An analysis of social media posts has highlighted how attention on Twitter does not align with the most pressing threats to wild elephants, which may have negative consequences for elephant conservation and lead to resentment from local communities that live with elephants.
The research, led by Griffith University, acknowledged social media as a growing news source for sharing conservation information, but that there have been few studies which have examined the impact of social media on wildlife conservation.
To address this oversight, PhD Candidate Niall Hammond from the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security used elephants as a test species to conduct a content analysis of tweets posted about elephants during 2019.
According to the global conservation authority, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the most pressing threats to the conservation of wild elephant populations are habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and poaching, with the magnitude of each threat differing between the three species of elephant (African Forest Elephant, African Savanna Elephant, and Asian Elephant).
“The key highlights were that of the three main threats to wild elephants — being poaching, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict — there was a lack of attention on Twitter specifically around habitat loss and human-elephant conflict,” Hammond said.
“Our Twitter analysis revealed these major threats were infrequently discussed, with habitat loss being the most infrequently discussed (< 1% of all tweets).
“Among the other findings were:
Elephant welfare issues, such as tourist elephant rides, were the most frequently discussed topic (23%);
Users from non-elephant range countries were the dominant voice on Twitter (72% of tweets with an identifiable location), with these tweets likely to discuss elephant welfare concerns and trophy hunting, which is not a threat to elephant conservation;
Conversely, tweets from users from African elephant range countries (14%) were more likely to discuss human-elephant conflict, poaching, and promote elephant tourism;
Similarly, users from Asian elephant range countries (13%) were likely to discuss human-elephant conflict and elephant tourism but unlikely to tweet about poaching.
“Human-elephant conflict is a major issue. Our study found that the lack of acknowledgement of the impact of human-elephant conflict on local people often leads to resentment from people within elephant range countries, where peoples’ safety and livelihoods are often at risk due to elephants. For example, in India it is estimated that 100 people are killed by elephants each year and 40-50 elephants are killed during crop raiding.”
The findings also identified that the location of the tweets’ origins highlighted a divide in the understanding and lived experiences of those who resided in countries with elephants and those without.
“We could see that Twitter users from, for example, Botswana took issue with particularly people in North America and Europe criticizing how their countries and regions decided to manage their own wildlife,” Hammond said.
“When we watch nature documentaries, elephants are often portrayed as living in areas where there are no people, but that is not the reality.
“The reality is that in many areas, elephants and people live in shared spaces, where there are no fences to separate people and wildlife. Communities in these areas make great sacrifices for elephants, in some cases going as far as to self-impose curfews at night due to the presence of elephants or farmers sleeping in their fields to protect their crops from elephants.
“This is subsistence farming a lot of the time where people are just getting by, so if an elephant does come into their field, their whole livelihood could be gone.
“It is important to acknowledge the sacrifices these communities make on a daily basis in co-existing with elephants and advocate for greater rights for communities to manage their wildlife sustainably because without their continued support the conservation of elephants would not be possible.”
Hammond said given the relatively low representation of local stakeholders and the limited coverage of key conservation threats, there is a need to ensure that social media discussions do not overly influence decision-makers.
The research ‘Examining attention given to threats to elephant conservation on social media’ has been published in Conservation Science and Practice.
Teenage boys are just as likely to be victims of cyberbullying as teenage girls, prompting a timely reminder for parents to be on top of internet usage and access.
A recent study conducted by Griffith University academics looked at the conditional effects of parental internet supervision on online victimisation for early adolescent boys.
School of Psychology’s PhD candidate Molly Speechley and Senior Lecturer Dr Jaimee Stuart researched a cohort of 13-year-old boys from a single-sex school, their internet usage and availability of internet-enabled devices in the home.
Molly Speechley
Ms Speechley said when parents decide to become involved in their children’s internet use to counteract risks like cyberbullying that they need to do so mindfully.
“Parents need to be aware of the contexts and motivations for their children’s online engagement,” she said.
“The strategies parents use should be personal to the family and their child’s needs, but our paper suggests that when using a more autonomous approach, parents should be ensuring their advice and strategies are relevant, up-to-date and well-reinforced.
“If parents prefer limiting access to devices then they should be cognisant of the potential downsides of such a strategy, especially if their boys are highly motivated to go online, and adapt or shift their approaches to better meet their child’s specific needs as necessary.”
Dr Stuart said the purpose of the study was to better understand the key risk factors facing contemporary young men.
Dr Jaimee Stuart
“We know that parental internet supervision is thought to be an effective means of mitigating these risks for both boys and girls, but the efficacy of supervision for young men specifically is unclear,” Dr Stuart said.
“Ultimately, positive or negative associations between internet supervision and cyber victimisation must be considered in context.
“This means looking at the adolescent’s social context, their access to technologies, and how, when, or why parents are choosing to employ parental internet supervision.
