Wounded Country

The Murray–Darling Basin – a contested history

Quentin Beresford

• Publisher: NewSouth
• Year: 2021
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781742249988
• Subtopic: Australian & Oceanian History
• Index: History

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?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Anatomy of an ecological disaster
• 2 Men of Empire
• 3 The great white land grab
• 4 Riches and ruin: The dreams of squatters and selectors
• 5 The war on nature
• 6 Irrigation empire: The rise and fall of the Chaffey brothers
• 7 A national calamity: The Federation Drought, 1895–1903
• 8 Populate or perish: Chasing the agrarian dream
• 9 Nature’s vengeance: Australia’s dust bowl
• 10 Prosperity and its problems
• 11 The struggle for reform
• 12 Smoke and mirrors: The making and unmaking of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan
• 13 Marginalising the Indigenous voice
• Conclusion: A path forward
• Postscript
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Droughts affecting the Murray–Darling Basin
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index