| Australia receives “Gift to the Earth Award”
The Australian government was given “The Gift
to the Earth Award” by the World Wide Fund for
Nature last week for the development of the Heard Island
and MacDonald Islands Marine Reserve.
Accepting the award on behalf the government, Federal
Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr. David
Kemp, noted it was very pleasing to be recognised internationally
for setting an important global precedent for marine
conservation.
“The ‘Gift to the Earth Award’ is
a tribute to the great efforts of all those involved
from conservation and fishing industry groups, who
worked together with the government to protect the
environment and promote sustainable fishing”,
said Kemp.
Dr. Kemp said the reserve would help protect a good
range of Subantarctic habitat supporting a variety
of species currently listed as endangered.
“The reserve will also help protect habitat
for commercial fish species such as the Patagonian
toothfish”, said Kemp – a species currently
at the centre of a global high seas chase involving
a Uruguayan fishing vessel suspected of poaching this
rare fish.
The Heard Island and MacDonald Islands region, located
4500 kilometres southwest of Fremantle in Western Australia,
was identified in Australia’s Ocean Policy as
one of five priority areas for conservation last October
and is the world’s largest fully protected marine
reserves.
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Flying eyes to keep the power flowing
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization (CSIRO) has developed technology that
can reduce the threat of major blackouts such as the
one that hit North America this month.
“There seem to have been a number of factors
that led to the recent disastrous blackouts, but
it has been reported that one incident involved an
overheated power line sagging and making contact
with trees”, states CSIRO’s Mathematical
and Information Sciences Business Development Managers
Kevin Cryan.
A pair of small camera’s, or flying eyes,
attached to the wings of an aeroplane form the basis
of a unique system which can measure the distances
between power lines and trees.
Usually, power lines are inspected by field teams
that drive around and check clearances manually,
dispatching maintenance crews when problems are found.
By setting up an aerial surveillance system, thousands
of kilometers can be monitored more quickly and more
frequently.
As power companies in Australia and most other developed
countries are required to maintain clearance space
around power lines, finding a more effective and
less costly solution to field crews could make this
technology commercially viable.
Trees interfering with power lines is not just a
problem in terms of blackouts – it can also
cause bush and forest fires.
“This technology gives us the ability to know
that we have a problem before it causes a fire or
a downed line or unhappy customers. It means a team
can be sent directly to a potential problem area
before the risks get too high,” says Cryan. “It
may well be that, rather than each power company
wanting to monitor its own lines in this way, a more
efficient business model would be for someone to
provide this as a service to all companies.”
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A good year for employment agencies
A total of 3,738,900 job placements were made by employment
agencies and other organisations in the employment
and contract staff services sectors during 2001-02,
according to figures released this month by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics.
The total number of employment placements comprised
424,400 permanent and 3,314,500 temporary/contract
placements, showing a 37 per cent growth in the total
number of job placements from 1998-99 to 2001-02
periods.
The major occupations making up the placements were
in health care and medical (33%), trade and labour
related occupations (28%), and clerical (16%).
Health and medical occupations accounted for 1,219,000
(or 37%) of all temporary/contract placements, while
151,400 (or 36%) of permanent placements were in
trade, labour and related occupations.
General management and executive occupations were
the only occupation group with more permanent placements
(17,100) than temporary placements (10,600).
There were 2,704 employment services organisations
operating in Australia at the end of June 2002, a
rise of 29% from 1998-99. This total comprised 2,445
for profit and 259 not for profit organisations,
generating $10,228m in income and contributing 1.3%
to Australian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This income grew by 31% over the three years.
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