“Investigating forms of internet supervision without considering these contextual factors may lead to inappropriate or incorrect conclusions for the efficacy of internet supervision within distinct adolescent populations.”
Griffith University researchers are hoping to find a treatment for Long COVID after proving the illness shares the same biological impairment as patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known internationally as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS)).
In a world first, their study suggests COVID-19 could be a potential trigger for ME/CFS and their 10 years of research on ME/CFS could help fast track understanding and treatment of Long Covid.
Griffith University’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases Director, Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, said the breakthrough findings will assist with investigations into therapeutic strategies to help both Long COVID and ME/CFS patients.
“Patients with Long COVID report neurocognitive, immunological, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular manifestations, which are also symptoms of ME/CFS,” Professor Marshall-Gradisnik said.
“Our researchers have pioneered a specialised technique known as electrophysiology or ‘patch-clamp’ in immune cells.”
“This technique previously led the team to report on the pathology of ME/CFS and to examine specific ion channels in cells.
“These channels allow ions such as calcium to flow in and out of cells and thereby control many different biological processes.
“Patients can experience different symptoms depending on which cells in the body are affected – from brain fog and muscle fatigue to possible organ failure.”
Professor Marshall-Gradisnik and her team have been studying ME/CFS for more than 10 years. In 2020, they adjusted their research to include the impacts of COVID as patients started to experience remarkably similar symptoms.
Griffith University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Lee Smith, said: “Long COVID is a significant public health issue and we are very proud of the exceptional science being developed here at Griffith and the contribution our NCNED team is making to the health and welfare of potentially millions of patients.”
The research is funded by a $4 million grant from the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation.
Stafford Fox Trustee Mr Ken Wallace said: “The Trust has been a long-term supporter of the NCNED team at Griffith University and the work they are doing to improve the lives of more than 250,000 Australians with ME/CFS — more than 60,000 of whom are bedbound or housebound.
“The Foundation is heartened by this research. It is devastating to think another 400,000 Australians could be struck down with Long COVID but we are delighted Australia is leading the world in scientific research to understand the pathology of these illnesses and to advance diagnosis and treatments.”
Already, more than 9.5 million cases of COVID have been reported in Australia and five per cent, or around 475,000, are expected to be left with long term illness.
The breakthrough findings will be published in the renowned international Journal of Molecular Medicine.
Increasing climate variability has been implicated as a driving force for the origins of our species (Homo sapiens) over 300,000 years ago, our genus (Homo) several million years earlier, and our more ancient great ape ancestors. The variability selection hypothesis posits that the landmark evolutionary features of humans, such as upright bipedal walking, large brains, and refined cognitive ability, arose in response to complex environmental processes in Africa. This influential theory has received support from environmental indicators including sediment sequences and changes in the composition of ancient animal communities. Yet these methods yield information on the scale of thousands of years or more, making it difficult to understand how climate patterns directly impacted ancient humans and their evolutionary kin on the time scale of an individual’s life.
The fossil record consists predominantly of teeth, which contain unique information about childhood development and concurrent environmental and dietary chemistry. For example, when individuals drink water, naturally occurring oxygen variants (isotopes) are quickly incorporated into the minerals of growing teeth and bone. Oxygen isotope values (δ¹⁸O) in water vary with temperature, altitude, precipitation, and evaporation cycles. In seasonal environments surface water is enriched in the heavy isotope (¹⁸O) during periods of warm or dry weather, raising δ¹⁸O, while the opposite occurs during cool or wet periods. Because teeth do not remodel during life, and tooth enamel is rarely modified after burial, these faithful climate records can be recovered from fossil teeth thousands and even millions of years later—facilitating tests of whether ancient climate variation directly impacted our evolutionary history.
Australian innovations super-charge interdisciplinary collaboration
Tooth enamel is typically sampled with hand-held drills to recover the record of oxygen inputs from water and food preserved in the hard mineral composite. This coarse drilling method yields spatially-blurred powdered samples formed over a substantial and unknown period of time, precluding the identification of precise seasonal environmental patterns. To resolve this dilemma, an international team of researchers is leveraging the exceptional potential of the stable isotope sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP SI) developed at the Australian National University (ANU). Led by Griffith University’s Professor Tanya Smith and ANU’s Professor Ian Williams, the team employs SHRIMP SI to measure δ¹⁸O microscopically from carefully-prepared thin slices of teeth.
