Table Of ContentSLOW
CATASTROPHES
SLOW
CATASTROPHES
Living with Drought in Aust ralia
REBECCA JONES
Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia
© Copyright 2017 Rebecca Jones
All rights reserved. Apart from any uses permitted by Australia’s Copyright Act 1968, no
part of this book may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from
the copyright owners. Inquiries should be directed to the publisher.
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http://www.publishing.monash.edu/books/sc-9781925495430.html
ISBN: 978-1-925495-43-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-925495-45-4 (ePDF)
ISBN: 978-1-925495-53-9 (ePub)
Series: Australian History
Series Editor: Sean Scalmer
Design: Les Tomas
Cover image: Carting water South Australia c. 1930 (State Library of South Australia
B 49957)
Back cover image: Cooling of during the Millennium drought near Ouyen, November
2006. Photographer Craig Borrow, copyright News Corp Australia.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Creator: Jones, Rebecca, 1967- author.
Title: Slow catastrophes : living with drought in Australia /
Rebecca Jones.
ISBN: 9781925495430 (paperback)
Subjects: Drought management--Australia.
Droughts--Australia.
Climatic changes--Australia.
Global warming--Australia.
CON TEN TS
List of Figures vi
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Slow Catastrophes xi
Section 1: Drought StorieS 1
Te Hunters and the Brewers 10
Margaret McCann 34
William Pearse 50
Charles Coote 75
Charlie Grossman 100
Te Falkiners 119
Lindsay and Margaret Bettison 138
Images PS 1
Section 2: Living with Drought 161
Chapter 1: Understanding the Conundrum of Drought 165
Chapter 2: Wild Harvesting and Self-sufciency 197
Chapter 3: Moving 233
Chapter 4: Te Feeling of Drought 278
Conclusion: Resilience to Drought? 319
Select Bibliography of Sources Cited 331
Index 347
Back Cover 358
LIST OF F IGU R ES
Figure 1: South eastern Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Figure 2: Timeline illustrating the temporal range
of the drought stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Figure 3: Mean annual rainfall across south eastern Australia . . . . 5
Figure 4: Te Hunter and Brewer properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 5: Te McCann farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Figure 6: Te Pearse farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Figure 7: Te Coote farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Figure 8: Te Grossman farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Figure 9: Te Falkiner property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Figure 10: Te Bettison property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Figure 11: William Pearse’s preaching engagements,
1895–1924 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
– v i –
PR EFACE
As for many people whose childhoods were spent in south eastern
Australia, drought was a regular, if incidental backdrop to my own life.
I was born into the tail end of the late 1960s drought, although my
newly arrived migrant parents may have been unaware of this, think-
ing that the endless sunshine was normal. I only dimly recall pipes
sprouting from every orifce of our suburban Melbourne house as my
parents diverted household water to our garden during droughts in
the 1970s, but I vividly remember being released from school early as
three million tonnes of parched western Victorian topsoil obliterated
Melbourne in a sinister red-brown dust storm on 8 February 1983. A
few days later we watched charred leaves raining on our house from
the Ash Wednesday bushfres east of Melbourne. Drought even fol-
lowed us to England where we lived in 1976 and people exclaimed
that the Australians had chased the rain away. For most urban dwellers
such as myself, the cataclysm of fre was clear, but the absence of rain
was largely uneventful. Te full efect of the slow environmental and
human catastrophe of drought was obscure.
However, by the long Millennium drought of the early 2000s,
I was living on a small property in rural Victoria and had become
acutely aware of the colour and life seeping out of the farms around
me. Like the diary writers who are the subject of this book I observed
the absence of rain with both dismay and impotence. I watched grass
withering and snapping, soil changing colour, hay bought by the
truck load to fll the stomachs of resentful cows, clouds building but
failing to deliver and showers teasingly skirting the far side of the
– v i i –
SL OW CATA S T ROPH ES
v .a l e ly I h da r o f a m y n y e a r s b ne e dert s e t i n i n ust s a el i nb a a g r c u i t l u er
a dn w a s , ta t eh t e i ,m e r s e a c r h i n g r u r a l ei r s ec l n e i a dn t a n e lm e a h t .hl
I ce dth w a t eh af r r e sm a u don r u s a dn e dre d n p o wo h t e yh us r v v e d i .
