Sign-In
Cart
Georges River Blues: Swamps, Mangroves and Resident Action, 1945-1980
Paperback
Series: World Forest History
Australia & OceaniaEnvironmental Studies
ISBN13: 9781760464622
Publisher: Anu Press
Published: Feb 2 2022
Pages: 330
Weight: 1.35
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.02 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
The lower Georges River, on Dharawal and Dharug lands, was a place of fishing grounds, swimming holes and picnics in the early twentieth century. But this all changed after World War II, when rapidly expanding industry and increasing population fell heaviest on this river, polluting its waters and destroying its bush.
Local people campaigned to defend their river. They battled municipal councils, who were themselves struggling against an explosion of garbage as population and economy changed. In these blues (an Australian term for conflict), it was mangroves and swamps that became the focus of the fight. Mangroves were expanding because of increasing pollution and early climate change. Councils wanted to solve their garbage problems by bulldozing mangroves and bushland, dumping garbage and, eventually, building playing fields. So they attacked mangroves as useless swamps that harboured disease. Residents defended mangroves by mobilising ecological science to show that these plants nurtured immature fish and protected the river's health.
These suburban resident action campaigns have been ignored by histories of the Australian environmental movement, which have instead focused on campaigns to save distant 'wilderness' or inner-city built environments. The Georges River environmental conflicts may have been less theatrical, but they were fought out just as bitterly. And local Georges River campaigners - men, women and often children - were just as tenacious. They struggled to 'keep bushland in our suburbs', laying the foundation for today's widespread urban environmental consciousness.
Also from
Goodall, Heather
Teacher for Justice: Lucy Woodcock's Transnational Life
Ghosh, Devleena
Randerson, Helen
Goodall, Heather
Paperback
Making Change Happen: Black and White Activists talk to Kevin Cook about Aboriginal, Union and Liberation Politics
Goodall, Heather
Cook, Kevin
Paperback
Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770-1972
Goodall, Heather
Paperback
Beyond Borders: Indians, Australians and the Indonesian Revolution, 1939 to 1950
Goodall, Heather
Paperback
Also in
Australia & Oceania
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean
Corson, Trevor
Paperback
Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World
Druett, Joan
Paperback
Lost Kingdom: Hawaiia's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and Americaa's First Imperial Venture
Siler, Julia Flynn
Paperback
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Dash, Mike
Paperback
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, Edward
Paperback
A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
Zuckoff, Mitchell
Paperback
How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai'i
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change
McCalman, Iain
Paperback
Terra in Our Mist: A Tūhoe Narrative of Indigenous Sovereignty and Settler-State Violence
Aikman, Pounamu Jade William Emery
Hardcover
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest
Hoffman, Carl
Paperback
Voices Beyond the Grave: Japanese Internment in the French Pacific
Ireland, Benjamin Hiramatsu
Hardcover
The Forgotten Children of Maui: Filipino Myths, Tattoos, and Rituals of a Demigod
Wilcken, Lane
Paperback
Double Sunrise: Qantas Empire Airways Indian Ocean Wartime Services 1943-1946
Goodall, Geoff
Paperback
Mutiny on the Bounty: A Saga of Sex, Sedition, Mayhem and Mutiny, and Survival Against Extraordinary Odds
Fitzsimons, Peter
Paperback
'I buy this piece of ground here': An Italian market-gardener community in Adelaide, 1920s-1970s
Regan, Madeleine
Paperback
South Pacific Air War Volume 6: Wau to Bismarck Sea, January - March 1943
Ingman, Peter
Claringbould, Michael
Paperback
Burke and Wills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Australia's Most Famous Explorers
Fitzsimons, Peter
Paperback
The Myth of the Natural Laboratory: Science, Empire, and Their Derangements on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands
