 Indigenous people, varying

from recreational to problem gamblers.

They are to report in 2014.

Significant life events investigated

Psychological co-morbidities such as

depression, anxiety, and alcohol or drug

abuse are known to often accompany

problem gambling.

But little is known about how problem

gambling and co-morbidities are

associated with significant life events,

especially empty nest syndrome or the

death of a partner, when women often

experience depression and loneliness.

Southern Cross investigators Dr Louise

Holdsworth, Dr Nuske, and Professor

Hing will carry out the study with $27,495

from the Victorian Department of Justice

over 2012-13.

27

Research Centres

Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work Headed by Professor Kerry Brown, the

Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure

and Work (CTLW) was established in

early 2010, with a brief to become an

internationally recognised interdisciplinary

research centre. Centre members

undertake research in tourism, sport,

leisure and work, with particular

promotion of community connection and

regional development.

The CTLW, within the School of Tourism

and Hospitality Management, is building

its knowledge capacity in leisure and

sport as part of ongoing efforts to

develop large-scale research projects

in mega-sporting events, including the

Olympic Games in 2016 in Brazil and

the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the

Gold Coast.

The Infrastructure and Engineering Asset

Management CRC – in which key CTLW

researchers are involved – is working

towards transitioning to an Institute model

as it comes to the end of its funding in

July 2013.

Research-based standard protects nation’s $600 billion assets

Australia’s expensive and essential built

infrastructure – valued at more than $600

billion – is expected to serve over the long

term. This large-scale and long-serving

infrastructure includes roads, power,

submarines and rail, and is subject to

problems of effectively managing the

asset across its life-cycle.

These nationally strategic assets –

and their managers – are facing the

serious and compounding challenges of

increasing resource scarcity, increasing

public expectations and demands,

degrading environments and climate

change. In addition, the typical 50-year

periods of service are often longer than

their managers’ working lives.

During 2011, CTLW director Professor

Brown led the production of a major

guide on asset management that has

been adopted by a key peak asset

organisation – the Australian Procurement

and Construction Council (APCC) –

and the Australian Asset Management

Collaborative Group, both with

responsibility for large-scale assets.

The practical new ‘Guide to Integrated

Strategic Asset Management’ –

supported by a research-based ‘Body

of Knowledge’ – has also been sent

to all 3,000-plus members of Certified

Practicing Accountants Australia as part

of their commitment to strategic asset

management.

Replacement of these built assets –

crucial for the nation to function – is

an expensive and major undertaking

not often widely considered, planned

or budgeted for and as a result their

strategic management is critical.

The guide provides key strategies to

assist those responsible for delivering and

managing built assets to meet community

and service delivery needs. It highlights

the need to minimise risk, achieve value-

for-money and promote sustainability.

The guide was produced by the CRC

for Infrastructure and Engineering Asset

Management project team comprising

SCU’s Professor Brown, Dr Martin Laue

and Professor Robyn Keast, and the

APCC’s Ms Jane Montgomery-Hribar.

Documenting Islander heritage

Small Island Cultures Research Initiative

convenor Professor Philip Hayward

continued his investigation, publishing

and lobbying efforts around traditional

cultural practices and their implications

for Islander rights.

The deputy Pro Vice Chancellor

(Research) continued his development

of ‘the aquapelago’ – a concept that

attempts to emphasise the integration of

island and coastal societies with marine

environments, resources, histories and

imaginations.

He argues that aquapelagos are useful for

engaging with marine native title or sea

rights claims, and especially their cultural-

historical recognition.

Based upon his research, Professor

Hayward has told the federal House of

Representatives committee on External

Territories, that Norfolk Island, Christmas

Island and the Cocos/Keeling Islands

remained unsurveyed in cultural terms

despite their being rich and distinct

aspects of national cultural fabric.

There had been an effort to remove the

recognition of traditional fishing areas and

practices from Norfolk Island. Cultural

traditions conferred rights which could

be associated with traditional rights

over managing them, and similar things

had occurred on Christmas and Cocos

islands.

Professor Hayward has argued that

this lack of awareness and information

about important elements of Australia’s

cultural heritage is lamentable. It inhibits

the development of policy towards, and

support and facilitation of Australia’s

external island cultures.

