LA TROBE UNIVERSITY

BulletinOCTOBER 2003

KIDS AT RISKMajor study intochild protection

TIRED EYESNew tests for better learning?

How do these factors affect

your health?

La Trobe University began a ground-breaking survey in Melbourne inSeptember and October to ascertain howthe facilities in people’s neighbourhoodscan affect their health.

Dr Anne Kavanagh of La Trobe’sAustralian Research Centre in Sex, Healthand Society (ARCSHS) heads a team ofinvestigators to determine whether foodoutlets and recreational facilities indifferent neighbourhoods affect thechoices people make in terms of theirhealth.

Selected at random from the AustralianElectoral Roll from 19 municipalities, the8,000 participants were divided into twogroups. One group completed a surveytitled ‘You and Your Neighbourhood’ andthe second group a survey titled ‘FoodShopping and Your Household’.

Funded by VicHealth the project is titledVicLANES (Victorian Lifestyle andNeighbourhood Environment Study).

Project Manager, ARCSHS researchofficer Ms Tania King, said people wereasked about the kinds of food they bought

and where, and whether desired foodswere always available. They were alsoasked about recreational facilities andactivities. The team also conducted anaudit of facilities in each area.

‘It is important to know what is in aneighbourhood,’ Ms King says. ‘Forexample, if there are no footpaths, or thereare significant safety issues, people are notgoing to walk a great deal. Similarly, ifthere are very few stores stocking freshfood, people will have difficultypurchasing and eating quality fresh food.’

First analysis of the data is expected tobe completed by the middle of next year.The research will be useful to many groupsin the community, especially for the StateGovernment and local councils’ planningfacilities.

The research team comprises Dr AnneKavanagh, Ms Tania King, Ms EmmaRawlings (La Trobe University); AssociateProfessor David Crawford and AssociateProfessor Damien Jolley (DeakinUniversity); Dr Gavin Turrell (QueenslandUniversity of Technology); Ms SusanDonath (University of Melbourne). �

NEWSLA TROBE UNIVERSITY

Bulletin

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN2

What you eat, where you live 2

Research helps children at risk 3

When image is substance 4

Putting the ‘h’ into ‘e-business’ 4

Vision research for better learning 5

Bendigo farewells Les Kilmartin 6

Research in Action

Cockroaches upgrade neighbourhood 7

Research into rural shop closures 8

Small towns, big picture 9

Winning program for cerebral palsy 10

Torch therapy for schizophrenia 11

John Waller: Artist in Residence 12

Big year for Politics Society 13

Tourist economics of Rail Trails 14

Flags fly for Indigenous Week 15

Drama turns on tide of history 16

IN THIS ISSUE

The La Trobe Bulletin is published ten times a year by thePublic Affairs Office, La Trobe University.

Articles may be reproduced with acknowledgement.Photographs can be supplied.

Enquiries and submissions to the editor, Ernest Raetz,La Trobe University, Victoria. 3086 AustraliaTel (03) 9479 2315, Fax (03) 9479 1387Email: bulletin@latrobe.edu.au

Design: Campus Graphics, 53094La Trobe University.Printed by Vaughan Printing Pty Ltd.Website: www.latrobe.edu.au/bulletin

Focus on children:Research toprotect kids at risk– and nationalvision screeningstudy for schools,see pages 3 and 5.

What you eat,where you live

OCTOBER 2003 3

NEWS

La Trobe University academic staff have played major roles inediting and writing a book on evidence-based public healthpractices. Entitled Problem and Possibilities, it provides an insightinto Australian health policymaking and structures.

The book includes an examination of how evidence isconstructed and used in areas including Aboriginal health,complementary medicine, health inequalities, nursing, folatesupplementation, safety of blood and blood products, oral health,primary health care, illicit-drug policy, pharmaceutical policy, andwomen’s health. Head of the School of Public Health, ProfessorVivian Lin, co-edited the book with Mr Brendan Gibson of the

Federal Department of Health and Ageing. Professor Lin also wrotetwo of the 22 chapters which cover 11 case studies

La Trobe Dean of Health Sciences, Professor Stephen Duckett,wrote the introduction. Other La Trobe University staff memberswho contributed include Ms Sophie Hill, Drs Rosalie Aroni andKen Harvey, Associate Professors David Legge and Jeanne Daly(Public Health), Ms Anne Mitchell and Dr Anne Kavanagh(ARCSHS), Professor Judith Lumley and Dr Stephanie Brown(Centre for the Study of Mothers’ and Children’s Health), ProfessorEvan Willis (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), and DrTom Keating. �

P rofessor Shane Thomas from La Trobe University’s School of

Public Health has been engaged by theVictorian Department of Human Servicesto conduct major research into childprotection.

He and his team will carry out a researchand evaluation project concerning theVictorian Child Protection InnovationsProgram, established through theDepartment’s Community Care Division.

Eight projects have been set up in sixlocal government areas under theInnovations Program, two workingspecifically with Indigenous families.These projects aim to divert families fromstatutory child protection services tocommunity-based services, therebyreducing the progression of families intothe Child Protection system.

‘The priority is research that enables theearly identification of children at risk andearly intervention so that better outcomescan be achieved for them,’ ProfessorThomas said.

La Trobe University has a high profile inChild Protection research. ProfessorThomas conducted the Victorian ChildProtection Client and Family Survey in2001. He said the 2002/03 State budgetincluded more than $15m on newinitiatives to address issues identified inthe survey.

In another project, Professor Thomaswill work with La Trobe University Schoolof Social Work and Social Policy’s Deputy

Head, Margarita Frederico,and David Green, anAssociate Professor, on aresearch and evaluationprogram of ‘Take Two’Intensive TherapeuticServices.

‘Take Two’ is a programthat identifies and treatschildren and young peoplewho have experienced severeabuse and neglect.

The Victorian Governmenthas committed $20 million tothe program, which is beingimplemented by a con-sortium which also includesBerry Street Victoria, AustinChild and Adolescent MentalHealth Services and theUniversity of Melbourne.

La Trobe University is amember of this consortium,and has been charged withleading its research andevaluation program.

Professor Thomas is also aco-principal investigator withtwo Monash researchers,Sandra Lancaster, an Associate Professor,and Professor Jim Ogloff, and theDepartment of Human Services on anAustralian Research Council ‘Linkages’project, ‘Pathways from Child Protectionto Juvenile Justice’.

