A Griffith University student has put the call out to cat owners in the Brisbane and Gold Coast regions to get the scoop on their cat’s poop in the hope of better understanding their impact on wildlife.
Renee Piccolo is an Ecology and Conservation Biology student completing her Honours research project on the potential impact of domestic cats on native wildlife through an online survey and the analysis of their diet using scat samples.
Renee said having more respondents to her online survey will yield greater insight into patterns of cat roaming behaviour, such as the numbers kept indoors or that are free to roam 24/7, but also what animals these cats are preying upon when they are outdoors.
“Although our aim is to learn more about the wildlife domestic cats are potentially eating while wandering away from their residence, we also hope to gather information that will support management decisions not only to protect native wildlife but the welfare of pet cats,” she said.
“By obtaining information on the cat’s location, the project will also provide a spatial representation of the potential impact from domestic cats within the study area. The overarching objective is to improve our understanding of the impact of domestic cats across an urban-rural development gradient.”
All cat owners from Brisbane, the Gold Coast and all surrounding areas who live in urban (built-up residential), peri-urban (residential with surrounding bushland) and rural (large acreage, pasture etc.) landscapes are encouraged to complete the survey.
Part One of the survey is a short questionnaire. After completing Part One, owners can then opt to have samples of their cat’s ‘scat’ analysed by Renee in Part Two of the project to determine what they are eating.
For this phase of the research Renee is interested in obtaining scat samples from cats that are:
Indoors at night and out during the day;
Free roaming day and night; and,
Indoors only.
“The key benefit of this research will be a deeper understanding about the possible impacts of domestic cats in urban environments,” Renee said.
“These data will hopefully be able to provide better information to cat owners as well as local councils to inform the development of strategies to manage urban native wildlife populations.” For more information or to complete the survey, click here. Or contact Renee directly at [email protected].
Despite not having higher education qualifications, a 30-year career across a wide range of business endeavours reaped dividends for Kate Crouch.
And she wants other mature age students to know that it is possible to gain entry to a Griffith University postgraduate degree without undergraduate qualifications.
“I had started a Bachelor of Business degree before a ‘eureka moment’ arrived through a casual conversation with one of my lecturers.
“It was a pleasant shock when my lecturer told me my work history enabled me to apply for a postgraduate degree.” Kate said.
The mother of three became the proud holder of both a Griffith Graduate Certificate in Marketing and a Master of Marketing two years on.
Kate’s 30 year business career began when she owned a gym in the early 1980’s before working in a slew of business-related positions from catering to marketing and training at Deloitte.A significant part of her career was spent in marketing and eventsin Sydney and Brisbane.
The skills she developed in the workplace demonstrated leadership and business acumen and were all she needed to successfully apply for the Graduate Certificate.
“I highlighted my event management experience at Brisbane State High School as well as the ownership of two successful businesses which I started and managed.
“To top it off, the credits I earned while doing my Graduate Certificate were transferred to my Masters which meant I graduatedwith two degrees.”
Kate credits her Griffith Business School lecturers for helping her through the early part of her return to study.
Experience counts
“I had no idea how my working background could help me in my study progression and it is ok to admit I felt a little bit inferior when I began my postgrad degrees because I didn’t have an undergraduate background.”
“My lecturersand friends were brilliant and helpful in guiding me through and making me feel like I belonged despite not having studied for more than 30 years.”
Now working as anEventsConsultant at legal firm MinterEllison, Kate admits her Masters degree has made her a much better employee.
“The confidence in my own ability andrefined skills through my Griffith degrees have enhanced my working life,” she said.
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Do the photos we take and share using social media paint a picture of how we use and value parks and other open areas in our cities?
According to a new analysis conducted by Griffith University, the answer is a resounding yes.
Professor Catherine Pickering, an expert in nature based tourism and recreation with the Environmental Futures Research Institute who is head of the Ecology and Evolution discipline, worked with two undergraduate students to analyse just under 500 images tagged The Spit, Gold Coast that were posted to photo-sharing platform Flikr by 141 people over more than a decade.
