  We present preliminary results from a set of near-IR integral field
spectroscopic observations of the central, star-burst, regions of the barred
spiral galaxy M83, obtained with CIRPASS on Gemini-S. We present maps in the
Paschen-Beta and [FeII]1.257um emission lines which appear surprisingly
different. We outline the procedure in which we will use Paschen-Beta emission
line strengths and measures of CO absorption to determine the relative and
absolute ages of individual star-forming knots in the central kpc region of
M83.
