Wollongong Studies in Geography

The Southern Ocsillation and climatic effects in Australia

E. A. Bryant — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:40:24 PDT

The Earth's general atmospheric circulation in the tropics and subtropics is simply described. Intense heating by the sun at the equator causes air to rise and spread out polewards in the upper troposphere. As this air moves toward the poles it cools and begins to descend back to the Earth's surface at 200 -300 north and south of the equator. Upon reaching the Earth's surface this air either returns to the equator or moves polewards. Where air rises in this circulation, low air pressure forms and there is intense instability and condensation of moisture with subsequent heavy rainfall. Where air descends, high air pressure forms with intense evaporation, clear skies and stability. This tropical circulation of air is termed the Hadley cell and the high pressure that forms encircles the globe coincident with the great sub-tropical deserts. Australian climate is dominated by this circulation cell and the deserts that form as a consequence. The Hadley cells migrate annually with the apparent movement of the su n north and south of the equator.

Problems in the urban environment: pollution in the Wollongong-Shellharbour area

A. R. Young — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:04:54 PDT

Pollution is usually perceived to be man-made, but in fact the atmosphere and waters of the earth can also be contaminated as a result of natural events. Volcanoes can emit huge clouds of gases and ash, and flooded rivers typically carry high loads of silt and organic debris. Nor is such naturally-occurring pollution always associated with extreme events (which happen rarely but cause major impacts) such as volcanic eruptions. For example, soils developed where gossan (the oxidized crust on an ore body) outcrops at the ground surface may contain very high levels of the metals found in the are itself - levels that would be labelled highly contaminated if they occurred in waste deposits from a mining operation. Nevertheless, it is obvious that urbanisation and industrialisation increasingly produce a range and quantity of contaminants which the natural environment cannot absorb without being degraded and which can have deleterious effects on human beings. Because the problem has seemed to be so serious, most countries have legislation and controlling authorities designed to minimise pollution and its impacts.

Problems in the urban environment: traffic congestion and its effects

R. Robinson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:01:26 PDT

Traffic congestion results when there are too many vehicles for the available road space. It may occur on almost any road system but, in general, it Is likely to be experienced with great severity in and around the major employment nodes such" the central business district (Figure 1) during the morning and afternoon peek.

The natural vegetation of the Wollongong area

K. Mills — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:56:24 PDT

It is commonly accepted, both in popular opinion and in scientific literature that the Illawarra was once covered in its entirety In luxuriant rainforest. This view is incorrect, as is clearly evidenced by the vegetation which remains in the area today, The original vegetation cover of the Wollongong area consisted of a diverse mosaic of plant groupings, ranging from wind-swept coastal dune communities to luxuriant sub-tropical rainforest. This diversity, which can be seen in terms of both floristic characteristics (plant species) and structural characterisitcs (growth forms: trees, shrubs, ferns vines etc. and their spatial arrangement), is dependent on variations in topography, soil characteristics, rainfall and proximity to the sea, in addition to more subtle environmental influences. Changes in one or more of these factors can produce, over a few metres a complete transformation in the vegetation present. The key to understanding the distribution of vegetation communities lies with an appreciation of the environmental conditions under which these communities developed.

Precipitation regimes of the Illawarra coast and adjacent highlands

P. F. Cox — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:53:07 PDT

The South Coast and Highlands area of the IIlawarra has a temperate marine climate which fits within Koppen's classification of climatic regimes as the type Cfb. As far as precipitation is concerned, Koppen's f modifier denotes a region with a moist climate and no dry season; that is, rainfall is well distributed across the seasons of the year. While these characteristics apply to the IIlawarra region as a whole (and in fact to most of south-eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria), there are important variations in precipitation within the region, and in addition there are quite marked variations in precipitation on a year-by-year basis. This paper examines the factors which produce these variations in space and time.

