Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-289) and index.

Water reflects culture. This book is a detailed analysis of hydrological change in Australia's largest inland waterway in Australia, the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, in the first 70 years of white settlement. Following air, water is our primal need. Unlike many histories, this book looks at the entire hydrological cycle in one place, rather than focusing on one bit. Deftly weaving threads from history, hydrology and psychology into one, Following the Water explores not just what settlers did to the waterscape, but probes their motivation for doing so. By combining unlikely elements together such as swamp drainage, water proofing techniques and temperance lobbying, the book reveals a web of perceptions about how water 'should be'. With this laid clear, we can ask how different we are from our colonial forebears.

1. Introduction -- 2. Making the circle round: Perceptions of hydrology through time -- 3. The earth's thoughtful lords? Nineteenth-century views of water and nature -- 4. 'Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather': The role of precipitation in the catchment -- 5. 'Fair streams were palsied in their onward course': The desirability of flowing waters -- 6. 'A useless weight of water': Responding to stagnancy, mud and morasses -- 7. Between 'the water famine and the fire demon': Drying up the catchment -- 8. Mirror, mirror? The reflective catchment.

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650