World Heritage Sites

Uluru is estimated to be 600 million years old.

A World Heritage Site is a place (such as a building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) that has been deemed as being of cultural or historical significance. These sites are examined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and if found suitable are included in the list of World Heritage Sites.

There are a few keywords that could help you find information in your search; these include:
·         World Heritage
·         World Heritage site/s
·         International World Heritage Programme
·         UNESCO

If you want to find information about a specific world heritage site then you should use the name of the site as your search term, also think about alternate names for the site. For example ‘Ayers Rock’ is also known as ‘Uluru’.

Try some of the above terms in the library online catalogue; we have some great physical resource on world heritage sites.

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like World Book and Britannica. These resources will have information on world heritage sites.

Some websites you might find useful

UnescoWorld Heritage List
This is the actual World Heritage Site list. If you are in doubt as to whether the area you want to research for your assignment is classified as world heritage you should definitely check out this page. If you then click on the site you are interested in it will provide you with some information on the site.

Australia’s World Heritage – Australian GovernmentDepartment of the Environment

This has some great information specific to Australian heritage sites. The list of Australian sites is here if you click on one of the options it will provide you additional information. The 'Heritage' page is a good resource also.

Australian Geographic World Heritage Sites

This site has some spectacular images of the sites and some good information too. Great for some history and background information.

Amazing Australians: Fred Hollows

Image source: www.hollows.org.au

Fred Hollows was a New Zealand and Australian ophthalmologist, it is estimated that more than 1 million people can see today as a direct result of Fred Hollows work. Fred strived to provide eye care for the underprivileged and poor, and to improve the health of indigenous Australians. He also travelled overseas to underprivileged areas and organised training programs to train technicians in eye surgery. The Fred Hollows foundation was founded in Australia in 1992 to carry on his work when he passed.  

Fred is an amazing Australian and information on him is relatively easy to find, but be sure that the information you are gathering is from reputable sources.

In the Library & on the Library website

Searching the catalogue using the keywords “Fred Hollows” will get you some good results.

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like World Book which has information on Fred Hollows.

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the name “Fred Hollows” to search in Biography in Context which will give you some great information.

Online

If you decide to Google once again you can use the name Fred Hollows, other terms you could try include Fred Hollows Foundation.

Other websites that you might find useful

Fred Hollows Foundation
This foundation was set up in 1992 to continue the work of Fred Hollows following his death in 1993. It contains some great information about Fred and his work.

Australian Stories: Fred Hollows
In 1990 Fred Hollows was awarded the title ‘Australian of the Year’, this page provides a brief biography as well as links to related information.

Fred Hollows collection

This page contains great information about Fred as well as pictures of items from the Fred Hollows collection at the National Museum of Australia. It even contains a map which shows the movements of National Trachoma and Eye Health Program teams from 1976 to 1978 as well as some interesting links to related information.

Wild Weather

Fun fact: Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is actually a storm that has been raging for 300 years
Source: wikipedia.com

 

The weather affects us all, a sunny day could mean a picnic or a visit to the beach and a rainy day could mean cuddling up with a good book from your local library. Then there are times where we get severe weather which can cause natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, icestorms. Severe weather has great impact on the human race; it can ruin crops, destroy homes, cause floods and fires and even take lives.

There is so much information on severe weather available; the trick is finding the specific information you need.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue using the keyword “weather” will get you a lot of good results.

Being more specific in your search is also important; if you particularly want information on tornadoes then type in the keyword “tornado”.  

You could also try:

·         Hurricane

·         Typhoon

·         Natural disasters

·         Climate change

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book, both of these resources have much information on severe weather. Try using the keywords mentioned above to get some great results. You might also want to try names of specific disasters, such as “Hurricane Katrina”.

“Tornado alley” is a common name for the area of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent, this search term will also find you some great results. You could also try the term “climate change”

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the keyword suggestions we have discussed above to search in the Greenfile and the Science Reference Centre databases which will give you some great information. 

 

Online

If you decide Google is the way to go, do be careful because there is a lot of information available on the web for this topic. Make sure that the source of the website is reliable.  You could try any of the keywords above in your search, I would recommend being as specific as possible as more general keywords such as “weather” will bring too many results. You could however try “severe weather” . Again, the more specific you are the better.

You could also try:

·         Australia’s hurricanes

·         Australian natural disasters

·         Cyclone Yasi

·         Tropical cyclones

 

Other websites that you might find useful

AustralianGovernment – Bureau of Meteorlogy

The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia's national weather, climate and water agency. It contains a wealth of information about the history of Australia’s climate and weather as well as up to date information and weather warnings. It is a very valuable online resource.

ExtremeStorms

This website has been put together by two quite knowledgeable and well known Australian storm chasers. It contains some great information, videos and pictures of a variety of storms in Australia.

Australianweather and seasons – a variety of climates

This site is created by the Australian Government and contains information about the Australian climate, weather patterns, severe weather as well as some great reliable links you can check out for more information.

Climate change in Australia

The CSIRO created this website and it has some great information on it, including its very own publications library. This is definitely a site worth checking out.

 

Australian Rainforests



Image source: clipart

 

When looking for information on Australia’s rainforests there are a few different places you can search.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue with the following keywords will get you some good results:

·         Rainforest

·         Australia Rainforest

If you are looking for information about a specific rainforest you could enter the name e.g. Daintree

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book. World Book in particular has some good results using keywords like “Australian rainforest”.

Online

You might also choose to Google in order to find some websites with more information, if you need to use Google I would recommend being as specific as possible in the keywords you use. Here are some suggestions for keywords:

·         Australian rainforests

·         Daintree rainforest

·         Gondwana rainforests

·         Tarkine Tasmania

·         Littoral rainforest

Other websites that you might find useful

World Heritage Places - Gondwana Rainforests of Australia -New South Wales and Queensland
This website has been written by the Australian Government Department of the Environment. It contains extensive information about the Gondwana Rainforests including where they are located, information on the Heritage database records, images, links to maps, fact sheets and other important material as well as relevant contact information.

Australian Rainforest Foundation
This website has information about rainforests in each of the different states and contains important information such as the threatened species in each state and links to other relevant sites or groups.

The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust – AustralianRainforests
This site has a lot of information about all types of Australian rainforests, including, history, habitats and environment, soil fertility and how rainforests are categorised. This is a very useful site.