During 2011, Professor Hayward

undertook field research in Ambon with

Professor Bob Mosse from Pattimura

University on how the 1999-2002

Christian/Muslim conflict – and the

subsequent rebuilding of the city and

civil society – impacted on local tuna fish

markets. This analysis is being published

in the first issue of new publication, The

Journal of Marine and Island Cultures.

He also presented a paper on salmon

aquaculture in the southern Chilean island

of Chiloe at a regional food conference at

Kingscliff and co-authored a chapter on

Chiloe music published in 2011.

Professor Hayward was on fieldwork

in Amami in southern Japan when the

2011 tsunami ravaged the north and

he returned home due to perceived risk

factors from the reactor.

He also co-ordinated the 7th annual

International Small Island Cultures

conference in the Whitsundays,

Queensland. More recently he

28

participated in Australia’s first Small

Islands Forum, a conference at

Lord Howe Island. The grass-roots

designed enterprise brought together

representatives from many of Australia’s

islands, state and federal MPs and

academics.

Sustaining national park treasures

National parks compete for funding with

other state government departments

like health, justice and education, and

with a myriad other leisure providers, for

patronage from the visiting public.

Parks agencies from Western Australia,

Victoria and New South Wales have

moved to shore up their market position

into the future by investigating the ‘gaps’

between the benefits of parks as seen by

the agencies, and how they are perceived

by the public.

CTLW researchers, Dr Brent Moyle

and Professor Betty Weiler, have pulled

together a $129,500 ARC Linkage grant

– with extra funds from SCU – aimed at

testing and shifting the market position

occupied by Australian parks.

Poor market positioning – where there

is a mismatch between a park agency’s

or park’s projected image, and that

held by key park visitor and general

public stakeholders – can result in poor

customer support.

From their extensive interviews with park

managers across the three agencies, the

pair has already uncovered important

similarities and differences in the images

about the benefits of parks that the

agencies desire to project.

NSW NPWS managers identified

the benefits of connection to nature,

participation in outdoor activities, learning

about nature, culture and heritage, and

the opportunity to socialise with family

and friends as the most important to

project.

Managers from Parks Victoria were

much more focused on projecting health

benefits, such as physical rest and

relaxation, reduction of physical health

risks, overall quality of life and improved

mental well-being.

DEC WA responses suggested more of

an environmental focus, with connection

with nature, appreciation of scenic beauty

and biodiversity preservation the top

responses from senior managers.

The findings from this first stage of the

project will feed into the later stages

of research and involve a series of

communication-based interventions in an

effort to better align agencies’ core values

with public desires.

Olympics no game in Rio favelas

There is little difference in the levels

of sport participation before and after

Olympic Games, according to the little

empirical evidence available to date.

In a new move to encourage a strong

sports participation legacy from the

2016 Rio Games, the International

Olympic Committee has commissioned

the CTLW’s Dr Arianne Reis and the

University of Basel’s Fabiana Rodrigues

de Sousa, to investigate the issue.

The pair has won a $10,300 International

Olympic Committee grant to assess and

monitor what is being done in advance of

the Games to leverage this mega-event

to increase sport participation in Rio de

Janeiro and Brazil. They are examining

what the Brazilian government and the

Rio organising committee are doing

or planning to do to create a ‘sport

participation legacy’ as promised in their

bidding documents.

Apart from analysing official documents,

they are talking to the people who are

in most need of support – those living in

Rio favelas or “shanty towns” – to hear

what they have to say about the ‘sport

participation legacy’.

Doing so four years before the Games,

they expect to contribute to the planning

by feeding back valuable information to

event organisers and different levels of

government that may potentially result in

strategies to create a sport participation

legacy for the local population.

Post-docs’ intellectual firepower

The Centre is building up a core of

post-doctoral research talent to help it

address major projects. During the past

year the Centre has welcomed five new

postdoctoral research fellows: Drs Subas

Dhakal, Muhammad Nateque Mahmood,

Brent Moyle, Arianne Reis and Anna

Wiewiora.

Dr Dhakal is supported by the SCU

Collaborative Research Network project,

and is focused on policy and planning

research for sustainable regions with UQ’s

Institute for Social Science Research.

Dr Mahmood and Dr Wiewiora are

participating in the CRC for Infrastructure

Engineering Asset Management project.