The analysis found that the beach, the ocean and waves were the most common images posted by Spit visitors, despite the fact that the The Spit also covers a lot more, including SeaWorld, Marina Mirage and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Professor Pickering said the large number of images that captured the natural landscape and tagged The Spit, Gold Coast indicated that visitors predominantly associate the natural environment with the Spit.
“When you take a picture on the Spit, you have a whole lot of choices. You can take a photo of the beach, south towards the city, north towards South Stradbroke, west towards the Broadwater, in the forest, in the resorts, in Seaworld, and you can show people doing lots of different things – we counted over 35 recreational activities that occur on this one area,” Professor Pickering said.
“We wanted to know what images people explicitly think of as the Spit, and associate that with the our city.
Professor Catherine Pickering.
“Seventy percent of images showed the ocean, 62% the beach while only 17% showed the Broadwater and 5% resorts. There were lots of images (58%) showing people engaged in recreation activities on the Spit (30%), and in the waters (40%) around the Spit.
“One location and time of day was very popular: on the beach, looking south from the north end of the Spit with the Sandpump and ocean in view at dawn.”
The findings of the social media analysis mirror those in recent surveys in The Southport Spit Master Plan Consultation Report April 2018, conducted by the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, which confirmed the natural environment including the beach along with fitness and recreation and conservation were highly valued by the community.
“As part of the masterplan they ran pop-up sessions and an online survey. They found that people valued the natural environment. For example, in the online survey filled in by 481 people, 64% valued conservation and the environment, 59% the parks, 58% fitness and recreation,” Professor Pickering said.
“Social media provides us with an new way to know more about who comes, when, what do they do, and how do they value a site, what’s special about that place. There is a massive amount of data out there with over 6.5 billion photos on Flickr alone. What is important is that this is people talking and sharing images among themselves, and when we have their permission to join in, we can find out what they value and want in our cities and our parks.”
Professor Catherine Pickering will discuss the findings at a Gecko Talks event on May 23, 6.45pm at The Cove Room, Currumbin RSL. Find more details here on the Gecko website.
Professor Pickering will also appear at The Logan Eco Action Festival (LEAF) at Griffith University’s Logan campus, May 27, 10am-3pm. Eco Action offers access to eco businesses, demonstrations, workshops, children’s activities and live music, with Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis a special guest.
Calls for chapter submissions are now open for a new book exploring the unique space Australian film and television occupies in world cinema, with a particular focus on representations of law and justice ‘Down Under’.
Griffith Law School’s Dr Kieran Tranter wants to explore the unique space Australian film and television occupies in world cinema through a new book titled, Law and Justice through Australian Lenses: Bushrangers, Battlers and Bastards.
Dr Tranter says most Australians are unaware of the special place Australia plays in cinematic history.
“Most Australians are unaware the first full-length narrative feature film ever produced, was made in Melbourne, giving the Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), a special place in cinematic history by retelling another history, that of the infamous outlaw Ned Kelly,” he says.
“Australia creates a range of films and television fixated on issues of law and justice. From the ‘ocker’ Kerrigans in The Castle, to several versions of the bushranger Ned Kelly, all set against our striking and sometimes bleak landscape.”
The new research project will examine the legacy of Australian film and television and critically examine representations of law and justice ‘down-under’. The project is in conjunction with Griffith Law School’s PhD candidate Kim Weinert whose thesis is on the framing of freedom of speech in Australian film.
A particular focus of the book is the representations and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as well.
“We want to examine the way in which Australian films and television have sharply illuminated what it means to live with the legacy of deep injustice and the way in which First Australians have lived with the violence of the rule of law,” says Kieran.
Researchers are encouraged to submit a chapter proposal for consideration by 31 May 2018. The edited volume is tentatively scheduled for publication in late 2019.
A new Australian Research Council Linkage Project led by Griffith University aims to improve child wellbeing in nine disadvantaged communities.
Using a model that blends new human and digital resources, the $597,000 project builds on longstanding work in this area with collaborations between schools, families and community agencies..
Professor Ross Homel.
Chief investigator Professor Ross Homel (pictured), from the Griffith Criminology Institute, said the study would generate new knowledge in prevention science about how to influence risk and protective factors for child wellbeing cost-efficiently within existing service systems.