Tanya Smith and Ian Williams developed a new method to analyse δ18O from thin sections of teeth. Here they are measuring a prehistoric human tooth in the ANU SHRIMP Laboratory, an experiment that was filmed for the Australian Academy of Science by Bohdee Media. Photo: Petra Vaiglova
In order to make these micro-measurements, a caesium ion beam under high vacuum is used to ablate tiny sequential spots from the enamel, and the ionised oxygen emitted from each spot is transferred to a sophisticated mass analyser. Each δ¹⁸O measurement takes seven minutes, and values are calibrated against a standard to correct for any analytical variance over the approximately 8- to 24-hour data collection period for each tooth. Smith’s team has shown that δ¹⁸O values of enamel measured by SHRIMP SI are nearly identical to those from the gold standard wet chemistry approach (silver phosphate microprecipitation), confirming the fidelity of this approach for oxygen isotope recovery. Excitingly, the ANU’s SHRIMP Laboratory is the best facility worldwide for this cutting-edge dental research.
Professor Smith was drawn to Australia, in part, by the potential of the SHRIMP for investigating human evolutionary biology. She completed her doctorate in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York, led a prolific research unit in the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and served on the Harvard University faculty prior to joining Griffith University in 2016. Emeritus Professor Williams, a pioneering scholar in the use of SHRIMP systems for Earth Science, has worked with SHRIMP since its first application in 1980—patiently assisting and training researchers at the ANU SHRIMP lab for over 40 years. Smith and Williams’ initial research partnership in 2017 has since led to their selection as finalists for the 2019 Eureka Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research, and funding from the Australian Academy of Science’s Regional Collaboration Programme and the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Program.
Neanderthals did it tough in prehistoric Europe
Their initial research at the ANU SHRIMP yielded the most detailed study ever undertaken of ancient seasonality in two 250,000 year-old Neanderthals and a recent human child. They microsampled δ¹⁸O sequentially from enamel preserved in thin tooth slices, relating this to formation times, and in two instances, calendar ages. The teeth of humans and other primates start to develop prior to birth, forming incrementally through time, and precise developmental records can be quantified using a light microscope. Subtle developmental defects (accentuated lines) in the enamel can be mapped and aged from daily lines formed after birth, which are preserved in first molars (neonatal line). They confirmed that the region of France where the fossils were discovered was cooler and more seasonal 250,000 years ago than it was 5,000 years ago, when the unlucky modern human child lived and died. In a surprising twist⎯ both Neanderthal children were exposed to lead at least twice during cooler times of the year, likely through consumption of contaminated food and/or water.
Left: Magnified thin section of a 250,000 year-old Neanderthal molar cusp showing the progression of growth marked by successive accentuated lines (dotted lines, age in days). Right: oxygen isotope values (VSMOW scale) sampled at weekly intervals along the enamel-dentine junction of this tooth (diagonal boundary) from birth to 2.8 years of age (time scale is non-linear). Three prehistoric summers and two winters are evident, revealing that this Neanderthal was born in the spring. (Images: Smith et al. 2018.)
These findings raise intriguing questions about Neanderthal behaviour that require further study. For example, this approach could facilitate much-needed tests of theories about the impact of climate change on the disappearance of Neanderthals. Youngsters with unworn teeth are especially helpful. Although numerous Neanderthal fossils have been unearthed, coaxing teeth from the curators of collections for this kind of study is a tall order. But the more teeth scientists examine in such detail, the more information will be available about the lived experiences of ancient people.
New views of an ancient African environment
Smith and William’s most recent collaborative study leverages these analytical breakthroughs to establish an oxygen isotope record from modern primates across equatorial Africa—covering 45 years of tooth formation sampled nearly every week. The project includes humans’ closest-living relative, chimpanzees, and contrasts δ¹⁸O values from primates with different dietary preferences within similar ecosystems (chimpanzees and monkeys in dense forests), and values from primates with similar diets in different ecosystems (baboons in forest-savannah mosaic, grassland, and highland environments). Remarkably, the modern African primate teeth show annual and semiannual seasonal rainfall patterns across a broad range of environments and diets.
The team then turned their attention to an enigmatic 17-17.5 million year-old large-bodied ape called Afropithecus turkanensis, which was first described by Richard and Meave Leakey in 1986. Afropithecus is found in a part of Kenya that is currently very arid and largely devoid of trees, but had been thought to be much like the dense tropic forests where most modern great apes live. It turns out that the δ¹⁸O fluctuations in two fossil apes’ teeth are intermediate between baboons living across a gradient of aridity, and modern forest-dwelling chimpanzees. It appears that this fossil ape consumed seasonally variable food and water sources, and its reliance on fallback foods during dry seasons may have led to novel dental features for hard-object feeding. Considered in the light of its unusually thick tooth enamel and slow dental development—the seasonal variation experienced by Afropithecus over geological time is consistent with the idea that environmental variation was an important driver in the early evolution of humanity’s closest living kin — the great apes.
Left: Average annual precipitation map of δ¹⁸O (‰, VSMOW scale) in Africa taken from www.waterisotopes.org. White numbers indicate locations of primate samples for this project. Right inset: high δ¹⁸O values are due to sustained dry periods, while low values represent approximately annual rainfall events of shorter duration.
