Born: Established: 1956 ;
Gender:
Male
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BiographyHistory
Most Referenced Works
Awards for Works
-
y
The Water Dreamers : The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent
Melbourne
:
Text Publishing
,
2009
Z1608208
2009
single work
prose
'The Water Dreamers is 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 fresh water 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.' (From the publisher's website.)
- 2009 winner Colin Roderick Award
- 2010 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Non-Fiction
- 2010 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
Last amended 3 Nov 2011 10:15:36