“Children and young people living in economically deprived areas drop out of school, become trapped in cycles of welfare dependence, and entangled in the child safety or youth justice systems at much higher rates than their counterparts in more affluent communities,’’ said Professor Homel, who will work with colleagues from the Griffith Institute for Educational Research on the study.
“Family support and child services are among the most common ways that caring institutions, including schools and community agencies, attempt to reinforce the primary care activities of families under pressure and reduce the life course impact of economically and geographically-based social exclusion.
“However, such efforts largely lack a scientific foundation which is why prevention-oriented
researchers concerned about the gap between science and service have come together in this project with practitioners and policy experts, seeking effective, sustainable, scaleable, cost-efficient models for practice.”
The project builds on extensive research that demonstrates that evidence-based and data-driven early prevention strategies can reduce the corrosive effects of poverty on the life chances of children.
“Specifically, we build on evidence from the interdisciplinary field of prevention science that when community agencies and schools are empowered to engage more effectively with each other, and with families and children, they can achieve a collective impact on child wellbeing.”
Expected outcomes include sustainable learning communities among partners featuring extensive e-resources, formation of a new profession, and ongoing partner engagement.
“The project should strengthen both workforce capacity and policies to cost-effectively reduce the impact of poverty and improving child wellbeing.”
The partner organisations are:
The Australian National University, Department of Social Services, Department of Education, Department of Family and Community Services, Department of Education and Training, Department of Communities Child Safety and Disability Services, The Smith Family, Mission Australia, The Benevolent Society, The Salvation Army, the Trustee for Logan Child Friendly Community Charitable Trust, Australian Primary Principals Association and Invision Media.
Griffith Law School alumnus Terrence Stedman was awarded twice at the 2018 Queensland Law Society Profession Awards, taking out the Community Legal Centre Member of the Year and the Equity Advocate Award for his service to the community.
One of Terry’s most remarkable achievements during his decade long career at Southwest Brisbane Community Legal Centre, is the successful introduction of a duty lawyer service for child protection matters — the first of its kind in Queensland.
Terry says it was one of the biggest anomalies he could see in the system when he started.
“Families were turning up to court, after their children had been grabbed, not knowing what’s happening in the system and they’d go into meltdown because Department of Child Safety wanted to put their children into care until they were 18,” says Terry.
“We approached the Department of Justice and Attorney-General and proposed the service.”
The duty lawyer service ran for five years at Beenleigh before it was replicated by Legal Aid throughout Queensland.
Before entering the community legal sector Terry worked as an Associate Lecturer at Griffith University, teaching law to undergraduates. However, a desire to give back directly to the community and to practice law lead him to a career change.
Terry’s career move fulfilled a promise he had made when he received the prestigious Law Council of Australia’s John Koowarta Reconciliation Law Scholarship, in his final year of study at the Griffith Law School, before becoming an Assoicate Lecturer.
A descendant of the Kamilaroi people, Terry says he noticed the struggles of people in his community from a young age.
“Growing up in Inala, I saw the effect of forced removal on people from their clan groups and some were quite lost. My father had a great belief that people deserve a fair go and should be treated properly and it stuck with me,” says Terrence.
Terrence says studying at the Griffith Law School helped him to better understand the power the law had in shaping people’s lives.
“I wasn’t thinking of a law degree initially, but when I did eventually start studying at Griffith they encouraged students to focus their studies on social justice issues which suited me,” he says.
Terrence is now taking a well-deserved sabbatical as he considers his next move, but recently told the Beaudesert Times he wanted to expand the community legal services in the community of Beaudesert. Terry spends a lot of time in Beaudesert where his partner Carolyn has her law firm.
One of Griffith University’s most successful alumni whose conservation missions have taken her to some of the coldest places on earth is returning to where it all began to help change the lives of students.
After blazing trails in Mongolia, jagging prestigious scholarships, and being profiled in the upcoming edition of Griffith’s digital magazine, Emma Dale is now helping the university that helped set her on the path of conservation by raising awareness of the Griffith Futures Scholarships and how much they change lives, including her own.
Emma thought her dreams for the future were over, until she received a Griffith Futures Scholarship in 2016. These scholarships help students who are excelling at university despite personal or financial hardship.