Results from modern and fossil apes also permit more refined assessments of previous δ¹⁸O values for Plio-Pleistocene hominins from equatorial Africa. It turns out that the two 17-17.5 million year-old Afropithecus individuals show the same range of δ¹⁸O variation as the entire set of bulk values from 101 east African fossil hominins spanning 4 million years—a striking result that challenges existing models of ecological and evolutionary change. This is important because variations in rainfall patterns influence the fundamental structure of natural habitats. Dense tropical forests are sustained by fairly consistent rainfall and short dry seasons, while woodland communities in more arid environments have smaller trees, less dense canopies, and more deciduous trees. In regions with prolonged dry seasons and low annual rainfall, savannah landscapes abound. Models of early hominin evolution commonly postulate that upright bipedal walking became habitual once seasonal savannah-woodland environments began to predominate and our African ape ancestors ceased being able to rely on closely-spaced trees for routine arboreal locomotion. By revealing real-time historical and prehistoric environmental variation on a near-weekly basis, extraordinary behavioral and ecological variability can be recovered—permitting future tests of influential models of early human evolution.
For their latest project, Professors Smith and Williams recruited Dr. Daniel Green—an expert in the interpretation of oxygen isotopic data for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, who obtained his PhD from Harvard University under Smith’s supervision. Not coincidentally, two decades prior to the Afropithecus analysis at the ANU, Smith had been invited to study these same teeth by her doctoral supervisor Professor Lawrence Martin. This formative experience led to her long-standing curiosity about this fossil ape, especially with its particularly thick tooth enamel and slow dental development that is strikingly similar to modern African apes. In this case, a multigenerational transfer of knowledge has helped to advance our understanding of ancient African landscapes.
A new approach to a significant problem
Left: Tanya Smith with her former doctoral supervisor Lawrence Martin and Meave Leakey, co-discoverer of Afropithecus—not far from the Kenyan fossil site (Kalodirr) where it was recovered. Smith published the first study of the fossil ape’s enamel thickness and molar development while she was still a graduate student at Stony Brook University. Right: Tanya Smith with her former doctoral student Daniel Green, who led the recent paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Kalodirr published with Smith, Williams, and an international collaborative team.
Climate variation also has profound effects on food abundance, and primates show diverse anatomical and behavioural adaptations to survive when preferred foods are unavailable. A lack of precise palaeoclimate proxies has made it nearly impossible to test whether climate variation was a driving force for human origins, or what the current period of climatic instability might mean for the future of humanity. Several fine-scaled climate proxies have been developed for the environmental sciences, including isotopic studies of ancient otoliths (fish ear bones), mollusc shells, fossil corals, and tree rings, yet these items are rarely recovered from African hominin localities—the region where our genus and species originated. Extracting precipitation records from tooth enamel ensures that this environmental snapshot was experienced directly by the individual in question, not just sometime within the broad standard error of most geochronological age estimates for archaeological layers.
Dr. Green and Professors Smith and Williams are now teaming up with Dr. Kyalo Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya, and Dr. Kevin Uno at Columbia University, aiming to apply this cutting-edge approach to additional fossils in order to determine whether ancient climate change can be related to key transitions in great ape and human evolution. Teeth from several hominins and ancient apes will be analysed with the ANU’s SHRIMP SI and financed by Stony Brook University’s Turkana Basin Institute. This will contextualise previous ‘fossil-first’ studies that have not delivered on their full potential due to the lack of both sound comparative data and crucial experimental studies needed to resolve potential complications. The team’s approach could be extended to faunal remains from rural Australia for insight into undocumented historic climate conditions, as well as prehistoric environmental changes that have shaped Australia’s unique modern landscapes. These interdisciplinary methods will push the boundaries of research and open up new opportunities for scientists worldwide who specialise in understanding ancient life forms, reconstructing past environments, studying endangered animals, and investigating life history in prehistoric humans. With the help of Australia’s flagship SHRIMP—the future looks bright for such novel research partnerships!
Professor Smith’s area of expertise is the study of tooth growth and structure, as detailed in The Tales Teeth Tell – her popular science book published by MIT Press. Her research has been funded by the Australian Academy of Science, the US National Science Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She has published in Nature, Science Advances, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and these works have been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Nature, Science, Smithsonian, and Discovery magazines, as well as through American, Australian, British, Canadian, French, Irish, German, New Zealand, and Singaporean broadcast media.
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Griffith University has launched two cancer research centres backed by $4.6 million in funding from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) this month.
ACRF Trustee Tim Crommelin, ACRF CEO Kerry Strydom, ACRF Chair Tom Dery AO, Meaghan Scanlon MP, Griffith University Vice Chancellor and President Professor Carolyn Evans and GRIDD Director Professor Katherine Andrews.
Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) Director Professor Katherine Andrews said Compounds Australia greatly appreciated the funding that would enhance this critical national research infrastructure and accelerate drug discovery and examination of diseases at the molecular level.
