Carlo Eastaway (Honours Student)
Southern Cross University

Project Title
Affect of 'stigma' to community and individual sense of place and well-being, for those living within areas of Environmental Hazards

Biography
Carlo completed a Bachelors degree in Social Science in Environment Studies at RMIT University in 2007. His interests are focussed around the social elements and dynamics between people and place.

Start Date
March 2009

Project Details
The overall project aims to provide a stand-alone knowledge base that will improve the understanding of community perceptions towards remediation of contaminated lands by regulators, site managers and other practitioners in the contaminated lands industry.
Carlo will join the UTS research team to engage in community consultation activities, and identify a specific set of data to examine questions of relationships between social elements and dynamics that contribute to the definition of people-place identity, using the filter of social interaction between community and scientific knowledge. Carlo will be addressing the themes of 'stigma' and 'Impact on life-scape' in relation to those living within known contaminated communities, which have been highlighted for the two case study sites;

• Orica (former ICI site) Banksmeadow, NSW, a site with diverse contamination and issues concerning the plume of groundwater contamination;
• Pasminco Cockle Creek Smelter, Bunderra, Lake Macquarie Shire, NSW, a site with lead, cadium and zinc contamination in groundwater and contamination migrating to nearby residential areas.

The project will cover a broad spectrum of social issues associated with the creation of 'stigma' upon those communities living within known environmental hazards.