1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793754003321

Autore

Lawrence Susan

Titolo

Sludge : disaster on Victoria's goldfields. / / Susan Lawrence & Peter Davies

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Carlton, Victoria : , : La Trobe  University Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

1-74382-109-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (223 pages)

Disciplina

741.994

Soggetti

Gold mines and mining - Australia - Victoria - History

Victoria History 1834-1900

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- 1. Sludge -- 2. Mining -- 3. Water -- 4. Fist fights and water rights -- 5. The sludge question -- 6. Turning the tide -- 7. Aftermath -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Everyone knows gold made Victoria rich. But did you know gold mining was disastrous for the land, engulfing it in floods of sand, gravel and silt that gushed out of the mines? Or that this environmental devastation still affects our rivers and floodplains? Victorians had a name for this mining waste: 'sludge'. Sludge submerged Victoria's best grapevines near Bendigo, filled Laanecoorie Reservoir on the Loddon River and flowed down from Beechworth over thousands of hectares of rich agricultural land. Children and animals drowned in sludge lakes. This book is the compelling story of the forgotten filth that plagued nineteenth-century Victoria. It exposes the big dirty secret of Victoria's mining history - the way it transformed the state's water and land, and how the battle against sludge helped lay the ground for the modern environmental movement.