Since graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science (Ecology and Conservation Biology with Honours) and a University Medal, Dale has traded sunny Brisbane for the freezing outskirts of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbataar to preserve and protect wildlife.
Prior to this, Dale started the Red Panda Trust, a non-profit charity based in Nepal and which connects research to conservation for the red panda, and this year will begin her PhD at Oxford University after winning the prestigious John Monash Scholarship. She then plans to return to Australia to continue working to protect carnivores such as the Tasmanian Devil and Spotted-tail Quoll, which she has began in her current role as a Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife ranger.
“I’m so grateful for my Griffith Futures Scholarship and the impact it has had on my life,” Emma said.
“It helped take me where I am today. Every day I strive to show myself as having been a worthy recipient.”
Dale is helping Griffith to raise awareness on how much the Griffith Futures Scholarships can change lives through the 2018 Annual Appeal.
The Griffith Futures Scholarship helps students who excel at their studies but are also experiencing financial or personal hardship. A $5000 scholarship allows students to achieve their potential. It can mean the difference between a student completing their course or deferring, or even halting their studies.
It is not widely known that one of Carl Schmitt’s first pieces of published writing was a satirical piece of speculative fiction —Die Buribunken(The Buribunks). In it he writes about the beings that humans will become -the Buirbunkens — beings who compulsory contribute daily diaries to a global archive. In the contemporary infoverse of social media, audit culture and the IoT, such envisioning seems prophetic. For a jurist more infamously known for theorising the exception, the friend/enemy distinction and his compliance, if not cooperation, with the Nazi regime in the 1930s, his biting critique of an information culture out of control is particularly striking.
Until now theDie Buribunkenhas not been fully translated into English. With assistance from a small grant from the Arts, Education and Law group at Griffith University, we have had it translated.
To build international awareness about the piece and to begin reflecting on what theDie Buribunkenmight tell us about Schmitt, his later work and the dark side of information culture, the Law Futures Centre sponsored a workshop on 24 November 2017.
Speakers were Wouter Werner (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Mark Antaski (McGill University), Tim Peters (Sunshine Coast University) and Daniel McLoughlin (UNSW). From the Law Futures Centre Charles Lawson, Karen Schultz, Chris Butler, Lachlan Robb, Edwin Bikundo and Kieran Tranter spoke.
What was remarkable was how such a short text (the translation runs to 9600 words) inspired speakers in different ways. For Werner and Schultz the Schmitt of theDie Buribunkenrelocates and reassess the work and ideas of the older Schmitt. For McLoughlin, Tranter, Peters and Butler the ludicrous figure of a Burikbunk, forever recording the ‘rat seconds’ of their life (recording that they were recording recording….), illuminates the instabilities, complexities and governing structures of contemporary selfhood. For Bikundo Schmitt’s adoption of the ironic was challenging, while for Robb and Lawson the irony was performative; they Buribunken-ised Schmitt — chasing and noting his appearances within the Western intellectual tradition.
The workshop was a fantastic start in thinking about the ‘minor jurisprudence’ ofDie Buribunken. The translation and some of the workshop papers will be forthcoming as a symposium in theGriffith Law Reviewand a more full expanded edited volume in 2019.
LACMA is one of the world’s premiere art institutions, boasting a collection of more than 100,000 works by the greatest artists in history.
The venerable art museum acquired two pieces from Anna’s Stardust series: ‘517 North Vine Street, Hollywood…then’ and ‘517 North Vine Street, Hollywood…now’.
Both works feature ‘Stardust’ motels from different parts of the world.Using old postcards for inspiration, Anna designed and fabricated miniature models of the motels in their prime. She then photographed the models within ‘sets’, which featured oversized photographs of real landscapes.
Using Google Maps to find images of how the motels currently looked, Anna then ‘renovated’ the models to produce realistic ‘… now’ versions of the motels.
“I’m inspired by artists that create a space of stillness, imagination and contemplation of deeply familiar spaces which is what I aim to do in my own work,” she said.
An exhibition with the Queensland Centre for Photography (QCP) which toured to Los Angeles helped build relationships with curators and directors at major museums in LA. Work by local artists who exhibited with QCP was recently snapped up by LACMA and the Getty Museum.