29

30

With Australia’s infrastructure, non-

residential buildings and industrial facilities

costing an estimated 30 billion per year

to maintain, they are working on strategic

asset management.

Dr Brent Moyle is an expert on tourism,

leisure and recreation in natural and

protected areas, including visitor

management, sustainable tourism/

destination management, tourism

impacts, visitor behaviour, interpretation

and marketing of national parks. Dr

Moyle also conducts research on island

development, tourism impacts, policy

and planning, sustainability, tourism

postgraduate dissertations and amateur

athletes engaged in serious leisure

pursuits. He is among the first cohort

supported by the Southern Cross

Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme.

Dr Reis is currently investigating sport

participation legacies from Olympic

Games, and has also conducted research

on social, environmental and economic

impacts/legacies of other major sport

events. In addition, she has experience

and expertise in the fields of tourism and

climate change, nature-based tourism

and outdoor recreation.

Media art breaks down barriers with homeless

An innovative creative arts project

involving some 120 Lismore stakeholders

has yielded important insights into

homelessness, and helped break down

social barriers.

Among findings reported in a forthcoming

journal article, Associate Professor

Rebecca Coyle and Dr Grayson Cooke,

from the School of Arts and Social

Sciences, found university researchers

could extend the reach of arts

organisations deeper into the community

through measured collaboration, and

art techniques can reveal the diversity of

homelessness.

During the project with Northern Rivers

Performing Arts, and as part of National

Homeless Person’s Week, members of

the Lismore community were invited to

‘strike poses’ on an art gallery plinth as

though they were a statue, and were later

interviewed.

A typical lounge-setting was also set up

in a Lismore laneway, and participants –

who ranged from refugees, Indigenous

people, long-term homeless to couch-

surfers – came to share anecdotes about

their experiences of home and place.

The results were systematically

documented in photography and video

for playback in an art exhibition.

In another finding generated by the

technique, significant levels of fear were

discovered among both the stable and

secure and the homeless, around contact

between the parties.

The researchers observed how rapidly

people’s lives could change, leading to

their becoming homeless. Significant

levels of mobility were found among the

homeless attracted to Lismore’s sub-

tropical climate, seeking work and shelter.

Some 204,900 people received

support at some point during 2008-09

the Australian Institute of Health and

Welfare has found*, and 15 per cent of

NSW’s rough-sleepers are located in the

Northern Rivers.* ABS 1370.0 - Measures of Australia’s Progress, 2010

SCU expertise on the gallop to China

Injury and overtraining of race horses

caused by improper training can result

in both a high cost to the racing industry

and increased stress to the horses and

their owners.

An important threat to the welfare of the

athletic horse is poor preparation of the

horse for competition, resulting in earlier

fatigue during a race and increased risk

of injury.

But under a $32,120 Australia-China

Science and Research Fund grant,

Professor Shi Zhou and Associate

Professor Allan Davie of SCU’s School

of Health and Human Sciences will help

counter the problem in China.

Based upon their previous success in the

area, the pair will further develop training

methods for optimising performance,

while at the same time improving animal

welfare by reducing the risk of injury and

overtraining.

Professor Davie has developed these

concepts and his methods have been

adopted by many trainers around the

world.

The outcomes of the research may also

have implications for human athletes.

Contact: kerry.brown@scu.edu.au

Website: ctlw.com.au

Phone: 07 5589 3113

Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work

Research Centres

30

Forest Research Centre

SCU’s forestry research was rated ‘at

world standard’ in the 2010 Excellence in

Research for Australia exercise.

Associate Professor Doland Nichols was

elevated to a Fellow of the Institute of

Foresters of Australia, while Professor

Jerry Vanclay had earlier received the

prestigious Scientific Achievement Award

in 2010 from the International Union of

Forest Research Organizations.

In response to the accolades, SCU has

created a new Forest Research Centre

headed by Jerry Vanclay, Professor

for Sustainable Forestry, a former

Principal Scientist with the Centre for

International Forestry Research, and

Professor of Tropical Forestry at the Royal

Veterinary and Agricultural University in

Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Vanclay is a member of the

advisory group to the European Forest

Institute’s research network, a member

of the IUCN Commission on Education

and Communication, and a director of the

Water and Carbon Group.