Professor Thomas said: ‘It is important

to gain a better understanding of how andwhy young people engage with health andcommunity services and then provideadvice to these services and togovernment about how to make the systemwork better for young people and theirfamilies.’ �

Research helps childrenat risk

I s ‘ev idence-based’ heal th po l i cy poss ib le?

Contaminated digital images

may become clearer, thanks

to a totally new intelligent

system for colour image

restoration developed at

La Trobe University.

The new intelligent system is designed toreduce disturbance or ‘noise’ which mayblur or distort an image, resulting in a clearerpicture. It gives clients real-time access to aweb site which ‘filters’ out the ‘noise’.

For example a worn old photograph canbe scanned and transmitted as a Jpg file.But often markings or faded areas on theold print result in disturbances or ‘noise’ intransmission. In other cases, a good imagecan arrive at its destination after being

distorted in transmission. The receiver ofsuch distorted images can immediatelydivert the file to a web site which cleans upthe image.

The technique can be appliedcommercially in a number of areas, as wellas for military purposes. For examplemilitary targets – often identified from oldphotographs – can be clarified, enabling atarget to be identified more clearly. DrDianhui Wang, a lecturer in La TrobeUniversity’s School of Computer Scienceand Computer Engineering, has produced aprototype of the new system and isworking to bring it to a stage where anindustry partner could take steps towardscommercialisation.

Early stages of the development havecaused such interest internationally thatoverseas students have come to La Trobe

to be associated with the project. Recentlytwo German students from the Universityof Applied Science at Landeshut, Bavaria,Marcus Wendl and Philipp Morganthaler,spent six months working with Dr Wangon the project. They contributed byimplanting the neural image restorationalgorithm and placing it on the web site.

Dr Wang says that a degraded imagemay be caused by various factors such asatmospheric turbulence, distortions in theoptical imaging system, lack of focus,sensor or transmission noise, codingtechniques, and object or camera motion.

‘The task of image restoration is toremove these degradations to enhance thequality of the image for further use. Imagerestoration can be defined as a problem ofestimating a source image from itsdegraded version.

‘In the past, various approaches havebeen investigated to solve this fundamentaland important issue for image processing.

‘Our system is a pattern-learning basedimage restoration technique, using neuralnetworks to enhance the quality of images,where a priori knowledge of the image-dependent edge information is incorporatedinto the regularised error measure toimprove the upper bound estimation of thehigh frequency content’. �

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

NEWS

4

Dr Wang with Mr Wendl and Mr Morganthaler.

We’ve had ‘the end of history’ and now –thanks to digital technology and theburgeoning use of the internet – we areconfronted by ‘the death of distance’.

At a time of such rapid change, it is abreath of fresh air to find the words‘human-centred’ before ‘electronic-business’ in a new book co-authored by La Trobe University’s Rajiv Khosla.

Launching Human-Centered e-Businesson La Trobe’s main Melbourne campus atBundoora, Deputy Vice-Chancellor,Professor Fred Smith said the book ‘is atruly international collaboration withRajiv’s co-authors Ernesto Damiani fromItaly and William Grosky from the US’.

It deals with the analysis, design anddevelopment of human-centred e-businesssystems in areas ranging from human

resource management, marketing, bankingand finance to customer relationshipmanagement. These systems have a vastarray of uses, from handling e-recruitmentapplications and the customisation of websites to profiling the transaction behavioursof internet banking customers.

The book highlights the enormousgrowth of the internet and e-business, –which the OECD anticipates will grow toUS$1 trillion in 2003-4 – and predictionsthat this will lead to the ‘death of distance’,the ‘digitisation of almost everything, andimprovement in the information content ofproduct and services’.

‘However,’ Professor Smith said, ‘thereis a danger that this process can lead to aserious breakdown at the human-computerinterface.

‘This book contrasts the technology-centred approach – where the softwaredevelopment is driven by the technology –and the human-centred approach – wherethe needs of the user are central to thedevelopment.’ Professor Smith said thehuman-centred approach involves threethings: the modelling of software based onhow people go about solving problems; its

When image is substance

PUTTING THE ‘H’ INTO ‘E-BUSINESS’

Dr Khosla, right, with Professor Smith.

V ision disorders are the fourth mostcommon childhood disability. As the

ethnic mix of our society changes and thedemand for academic achievementincreases, are existing parameters fornational screening programs adequate?

Many thousands of children in Australiashould perform better at school thanks tovision research in which two La TrobeUniversity researchers have played leadingroles.

They are Dr Sheila Crewther, anAssociate Professor, who is a psychologistand optometrist, and Dr Patricia Kiely, aresearch fellow, who is also an optometrist,both from the University’s School ofPsychological Science.

The Optometrists’ Association ofAustralia is currently conducting anadvertising campaign for school childrento be tested for these eye problems – basedon research data from Dr Crewther, Dr Kiely and their colleagues that onequarter of Australian children have some

form of vision problem.

Dr Crewther initiatedmultidisciplinary researchwhile in the School ofOptometry at theUniversity of New SouthWales where she workedwith her husband, Dr David Crewther and DrBarbara Junghans.

This research – whichthey later pursued with DrKiely – has led to thenational campaign forschool children to betested for myopia (shortsightedness), hyperopia(long sightedness) andfocusing muscle co-ordination problems.

Dr Crewther said that despite schoolmedical examinations, two thirds of visionproblems go undetected, resulting inchildren under-performing at school.

‘The problem is not that they cannotread what is on the blackboard but howlong they can continue doing close-uptasks such as reading or writing or workingon a computer.

‘They become tired much more quicklythan children with normal sight whenperforming such tasks and this causes themto “switch off” and to do something else,’Dr Crewther said.

The Optometrists Association’s adver-tising campaign stems from a paperdescribing the screening of 2,697 childrenaged between three and 12 years in NewSouth Wales co-authored by Dr SheilaCrewther and Dr Kiely with Dr DavidCrewther, now of Swinburne University ofTechnology, and Dr Junghans.

Dr Crewther said most previousscreenings of child vision problems hadbeen performed on predominantly Anglo-Saxon populations. The increasingly

cosmopolitan nature of cities in the UK,USA and Australia and the change invisual demands with greater needs foracademic persistence, had raised thequestion as to whether past vision testingparameters were appropriate.

