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The Water Dreamers

The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent

Michael Cathcart

  • awardWinner, Colin Roderick Award, 2010
  • awardShortlisted, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Non-fiction, 2010
  • awardShortlisted, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction, 2010
  • **TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK**

    The long-awaited history that will change the way Australians think about their country.

    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.

    Michael Cathcart
    About the Author

    Michael Cathcart was born in Melbourne in 1956—the year that television came to Australia. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar, the University of Melbourne, ANU and a tyre factory in Port Melbourne. He has worked as a schoolteacher, university lecturer and theatre director.

    Cathcart has presented several Radio National programs, including ‘...

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    Extent:
    336pp
    Format:
    Paperback
    Text publication date:
    2 August 2010
    ISBN:
    9781921656552
    AU Price:
    $24.95
    NZ Price:
    $32.00
    Australian
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    Other editions ofThe Water Dreamers
    • The Water Dreamers
      ebook
      ISBN: 9781921776021
      2 August 2010
      Buy ebook