It is only since 1986 that relocatable dwellings in caravan parks have been recognised as a category of permanent residence for census purposes. This fact highlights the apparent invisibility of a small but significant proportion of the Australian population. Recent literature has implicated high differentiation of the population, urban sprawl, and high rates of internal (particularly intra-urban) migration in the transmission of disadvantage. In this article, staff of the National Dissemination Program of the Hunter Caravan Project apply that analysis to their own experience of caravan park residency issues. Some very practical suggestions are made for addressing some of those issues as they apply to children.

Identifying and describing factors which influence men's participation in child rearing has been the focus of major studies on fatherhood over the past two decades. Traditional divisions of labour within the domestic sphere are being redefined and challenged as greater equity in parental role tasks has become a desirable characteristic of contemporary family life. Recent research has shown that many men, far from being reluctant participants in parenting tasks, frequently experience discouragement in their attempts at greater involvement in the raising of their children. This paper reports on studies which describe institutional, interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers which men may experience in their attempts to create a more nurturant style of fatherhood, including fathers' reactions to these barriers.

While family care has many positive attributes, total care by mothers may not always be the optimal care arrangement from the point of view of the children or their mothers. Here we examine the way deinstitutionalisation policies for children with developmental disabilities has swung away from often inadequately funded institutions, substituting ‘community care’. ‘Community care’ is largely tending work carried out by mothers. The public sector again is under funded and provides almost no tending for these children. We examine the way the rhetoric of community care has hidden the labour of tending work carried out by mothers, and examine the discourses used to justify moving this labour from the public to the private sphere.

Family decision making through Family Group Conferences has been trialled in a pilot project by the Mission of St James and St John, Victoria, for the past 16 months (as of February 1994) in a two year Project. This article, the first of a series of two, intends to briefly explain the technique and how the project was established in Victoria. The theoretical basis, or project assumptions, will be outlined, together with the obstacles which currently prevent the wider implementation of the practice. The project was independently evaluated from October 1992 up to 31 August 1993 (Swain, 1993a; 1993b). Key findings of that evaluation will be discussed in the second article in this series along with practice issues that need further exploration.

The literature reveals greater emphasis on the causes and consequences of child abuse than on its prevention. A field study in an Australian capital city shows that while substantial amounts of information and services for people experiencing problems with parenting exist in the community, access to these sources is problematic. Improvements in efficiency or increases in funding will not, by themselves resolve the problem and strategies to change the more fundamental problem of public denial of the problem of child abuse will be required.

In many areas of human services delivery high quality service provision is only possible through inter-agency co-ordination. This article discusses the literature as applied to school aged children and adolescents suffering with emotional, psychological, behavioural and social disturbances although the issues and principles have much wider applicability. Enthusiasm and goodwill are essential but insufficient components of good co-ordination. Also necessary is the development of co-ordinative structures. The paper is the first in a series of three. It defines concepts essential to a discussion of the area, looks at some general issues and describes models used in three American States which could be adapted to local conditions. The second paper will look at the collaborative efforts taken to adapt the ideas presented in this paper In a region of Metropolitan Melbourne and the third will present the model which evolved through the collaborative process.

Readers will be aware of the establishment of the Australian Association of Young People in Care (AAYPIC) mentioned in both Jan Owen's earlier report for Children Australia (vol. 19, no. 2) and Meredith Kiraly's report in this issue. The first conference was held in Sydney in September of this year, offering young people and workers a chance to air their ideas and experiences of life in care situations. Many also had the opportunity to contribute to the Social Worker's Conference which was also happening in Sydney on the same weekend.

Following are some perspectives from a few who were involved.

There are a number of controversies raging in the world of child protection. Three in particular have attracted attention in recent months. There is the issue of the ‘repressed’ or ‘false’ memories of adults recalling sexual abuse in childhood. This topic has received extensive coverage in professional journals (see, for example, Neale, 1994 for a summary) and in the broader media (Wyndham, 1994).

Once again, the very label given to the problem defines the debate, as indeed has been the case since modern interest in child abuse was prompted by Kempe's (1962) work. It is interesting to note that ‘false memory syndrome’ is now the term used by some to counter claims of abuse in childhood. As Neale points out (1994:17) the term has ‘no medical validity, but the use of the word ‘syndrome’ perhaps suggests such a feature.