The survey resulted in 20 per cent of thechildren examined being referred forfurther assessment.

Dr Crewther, who has continued herresearch into visual behaviour sincejoining La Trobe’s School of Psycho-logical Science seven years ago, said thatocular or visual disorders were the fourthmost common childhood disability – butbecause visual anomalies were notregarded as sufficient health problems,extensive vision screenings were seldomincluded in school medical assessments.

‘The probability is that these children,after appropriate treatment for theirproblems, will perform at school at ahigher level because they can sustainattention longer because they no longerhave “tired eyes”,’ she said. �

NEWS

OCTOBER 2003 5

development based on the needs of theuser; and recognition of the context inwhich the problem is to be solved. ‘The“Human-Centred Virtual Machine”integrates these criteria with the necessarytechnology.’

Dr Khosla said that customerorientation, service and global reach havebecome competitive imperatives.

‘Deregulation of telecommunicationindustry and other industries, singlecurrency zones and ever-changingbusiness boundaries have furtherincreased the potential for e-business.These changes have led to high customersophistication and expectation.’ �

Human-Centered e-Business is publishedby Kluwer Academic Press.

TIRED EYESNew vision research for better learning

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

NEWS

6

L a Trobe University Bendigo’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Dean, Professor

Les Kilmartin, was recently farewelled bystaff, students, civic and business leaderswhen he left the campus after eight years totake up a post in the private sector.

While the University and communityacknowledged his wide-rangingcontribution, Professor Kilmartin said histime in Bendigo had been ‘the mostrewarding, stimulating and exhilaratingperiod’ of his professional life.

La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, ProfessorMichael Osborne, said Professor Kilmartinhad played a very strong and positive rolein the development of the Bendigo campusand Faculty.

‘The University is sorry to see thedeparture of one who has contributed sostrongly, but understands the wish ofProfessor Kilmartin to explore a newcareer path.

‘He has laid the foundations for avibrant and significant regional universitycampus, which will be an exemplar forothers. The fruits of many of his activitieswill be seen in the years to come.’

Chair of the La Trobe UniversityRegional Advisory Board, GordonMcKern, said Professor Kilmartin was achampion for Bendigo, regional highereducation and regional development.

‘His personal approach and involvementin community projects, developingindustry and business partnerships andincreasing opportunities for regionalpeople have significantly changed the faceand the role the campus plays in theregional community.’

City of Greater Bendigo Mayor, Cr RodFyffe, said Professor Kilmartin had left hismark on Bendigo. He had beeninstrumental in forming numerous workingpartnerships between the University andlocal organisations including the City ofGreater Bendigo.

‘His drive and vision have contributed tothe realisation of many joint venture projectswhich are valuable assets to the region.’

Professor Kilmartin said when he tookup the Bendigo post, he wanted to build aregional university campus that would‘take Bendigo to the world and bring theworld to Bendigo’.

‘Eight years on, I am enormously proudof what my colleagues and I have achievedin cementing the University’s place withinthe regional community, the developmentof innovative new course programs uniquein regional Australia, and the effortsachieved in building an internationalreputation for the campus as an excellenteducation and research facility.’

Professor Kilmartin listed theestablishment of the University’s Centrefor Sustainable Regional Communities as amajor achievement. ‘The Centre isassisting many communities in social,economic and environmental developmentand has enormous potential to serve theregion through its applied research andcommunity outreach programs,’ he said.

‘I am very pleased to have overseensignificant building and campusdevelopments. The establishment of thenew ICT centre, the proposed Visual Artsprecinct in View Street and CentralVictorian Innovation Park underconstruction, all offer exciting newopportunities for the University and theregional community.’

He said the appointment of senioracademics, including five professors to theFaculty, was an important milestoneproviding new leadership and educationand research opportunities for staff,students and the community.

A major driver of the internationali-sation of the Bendigo campus, Professor

Kilmartin said the number of internationalstudents choosing to study in Bendigo hassteadily increased with the campusattracting students from Asia, Africa,Europe and the Americas.’

Professor Kilmartin said he planned tomaintain strong links, professionally andpersonally, with the Bendigo community. �

BENDIGO FAREWELLS LES KILMARTIN

Peter Sullivanappointed Acting Pro Vice-ChancellorProfessor Peter Sullivan,Head of the University’sInstitute for Education, hasbeen appointed acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Deanof the Bendigo campus.

With a wealth ofacademic and researchknowledge and expertise, inrecent years Professor Sullivan hasdirected two research projects to enhancestudent learning in mathematics inprimary and secondary schools. �

A look atMelbourne’s WestThe Centre for Sustainable RegionalCommunities (CSRC) recently completeda study on the economic impact of FederalGovernment’s policy on the viability ofmanufacturing in Melbourne’s West.

The study examined the value ofretaining a strong cluster of industrialbusinesses in the region and thecontribution of such a cluster not only tothe economy of Melbourne’s West, butalso to those of Victoria and Australia.

It identified such current or proposedFederal Government policies as TCFVtariff reduction, a free trade agreementwith the USA, petro-chemical industrycompliance and defence shipbuilding ashaving, or possibly having, an impact. �

See also: Small towns, BIG picture, page 9

Cockroaches scuttling across

the kitchen floor are usually

greeted with revulsion and

insecticide.

But there are leafy neighbourhoods on theeast coast of Australia where big, blackcockroaches swarming in the bestresidences is not only normal – it’sdesirable!

The neighbourhoods are nativeAustralian forests; the residences arerotting logs; and the cockroaches are thenative Australian wood-feeding speciesPanesthia australis and Laxta granicollis.

According to La Trobe Universitygeneticist, Dr David Runciman, wood-feeding cockroaches and other ‘saproxylicorganisms’ – those that live in rotting wood– are critical to the health of our nativeforests.

Without them forests could not survive,because their activity, including ‘recycling’fallen timber into nutrients, is vital to thefunctioning of the forest ecosystem.

Dr Runciman, right, is studying thegenetic structure of native cockroachpopulations as part of a broader ARC-funded La Trobe University project,headed by Dr Paul Sunnucks, designed toascertain the effects of forestfragmentation on log-dwelling in-vertebrates.

