Publisher's Synopsis
An across-the-curriculum account of Australia's greatest river system as it is and was, with many stories about the people who lived on it or in the Murray Valley - from archaeological finds and Aboriginal legend to riverboat traders and dam engineers The Murray starts as a trickle in the Snowy Mountains. It travels 2500 km through plain, forest and desert before reaching the sea. It has been a busy trade route, with paddle steamers plying up and down, unloading at river ports; a fishing ground for Aborigines and white Australians; a highway and home for traders and travellers, hermits and hawkers, highwaymen and holiday-makers; a source of water for nearly three million townspeople, and for orchardists and other farmers, via pipes, pumps and dams; and a border between two states, a network crossing one-seventh of the continent.;It is part of Australian history and heartland and yet the populace takes out 80 per cent of the water. For how long can this be done? This volume is a wide-ranging yet very personal anecdotal account of the river's archaeology, history, geography and ecology in which John Nicholson combines thorough research, spirited opinion, explanation, storytelling and illustrations.;Full of vivid stories about people, from the Aborigines who once lived along the river to explorers, riverboat captains, bushrangers, farmers, soldier-settlers and dam-builders, it also provides some sobering information about the effects of humans' treatment of the river, arguably Australia's greatest resource.