Queensland College of Art Director Professor Derrick Cherrie said the acquisition of Anna’s work was a “remarkable achievement”.
“We are delighted that Anna’s works have been acquired by LACMA – this is a remarkable achievement for an emerging artist,” he said.
“LACMA holds an astonishing collection of work and attracts more than a million visitors a year. Anna’s work will hang alongside some of the world’s most iconic artists and be seen by a global audience.
“The fact that our students’ work is held by some of the world’s most prestigious galleries reflects the calibre of our cohort and faculty here at the QCA.”
“The teachers and mentors I have had over the years at the QCA have made a big impact on me. They have taught me what great things can be achieved as a Queensland artist,” she said.
“My dream is to be able to have a sustainable practice that I can work on full time without compromising the work.
“All that really matters to me is that I make interesting work and continue to develop my ideas.
“I’d also like to go overseas for some art residencies after I finish my post graduate studies. I want to travel, produce work and exhibit.”
Griffith Film School alumnus Alice Addison has penned a critically-acclaimed remake of Picnic at Hanging Rock – re-imagining Joan Lindsay’s iconic Australian novel for a new generation on the small screen.
The $20 million, six-part series, whichhad its world premiere on Foxtel, will also be released in the US, UK, France and New Zealand.
The series stars British actress Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) and Aussie star Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black). It opened the prestigious ‘Berlinale Series’ of the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and also screened at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Alice, who co-wrote the series with playwright Bea Christian, said she was a little daunted by the prospect of remaking Peter Weir’s iconic film for the small screen.
“I was a huge fan of the original film, and was initially resistant about tinkering with it,” she said.
“The film was very moody and atmospheric, but then I revisited the book and it was a revelation.
“There was so much juicy stuff that wasn’t in the film, and TV offers a bigger canvas to dig into each of the characters.
“It was an amazing opportunity to retell the story on screen from a female perspective.”
Alice said she had been astounded by the warm reception the film had received.
“I was nervous about how the series would be received – I felt a big responsibility to the source material, and to fans of the book and the original film,” she said.
“But I’ve been so thrilled with the reception its had – the critics have been kind, and its sold well overseas.”
Alice graduated with a Bachelor of Screen Production from the Queensland College of Art’s former campus at Morningside.
“I have such fond memories of my time there,” she said.
“We were given access to all of the gear, and encouraged to use it.
“I learnt a bit of everything at the QCA, and started to understand how the industry fitted together.
“There were 21 of us in the course, which made it special – I’m still close to a lot of my classmates, who have gone on to amazing things.”
Alice’s graduating class at the QCA included Kylie Washington, now head of the BBC’s production arm in Australia, Vancouver-based cinematographer Simon Chapman (Harrow, Glitch, The Nowhere Boys) and LA-based cinematographer Jason Hargreaves (The Butterfly Tree, Adele).
After graduating from the QCA, Alice worked as an assistant to renowned Australian producer Penny Chapman (Brides of Christ, The Slap). Penny became a mentor, encouraging Alice to generate her own work.
“I learned so much from Penny – how a project is developed, the production process, and how many people it takes to get these things off the ground,” she said.
“I managed to get some of my own projects up and running, and eventually I had so much writing work that I had to give up my day job!
“It was utterly terrifying becoming a freelance writer – it’s still terrifying!
“You are either incredibly busy, juggling several projects, or sitting around twiddling your thumbs.”
Her television credits include the ABC mini-series RAN: Remote Area Nurse and The Silence, which were nominated for several Australian Film Institute (AFI) and Australian Writer’s Guild (AWGIE) Awards and shortlisted for a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award.
She has also written for the big screen – adapting the screenplay for the lauded 2011 film, The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe.
The project won her Best Film Script at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and nominations at the Australian Acacdemy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA) and AWGIE Awards.
“It is cumulative – you build up writing credits, and suddenly the networks and film studios know your name and trust you to deliver,” she said.
Queensland College of Art Director 
Her television credits include the ABC mini-series RAN: Remote Area Nurse and The Silence, which were nominated for several Australian Film Institute (AFI) and Australian Writer’s Guild (AWGIE) Awards and shortlisted for a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award.