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This contribution examines and reflects on a less‐studied area of life during the Whitlam era: the machinery through which the government's expansion of legislated social security entitlements was administered. The government's record in this area warrants attention not only to gain insight into the everyday mechanics of social security administration in the Whitlam era, but also for what we might learn today from how those who administered that programme were pushed to comprehend the significance of the administrative realm as a site of politics, political action, and political relationships in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial homicides attract much attention from the media, the entertainment industry, and the criminal justice field, but there appears to be no research undertaken in Australia regarding unsolved serial homicides. This exploratory study provides an overview of Australian unsolved serial homicides, reporting on characteristics related to the victims, the police investigations, and the specific details of the crimes that were both serial and unsolved. Even though small, the total number of unsolved serial homicide series on the public record is four, with 16 victims, committed by an unknown number of perpetrators. By examining coroners' reports, textbooks, and media reports, the authors were able to tabulate victim variables that may have influenced the perpetrator's decision to murder the chosen victim. The incident characteristics of the cases were also examined. A qualitative method was used by analysing case studies of serial homicides within the context of unsolved matters. Various publicly accessible data sources were used to provide the accounts critical to explaining victim vulnerability. The results identified factors that created victim vulnerability and successful perpetrator detection avoidance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Highly publicised cases of homicide in a psychiatric hospital have raised concerns about the safety of such hospitals. Aims: To identify individual case reports of homicides by inpatients within psychiatric hospitals in order to update a 2011 study. Methods: A systematic search of the academic literature between 2010 and 2020, information seeking from service leaders in each state and territory of Australia and in New Zealand, and a search of public records in Australia and New Zealand. Results: The literature search revealed only one recent paper describing a homicide by a patient in a psychiatric ward. Contact with forensic psychiatrists across Australia and New Zealand yielded four cases of inpatient homicide that took place between 2010 and 2017 in Australia, and none in New Zealand. Public record searching did not add to this count. This compares to 11 inpatient homicides by 10 patients between 1985 and 2011. Conclusions: Homicides in psychiatric hospitals seem to remain rare, however, there is no consistent central documentation of these events in Australasia so it is hard to be confident about the figures. Internationally, there is similarly little centralisation of evidence. Standardised methods of recording and reporting such deaths might assist the understanding and prevention of homicides in psychiatric hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-impedance faults are a challenging problem in power distribution systems. They often do not trigger protection devices and can result in serious hazards such as igniting fires when in contact with vegetation. The current research field dedicated to studying these faults is extensive but suffers from a constraining bottleneck of a lack of real experimental data. Many works set to detect and localize such faults rely on high-impedance fault low-fidelity models, and the lack of public data sets makes it impractical to have objective performance benchmarks. This letter describes and proposes a format for a data set of more than 900 vegetation high-impedance faults funded by the Victorian Government in Australia recorded in high-sampling resolution. The original data set is public, but it was made available through an obscure format that limits its accessibility. The presented format in this letter uses the standard hierarchical data format (HDF5), which makes it easily accessible in many languages such as MATLAB, Python, C++, and more. The data set compiler and visualizer script are also provided in the work repository1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of routine intraoperative cholangiograms (IOCs) for prevention of bile duct injury (BDI) is contentious. There are recent reports of limited utility of IOC in preventing BDI. In Australia, IOCs are used more frequently than internationally. This study aimed to evaluate the rate of IOC use in Australia and explore potential changes in practice in light of evolving evidence for the utility of IOC. Methods: Data were collated using service item numbers in Medicare Benefits Scheme records on the Australian Government Medicare website, for services claimed between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2019. These data were used to analyse trends in rates of IOC, cholecystectomy and BDI repair. Data were age‐standardized to account for changes in the population over time. Results: The number of IOCs claimed increased by 31.8% and cholecystectomies by 7.0% over the study period. Age‐standardized service rates per 100 000 persons increased by 5.5 and 32.6, respectively. Rates of IOC per 100 000 cholecystectomies steadily increased across the study period, while BDI repair rates remained low and erratic. Conclusion: Increasing use of IOC over the last 20 years reflects a trend towards routine rather than selective IOC; however, there is little discernible change in the number of BDIs requiring repair procedures. This suggests that routine IOC use to prevent or minimize BDI is unwarranted. Further investigation is required into the selective IOC use in high‐risk patients rather than mandatory use in all patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater supply systems constructed by gold miners in Victoria during the nineteenth century were highly significant in the historical development of water law and water licensing in Australia. Alluvial gold mining required large volumes of water to separate gold from washdirt, but surface flows often failed in seasonally dry conditions. Drought in the mid-1860s prompted miners on the Ovens goldfield in north-east Victoria to exploit groundwater to increase supplies, despite limited scientific understanding of this resource at the time. Analysis of historical plans held by Public Records Office Victoria has revealed numerous 'source of supply' tunnels dug by miners to extract groundwater in the area. By the early 1880s, miners were using up to 31 ML of groundwater per day, with much of the water transferred between creek and river catchments. These activities represent an