“Compounds Australia curates approximately 1.5 million compounds and natural product extracts and fractions, providing them to researchers in customised, assay-ready microplates for biological screening.
“This facilitates the identification of bioactive compounds with potential to become novel therapeutic candidates and accelerates research into the discovery and validation of new molecular targets.
“With the new equipment we have purchased, GRIDD can now provide one of the world’s first uses of ‘acoustic tube technology’ in an academic facility.”
“This technology allows a step change in existing acoustic liquid handling capabilities which Compounds Australia was first to adopt in 2007, allowing samples to transfer using bursts of sound waves to eject nano litre droplets from tubes to microplates,” Compounds Australia Facility Manager Rebecca Lang explained.
“This will enable a much more precise, efficient and faster automated process for drug development and new compound discoveries to target and fight diseases.”
ACRF CEO Kerry Strydom said the foundation supports pioneering research and seeks to accelerate outcomes.
“The Compounds Australia platform is going to do just that,” Ms Strydom said.
“If you look at the volume of the work that they are doing in terms of servicing the entire drug development community in Australia, it’s just phenomenal.”
The centre will enable the Institute’s researchers to determine changes to the glycomics (carbohydrates/sugars) and their interactions with proteins and lipids (molecules that contain hydrocarbons and make up the building blocks of the structure and function of living cells) in a number of cancers.
“Our research will provide major advances in the early diagnosis of significant cancers, including skin, ovarian and breast cancer,” Institute for Glycomics Director Professor Mark von Itzstein AO said.
Professor Mark von Itzstein AO and Kerry Strydom with the chief investigators at the AFRC International Centre for Cancer Glycomics.
“This unique facility, with its diverse and multi-disciplinary team of researchers, will underpin the opportunity to better understand the glyco-code and lead to the translation of novel discoveries and clinical outcomes that will improve the lives of countless cancer sufferers around the world.”
Advanced mass spectrometry equipment forms the centrepiece of the ACRF International Centre for Cancer Glycomics, including the Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid MS and the Hyperion Imaging Mass CyTOF.
“These two state-of-the-art instruments will add to and complement the existing resources and capabilities within the facility, enabling the brightest scientific minds in cancer glycomics research to deep mine the cancer glyco-code down to a single cell level,’’ Professor von Itzstein said.
The goal of the ACRF International Centre for Cancer Glycomics is to identify the glyco-language in cellular states that precede malignant transformation in serum, tissue biopsies and in vivo in a clinical scanner of patients at high risk for cancer as well as those with a malignancy.
The team of glycomics experts will work with surgeons, radiologists, scientists, and high-risk cancer clinics to develop early markers in high-risk cohorts and therapeutics based on inhibition of relevant protein targets.
Griffith University would have placed fifth just behind India and in front of New Zealand if it competed as country after its athletes won 48 medals in total at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
A record contingent of Griffith students and alumni competed over the past two weeks, a near 20 per cent increase on representation from Gold Coast 2018.
Griffith Sports College General Manager Naomi McCarthy OAM
General Manager of Griffith Sports College Naomi McCarthy OAM said 49 athletes from Griffith certainly represented the university and Australia with pride, with an incredible 58 medals won by 29 Griffith athletes in 48 events
“There were so many stand out performances including Emma McKeon being crowned the best Commonwealth Games athlete of all time with 20 career medals and Madison de Rozario two gold-winning races in the Women’s T53/54 marathon and the Women’s 1500m T53/54,” Ms McCarthy said.
Emma McKeon
“Cody Simpson walked away as a dual-medallist after being part of the winning men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.
“Kristina Clonan won gold in the velodrome in the women’s 500m time trial, and Cara Koenen and Gretel Bueta were part of the epic Diamonds team which won gold in the women’s netball, with Cara and Gretel scoring 52 of Australia’s 55 goals in that game.
Bachelor of Business student Kristina Clonan
“Ella Sablijak was part of the women’s wheelchair basketball 3×3 team which won silver, and Matt Denny claimed gold in the men’s discus.”
In total, the Griffith ‘mini army’ had 58 medallists – 31 gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Matt Denny, Australian discus thrower and Griffith Business student
Ms McCarthy said the performance of our athletes is testament to the elite sports training program offered by the university.
“The results speak for themselves, and future elite athletes know the access to facilities, support while studying at Griffith, coaching staff and trainers will be on par with the best in the world.
Griffith University researchers partnered with Traditional Custodians to tell the story of how science interweaves with the Traditional Knowledge of Wawu Budja (the Mitchell River).
The Mitchell River Story Map, a collaboration between researchers with the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) and the Mitchell River Traditional Custodian Advisory Group (MRTCAG), is an innovative and accessible way to bring together the latest research on the Mitchell River with the cultural knowledge of Gugu Yalanji seasons.
