Sally Paulin

Community based environmental groups have become an integral component of urban environmental stewardship initiatives in Perth metropolitan area. While the utility of Urban Environmental Groups (UEGs) has been recognized by several environmental policies and programs, the challenges of sustaining UEGs remain under-explored, especially, in Western Australia. This paper responds to this gap and explores the prospect of UEGs’ sustainability through the lens of social capital. The findings of a quantitative survey of 81 groups as well as qualitative observations suggest UEGs that are better at building and maintaining social capital are more likely to overcome resource-scarcities and sustain over time. Based on the findings, the paper views social capital as a necessary ingredient of sustainable community groups and discusses the strategic needs to support UEGs.

Part-time casual tutors play an important role in the effective delivery of university education. A peer-based skills development forum allowed us to reflect collectively on the key issues for maintaining and improving the quality of tutorial based education. The importance of tutoring experience for postgraduate students is affirmed. The quality of education through tutorials can be improved through attention to recruitment and training of a cadre of tutors, peer based skills development and developing skills for teaching students of non-English speaking background.

The issue of large scale land degradation in the agricultural areas of Australia has been taxing scientists, farmers and government agencies for the past 100 years. In Western Australia, friction was rife between scientific findings about the suitability of particular areas for agriculture and the desire of succeeding state governments to open up the landscape to development and consequent reaping of export dollars from the products of that development. As a result, large areas of land in the Wheatbelt were cleared of native vegetation and, after only a short period of time, the symptoms of farming marginal land became evident in the form of erosion, non-soaking soils, waterlogging and salinity. This paper seeks to address the relationships between science, governance and the lay communities they serve. It proposes that science and government should become more cognisant of ‘scientific’ activities carried out by lay community members and that, in working together, they may find effective methods of alleviating the occurrence of dryland salinity.