SCU’s new Forest Research Centre in

the School of Environment, Science and

Management will have a broad research

focus on forest biodiversity, decision

support systems for forests, mixed-

species plantations, domestication of

native tree species, bio-energy from

forests and community engagement in

land-use planning.

The Centre will work closely with

Southern Cross Plant Science to

maximize synergies, especially in forest

genetics.

Despite its youth, the Centre has several

major projects. Professor Nichols is

drawing a major Australian Centre for

International Agricultural Research project

to conclusion in Vanuatu. The project

has involved domesticating whitewood, a

native timber tree that has great potential

for plantation production, and to stimulate

Vanuatu’s ailing economy.

Associate Professor Ross Goldingay

continues his innovative studies on

maintaining habitat connectivity for forest

fauna such as possums and gliders,

despite forest fragmentation from roads

and urbanisation.

Documentation of the soil and

management requirements of Australian

eucalypts in timber plantations continues,

with several journal articles published

during 2011.

A research gassifier will soon be

commissioned, enabling SCU to explore

production and pollution aspects of

using wood residues such as sawdust

and off-cuts for bio-energy production.

The research is aimed at making milling

more efficient while creating value-adding

opportunities for local forestry industries.

Although the FRC Centre has just been

created, it already shows a solid track

record, with great potential for the years

ahead.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Researchers at SCU’s Cognitive

Neuroscience Research Cluster published

34 research papers* and attracted more

than $30,000 in research funding from

overseas in 2011-2012.

Associate Professor Rick van der Zwan

heads SCU Cognitive Neuroscience, a

multidisciplinary group of researchers

examining how the brain functions to

mediate behaviours.

Professor van der Zwan leads research

projects in behavioural neuroscience, in

applied brain sciences, and in healthy

ageing. He has an international reputation

as a behavioural researcher and

consultant, having authored more than

60 scholarly articles and numerous other

reports.

His doctoral research led to his winning

a postdoctoral appointment in the

Department of Neurology at the University

Hospital in Zurich. In 2008 he was

appointed to the Rural Clinical School of

the Faculty of Medicine at the University

of NSW as a Conjoint Associate

Professor.

During 2011-12, all members of SCU’s

emerging neuroscience cluster published,

and a range of competitive grants were

subject to application. The cluster

graduated its first PhD student, and has a

second about to complete.

Cluster members also had two books

published, and all but one of its seven

PhD students have published.

Research publications covered topics

including parenting, ageing, mental

illness, social behaviour, pleasure and

sexual perception, reading, writing and

numeracy and violence and aggression.

This growing understanding of the

relationship between brain processes

and the behaviours that emerge as a

result of those processes has important

implications.

It means that researchers and

practitioners are closer to being able to

effect changes in behaviours, especially

clinical conditions, education and

business for the good of individuals and

the community.

In 2011, SCU’s Dr Heather Winskel

(with Professor Khazriyati Salehuddin)

won $15,500 from Malaysia’s Ministry of

Higher Education for eye tracking and

reading in Malaysia. The Swiss National

Science Foundation awarded SCU’s

Dr Anna Brooks an $11,500 Short Visit

Fellowship.*About six papers were in press at report publication time.

Health and Wellbeing

The School of Health and Human

Sciences appointed Professor Susan

Nancarrow as Director of Research in late

2011.

The School is consolidating its research activity following its achievement of an ‘at world standard’ rating in nursing during the federal government’s 2010 Excellence in Research for Australia exercise.

About 30 staff at every level within the School are research active, including six professors. Despite the School’s geographic, disciplinary and methodological expertise, it has chosen to focus its energies in five thematic areas:

• workforce and practice based education

• psychology

• sport and human performance

• primary health care

• end of life care.

The research within the school is united

Emerging research

31

Emerging research

Southern Cross University health research director

Susan Nancarrow is back from a decade working in the

UK’s National Health Service, but has had a disturbing

shock upon her return home.

Australians generally – and Professor Nancarrow says

she was one of them – regard their health system ‘as

the best thing since sliced bread’.

“I have been back for 12 months to compare the UK’s

NHS system with what’s going on in Australia.

“In comparison, I now find the Australian healthcare

system quite fragmented and quite expensive and

relatively inaccessible and relatively inequitable,’’ she

said.