e� r b m e oy f o t h si k b o o , tn ,e h w a s ve di ec n o c u d r i n g t eh ut s e d tsi
yd a s f o t eh m i l n e u n l mi t . dh u g o r Rain , t eh ec nsba e f o r a i n , d pn ie m -
i n g ra i n a dn ap ts r a i n v eha te du in n o c o t b e ym us e .m A s I tm ib us -
e dt a n ntlo c ap i p i a ro f f u d n i n g ot t eh Auts r a l a i n Resea c r h Cuconi l ,
ch u m f o ar i o c t i V d an d aln s n e e Q u saw r e r t e d a w u n d an e t h y ad I e w�
o t in Cre bar n o t ec n e m m o c t hs i a e ce s hrr t a et h Atsuar l a in a n o lt i a N
, t n riv e i s U y t eh Ct roe t D a m l oc p s l e da t e a hnbe a uge .le d Rdrioec n g
a n re t i n v e wi w t hi Stu ho pls p a din G a f r r e sm ydu J a dn Aten n et w a s
de t r p r e u t n i y b arn i gdn i u n o p n o a tni f o o r d an r e t a l t at h , a e r y ni n e c -
t r a l pls p a d i ,nG y m tv i s i o t d a n e r nB a dn M a r g a ter Le e wa s d rve i e dt
b y t he �o o d e d Avno R.iv er I n e a lr y 4 , 2 1 0 a s a pa s s e n g e r i n Dav di
H s ’ n o ut s o e le hw - u o r f d r v ei ew b ec a em ep s le yols h t a e dnlng e i n e u y lg
Hay Pla i n s udm a nd , ot ym de l ti g h , ha d ot re v e r s e eti gh k i ml e o -
t e r s ca b k o t t eh u s e o . h n ,e� t hu g o r 4 , 1 2 0 r a i n i n rea t s n Auts r a l ai
g u a r da l yl ed t ,apd is i s � r ts i n Qlsn e e a u d ,n t ne h r e ew t s n e wN Stu ho
Waesl , re ew t s n r oc ai ti V a dn Taams n ai . e� u uBear f o g o l o r yeo t e M
r e p r o t e d t h ta a n El iNoñ e v t e n w a s l i. k e l y � i s w a s cno � r m e d i n
yMa 512 0 a dn a s I w etr i t h si i n ea yl r 6 12 0 I a m a g a i n g a z i n g rve o
ec a e dl h b o c d da k p s a dn h s r v le i e dl g r a s s reud n a n urw v e a n i ynlg eu l b
, k s y w t hi dc su o l t t a a n l i ysnlgi t g r e a h i n g t u b t o n d i sps n n gie r a i .n e�
u uBear f o g o l o r yeo t e M e c d l a e dr t tha t eh 6 1 5 1 –2 0 E l oiñ N si l i k yle
o t ec d l ei n i n t eh e n x t e f w t shn o m a dn yb t eh dn soe c h a l f f o t eh ye a r
w i l l b e t ur e a n . ‘l ’ e� c c y el te .su i n n o c
– v i i i –
ACK NOW LEDGEMEN TS
A book of history evolves with the assistance, support and inspiration
of many people and places. I am privileged to have been funded by
the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher
Award (DE120100786). I was also fortunate to undertake the re-
search and writing of this book in the School of History, Research
School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University where
I was immersed in a culture which nurtured high quality research
and where my colleagues are not only good at what they do but also
respectful, polite and interested in others. Tom Grifths was my re-
search mentor throughout this fellowship. I am deeply grateful for
his gentle questions, tactful but insightful comments, his thought-
ful reading of my entire manuscript, and his encouragement. Many
thanks also to my diligent and persistent research assistants: Karen
Downing, Annemarie McLaren and Jayne Reagan.
I am grateful to the many people within and beyond the ANU
who generously read sections of this book, and ofered thoughtful
comments: Frank Bongiorno, Tania Colwell and the ‘Emotions in
Research’ group, Karen Downing, Meredith Fletcher, Katie Holmes,
Pat Jalland, Chris O’Brien, Libby Robin and Martin Tomas. In-
formal corridor, door jamb and beverage conversations encouraged
me and stimulated my thoughts and I particularly thank Cameron
Muir and Carolyn Strange.
I owe a very big thank you to the people who cheerfully gave
me their time to be interviewed, to show me their properties and
explain to me farming and drought: Angela; Annette; Karyn Brad-
ford; Colleen, David and Rohan Houston; Jef; Jenny and Jim; Judy;
– i x –