His colleague, Ms Christina Schmuki, isexamining the effects of forestfragmentation on native Darkling beetles,Apasis puncticeps and Adelium caloso-moides.

Building on a La Trobe University-funded pilot study of Panesthia australisconducted by Mr Sean MacEachern during2001, the researchers have embarked on astudy of cockroaches and beetles nearTumut, New South Wales, where largeareas of native forest have been replacedby pine plantations.

Associate Professor, David Lindemayerof the ANU, has been examining the effectof forest fragmentation on vertebrates thatrely on hollow log habitats in the same areafor many years and the La Trobe researchextends his studies to invertebrates

inhabiting rotting fallen timber.

By applying genetic markers – heritablecharacteristics that carry information aboutrelationships among individuals andpopulations – the research team hascollected preliminary evidence thatcockroaches and beetles find it moredifficult to move through ‘islands of bushin a sea of pine’ than through continuousnative forest.

Dr Runciman and Ms Schmuki arecomparing the abilities of cockroaches andbeetles to move through two kinds ofhabitat. One is a series of small isolatedblocks of remnant native forest, usuallyalong creeks, surrounded by pines. Theblocks are so far apart that movement fromone to another is impeded and thus there ishigher than normal interbreeding andgreater genetic differences among areas.

The other is continuous native forestadjoining pine forests where man-madebarriers are absent. In this natural situationinvertebrates can cover long distances,enjoying a wide ‘normal-sized’ breedingpool.

‘With modern molecular techniques wecan now examine the genetic effects on

OCTOBER 2003 7

RESEARCH IN ACTIONCockroaches upgrade theneighbourhood

Continued page 13Panesthia australis

HOW TO ASSESS THE HEALTH AND PROSPER I TY OF COUNTRY TOWNS?

W hy are more shops empty in the main streets of southern New

South Wales towns than in northernVictorian towns? And why is there a largerproportion of shops closed in small townsthan in larger towns?

These are among questions that call foranswers following results from a La TrobeUniversity three-year research project todiscover how the ‘health’ and prosperity ofcountry towns can be comparativelyassessed.

Sociology students in the Faculty ofHumanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University’s Albury-Wodongacampus – many of whom come fromVictorian and NSW country towns – wereassigned to count the percentage of shopsthat were closed for retail business in themain street of their home towns.

Forty-five towns are represented in thestudy, indicative of the wide catchmentarea for students on the Albury-Wodongacampus.

Under the direction of Professor EvanWillis, the students began their research in2002 and repeated it in 2003, giving thema basis for comparison. The exercise willbe carried out again next year, toincorporate the longer term effects of suchfactors as drought, serious fires andcommodity prices.

Professor Willis says the trend towardsrelative loss of population from rural andregional Australia has been evident fromcensus data for many decades. However,how these effects can be measured incountry towns is problematic.

While the number of empty shops isimportant to the psyche of a town,discussions before the ‘empty shop census’began, concluded that there were severaldrawbacks with the validity of emptyshops as a measure of the health of towns.

These included short term causes ofshop closures such as falling prices forcommodities produced locally, and longerterm causes such as the opening of newshopping malls away from the main street

or the opening of main street chain bargainprice department stores.

With these complexities in mind, thestudents are repeating as closely aspossible the base study done in 2002 toascertain what is happening over time. Thetowns examined had an average of 58shops of which slightly more than 17 percent were empty.

Professor Willis says it is possible in 24

towns to compare 2002 and 2003 figures toassess how the situation is changing overtime – enabling the study to overcome theshortcomings of a ‘snapshot’ view.

Is there any evidence of the effects of thedrought or the recent summer bushfires onthe health of affected towns?

‘None is obvious as yet,’ he says, ‘but itmay be too soon to assess accurately. Theresults in 2004 may more representative ofwhat is occurring’.

Important findings of the 2003 study arethat NSW again has a higher averageproportion of shops empty (22.1%)

compared with Victoria (14.9%). Smalltowns with below average number ofshops are doing worse, with 30% empty,compared with larger towns where 8.9 %were empty.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN8

RESEARCH IN ACTION

Shop for answers

Continued page 10

La Trobe University Bendigo is

helping five towns in central

Victoria to secure a brighter,

and more sustainable future.

Academics from the University's Centrefor Sustainable Regional Communities(CSRC) are working with people inDunolly, Wedderburn, Carisbrook, Maldon

and Talbot in an unusual social researchproject called ‘Small Towns Big Picture’.

It all comes together in October with afestival in each town to showcase the

outcomes of the research through art andthe theatrical performance.

The project is developing a set of‘progress indicators’ for each community’ssocial, environmental and economicperformance.

Project leader, La Trobe Research FellowDr Maureen Rogers, says it’s a uniquecommunity development approach, whichdraws on cultural development techniques toengage and inform the community.

She says it has attracted world attention,with UN-Habitat and University CollegeLondon showcasing it in a publication,Sustainable Urbanisation: Bridging theGreen and Brown Agendas, a keycontribution to the World Summit onSustainable Development recently held inJohannesburg and also presented duringWorld Habitat Day in Brussels.

The CSRC began the project more thantwo years ago with assistance from theCultural Development Network ofVictoria.

Seven artists have been commissionedto work with the communities and theresearchers – using theatre and visual art –to engage the community in the strategyfor a sustainable future.

Dr Rogers says the program has takencommunity planning and development to anew level by giving people of all ages achance to participate in shaping theircommunity's future.

‘Small Towns Big Picture’ comprisesfour projects: a Community Cohesionindicator, an Energy Footprint indicator, anEconomic Activity indicator, and aNetwork Mapping project.

The Community Cohesion indicatorexplores the way a community satisfiesnine universal basic human needs. Acommunity which performs well is mostlikely to be a vibrant, responsive,innovative and inclusive community –hence socially sustainable.

Issues raised through the focus grouphave been captured in a theatrical

performance written by playwright CraigChristie.

The Energy Footprint (carbonemissions) indicator maps energyconsumption in each town and links it tothe amount of revegetated land needed toabsorb the carbon emission.

Creative workshops enable people tobecome involved and to open updiscussion about the likely impacts ofclimate change in the region. Dr Rogerssays the Energy Footprint deals with theunsustainable impact of humans on theplanet.