early, large-scale and significant intervention in the hydrogeological environment, several decades prior to economic development of the Great Artesian Basin in northern Australia. Understanding the nature and scale of groundwater use in this period provides vital social and historical context for modern debates about groundwater modelling, extraction and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Archives Act of 1983 Australia's Second World War internees have had access to their wartime files, yet little attention has focused on whether they and their families have consulted these records, or on their responses to them. From the early 2000s historians and archivists began discussing the need for combining private oral testimony with official records as part of a wider discourse on the importance of life stories for deepening knowledge about the past. This article explores the impact of a father's official internment records on his son, through the son's sharing of memories, lived experience and his reactions to official documents, in order to provide a more complete story of his father's internment and life than either the public record or the oral testimony alone can produce. We argue that Sam Ragonesi's oral testimony, especially concerning his encounter with Salvatore Ragonesi's official records, contributes to a greater shared understanding of experiences of war on the home front by integrating social, cultural and family dimensions hidden from Salvatore's public history. In this way intergenerational experiences help both to contest the collective image of internment and create a more complex picture of the War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally policymakers have paid little attention to the consumption of steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) in Australia. Yet, in recent times PIEDs have come to occupy an increasing amount of discursive space and, indeed, regulatory action. This newfound interest may be attributed to several broader developments, not least the perception of the involvement of organized crime in distributing PIEDs to the professional sports world and other sectors of this illicit market. This paper seeks to explore the empirical reality of the claim that the production and supply of PIEDs in Australia is the prerogative of organized crime groups. A retrospective content analysis of Australian PIED provider cases was conducted between 2010 and 2016. To widen our search, both media articles describing court cases, obtained from the Factiva database, and public online court records, using the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) database, were searched. Search terms included "steroid*", "doping" and "testosterone" in combination with the terms "traffic*", "production", "supply*" and "import*". In total, 477 PIED provider cases were identified yet most cases were duplicates, irrelevant or lacked sufficient detail, resulting in a final dataset of 144 cases. A coding schedule was developed based on existing PIED supply literature. Our data shows that most PIED provider cases took place in Queensland (41.7%), followed by New South Wales (25%) and Victoria (13.2%). Regarding the type of providers, the largest group consisted of people active in the gym industry (22%), followed by the healthcare sector (17%), the 'other' category (12%) and the security sphere (8%). Of the 144 steroid-provider cases, only 12% of the cases indicated the potential involvement of organized crime groups, with half of those being linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs. In contrast to the claims of authorities, our data suggests that organized crime groups currently play a proportionally small role in the illicit production and supply of steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs in Australia. Indeed, various actors are involved of which only a small fraction are part of or involved with organized crime groups. Many suppliers are particularly active in the gym industry and healthcare sector. The relative presence of such suppliers has important policy implications, not least with regard to the role of criminal law in addressing the provision of PIEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis is one of the least known and most threatened of Australia's bird species. In recent decades, breeding has been confirmed at only two remote regions in inland Australia. Consequently, reports of its presence in new locations have important conservation implications and elicit intense public interest. Between 2016 and 2018, following targeted searches, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) reported the presence of Night Parrots on their Kalamurina Wildlife Reserve (South Australia) and the Diamantina National Park (Queensland). In response to questions raised from within the Australian ornithological community, AWC appointed an independent panel to assess the adequacy of the evidence for the presence of Night Parrots at these two locations. The panel was tasked with considering three lines of evidence: a single feather discovered at Kalamurina in 2017, calls recorded on an acoustic recorder at Kalamurina in 2018 and photographs of three nests with eggs taken at Diamantina National Park in 2016. The panel concluded that each of the three lines of evidence was insufficient to demonstrate conclusively the occurrence of Night Parrots at either Diamantina National Park or Kalamurina Wildlife Reserve. Here we present a summary of the panel's findings, to maintain these findings permanently on the public record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archival records are of tremendous value to care leavers; however, this community faces many barriers when attempting to access records about their time in institutions as children. This article explores the particular needs of care leaver communities in Australia and discusses a digital resource (www.findandconnect.gov.au) designed to improve access to records and public knowledge about the history of child welfare. This web resource is one example of how archives and archivists can encourage ‘strangers’ into the archive and help communities to use records to support identity construction and historical justice. The authors contend that consultation and collaboration with stakeholders outside of the archive are crucial. The article also describes how usability testing and user feedback led to significant redesign of the web resource so that it best meets the particular needs of care leaver communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers a reflection on the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. This panel dataset produced over 300 journal articles, about 30 books and book chapters and multiple public reports and working papers in 10 years. The survey covers the population's labor force, health status, income and family structures. The Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs created the HILDA Survey in 2000.

