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Journal of the Australian Rangeland Society
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Song of the Artesian Water: aridity, drought and disputation along Queensland’s pastoral frontier in Australia

O. C. Powell
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

School of Geography Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia. Email: owen.powell@uq.edu.au

The Rangeland Journal 34(3) 305-317 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ12014
Submitted: 9 March 2012  Accepted: 3 July 2012   Published: 6 September 2012

Abstract

Following the recent discovery of artesian supplies, the Shearers’ Strike of 1891 and the onset of the Federation drought (1895–1902), A. B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s Song of the Artesian Water, published in 1896, was written at a time of profound social and environmental upheaval in the ‘bush’ of Australia. In order to better understand the historical encounters between colonial capitalism and semiarid rangeland environments, this paper unpacks the cultural meaning behind Song of the Artesian Water by exploring the interactions between water, scientific knowledge, drought and environmental transformation along the pastoral frontier of Queensland. Banjo Paterson’s poem is used as a framework to provide an historical interpretation of European exploitation of the Great Artesian Basin as well as a framework for current economic uses and environmental threats.

Additional keywords: aridity, artesian well, drought, environmental conflict, water resources.


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