A Water Story: Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future

Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Challenges and opportunities
1 Water and the earliest civilisations
	Ancient Australia
	Water management in ancient worlds: irrigation, canals, cities
	Qanats
	The earliest aqueducts
	The Romans
2 Water use across the Roman Empire
	A new water supply for Nemausus (Nimes)
	Wells and cisterns: the basic water source
	Further developments in urban water management
	Building aqueducts
	North African variations
	Decline of the Roman Empire
3 Some basics about Earth’s water
	The water cycle
	Evaporation and evapotranspiration
	Salinity
	El Niño and La Niña
	Coping with a paucity of fresh water
4 Water supplies for the First Fleet colonists
	The situation the First Fleeters left behind
	Water issues for the new arrivals
	Efforts to become self-sustaining
	The colony grows
	Pollution of the Tank Stream
	A new source of water
5 The search for water inland
	Oxley: the Lachlan and the Macquarie
	Sturt, the Darling, and dreams of an inland sea
	Mitchell: seeking the elusive ‘Kindur’
	The situation at mid-century
	Rainfall patterns in Australia
6 Aboriginal Australia
	Colonisation
	Living as part of the country
	Managing water resources
	Changes to the country after 1788
7 The Great Artesian Basin
	Artesian bores
	Wasting GAB water
8 Groundwater: more than the GAB
	Groundwater worldwide
	Consequences of over-extraction
	Groundwater in Australia
	Some examples of groundwater use
	Threats to groundwater resources
9 Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre and its basin
	The Lake Eyre Basin
	Effects of floods on Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre
	Management of the Lake Eyre Basin
	Northern rivers beyond the Lake Eyre Basin
10 The golden pipeline
	A new gold rush in Western Australia
	Shortage of fresh water
	Attempts to overcome the water shortage
	The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
	Development of the scheme since 1903
11 Adding water to the land: irrigation
	Sources of irrigation water
	The beginnings of irrigation in Australia
	The Murray River
	Major river works
	North of the Murray River
	The Ord and Burdekin rivers
	Methods of irrigation
	Negative consequences of irrigation
	Modernising irrigation systems
12 Dams and reservoirs: storing water
	The beginning of the age of dams
	What dams are
	Dams in Australia
	The world context
	Adverse effects
	Dams for hydroelectricity
	Lakes: natural water storages
Colour plates
13 The Murray–Darling Basin
	The Murray–Darling Basin as a geographical entity
	Working rivers
	The Darling River
	Some special places in the Murray–Darling Basin
	The lower Murray River
	A controlled and managed system
14 Saving the Murray–Darling Basin?
	The Murray–Darling Basin Authority
	The Basin Plan
	Implementing the Basin Plan
	The situation five years after acceptance of the Basin Plan
15 Water for cities, towns and farms
	The capital cities
	Water sources for regional and remote cities and towns
	Water for farms
16 Living with scarcity
	Looming shortages
	New sources of water
	Desalination
	Recycling wastewater
	Managed aquifer recharge
	Stormwater harvesting
	Water sensitive urban design
	Rainwater tanks
	Water trading
17 Facing the future
	Rainfall diversity across Australia
	Ongoing issues: ways forward
	Addressing the future: opportunities for action
	Where to from here?
Glossary
Appendix I: Case Study: South Australia’s long-term water plan
Endnotes
Index