“Scientific approaches can teach us how these ecosystems function, but often our science is only ‘new knowledge’ if we ignore the wealth of traditional knowledge that has existed for thousands of years,” said Dr Ben Stewart-Koster, project lead and senior research fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute.
Dr Ben Stewart-Koster, project lead and senior research fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute and Dr Ruth Link, Chairperson of MRTCAG, lawyer and Gugu Yalanji woman
“In this project powerful relationships were developed with the project leaders which enabled us to draw on the Gugu Yalanji knowledge, values and wisdom that is essential for the advancement of water science on Wawu Budja,” said Dr Ruth Link, Chairperson of MRTCAG, lawyer and Gugu Yalanji woman.
The clans of the upper and middle catchment of the river, the Western Gugu Yalanji, Mbabaram, Wokomin and Kuku Djungan are represented by the Mitchell River Traditional Custodian Advisory Group (MRTCAG) and the Traditional Custodians of the lower catchment are the Kokoberra, Yir Yoront (or Kokomnjen) and Kunjen clans.
The environmental, cultural and economic values of the Mitchell River catchment in far north Queensland and the pressure for development of the river, with proposed dams, irrigation expansion and other forms of agriculture, has made it the focus of environmental research for decades.
Dr Stewart-Koster and Dr Link point out that past research hasn’t always been so integrative or been made available in a format that is relevant to the people who need it for decision-making.
The mouth of the Mitchell River – Gulf of Carpentaria
“Historically, scientific research has ignored First Nations people which has excluded traditional knowledge and cultural values from decision making processes,” Dr Link said.
“MRTCAG wants to work with western scientists like NESP and Australian Rivers Institute to make sure the knowledge, and solutions make spiritual, economic, scientific, cultural, social, political, and emotional sense for current and future generations.”
The Story Map format used presents findings about the environmental water needs for the Mitchell River in a user-friendly way, with Traditional knowledge of the Gugu Yalanji seasons at the heart of the story.
Dr Link stated that MRTCAG seeks to help scientists “respect and understand the complex knowledge of our deep understanding of place and our commitment to living according to the five seasons.”
“We aligned the knowledge systems around stories of floods, climate change and dams,the links between the latest research on algae as the powerhouse of Gulf wetlands/rivers and coastal productivity for fish, prawns and migratory shorebirds,and details how a healthy Mitchell River ecosystem delivers millions of dollars to the economy,” Dr Stewart-Koster said.
The dynamic web-based interface includes:
maps of floodplain inundation over the past two decades
models of rates of algal productivity which can tell us how much food is available for fish and other animals
food web analyses showing what foods invertebrates and fish eat, and where the aquatic ‘supermarket’ is
models of fish movement across the catchment
Yalanji designs from Natarsha Bell that manifest the traditional knowledge articulated in the story map
The research findings are accompanied by Yalanji designs from Natarsha Bell that manifest the traditional knowledge articulated in the story map.
“Each of these designs was developed by Natarsha to reflect the hearts and minds of the lead researchers who published the findings told in the story map,” Dr Stewart-Koster said.
“Most importantly the story map shows the power and the value of embedding traditional knowledge into western science.”
“It shouldn’t surprise us when scientific findings are closely aligned with what Traditional Custodians know since they have been studying their Country for over 60,000 years.”
For the Gugu Yalanji, western science needs to investigate and examine how to live according to the seasons.
“The cultural knowledge of Gugu Yalanji, Mbabaram, Wokomin and Kuku Djungan is invaluable to NESP research projects as solutions are holistic and address [both] the science questions and the need to heal Country,” stated Dr Link.
“At MRTCAG we refer to Dr Stewart-Koster as Guyu, which in language refers to the catfish. The catfish is our people’s favourite fish.
“Ben, as NESP’s science leader on the Mitchell River, has taken the time to understand the relationship we have had with NESP and with western science and has taken the time to develop a strong relationship with us through truth-telling and by not focusing on western concepts of time.
“These powerful developments are leading to the synergy of western science and cultural knowledge that will benefit the health and wellbeing of Wawu Budja within seven generations. A journey we, as First Nations people, are committed to.”
Contemporary public art captures the imagination and ire of the Australian public on a regular basis. Fallen Fruit in Melbourne, Big Swoop in Canberra, and Sheila, the recent commission for Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane, all generated passionate debate. Meanwhile, the public artworks on Melbourne’s laneways are internationally lauded and marketed, while festivals like Swell on the Gold Coast have become central to the national cultural calendar.
Public art shares diverse sentiments and concepts with a broad audience and invites exploration of the spaces that host it. It is increasingly used as a mechanism for cultural commentary in cities. Provocative examples, like Scott Marsh’s mural of Scott Morrison wishing us a ‘Merry Crisis‘, or Peter Drew’s ‘Aussie’ paste-up series, delivered strong commentaries on current social issues before intentionally vanishing.
