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Articles on Western Australia

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More than 3,000 Aboriginal sites have lost registration status as part of sweeping changes in classifications in the Aboriginal Heritage Register. Domes of Purnululu, Western Australia. Pic: David Denicolò

Separate but unequal: the sad fate of Aboriginal heritage in Western Australia

More than 3,000 Aboriginal heritage sites in Western Australia have lost registration status as part of sweeping changes in classifications in the Aboriginal Heritage Register. That needs to change.
The vivid pink pools of Western Australia’s Hutt Lagoon are the world’s largest algae farm. Steve Back (used with permission)

Sustainable oil from algae: the technology is ready, but what about the politics?

We have the technology to make oil from algae, rather than digging up crude oil from organisms that lived billions of years ago. But bringing it to market will take a force of economic and political will.
Exhibitions such as HERE NOW at the Lawrence Wilson Gallery show how local art museums can engage with the arts community in which they are based. Lawrence Wilson Gallery

Staking a claim: a rationale for local art museums

In a crowded and competitive market, how does an art museum located far from major centres of population – say, in Perth – make its mark? One obvious answer is to focus on what is distinctive about your…
Broadcaster Derryn Hinch is a prominent campaigner for US-style sex offender registries, but it is important to be aware of their limitations. AAP/Dan Peled

Sex offender registers don’t mean we can assume children are safe

Western Australia was the first state in the nation to allow public access to a sex offender register online. The public needs to understand how it works to avoid a false sense of security.
Premier Colin Barnett addresses a rally outside Parliament House, the latest in a long history of protests at Indigenous deaths in custody and high rates of incarceration. AAP/Newzulu/Jesse Roberts

State of imprisonment: lopsided incarceration rates blight West

Indigenous people are jailed at a rate 18 times that of non-Aboriginal Western Australian adults, but the overall rate is high too. The great costs of this punitive approach yield few clear benefits.
Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has not responded happily to hints by federal government ministers that his state must privatise assets if they want a larger slice of the GST pie. AAP Image/Sarah Motherwell

Federalism the loser as Hockey ransoms GST to push WA reforms

Western Australia should not be bullied into microeconomic reform and privatisation by the federal government while their slice of the GST is held to ransom.
AAP/Alan Porritt

Competing interests and the crisis of governance

In comedy timing is everything. So, too, in politics. In good times governing is – or ought to be – pretty straightforward. How hard can it be to divide up the windfall gains from a mining boom, for example…
Water in Western Australia is one of the Academy’s examples of where climate is having an impact, and where communities are already adapting. Bram Souffreau/Wikimedia Commons

Australian Academy of Science brings climate change closer to home

The Australian Academy of Sciences today released the new The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers. This is an extensively revised update of a similar publication in 2010. Its stated purpose…
Cities are always much more complex than their popular perceptions. Daniel Lee

Perth could become a model for 21st-century urban planning

What is the future of Australia’s wealthiest state? The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and Curtin University, is publishing a series of articles exploring the unique issues facing Western…
It’s all fun and games until someone loses a motza. Jarrad Seng/Sydney Festival

Forget passion – unpaid work keeps fringe festivals afloat

Perth’s Fringe World 2015 is currently sauntering through the Western Australian capital. Featuring more than 2,000 performers, the annual festival has perfected a blend of cabaret, circus, theatre, film…
Kelp covered landscape in Western Australia. Dan Smale

Marine heatwaves threaten the future of underwater forests

Western Australia’s marine environment is unique. Two world heritage areas, the largest fringing coral reef in Australia, and more than a thousand kilometres of underwater forests, supporting incredible…
On the western edge of the continent there is a great deal to get the juices flowing. Carnie Lewis

Western Australian artists see things differently

What is the future of Australia’s wealthiest state? The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and Curtin University, is publishing a series of articles exploring the unique issues facing Western…
Recent successes inspire hope the Kimberley (and places like it) will eventually be recognised for their deep intrinsic value. Leah Kennedy/Shutterstock

Carmen Lawrence: ‘Perhaps it’s not too late to recast ourselves as custodians of Western Australia’

What is the future of Australia’s wealthiest state? The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and Curtin University, is publishing a series of articles exploring the unique issues facing Western…
Why are Western Australian artists such as Flynn Talbot, whose work X Y is pictured here, left out of the bigger picture? Flynn Talbot Studio/Undiscovered Symposium

Western Australian art is excluded from the national conversation

Despite our interconnectedness through radio, television and the internet, the coverage of arts and cultural activities in Australia is viewed from a very close focus. This corrupts our understanding of…
Shark Bay is one of Australia’s 19 World Heritage Areas, home to dolphins, dugongs, and sharks. Matthew Fraser

Climate change threatens Western Australia’s iconic Shark Bay

In the summer of 2010-2011 Western Australia experienced an unprecedented heatwave — but not on land. Between December 2010 and April 2011, sea temperatures off the WA coast reached 3C above average, and…
Western Australia has killed two great white sharks after a surfer was seriously injured last week. Sharkdiver.com/Wikimedia Commons

Response to the latest shark bite is fuelled by myth and retribution

When I used to tell people that I did my PhD on the politics of shark attacks, they would ask, “Is there a politics to shark attacks?” Nobody asks that any more. Now they just say, “Oh, like in Western…
The shark cull that ran for three months off Perth and the Southwest now looks certain to be ended. AAP Image/Sea Shepherd

Western Australian shark cull policy dumped: experts react

Western Australia’s controversial shark drum line policy will come to an end, after the state’s Environmental Protection Agency recommended that it not be continued this summer. WA EPA chairman Paul Vogel…

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