WA water history featured in new book

Current water conservation attitudes often have strong links to past practices and some of those history lessons are explored in a new book by CRC for Water Sensitive Cities researcher Dr Ruth Morgan.

Ruth discusses the past Western Australian fascination with lush green gardens that sits at odds with its mainly desert landscape in Running Out? Water in Western Australia, published by UWA Publishing.

An environmental lecturer and historian at Monash University, Ruth is also a researcher in Understanding social processes to achieve water sensitive futures (Project A2.1). This team of historians from the University of Western Australia, Monash University and the University of Queensland research the water histories of the cities of Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane.

“The history of Perth’s water supply and demand is a central part of my book, tracing the challenges of providing clean water to Perth from the colonial period through to 2014,” Ruth said.

Ruth wrote an article on the WA water crisis for Griffith Review 47, which was also published on The Conversation website.