The article asserts that a new critical approach is needed to assess site-specific performances and community productions of the Australian theater group, TheatreWorks. According to the author, there has not been much report about the group's plays during its first few years and public records have mostly overlooked their performances. He states that despite the lack of initial coverage, TheatreWorks has become a part of the change that it was trying to promote and has become more mainstream.

The article presents information on the national information policy for justice administration in Australia. It is stated that in Australian law, there is no statutory right of access to information; and the nation's archival regime is fragmented, and no statute covers all government records. It is mentioned that the National Archives has been ineffective in using its powers to deal with misbehaviour by government agencies. In Australia, justice is served through a patchwork of Commonwealth, State and Territory statute law, that covers confidential information, copyright, privacy, national security and law enforcement, and trade practices.

The article discusses Australian High Court Justice Ian Callinan's views of the harm caused by defamation, his pursuit of a higher standard and his examination of media practices. It is noted that Callinan argued that the impact of a defamatory statement on a person could be devastating, sometimes lifelong and that this can be aggravated even in the presence of an apology because there will be some who will either not read it or not believe it, and that the defamatory statement may well constitute a public record for the future. Callinan also said that publishers who act honestly and with ordinary diligence in the compilation and dissemination of matter of public interest have nothing to fear from the law of defamation.

The article discusses the importance of indexing state records on aboriginal Australian people, including aboriginal people in advisory capacities, outreach activities, and the production of useful resources. The importance of indexing has been highlighted over the last decade and a half following a number of national inquiries which recommended facilitating indigenous access to government records relating to the administration of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Another issue that is important in archives is the inclusion of aboriginal people into advisory roles. It concludes that in developing appropriate services for aboriginal Australians, the challenge for archives is how to provide increased access to records and at the same time appropriate access that takes into account individual privacy issues and other issues of sensitivity. In the South Australian context, indexing the names of aboriginal people in government administration records has greatly facilitated both these aspects. At the same time it has reduced excessive handling of records and has lessened the impact of other restrictions to records that result from government concerns.

This article reports on findings from interviews with a small group of Chinese female immigrants to Australia who have started up their own business since their arrival. Unlike most publications concerning immigration that focus upon financial factors, we have instead concentrated on their personal journeys, why they started their businesses and the benefits they sought. We interviewed thirteen participants in Adelaide who had recently arrived from China with the aim of immigrating permanently to Australia. Immigration records indicate that by 2020 this figure had risen to over 160,000 per annum. However, it dropped again quickly in 2020 following the beginning of COVID-19. Nonetheless, according to recent Australian government records, over 866,200 current Australian residents have Chinese ancestry and 74% are first-generation migrants. The primary motivators for respondents were independence and control as well as income and skill development. Respondents were also satisfied by the personal development they gained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes how the classification problems created by frequency of administrative change have been addressed in the national archives of England and Australia. How the author interpreted classification; Classical archives theory; How difficulties arise from classification; Information about Commonwealth Record System (CRS); Records control systems used by modern public record offices; More.

The article offers information on deaths that occurred in police and prison custody and custody-related police operations in Australia in 1997. It provides data on the 103 deaths in police and prison custody which is identified as the highest number of deaths in record. It also provides the definition of a death in custody as recommended by the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Moreover, in custodial authority, 28 deaths occurred in police custody or in custody-related operations while 75 deaths occurred in prison custody.

Reports on the growing number of courts in Australia that are producing statistics. Information on other agencies that are producing statistics; Significance of the data gathered by the courts; Challenges facing the courts and other agencies which are producing statistics.

Discusses local rules restricting the use of unreported court decisions in Australia. Reference to a summer 2005 issue of the "Victorian Bar News"; Rule on the use of unreported decisions in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.