This study examines whether the extent of vegetation loss during drought directly or indirectly mediates the relationship between experience of drought and psychological distress. Experiencing drought has been shown to affect the wellbeing of farmers, through multiple mechanisms including changes in farm production, farm finances, workloads, family relationships and other factors. Recent years have seen increased recognition that the negative environmental changes occurring in the local landscape are also a trigger for distress with farmers experiencing solastagia – negative affect associated with observing declining environmental health. Parts of Regional Victoria in recent times have suffered significantly from drought, which motivated Government assistance of $27 million dollars in 2015. In order to undertake this study information from the 2015 Regional Wellbeing Survey was used to examine psychological distress in 5,300 Victorian farmers and non-farmers. Individual participant’s responses were linked to satellite vegetation cover data and a climatic drought index for the time of the survey, and at the gazetted locality of their residence.The results of this study add to knowledge of the avenues through which farmer’s wellbeing may be promoted and help to inform policy- and decision-making more broadly relating to drought affected farmers.

Introduction: Public open space (POS) has been associated with a variety of health and behaviour outcomes. POS is frequently used as an exposure measure and compared across studies despite variations in how POS is defined, data sources and type of exposure measures. This research highlighted key methodological considerations for reporting and assessing POS and recommended more consistency and proposed a reporting check list. Methods: Key POS exposure methodological issues, including the definition, data source, availability measure and treatment in statistical analysis, were identified through a review of Australian studies published between 2005 and 2015. Results: Major methodological issues included, varied POS definitions, limited information about POS sub-types, poor reporting on source (e.g. year), and insufficient detail such as POS access points for distance measurement. Other differences included the treatment of POS exposure measures in analysis (eg percentile categorisation rather than continuous exposure measures). Conclusions: There is a lack of consistency in the reporting of POS exposure measures in health research. While only Australian studies were reviewed, the issues covered are likely to be internationally transferable. A reporting checklist was developed to assist researchers in reporting on the key aspects of POS measurement to enable comparison and replication of exposure variables.

Traditional approaches to understanding the body and bodily practices (e.g., physical activity) in Western countries are underpinned by a biomedical paradigm which dichotomizes thinking and hierarchizes the material body as superior and the mind as inferior. This has led to a historically rooted discursive tradition of focusing on measurements and fitness, often with a disregard for the mediating role of place in meaning making in physical activity. Engaging young people in physical activity is a complex process and it should not be reduced to merely monitoring and seeking to increase their physical activity levels. We argue that valuable insights can be gained about the diverse geographic and social influences that affect young people’s physical activity in transnational contexts. Set in the scene of an increasing Chinese student population in Australia, this paper draws on in-depth interviews alongside visual methods, such as sketch-maps and Kawa model drawing to explore young Chinese Australians’ physical activity experiences in their home and host country. Drawing on examples of their home and community spaces, we demonstrate the importance of place in their meaning making process as they undertake physical activity. The results contribute to the development of place-based approaches to meaning making in physical activity.

There is a large and growing body of research investigating the health benefits of urban nature. This research has established that exposure to green space and urban vegetation is associated with a wide range of positive mental and emotional effects. However, understanding of the relationship between urban nature and physical health is less well understood, the mechanisms by which this occurs, and the specific aspects of green space important for health are all unknown. Furthermore, nature encompasses more than just green space. While researchers are beginning to investigate broader aspects of nature, such as blue space and biodiversity, the relationship between these other natural features of the environment and health also represents an important knowledge gap. One of the limitations that may make it difficult to overcome these knowledge gaps is the lack of data and methods with which to more comprehensively and specifically measure urban nature. This study will review current data and methods used to measure urban nature, identify key measurement gaps and challenges, and identify potential Australian datasets with which to develop a range of more nuanced measures of urban nature.