It measures the demand placed on natureby a given population through itsconsumption of energy, food, housing,transport, and consumer goods andservices, and is interpreted as the amountof land needed to sustain current levels.

‘This concept provides a readilyunderstandable indicator of the problemand the feasibility of solutions in meetingreduction targets,’ Dr Rogers says.

This part of the project also links the fivetowns with a region-wide initiative toreduce greenhouse gas emissions beingsupported by ten shire councils and a rangeof government agencies, La TrobeUniversity and the Bendigo Bank – TheCentral Victorian Greenhouse Alliance.

Another project creates an interactivewebsite for community organisations andgroups in each town called a CommunityConnections Directory.

Dr Rogers says each project will‘produce information about the situation ineach town, a suite of community-identifiedactions, and a creative interpretationincluding a theatrical performance,artworks – and a website to highlight theconcept and the research findings.’ �

OCTOBER 2003 9

RESEARCH IN ACTION

Small towns, BIG picture

A unique communitydevelopment approach…

Professor Willis: keeping an eye on rural traders. Photo courtesy of Border Mail.

A n award-winning program conductedby researchers from the La Trobe

University Musculoskeletal ResearchCentre has improved the quality of life foradults with cerebral palsy.

At least, it has for ten people agedbetween 40 and 56 who participated in agymnasium exercise program designed tobuild their physical strength.

Following the trial program in late 2002and early 2003, La Trobe team leaders DrsKaren Dodd and Nicholas Taylor, seniorlecturer Dr Helen McBurney and honoursstudent Ms Jenni Allen, expressed delightat the enhanced physical strength of theparticipants.

In addition there was a totally unex-pected bonus.

‘When questioned at the end of the trialabout the benefits they had received, theparticipants were unanimous that being ina gymnasium with lots of other people wasthe principal benefit. They really valuedthe community inclusion aspect of theprogram,’ Dr Dodd said.

The program won the 2003 VictorianState Government Applied Research inSport and Recreation Science Award. StateMinister for Sport and Recreation, MrJustin Madden, presented the award to theLa Trobe researchers at a function inSeptember.

The program followed a similar trial forchildren with cerebral palsy early in 2002.As a result of that success, the State

Department of Human Services and a teamof staff at Scope (formerly the SpasticSociety of Victoria) worked with ProfessorMeg Morris and the team from theMusculoskeletal Research Centre in La Trobe’s School of Physiotherapy todevelop a similar trial for adults.

‘This is especially important for thesepeople because the effects of ageingexacerbate their physical disability overthe age of 40 years,’ Dr Dodd said.

The ten volunteers – seven men and threewomen – attended a gymnasium at theAscot Vale Leisure Centre for an hour oncea week for four weeks to familiarisethemselves with the location, transport, andthe often crowded ‘ambience’ of the gym.

Then followed a twice weekly session ofabout one and a half hours for ten weeksdoing exercises designed to strengthenarms, legs and trunk using conventionalexercise equipment. An exercise physio-logist and three qualified assistantssupervised these sessions.

At the end of the program, eachparticipant had increased their leg and armstrength and showed trends for increasedspeed of movement, and the time it took tosit and stand.

‘Then there was the wonderful bonus ofpersonal psychological factors – a sense ofenjoyment and improvement in their selfmotivation and increased interest in theirsocial environment,’ Dr Dodd said. ‘Wehope the trial will lead to many more adultswith cerebral palsy participating in similarprograms,’ she added. �

Further information from Dr Dodd, Tel: 9479 5803.

Chronic pain,virtual bodies La Trobe University’s Faculty of HealthSciences will hold its annual researchconference into ‘Chronic MusculoskeletalDisorders’ on Monday, 8 December, 2003,

on the main Melbourne campus atBundoora.

The conference will provide clinicianswith the latest research information thatcan be incorporated into their practices toimprove outcomes for patients.

Topics will range from research intofracture healing, knee replacements.osteoarthritis and work-related muscu-loskeletal disorders to managing chronicinjuries in professional footballers.

Keynote speaker will be Mr David Butler,Director of the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute,at the University of South Australia. Histopic is: ‘The virtual body – therehabilitation paradigm for the future?’ �

For further details, Tel: 9479 3584 or seewww.latrobe.edu.au

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN10

RESEARCH IN ACTION

Improving lifestyles for adults with cerebral palsy

THE GYM’S THE THING

From left: Sport and Recreation Minister JustinMadden, Dr Dodd, Dr Taylor and ProfessorVaughan Beck, Pro Vice-Chancellor (R&D),

Victoria University who sponsored the award.

Other findings are that regional centres– towns with 100 plus shops – were doingno better (10.1% empty) than larger townsin general (8.9% empty). Also in theperiod 2002–2003, many smaller townsincreased the proportion of empty shops,while in larger towns the proportion moreoften decreased.

After the third phase of the study iscompleted next year, the students hope tohave sufficient data to throw light on anumber of issues. These include whetherthere is a measurable impact of droughtand bushfires on the health of countrytowns over time, why large towns aredoing slightly better than regional centres,and why Victorian towns continue to dobetter than NSW towns.

The data may also help illuminate whattowns with small percentages of emptyshops have in common, and what iscommon to those with large percentages ofempty shops.

They will also address the question ofwhat are ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’emptiness proportions caused byownership turnover and refitting. �

Continued from page 8

Shop for answers

L a Trobe University psychologist, MrJohn Farhall, is one of five chief

investigators conducting a three-yearresearch program to trial new treatmentsfor people who ‘hear voices’.

‘We are seeking better psychologicaltherapy for people with schizophrenia whoexperience auditory hallucinations that tellthem to do things,’ says Mr Farhall, asenior lecturer in the School ofPsychological Science and a specialist in

therapy and rehabilitation for psychoticdisorders.

Starting this year, the three yearNHMRC-funded program is comparing anew form of therapy called TORCH(Treatment of Resistant CommandHallucinations) with an alternativetreatment called ‘befriending’.

‘Command hallucinations are the voicessome people with psychotic disorders heartelling them to do particular things.Commands range from annoying thingslike “Don’t put your bag there” topotentially harmful things like, “Walk infront of the traffic”,’ Mr Farhall said.

