Drought Country

The Dry Times That Have Shaped Australia

By: Robert Godfree

An exploration of Australia's harsh climate, weaving historical accounts with scientific theory.

Droughts have lurked behind Australia’s major nation-shaping moments from European settlement at Port Jackson to Federation. They have caused catastrophic damage to Aboriginal, colonial and modern societies and, of course, to the very land itself. Indeed, by depriving us of water, that element most fundamental to life, droughts cut to the very essence of living in Australia. + Full description

Weaving historical accounts with scientific theory, Robert Godfree will take you on a journey through the most brutal Australian droughts of the past three centuries, encountering mythmaking, colonialism, smallpox, economic depression, a ‘dust bowl’, heatwaves, ecosystem collapse and the coming of the second ‘age of coal’. With analysis and insights informed by his childhood in rural Australia and career in research science, he reflects on the choices made during each of these crises and looks to the future of what is becoming a more volatile and human-dominated continent.

Drought Country is a timely exploration of this continent’s harsh climate, providing useful insights for land managers, the scientific community, environmentalists and general readers.

- Short description

Details

Paperback | February 2025 | $ 74.99
ISBN: 9781486314041 | 304 pages | 245 x 170 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
B&W photographs, Colour plates, Illustrations

Features

Takes an in-depth look at the history of Australian droughts from European settlement to present day.
Identifies the worst droughts that have occurred over the past three centuries and the ways they affected agriculture, natural ecosystems and people.
Explores significant droughts, including the great Settlement, early- and mid-1800s, Millennium and Black Summer droughts, and the Federation to World War II ‘dust bowl’.
Discusses how we can learn from our past to help our future on an increasingly water-scarce continent.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Cultural sensitivity warning
Introduction: A land fertile for drought

Part 1: Big feller dry
1: Legends
2: Calamity on the Coquun
3: Vanishing waters

Part 2: An ingratious country
4: Unsettling times
5: The summer of discontent
6: An uncommon and tedious drought
7: Bass and the South Coast drought

Part 3: A sky untroubled by clouds
8: The poverty of confinement
9: The stillness of death
10: Depressed times
11: Transitions

Part 4: Hell’s half century
12: The Titan’s grip
13: The living drought
14: Niobe’s ruin
15: Crucified
16: The desert of dry bones

Part 5: Life in the Anthropocene
17: River of tears
18: The great divide
19: What lies beneath
20: Day zero
21: Hung out to dry

Conclusion: Obscured horizons
Index

Authors

Robert Godfree is an ecologist who developed a passion for understanding the history and environmental impacts of drought while growing up in northern New South Wales. He has worked as a Research Scientist at CSIRO since 2000.