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

An examination of the challenges of water management in Australian cities drawing on environmental, urban and economy history.

Margaret Cook (Author), Lionel Frost (Author), Andrea Gaynor (Author), Jenny Gregory (Author), Ruth A. Morgan (Author), Martin Shanahan (Author), Peter Spearritt (Author)

9781108926898, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 February 2025

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.489 kg

The extremely stimulating and easy-to-read book is highly recommended to all those who are interested in water management and/or Australian urban development.' Boris Braun, H-Soz-Kult (hsozkult.de)

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.

1. Prologue
2. Living water
3. Domesticating water
4. Keeping up
5. Transforming homes
6. Watering suburbia
7. Crises of confidence
8. Twenty-first century Australian cities
9. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Sustainability [RNU], Drought & water supply [RNFD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]