Professor Nancarrow – who has a family of her own

– had grown used to the NHS’s free healthcare at

point of access, appointments by lunchtime on day of

presentation, six week maximum waits for specialists,

reliable access to specialists, free blood tests and true

interdisciplinary health care.

“The NHS wasn’t perfect, and a lot of people complain

about it. However, unlike the federated Australian

system, the NHS was centralised with very good

structures under which desired reforms could be

implemented via regulations tied to powerful funding

levers,” she said.

This was highlighted in the UK over a decade ago

when severe health workforce shortages triggered

widespread reform of any tasks that could be safely

performed by less skilled workers.

Professor Nancarrow – who is a former clinician herself

and published expert in workforce flexibility – has

returned home with powerful insights from the UK

experience relevant to Australia’s own health workforce

shortages. Delegation is the key, she says.

“(Under the NHS) nurses are doing some of what

doctors were doing, nurses are doing vaccinations,

certificate II-trained

high school-leavers

are taking blood,

therapists don’t need

to walk patients along

corridors.

“We saw a real cascade

of skills down to lower

workers. At the very

bottom we had a

massive increase in

support workers or

assistant practitioners.

We found 33 different

types of support workers,’’ she said.

Australia’s federally-funded but state-based hospital

system – which also had a private/public split – lacked

the flexibility and effective funding levers of the English

system.

As a result, Australia has ended up with a top-heavy

and expensive system that was ill-placed to adapt to

health skills shortages, she says.

“The federal government is trying to shift that with

Medicare Locals and Super-clinics, and they look like

they are moving in the right direction. But we still have

a long way to go to get a truly integrated accessible

healthcare system.’’

Meanwhile, Professor Nancarrow is also working on an

unprecedented partnership with the Northern Rivers

Indigenous community under the auspices of the

Lismore GP Super-clinic.

The SCU researchers are working with the Lismore

clinicians on a project aimed at improving health among

Indigenous families, including reducing pre-term births,

which occur at nearly twice the rate of their non-

Indigenous counterparts.

Researching to reverse health inequities

by the following values:

1. Practice is embedded in the philosophies of the World Health Organisation’s primary health care policy: “Now more than ever” (WHO 2008).

2. Practice and policy and education should be evidence-based.

3. Participation and collaboration are

intrinsic to improved outcomes for

health, education, practice and

service.

4. The creation of new knowledge

underpins our endeavours.

The School is undergoing rapid

growth, with the introduction of new

undergraduate health degrees in podiatry,

pedorthics and speech pathology in

2013.

The consolidation of the School’s

research activity has been developed in

a way which will allow for the inclusion of

the new disciplines, while maintaining a

clear focus.

32

Promising HDRs attend conferences, global centres offshoreSCU aims to create research and

research training that has global and

regional impact and relevance. The

University’s research centres and clusters

are focused on creating knowledge in

our areas of research strength including

environmental sciences, plant sciences,

geoscience, forestry, gambling research,

marine science, health, business,

education and tourism.

SCU deputy Pro Vice Chancellor

(Research) Professor Phil Hayward said

the University encouraged students

to participate in the national and

international research community,

allowing them access to fellow

researchers for feedback and dialogue on

their ‘work-in-progress’.

SCU’s Research Training Unit offers

financial support for students’ attendance

at national and international conferences.

The unit also introduced an international

HDR student linkage scheme, enabling

PhD students to work at leading global

centres in order to develop an association

with key specialists for short periods.

In parallel with this, SCU has begun to

offer dual award PhDs with international

universities. This allows promising

researchers the opportunity to develop

thesis projects between two tertiary

research institutions.

SCU has targeted Indonesia, China and

Vietnam as key areas for collaborative

research development and welcomes

applications from students addressing

topics relevant to these regions.

Applications are also welcome from

students wishing to explore projects in

other geographical regions.

SCU also facilitates a wide range of

nationally-focused doctoral research

projects and encourages active

collaboration with researchers from other

Australian universities.

Research training

Contact: Student Liaison Officer, Research Training Unit research@scu.edu.au

Website: scu.edu.au/research

Phone: 02 6620 3414

Fax: 02 6626 9145

33

34

Boat-loads of whale-watching tourists armed with

small digital cameras are now giving researchers like

Peta Beeman unprecedented insights into the annual

humpback whale migration, potentially even down to

the travel speed of individuals.