Young, Adrian
Hardcover
Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia
Urwin, Jessica
Paperback
Beyond the Meeting of the Waters: A Yorta Yorta Life Story
Atkinson, Wayne
Guinness, Catherine
Hardcover
The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People
Flannery, Tim
Paperback
The Shameful Isles: The true story of North-West Australia's fatal experiment with medical apartheid
Price, David
Paperback
The Road from Coorain: A Woman's Exquisitely Clear-Sighted Memoir of Growing Up Australian
Conway, Jill Ker
Paperback
The Last Tour: Paul and Eslanda Robeson's Visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1960
Curthoys, Ann
Paperback
The Mana of Translation: Translational Flow in Hawaiian History from the Baibala to the Mauna
Kuwada, Bryan Kamaoli
Hardcover
Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and Their Polynesian Ancestors
Crowe, Andrew
Paperback
The Battle of the Coral Sea Explained: Expert Analysis of the Pivotal WWII Battle Where American Strength Saved Australia
Lewis, Tom, Oam
Paperback
People Powered Radio: Fifty Years of Australian Community Radio Station 4zzz
Anderson, Heather
Paperback
Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
Matthiessen, Peter
Paperback
Aborigine Trail: Trials, Travail, and Triumph Using Psychology with Aborigine Police
Rudofossi, Dan
Moloney, Matthew
Paperback
A Holistic Reading of Chronicles with a Samoan Hermeneutic: Reading Jabez in Context
Moleli Alama, Samasoni
Hardcover
Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: The Archaeology of Ancient Hawai'i, Revised Edition
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
McCoy, Mark D.
Paperback
Riots: Returned soldiers and public disorder in Australia at the end of World War I
Skyring, Fiona
Paperback
King Kamehameha The Great: King of the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii History, A Biography
Makana, Kale
Paperback
Miles Franklin Undercover: The Little-Known Years When She Created Her Own Brilliant Career
Davies, Kerrie
Paperback
Queen Liliuokalani: The Hawaiian Kingdom's Last Monarch, Hawaii History, A Biography
Makana, Kale
Paperback
The Southern Frontier: Australia, Antarctica and Empire in the Southern Ocean World
Howitt, Rohan
Paperback
Empires of Violence: Massacre in a Revolutionary Age
Mann, Barbara Alice
Penn, Nigel
Dwyer, Philip
Hardcover
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, George
Paperback
The Menehune of Polynesia and Other Mythical Little People of Oceania (Facsimile Reprint)
Luomala, Katharine
Paperback
Clanlands in New Zealand: Kiwis, Kilts, and an Adventure Down Under
Heughan, Sam
McTavish, Graham
Paperback
The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas After the Civil War
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia: Historical and Cultural Relationships
Clarke, Philip
Paperback
The Penguin History of New Zealand (16pt Large Edition) (Large Print Edition)
King, Michael
Paperback
Maori Tā Moko Tattoos: History, meanings and facial tattoo traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Rune, Aksel
Paperback
Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia
Allen, Matthew
Paperback
Wild Partners: Indigenous Worlds and Industrial Giants in Papua New Guinea
Guinness, Patrick
Paperback
Land and Money Volume 1: How Britain colonised Australasia in the long 19th century
Lepper, John
Paperback
Ready Aim Fire: Major James Francis Thomas: The Fourth Victim in the Execution of Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Morant
Unkles, James
Paperback
Along the tracks of Cobb and Co. - The Roaring Days !: Amusing Anecdotes & Tales of Grit and Graft
Johnson, Hazel T.
Paperback
The Marriage Knot: Marriage and divorce in colonial Western Australia 1829-1900
Hetherington, Penelope
Paperback
Aboriginal Mythology: Enthralling Myths, Legends, and Folktales from Ancient Australia
Wellman, Billy
Hardcover
So Far and Yet So Close: Frontier Cattle Ranching in Western Prairie Canada and the Northern Territory of Australia
Elofson, Warren
Paperback
The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place
Walker, David
Luckins, Tanja
Johnson, Louise
Paperback
History of Keoua Kalanikupuapa-I-Kalani-Nui: Father of Hawaiian Kings
Pratt Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau La'anui
Paperback