It took time, but Australian public art in the twenty-first century has established its own aesthetic. Colonial-era monuments and statues are no longer the zeitgeist; nor are over-sized, roadside plastic objects. We might still assign cult status to the Big Banana, but the Australian public now demand more variety, novelty, sophistication, and self-reflection from public art.
Aussie, Peter Drew
Taking many forms, public art can include any medium experienced in public outdoor or indoor spaces, through permanent or temporary exhibits. Large-scale painted murals are a rapidly multiplying medium in Australia. Other artworks include sculptures, installations, and soundscapes. These can be embedded in architectural surfaces and landscaping, occupying three dimensions, while utilising the multi-sensory realities of urban spaces. Done well, public art can improve the amenity of public space while accounting for local historical, cultural, and social contexts.
Far from being ‘plonked’ randomly in urban spaces, city-shapers often use public art strategically to renew the fabric of built environments and energise surrounding communities. Public art is often leveraged by city councils to contribute to the urban renewal programs, designed to remediate urban decay and activate urban spaces. While complex and long-term projects, urban renewal can improve quality of life outcomes, residents’ prosperity, and the urban area’s amenity.
Within these programs, it is an essential that councils ensure that living, working, and recreation spaces are fit for purpose and meet the needs of residents. Artworks should be sympathetic to setting and location, as well as the communities who co-habit the space. Quality public art can assist with urban renewal but cannot uplift entire communities alone. As such, urban renewal programs should focus first on addressing deep social, economic, and environmental problems before commissioning artworks.
The Big Banana, Coffs Harbour
Cultural heritage
Public art provision offers a unique opportunity to reflect the cultural identities and values of different communities. Our published research examines examples of this from Ireland and Australia. Solidifying a place’s identity through public artwork engages community members and fosters a sense of civic pride and belonging. Increased social cohesion within a community can result in positive outcomes for group and individual wellbeing. Public art can identify, develop, and promote a sense of distinctiveness that distinguishes a place setting both from neighbouring areas and from comparable locations elsewhere.
Reflecting cultural heritage is a cornerstone of contemporary public art in Australia and elsewhere. For example, Yarra Trams delivered Art Trams on the 250km tram network in Melbourne in 2021. Six trams were vinyl wrapped with First Nations artworks, with a single artist responsible for each tram. The trams were reimagined as moving artworks, creating a high-profile, travelling acknowledgement of the city’s Indigenous culture. The collected works encompass themes of caring for Country, personal connections, and the diverse ecologies of First Peoples lands. Previous Art Tram series reflected iconic dining venues, music history, and modern Melbourne’s multicultural demographics.
Festivals of public art are becoming increasingly common. These provide training and employment opportunities for local artists, while renewing urban spaces, attracting visitors, and building place reputation. Townsville, for example, uses a Street Art Activation Framework to strengthen the city’s arts and cultural presence. A suite of sanctioned public artwork now reflects the tropical environment and well-known cultural identities. Our research documents how the Framework delivered positive outcomes to the city, as well as reducing graffiti occurrences.
The same research also examines public art provision and art festivals in Toowoomba. Like Townsville, Toowoomba has benefitted from an increase in tourism and reputation, while the skill sets, exposure and confidence of local artists and other creatives has also improved. In both cases, public art programs also reduced graffiti and the costs associated with removing it.
For all its benefits and popularity, public art can sometimes lead to controversy and community opposition. Too much reliance on public art in urban renewal projects has led to ‘art washing‘ accusations by communities, art practitioners and academics. As it is generally cost-effective, local councils and developers frequently commission public art projects to kickstart a renewal process. This may include offering short-term leases to creative professionals to generate a sense of liveliness in a precinct. A hazard is that the resulting improved urban amenity is only affordable to wealthy tourists and ‘creative classes’ of urban professionals with high incomes. In such cases, public art provision can lead to gentrification, often pricing existing residents out of their homes. Beyond that, these artworks are unlikely to reflect the identities or aspirations of actual, living communities. This can create overly sanitised urban environments which lack a sense of place and meaningful identity.
Fintan McGee Mural, Fish Lane, South Brisbane
Creating confidence
Cities and regions learn from each other’s experiences and results with public art production, helping build confidence and vision for commissioning new artworks. Local councils sometimes respond to the increasing profile of public art by requiring that art plans be tied to development budgets. Depending on circumstance and context, artworks and styles may be deemed acceptable based on a particular quality, theme, materials selection, or medium. In a small professional field, successful artists with highly recognisable styles may become overexposed within a particular city, region, or country.