“With digital photography there are lots of people going

out and getting good photos and not realising they

are useful in terms of science, and that they can be

matched to track the whales,’’ says the Southern Cross

University Masters student, published researcher and

artist.

Ms Beeman – who has an uncanny ability to hold

patterns in her mind – uses SCU Marine Ecology

Research Centre’s international whale identification

software, Fluke Matcher, to enable the efficient

processing of large numbers of citizen photos.

“My research project is about humpback whales,

the group E population which spends the Southern

Hemisphere summer in Antarctica feeding. They then

head north to their breeding grounds of the central

Great Barrier Reef and further north.’’

These humpbacks form an immense migration stream

expected to grow to a post-whaling record of up to

some 17,000 humpbacks in 2012.

The humpback population is growing at a vigorous 10

per cent a year, but in an environment of increasing and

unknown threats.

“I have seen a number of whales severely injured by

propeller strike, and quite a lot with scarring from

entanglements in fishing gear,” Ms Beeman said.

‘Big unknowns’ are associated with the impacts of

global warming and changing ocean water temperature

and chemistry on the availability of food, especially the

Antarctic.

When studying animals with such a long migration

as humpbacks, the key is to collaborate with other

researchers, as they are studying another part of the

same migration.

There’s also a very small cross-over in these whale

populations between eastern and western Australia,

and east Australia and Oceania.

“So you need to collaborate with other researchers with

other catalogues. Fluke Matcher helps with this large

scale matching,’’ she said.

Ms Beeman’s project is already reaping photographic

documentation of whales travelling on the Tasmania to

Whitsundays, Queensland, leg of their journeys.

“I want to expand on that this year. I want more

publicity to get photos from all along the east coast

which will allow me to identify whales along their

migration, determine their travel speeds, what they are

doing, and what time of year they are travelling. The

more photos the better,’’ she says

Conservation-minded professional photographers

armed with high-end digital SLRs have uploaded

large numbers of ‘unbelievably good’ fluke shots, Ms

Beeman says.

But her mission is to popularise the documentation

of migrating whales from among the happy snaps

taken by weekend enthusiasts armed with as little as a

humble digital camera.

“The professionals are giving me really fantastic shots

because they have long zoom lenses. But if you are

in the right place at the right time and the whales are

close, and they do come close, and you click at the

right time, you can be lucky even with a very small

digital camera,’’ she says.

Whale-watchers can upload their fluke shots at

scu.edu.au/eastcoastwhales

Citizen science

Peta Beeman (left)

with Tegan Clark

on the ‘Seahorse’

photographing

whale flukes.

34

Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

Professor Neal Ryan, Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

E: pvc.research@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3719

Louise Gordon, Personal Assistant to the Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

E: louise.gordon@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(2) 6620 3172

Dr Nicole Rice, Executive Officer

E: nicole.rice@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3809

Dr Lyndon Brooks, Statistician

E: lyndon.brooks@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3965

Assoc. Prof. Slade Lee, Principal Research Leader – Plant Business

E: slade.lee@scu.edu.au

T: 0419 474 251

Professor Robert Weatherby, Chair Higher Degree Research Committee

E: robert.weatherby@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3671

Robyn Anderson, Finance Manager

E: dorfinance@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3705

Barry Pagotto, Finance Manager

E: dorfinance@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3413

Jill Townsend, Administration Officer

E: dorfinance@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3837

Research Training Unit

Professor Philip Hayward, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

E: philip.hayward@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9186

Sandra Guthrie, Assistant to Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Research); Student Liaison Officer

E: research@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3520

Jennifer Jones, Research Training Manager

E: jennifer.jones@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9147

Higher Degrees Research Officer

E: research@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9426

Ethics

Sue Kelly, Human Research Ethics

E: sue.kelly@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9139

Research & Commercial Services Unit

Stephen Williams, Director

E: stephen.williams@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3458

Carolyn Piercy, Project Manager

E: research.services@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9471

Alexandra McDonald, Project Manager

E: research.services@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6620 3485

Emma Evans, Grants Manager

E: grants@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9119

Liz Key, Administration Officer

E: research.admin@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9361

Wendy Scott, ERA and RMS Project Manager

E: wendy.scott@scu.edu.au

T: 61+(0)2 6626 9371

Contacts

The Division of Research is structured into three units

35

SCU4140