‘Contrary to popular opinion, thelikelihood of people with psychoticdisorders harming others is only slightly

greater than for people without disorders.Nonetheless, treatment is importantbecause of the disability and distress fromnon-harmful commands, as well as risk.

‘Such disorders are not uncommon.Perhaps one person in 300 in the generalpublic will experience commandhallucinations at some time in their lives.’

The NHMRC has provided a total of$325,000 over three years for theresearchers to work with 70 volunteers

aged between 18 and 65 who have heardvoices telling them what to do – and whohave suffered distress or disability fromthis despite medical treatment.

Professor David Copolov of the MentalHealth Research Institute of Victoria(MHRI) is heading the team and La TrobeUniversity PhD graduate, Dr Fran Shawyeris the project co-ordinator. They are joinedby Professor Paul Mullen of the VictorianInstitute of Forensic Mental Health(Forensicare) and two other MHRIresearchers, Professors David Castle andAndrew Mackinnon.

Mr Farhall said that the commandhallucinations treatment was prompted byprevious La Trobe University and MHRIstudies including a NHMRC-funded

project that clarified factors that wereassociated with obeying or resisting thevoice commands. These factors includedthe disempowering ‘relationship’ thatvoice-hearers tended to have with theirvoice and the persuasiveness of friendlyvoices.

The volunteers – who will be given 15therapy sessions and three or fourassessment and follow-up interviews overone to one and a half years – will be

divided into twogroups.

One group will begiven the TORCHtherapy. This adaptscognitive behaviourtherapy – a form oftherapy well known foranxiety and depression– for the challenges ofcoping with voices.Participants will learnways to understand andcope with halluci-nations and how toresist acting on thecommands.

The second groupwill undergo be-friending therapy, acontrasting therapy thatemphasises support andactivity. It involves

steering volunteers away from talkingabout their problems and other subjectsthat cause stress. It emphasises positive,enjoyable subjects like hobbies, sport,current events, news, travel, and may alsoinvolve activities such as games orwalking.

Mr Farhall says the team hopes to havepreliminary results by the end of 2004 andto publish a full report in 2006. �

More volunteers are needed for theproject. Health professionals wishing to nominate volunteers can contact Dr Shawyer on tel: 8344 1875 or email: fshawyer@mhri.edu.au

OCTOBER 2003 11

TORCH therapyShedding new light on schizophrenia treatments

RESEARCH IN ACTION

Mr Farhall and Dr Shawyer, right.

H ow much landscape painting is just‘a form of wishful thinking’? A

tantalising question – and one that wasasked by Melbourne art critic and author,Christopher Heathcote, when he launchedthis year’s successful series of exhibitionsby La Trobe University Artist inResidence, John Waller.

Titled Home Country: the art of JohnWaller the exhibition features paintingsfrom 1999 to 2003, completed by MrWaller during his residency. It toured theShepparton Art Gallery mid-year followedby the Bundoora Homestead Gallery, theLa Trobe University Art Museum andheads to the Ararat Gallery in November.

Dr Heathcote, who is also a La Trobegraduate, said landscape artists have theirown mental images of the country andtherefore paint the world how they see it.There are the ‘heroic’, ‘sentimental’

images of a Hans Heysen; the ‘ruddyDionysian beauty’ of a John Olson; and the‘dull cheerless wastes’ of a Fred Williams.

Wallers’ view, he says, has its origins inhis childhood countryside around Mildura,on the New South Wales, Victorian andSouth Australian borders. This land,between the Murray River and the near-desert, ‘appears to outsiders just a bleachedarid expanse’.

But Waller perceives it differently, DrHeathcote said. For him it’s a land that‘connects people and place’, that has‘echoed with the laughter of children sincelong before Moses’ and he represents it by‘compositional squares (that) stand for theway Westerners try to tame and enclose theuntameable’.

Organised by La Trobe Curator of ArtWorks, Rhonda Noble, the exhibition has

been drawn from the La Trobe UniversityArt Collection. As part of the exhibition,Mr Waller gave public seminars about hisworks, and landscape painting in general.

Ms Noble said the University’s Artist inResidency program is designed to ‘nurtureand educate’ artists, students and thecommunity and provides an establishedstudio on La Trobe’s main Melbournecampus at Bundoora.

Mr Waller holds ‘open’ studios sessionswhere he talks about his work, and the artsin general, with students from theDepartment of Art History and other areasof the University. He also visits regionalcampuses.

A former secondary school art teacherand lecturer in modern art at the NationalGallery of Victoria, Mr Waller has beenArtist in Residence at La Trobe since thestart of 2000. �

For details about forthcoming La TrobeUniversity art exhibitions tel: 03 9479 2111.

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ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

John Waller’s view of the land

La Trobe – Darebinart award winnersLa Trobe University – which teaches arthistory on its main Melbourne campus atBundoora and has a strong program invisual arts on its Bendigo campus – is alsoa vigorous supporter of visual art in thecommunity.

The University sponsors a number ofsignificant art awards, aimed especially atyoung and emerging artists.

The latest round of these were theBanyule – La Trobe University YoungArtists Awards, valued at $5,000,presented in September.

The award was shared by five winners:Chrystie Meade, Rachelle Downie,Andrew Harper, Daniel Gassin amdStephen Ames.

This follows the Darebin – La TrobeAcquisitive Art Prize in August, in whichLa Trobe awarded its $3,000 bestemerging artist prize to Fitzroy artist,Naomi Sunner. �

John Waller in his campus studio, discussing hiswork with students.

S ome of our leaders may be trying tokeep politics off the front page – but at

La Trobe University the Politics Societyensures it remains firmly on the agenda.

One of the most active groups oncampus, comprising graduates, staff,students and other interested people, thesociety holds regular, well-attended publicseminars. It numbers among its pastspeakers people like Kim Beazley, MegLees, Cheryl Kernot, Justice MichaelKirby, Malcolm Turnbull, Don Watson,Mary Delahunty and Phil Cleary, tomention just a few.

Iraq eyewitnessThe latest seminar, ‘Iraq Eyewitness’,brought together news correspondent,Russell Skelton from The Age and Oxfamrepresentative, Christine Stuart.

Mr Skelton spoke about his coverage ofthe second Iraq war from the Kurd areas ofnorthern Iraq and his more recent reportingfrom both Iran and Afghanistan. Ms Stuartreturned from Iraq in July after carryingout an emergency assessment of health,water and sanitation. She also spoke abouther special interest in women in war.

