Cities in a Sunburnt Country: Water and the Making of Urban Australia

Description

As Australian cities face uncertain water futures, what insights can the history of Aboriginal and settler relationships with water yield? Residents have come to expect reliable, safe, and cheap water, but natural limits and the costs of maintaining and expanding water networks are at odds with forms and cultures of urban water use. Cities in a Sunburnt Country is the first comparative study of the provision, use, and social impact of water and water infrastructure in Australia's five largest cities. Drawing on environmental, urban, and economic history, this co-authored book challenges widely held assumptions, both in Australia and around the world, about water management, consumption, and sustainability. From the 'living water' of Aboriginal cultures to the rise of networked water infrastructure, the book invites us to take a long view of how water has shaped our cities, and how urban water systems and cultures might weather a warming world.

Margaret Cook is an environmental historian, author of A River with a City Problem: A History of Brisbane Floods (2019) and co-editor (with Scott McKinnon) of Disasters in Australia and New Zealand (2020). She was the recipient of the John and Ruth Kerr Medal of Distinction in History (2020). Lionel Frost is the author of The New Urban Frontier: Urbanisation and City-Building in Australasia and the American West (1991), winner of the Dyos Prize in Urban History (1994), and a contributor to the Cambridge History of Australia (2013), Cambridge World History (2015), and Cambridge Economic History of Australia (2015). Andrea Gaynor is Professor of History and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at The University of Western Australia. An environmental historian, she seeks to use the contextualising and narrative power of history to support transitions to more just and sustainable societies. Jenny Gregory AM FRHS is Emeritus Professor of History at The University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on urban history, primarily town planning and heritage. Her books include City of Light: A History of Perth since the 1950s (2003) and, as Editor-in-Chief, the Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia (2009). Ruth A. Morgan is an environmental historian, whose prize-winning work on the histories of water and climate has been generously funded by the Australian Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is a Lead Author in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report. Martin Shanahan is Professor of Economic and Business History at the University of South Australia and Elof Hansson Visiting Professor in International Business and Trade at Gothenburg University, Sweden. A recipient of the Butlin Prize in Economic History, he has also written on wealth and income distribution, international cartels and water markets. Peter Spearritt is Emeritus Professor in History at The University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. His books include Sydney's Century (2000), Where History Happened: The Hidden Past of Australia's Towns and Places (2018), and, as co-author, The Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework (2021).

'Drawing on a rich set of evidence and expertise, this book provides a fascinating account of how water has shaped the five largest cities in the driest inhabited continent on Earth. This is a beautifully written and important book that reveals new insights into our pasts and possible futures.' Emily O'Gorman, Macquarie University 'A breakthrough book dealing with one of the most urgent challenges facing Australian cities and cities everywhere: how to ensure urban water futures and urban justice. Water is the life-blood of cities, yet Australia's highly urbanised populations live on the driest continent on Earth. In this book, leading environmental and urban historians explore and analyse the long history of urban water, from the Dreaming to rise of modern cities, tracing how the past shaped the present and the new urgencies of anthropogenic climate change. Here is a rich resource and a powerful clarion call for urban planners, policymakers, and anyone interested in water and the future of our cities.' Grace Karskens, University of New South Wales 'Provocative and timely, Cities in a Sunburnt Country argues that Aboriginal knowledge of land and water stewardship will be crucial to the creation of a more water-resilient future for urban Australia. A vital argument - and book - for water-strapped cities everywhere.' Char Miller, Pomona College 'Water shortage in a changing environment is one of our most pressing contemporary challenges in the world's driest continent. This stimulating work provides an instructive historical lens from both indigenous and settler perspectives on the challenges of water provision in Australia's five largest cities.' Simon Ville, University of Wollongong