The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners. Sunning of pages.

The story of the settlement of Australia: of the scarcity of water and the need to fill an imagined silence with the sounds of civilisation.

From the moment the First Fleeters stepped ashore, water determined progress. The Tank Stream that flowed through what is now the Sydney CBD provided freshwater until settlers and their livestock fouled it. Then water from a nearby swamp was piped into the growing settlement. When it ran dry sights were set further afield.

The Water Dreamers is an illuminating account of the ways people have imagined and interpreted Australia while struggling to understand this continent and striving to conquer its obstacles. It’s an environmental history and a cultural history with an unmistakable sense of how, today, we are part of that continuing story.