Commentary came from La Trobe Headof Economics and Finance, Professor ImadMoosa. He had just returned from servingwith a US Treasury team to help re-construct Iraq’s financial sector, the onlynon-American on the team.

‘Iraq Eyewitness’ was chaired by La Trobe Adjunct Professor and VisitingScholar, Charles Mott, former AustralianHigh Commissioner to Nigeria, a foreignservice officer in Pakistan and formerAustralian Ambassador to Brazil, Spainand UNESCO.

Genocide – Indian styleThis was followed by Indian intellectual,Ashis Nandy, who writes about cricket,human rights, and mass murder.

Delivering the Society’s Annual Lecturein September, Professor Nandy’s topic was‘Genocide – Indian style’. He saidmemories of the genocide that took placein South Asia during 1946-48 have framedthe public life of India, Pakistan andBangladesh.

The two million killed have never beentruly mourned because ‘deadly silencefences the memories’. He explored thenature of the silence and argued that theviolence also brought out a very differentstyle of resistance among variouscommunity groups.

Professor Nandy is Director of the Centrefor the Study of Developing Societies andchairs the Committee for Cultural Choicesand Global Futures, both in Delhi.

Australia – 35 years onOn November 8, the Politics Society’s 10thAnniversary Annual Dinner will deal withissues closer to home.

The Society will present three ofAustralia’s most thoughtful analystsreflecting on the state of the nation in theyears since La Trobe University opened itsdoors in 1967.

La Trobe political scientists and authors,Dr Judith Brett and Professor RobertManne, will be in conversation withAdjunct Professor Morag Fraser, on thesubject: ‘How’s Australia Travelling? ThePast 35 Years’

The event will be held at 7pm in theEagle Bar, on the University’s mainMelbourne campus at Bundoora. �

Bookings and further details from tel: 03 9479 2692 or email:r.jeffrey@latrobe.edu.au

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OCTOBER 2003 13

KEEP POLITICS OFF THE FRONT PAGE?Not if this Society has anything to do with it

cockroaches and beetles of living inisolated communities and compare these towhat happens in natural, larger nativeforest areas,’ Dr Runciman said.

‘This knowledge is vital to the futurehealth of Australian forests. On average,over 500,000 hectares of bushland isdeforested annually – equivalent to an areaof around three football fields every fiveminutes.

‘Native forests are becoming morefragmented every year. A major problem isthat nobody knows what effect this will have

on what, at first glance, appear to be veryrobust invertebrates such as cockroaches andbeetles. Our job is to find out. One obviouspossibility is that isolated populations arein danger of extinction from randomevents such as fire or disease.

‘More insidious effects may be thatfitness will be reduced through inbreeding,and overall genetic variation decreased viareductions in population size andconnectivity, thus making it harder forthese animals to adapt to variations inenvironmental conditions such as those

expected with climate change.

‘The genomes of our cockroaches andbeetles are a goldmine of information. Bythe end of this project we will have solvedthese and many other problems related tohabitat fragmentation’, he added. �

Australia has more than 400 species ofnative cockroach, most of which neverventure into houses. The large, generallyunpopular cockroaches found in housesare imports such as the AmericanCockroach, Periplaneta americana.

Cockroaches upgrade neighbourhood Continued from page 7

Mr Skelton at theIraq seminar

La Trobe University recently took part inBicycle Victoria's ‘Ride to Work Day’.

Academic and administrative staffjoined students and thousands of otherVictorians on this annual ride for fitness –and for prizes that included helmets andbike lights as well as a free breakfast whenthey arrived on campus.

The University also pressed into servicea piece of its own cycling history – an old-style delivery bike, which was recentlyrestored.

A number of these bikes were used bystaff in the mid-sixties to get around thethen fledgling campus.

La Trobe volunteer co-ordinator, KateMyers – a student liaison officer in theCareers and Course Service who cycles towork from Fairfield – said response fromcyclists and community sponsors had beenenthusiastic.

The day was sponsored by La TrobeUniversity; the University’s Sports andRecreation Association; La Trobe UniversityUnion; Finnigans Cycles, Northcote; PlentyCycles, Preston; Ivanhoe Cycles; Paul'sCycles and Sports, Eltham; Walkers Wheels,Montmorency; Image La Trobe; La TrobeBookshop; La Trobe Health Foods; La Trobe Jewellery; and La TrobePharmacy. �

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Cycling, walking, or horse

riding along Victoria’s

disused – and often very

spectacular – railway lines

have many benefits.

These include health benefits for thewalkers, cyclists and equestrians – andeconomic benefits for those along thetracks who provide for their needs – andthose further away who supply othergoods and services.

La Trobe University senior lecturer inTourism, Dr Sue Beeton, has completed apreliminary study to establish and quantifythe different kinds of benefits from thedevelopment of Rail Trails, old railwaylines converted for recreational use.

Her study aimed to establish impact interms of direct and indirect employmentand financial injection into the facilities.

She looked at three samples in Victoria– the East Gippsland Rail Trail; theWarburton Rail Trail; and the mostdeveloped and popular, the Murray toMountains Rail Trail between Wangarattaand Bright.

She found that while those whoprovided accommodation for Rail Trailusers benefited well, the biggest winnerswere those providing food and beverages.

However she found major differencesbetween individual sectors funded by RailTrail users in terms of their overalleconomic contribution to a region.

She said evidence gained about thosedifferences were essential for business,facility and community planning.

Dr Beeton said that in order to capitaliseon the opportunities that Rail Trails offer,their future must be secure, especially interms of financial support for ongoingmaintenance. �

A copy of Dr Beeton’s report, The Econo-mic Benefit of Rail Trails in Victoria, isavailable via La Trobe University’s Schoolof Tourism and Hospitality website:www.latrobe.edu.au/tourism

RIDE TO WORK!

Old rural railways as tourist attractions

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Fred Smith, leads La Trobecyclists in promoting ‘Ride to Work Day’ in October.

I t’s wonderful to fly the flag forIndigenous Week, La Trobe

University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Equityand Access), Dr Kerry Ferguson, said atthe event’s launch in September.