Local climate processes in the Illawarra

E. A. Bryant — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:49:55 PDT

the climate of the Illawarra apart from that found in Sydney or on the far south coast. Global air circulation Is generated by the necessity to balance the heat surplus at the equator with the deficit at the poles caused by the differential heating effect of the sun with latitude. Superimposed on this general circulation are secondary circulation effects such as high and low pressure cells, cyclones, and fronts. These effects are generated by regional heating or cooling effects over land and water and are controlled in position seasonally by the apparent migration of the sun. On a local scale, air circulation patterns can be generated by differential heating and cooling caused by topographic effects such as mountains, valleys, landsea boundaries and the works of man. Local climatic processes in the lIIawarra can be discussed under 5 headings as follows: 1. Sea breezes 2. Gravity or katabatic winds 3. Slope or anabatic winds 4. Foehn winds 5. Industrialization effects

Soils of the Illawarra region

R. W. Young — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:46:54 PDT

Because high rainfalls are experienced over the entire IIIawarra region soils here are almost invariably acidic (pH 4 - 6), and have been generally leached of the more mobile elements and compounds. Notwithstanding these common characteristics, there is a considerable complexity of soil types and distribution over the region. This complexity can in part be attributed to variations in the types of rocks on which the soils have weathered. For instance, the volcanic rocks break down to clays, but the sandstones undergo little real chemical alteration. Moreover, even on the sandstones, four or five types of soil can normally be found. It is certainly easy to recognise distinctive catenas, in which soils vary systematically with changes in steepness of slope and freedom of drainage. On the sandstones, for example, deep Yellow Earths on well-drained sites generally give way to organically rich soils in swampy locations further downslope. But not all changes in soil type can be explained in terms of simple catenary relationships. The occurrence of Ferricretes (Laterites) on sandstones is a case in point. Indeed, this example shows that the duration of weathering, changes in the intensity of weathering caused by climatic change, and local variations in the mineral composition of the parent material also are factors which must be considered.

A dissection of settlement change in New South Wales: cases and implications

C. L. Keys — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:34:19 PDT

The previous paper in this series identified the emergence of an apparently new pattern of settlement in New South Wales. A drift of population away from the major urban areas of the central coast during the nineteen-seventies contributed to a renewal of population growth in several parts of the state which had experienced long periods of relative stagnation and decline, and to a dramatic fall-off in the growth rates of the big cities. The present paper examines this trend in more detail, focussing in particular on those non-metropolitan areas which have experienced either a turnaround from decline to growth in recent years or an acceleration of their rates of growth (Figure 1I. Three sets of issues are addressed. First, an attempt is made to assess the extent of "demographic revival" outside the metropolitan core. Second, the various new settlement forms are described and attributed to the particular groups of people whose activities have created them, and, finally, an examination is made of the implications for society of the new forms of development described.

Recent evidence of changing settlement patterns in New South Wales

C. L. Keys — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:25:24 PDT

New South Wales, like the other mainland states of Australia, has traditionally been associated with a condition of metropolitan primacy (Rose. 1966). Moreover. the degree to which Sydney and the other capital cities have dominated the populations of their respective states has increased almost without interruption since the latter part of the nineteenth century, leading to the situation of the early 1970s in which three out of every five people in mainland Australia resided in a state capital. Outside these primate cities some urban centres have experienced short periods of explosive growth. but for most the rule has been either stagnation or slow growth. Rural Australia, meanwhile, has seen its proportion of the national population fall considerably. In 1921 more than a third of the nation's people lived outside the urban centres; fifty years later this proportion had declined to less than one seventh.

Stream channels of the Illawarra

G. Nanson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:19:57 PDT

Streams that flow from the IIlawarra escarpment are mostly small and may not flow all year, but because of regional topography, climate, and their rather unusual geomorphology, they are capable of flooding in a manner unrepresentative of their small size (Neller, 1980). This problem of flooding is made all the more important because of the extent of agricultural and residential development on the region's floodplains (Fig. 1).

