Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank my parents, Peter and Lorraine, for their continual support andencouragement during my studies.I am most grateful for the enthusiasm and support from my advisors, Dr HamishMcGowan, Professor Stuart Phinn, Professor Grant McTainsh and Dr John Leys. Inparticular I would like to thank Hamish and Stuart for their encouragement and guidancefrom my time as an undergraduate student and through the course of my doctoral studies.I also would like to thank Grant and John for their involvement in my studies. Ourdiscussions and your feedback on my work always pushed me to improve my research.I would like to thank John Cater (Queensland Department of Natural Resources andWater) for supplying me with data from the Aussie GRASS pasture growth model. Icould not have conducted this research without that support. I also thank NevilleWedding (Bureau of Meteorology) for supplying me with the observational dust eventdata, and Peter Scarth (NRW) for supplying me with Landsat derived bare ground coverdata.Much of my time in the early stages of this research was spent establishing and runningfield sites across remote western Queensland. Unfortunately not all went to plan and Ihave been able to incorporate only a small portion of that work in this thesis. A largecomponent of my fieldwork relied on access to private property, National Parks, andGovernment land. I am most grateful for the support provided by the land owners andmanagers, which included volunteer work recording dust events and emptying wind vanesamplers over 2½ years. I would like to thank Mark and Jenny Handley of LakeBindegolly National Park, Scott Morrison, Sajidah Abdullah, Al Dermer and KarenHarland of “Ethabuka”, Guy Newell of “Croxdale” (DPI Charleville), and AndrewKingston and rangers of Diamantina National Park. I would especially like to thank Johnand Judy Sedgwick for their hospitality and continual support in my work at “Spoilbank”.I wish to thank Hamish, Lynda Petherick and Sam Marx for their assistance during myfrequent excursions to field sites in the “Wild West”. A special thanks also to Tony Gillv