With three flags – the Australian,Aboriginal, and Torres Straits Islanders’flags – at the entrance to the mainMelbourne campus at Bundoora, DrFerguson said it was timely to focus ondevelopments in the Indigenous area.

She, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor(Research), Professor Fred Smith wholaunched the week, invited staff andstudents to celebrate at the many culturaland entertainment activities scheduledduring the week.

‘We had a fantastic response to theHyllus Maris lecture held earlier this year,dealing with the Yorta Yorta land case, andwe are proud of our commitment to hostthis annual lecture series,’ Dr Fergusonsaid.

‘Apart from celebrations, this week isalso the time to reflect on issuesIndigenous students have to struggle with.’

While Education Minister Nelson’sreview was ‘long on the rhetoric ofIndigenous participation in highereducation’, Dr Ferguson said it providedinsufficient support in the final legislation.

However, she said plans were alreadyunder way on all La Trobe campuses toboost Indigenous enrolments. Theseincluded ‘multiple entrance and exitpoints’ to encourage more Indigenouspeople to come to the University andcomplete their degrees.

She said La Trobe was also finalising itsnew Indigenous employment strategy, withthe first appointment scheduled for laterthis year.

The University plans to employ 30Indigenous academic and administrativestaff across all campuses during the nextthree to five years.

The strategy was developed followingthe University Council’s unanimoussupport in 2000 for a ‘Statement ofReconciliation’.

‘To reflect the sprit of reconciliation, aprocess for developing the strategy was

largely determined by Indigenous staff andcommunity members, with the full supportof senior management.

The strategy was developed inpartnership with the Department ofWorkplace Relations and with support andinput from the National Tertiary EducationUnion. It also includes a mentoringcomponent, as well as cultural awarenesstraining for supervisors.

Highlight of Indigenous Week was acampus appearance by Aboriginal singer,song-writer and film-maker, RichardFrankland.

Frankland, above left, recently teamedwith instrumentalist Andy Baylor, right,and former Tiddas member Lou Bennett, toform the ‘Charcoal Club’.

The group played some of Frankland’spoems, set to music by Baylor, as well asworks featured on the soundtrack ofFrankland’s AFI award winning short film‘Harry’s War’.

Other events included music by LizCavanagh, the film Australian Rules, and aspecial Indigenous Youth Day whichincluded a bush tucker BBQ and featuredhip-hop artist Johnny Mac.

Indigenous Week was supported by theUniversity, its Ngarn gi Bagora IndigenousCentre, and the La Trobe UniversityUnion. �

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Flags fly for Indigenous Week

‘Then I went to the library and lookedthrough the archives and there they were:my ancestors who campaigned for changeand wrote things in newspapers in the1930s. Since then, it’s been an amazingjourney, discovering things and piecingthem together for myself.’

After graduating from La Trobe, MsJames worked first at Ballarat Universityand then at the University of Melbourne,helping set up education support units forAboriginal students.

‘But I knew the best way to educatepeople was through theatre, so I decided tospecialise in that field, graduating in 1996with a degree from the Victorian Collegeof the Arts.’

While Yanagai! is Ms James’ first full-length play, she has written smaller piecesand stage monologues and co-directed anumber of works, including Crowfire, aplay about identity, and Magpie whichdealt with black and white relationships.

She says theatre is ‘a place whereoppressed people and classes can find unity,strength, power, expression and language’.And, she adds, it’s about the only place intoday’s society where she can hear andspeak the language of the Yorta Yorta. �

From page 16

Drama turns on the tide of history

D rama, not history – and a chanceencounter with a volume in the

La Trobe University Bookshop – ledAndrea James to her Aboriginal past andactivist ancestors.

A La Trobe arts graduate with a doublemajor in drama and social sciences, MsJames last month made a spectaculartheatre debut, as writer-director of her firstfull-length work, Yanagai! Yanagai!

The play revolves around the loss of theYorta Yorta tribal lands of her father’sfamily following European settlement. Ittook added shape over a number of yearsas the Yorta Yorta’s land rights claim wentthrough the court system – finally to berejected by the High Court last year.

Ms James, artistic director of theMelbourne Worker’s Theatre, originallyplanned the play for her company. Butwhen Playbox Theatre Director, AubreyMellor, saw a workshop version at lastyear’s National Playwrights Conference itbecame a joint production, placing itsquarely in the mainstream of Australiantheatre.

During September it ran for a 17-dayseason at the Merlyn, the largest theatre atMelbourne’s CUB Malthouse inSouthbank, attracting full-houses andschool groups from throughout Victoria.And it received impressive reviews.

The Age newspaper described it as ‘anexceptional achievement; one that is bothentertaining and illuminating, truthful andmoving’. Its cast includes Lou Bennett,from Tiddas, who has also written some ofthe music for the play.

Ms James graduated from La Trobe in1991. Her biggest influences, she says wereclasses with Head of Theatre and Drama,and Melbourne theatre critic, GeoffreyMilne, and a course on women in theatre.

Theatre, she says, has been her drivingforce since secondary school. She sees it asan ‘exchange of energy, both betweenpeople on stage and between the stage andthe audience’.

‘It was a drama teacher – not a historyteacher – who opened my eyes to criticalaspect of our history such as the Aboriginalmission process and the 1967 census

referendum. He also introduced me to“status games” – how to put yourself intothe position of someone of higher statusand lower status – to actually feel whatthat’s like instead of just reading about it orbeing told about it.’

Ms James is a descendant of the YortaYorta and Kunai Aboriginal nations andhas a Polish mother. She says while shealways knew about her Aboriginal past, ithad been ‘a bit obscure’ during herchildhood.

‘My family spoke about where my dadgrew up, but they didn’t really talk to meabout political things until much later. Itwasn’t until I was at La Trobe that I foundout about the role of my relatives inagitating for change.

‘I just stumbled across it in thebookshop. I was looking through a book,Blood from a Stone by Andrew Markus,and I saw he had written about ShadrachJames, my great grandfather, an Aboriginalactivist.

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Lisa Maza and DavidAdamson in a scenefrom Yanagai! Yanagai!

Inset: Andrea James at work.

‘It was the Min Minlights…’said the Unclewith his dyingbreath. ‘Theyshowed us theway home.Home!’

Continued page 15

Drama turns on the tide of history