A case in point of public artworks selected based on a formula, Marc and Gillie Shaettner’s Dogman and Rabbitwoman characters continue their bronze sculpted love story across international time zones. Fintan Magee‘s painted murals tower internationally, from silos to inner city buildings. Anish Kapoor‘s biomorphic sculptures in stainless steel and Vantablack confuse and mesmerise people around the globe. In these instances, the public art reverts to its institutional origins of gallery art and the cities it is located become simply unidentifiable open art galleries.
As we move on from the Covid pandemic and turn deliberately towards re-igniting public life in urban spaces, it is a moment to review the public policies and programs that drive urban renewal and urban activation. Artists can assist local authorities to reconnect communities to themselves and others as urban life, travel and cultural experiences once again thrive.
” … there is an important role for high quality public art in Southeast Queensland as the region invites the world in for the 2032 Olympics.”
New public artworks can again hold a mirror up for local communities that have changed in unexpected ways. They offer opportunity to celebrate differences and commonalities and reflect the lived experiences of communities navigating unprecedented change. Now more than ever, public art can create and reimagine sense of place, while inviting adventures in space, design, perception, and curiosity.
As a final thought, there is an important role for high quality public art in Southeast Queensland as the region invites the world in for the 2032 Olympics. Cultural precincts and sporting infrastructure will leave an unrivalled built legacy for communities. Planners and the arts community can work together to ensure that these are enriched with culturally specific and vivid public artworks. This could provide a unique training opportunity for a new generation of artworkers and producers to enrich the Australian cultural arts scene. Southeast Queensland has an opportunity to paint itself anew, with potential to tell the world about its Indigenous heritage, immigrant communities, the singularity of the natural environment and the culturally and socially connected communities lucky enough to call it home.
Author
Sophie Gadaloff is an Urban Planner and PhD Early Candidature at Griffith University. Sophie is part of the Cities Research Institute and an active Queensland Young Planners committee member. Previously a consultant, she is passionate about building strong connections between people, communities and urban environments. She has a professional interest in public art, regional planning, placemaking and the intersection of transport and land use planning.
Dr Tony Matthews MRTPI is an award-winning Urban and Environmental Planner, with portfolios in academia, practice and the media. He is a faculty member at Griffith University, where he is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Environment & Science and the Cities Research Institute.
In addition to a Masters and PhD in Planning, Tony holds the professional designation of Chartered Town Planner, earned through the Royal Town Planning Institute. While primarily based in planning academia and research, Tony maintains an active practice portfolio. He has led and participated in a wide variety of planning and sustainability projects in collaboration with government, the private sector and community organisations. Tony is also an in-demand public speaker and regularly delivers invited keynotes and speeches at academic and industry events.
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A team of researchers from Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and La Trobe University, surveyed more than 3000 Australians to gauge their views and habits making it one of the largest surveys of its kind.
Dr Carla Riverola and Associate Professor Stephen Harrington
Lead researcher Dr Carla Riverola, Griffith Business School, said nearly a third of Australians have reduced their meat intake in the last year.
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“Other reasons include environmental footprint, animal welfare and ethical concerns.
“Interestingly, the reasons for increasing meat consumption include social or peer influence and accessibility of plant-based products.”
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The study, run in conjunction with Nourish plant-based living, also showed while many Australians are interested in eating more meat alternatives, they are often frustrated by their inconsistent availability in shops and restaurants.
More than half of respondents said availability and variety of options was a key barrier for choosing plant-based foods, especially when eating out.
Dr Riverola said this finding shows the Australian market isn’t yet meeting demand.
“Plant-based eating has been one of the biggest global food trends of the last decade and, unfortunately, some food retailers and restaurants haven’t yet got up to speed and are missing out on potential business,” she said.
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Griffith University alumnus Emma McKeon has entered the history books becoming the most successful Commonwealth Games athlete of all time.
Emma, who studied a Bachelor of Public Health and was part of the Griffith Swim Squad, has capped off a stellar games campaign at Birmingham claiming gold in her final event — the 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay.
Her Commonwealth Games career total now sits at 20 medals, with six gold medals won at Birmingham alone.
Griffith Sports College Director Naomi McCarthy OAM
Griffith Sports College Director Naomi McCarthy OAM said Emma’s performance in Birmingham is testament to the fortitude of Griffith swimmers.
“Emma and coach Michael Bohl came to Griffith in 2017, and since then she has been training and studying for her undergraduate degree,” she said.
“These years in the Griffith Swim Squad have been her most successful years in swimming and this is indicative of the 20 Commonwealth Games medals she’s won in total.”
As a dual Olympian and water polo gold medallist at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Ms McCarthy knows the pressures of competing on the world’s stage.
“Birmingham is the result of years of training both physically and mentally while the world remains in the grip of a global pandemic,” she said.
“It’s not easy feat for our contingent of athletes and their hard work should be applauded.”
Tanya Smith
Sophie Gadaloff is an Urban Planner and PhD Early Candidature at Griffith University. Sophie is part of the 
Dr Tony Matthews