Wounded country : the Murray-Darling Basin a contested history

Resource Information

The work Wounded country : the Murray-Darling Basin a contested history represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Wounded country : the Murray-Darling Basin a contested history

Title remainder

the Murray-Darling Basin a contested history

Statement of responsibility

Quentin Beresford

Creator

• Beresford, Quentin, 1954-

Author

• Beresford, Quentin, 1954-

Subject

• Large type books
• Murray River Watershed (N.S.W.-S.A.) -- Environmental conditions
• Murray River Watershed (N.S.W.-S.A.) -- History
• Darling River Watershed (Qld. and N.S.W.) -- Environmental conditions
• Rivers -- Political aspects -- Australia -- History
• Water-supply -- Australia | Darling River Watershed (Qld. and N.S.W.)
• Rivers -- Environmental aspects -- Australia
• Darling River Watershed (Qld. and N.S.W.) -- History

Genre

• Large type books

Language

eng

Summary

Like many Australians, I looked on with horror as images of a million dead fish swamped the media and consumed the news cycle. I resolved to dig deeper. The Murray-Darling Basin is under threat. This vast and spectacular geographical region, covering one million square kilometres from central Queensland to South Australia, has been exploited for nearly 200 years. Soil erosion, sand drifts, dust storms, salinity, algal blooms, threatened native flora and fauna, the drying out of internationally recognised wetlands and steadily worsening droughts have repeatedly brought large parts of the Basin to its knees. In Wounded Country, award-winning author Quentin Beresford investigates the complex history of Australia's largest and most important river system. Waves of farmers exploited the region's potential, with little consideration for the environmental consequences. Dispossession and marginalisation denied local First Nations people their lands and European settlers the Indigenous cultural knowledge to manage the Basin sustainably. Instead, we've had 'nation-building' irrigation schemes and agricultural enterprises promoted by politicians focused on short-term profits and a development-at-all-costs approach. Expert advice and warnings about long-term environmental effects have been continually sidelined. We're now at a point of reckoning. How can we save the once mighty Murray-Darling?

Cataloging source

VALP

Dewey number

333.9162

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Target audience

adult