Disasters That Changed Australia

by Richard Evans

Overview

Australian history is full of disasters. Some are natural but many more are man-made, results of individual or collective stupidity, reckless decisions, or greed. In Disasters that Changed Australia, Richard Evans nominates the worst disasters in an engrossing, insightful account of what happened and why. Picture British General, Douglas Haig through sheer arrogance and determination sending thousands of Australian men into swampy, disease-ridden enemy territory for no strategic gain. Or a feral legion of rabbits let loose on the environment, turning furry friends into an uncontrollable plague. Including Cyclone Tracy, Black Friday, the Snowy Mountains Scheme and the destruction of megafauna thousands of years ago, these are just many of debacles that have defined Australia. Richard Evans goes beneath the familiar stories and myths, and urges us to rethink how we respond to disasters to avoid making the same mistakes again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780522859461
Publisher:	Melbourne University Publishing
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	398 KB

About the Author

Writer and historian Richard Evans is the author of The Pyjama Girl Mystery: A True Story of Murder, Obsession and Lies, and co-author of Constructing Australia. He has a PhD in history from Monash University, and works as a Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology.

Table of Contents

Introduction v

1 Divine Wind: Cyclone Tracy, 1974 1

2 'Just Slaughter': Flanders, 1917 21

3 Destroying the Promised Land: The Great Resource Crash, c. 40 000 BC 57

4 The Tasmanian Genocide: 1804-1838 69

5 Feral Nation: Rabbits, 1859 to the Present 85

6 Black Friday, 1939 and Beyond 103

7 The Depression: 1930-1939 123

8 The Great White Elephant: The Snowy Mountains Scheme, 1949-1974 141

9 Fool's Gold: Montreal Olympic Games, 1976 155

10 The Great Drought: 2002 to the Present 167

Sources and Further Reading 179

Acknowledgments 197