The industrial structure of the urban Illawarra

M. G. Wilson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:17:38 PDT

That the industrial structure of the Illawarra region is dominated by and heavily dependent on its heavy metallurgy complex hardly requires demonstration. As Robinson (1977) has shown, for example, six major enterprises, Austral ian Iron and Steel (A.I.S.l, Lysaghts, Tube Makers, Commonwealth Steel, Electrolytic Refining and Smelting (E.R. & S.) and Metal Manufacturers (M .M.), employ between them more than 75% of the region's manufacturing workforce and more than one third of the region 's total (male and female) employed workforce in 1976-77. As can be seen from Table 1, however, the range of industrial activity carried out in the region's factories and workshops is very much wider than basic metallurgy. At the level of the individual plant, for instance, a quite bewildering array of products is manufactured, ranging from foundation garments to fibreglass pools and surfboards, from plastic bags to pelmets and pyjamas, from low loaders to lemonade, from hats to home cleansing preparations and horsecovers and from textiles to railway waggons. Nor are all these other activities necessarily small in scale nor oriented simply to meeting the needs of a local market though many, of course, are both.

Beaches of the Illawarra

E. A. Bryant — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:14:17 PDT

The beaches of the lIIawarra between Stanwell Park and Werri fit within a general dynamic classification characterizing most beaches of the world. At the one end of this classification lies the reflective beach which is devoid of inshore topography, mainly sheltered and temporally stable. At the other end lies the dissipative beach which is characterized by a barred surf zone, situated on exposed coastline and susceptible to rapid change. Because of structural control on the geology of the lIIawarra coastline some of the beaches are often directed. or even forced, into morphology which may at first appear abnormal for the setting of that beach. Additionally man is interfering in places with the coastal environment to the extent that some beaches may be irreversibly locked into an erosional cycle.

Agricultural adjustments in the Illawarra region

E. Dayal — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:09:54 PDT

Agriculture in the IIlawarra region is dominated by dairying. The undulating topography, relatively fertile soils, adequate rainfall for good pastures, and, proximity to large urban populations of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama, Moss Vale, Bowral municipalities, and Sydney metropolitan region, make the lIIawarra almost ideal tor dairy farming. There are hardly. any viable alternatives to dairying, which is an old established industry, In the region. The first dairy farms were established around 1828. By 1880 dairying was well established, with butter and condensed milk factories at several locations, and a substantial surplus of milk and butter for the Sydney market. The first successful shipment of whole milk to Sydney was made in 1886 by boat, in cans packed in ice The Jamberoo Central Dairy was established in 1888 to which milk was supplied from several isolated farms on the surrounding hills by packhorse and wagon. The lIIawarra has always been a region of small family operated farms and today more than 80 percent of the farms are owner-operated family farms. Indeed about 60 percent of the farms in the region have been operated by the same families for more than 50 years. At present the average size of holding is 127 hectares, with an average herd size of 62.

Rainforests of the Illawarra

J. Bywater — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:04:58 PDT

Subtropical rainforest is the most restricted and complex forest ecosystem in the Illawarra. These forest communities support a specialised endemic or native flora which contains many plant species at the southern limit of their range. Although no longer of commercial value as a timber source the local rainforests are of immense recreational, educational, and scientific value in a district where most of the natural forest has been replaced by agricultural, urban and industrial development.

The Illawarra Escarpment

R. W. Young — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:30:53 PDT

The llIawarra escarpment is one of the most striking features of the N.S.W. coast, for it runs like a great unbreached wall for some 120km, and dominates the narrow plains below. Vet little hes been written about it, and some of the brief commentaries that have appeared are incorrect. This account outlines the major feature. of the escarpment, its origins, and also the hazards of land slip encountered on its slopes.

Recent urban growth in the Illawarra-South Coast region

C. L. Keys — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:22:54 PDT

Patterns of urban growth tell us much about changing regional fortunes. In this broadsheet an attempt is made to draw some inferences about recent urban population trends in the lllawarra- South Coast region, an area which is defined as stretching from Helensburgh to Narooma and which contains 13 centres with populations of more than 1,000 and as many more with populations numbering in the hundreds (Figure 1). Urban growth patterns are examined at the regional scale and within the major urbanized area of Wollongong-Shellharbour (population about 200,000 in 1971).