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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawrence, Susan, author.

Davies, Peter, 1940- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gold mines and mining--Australia--Victoria--History.

Gold mines and mining.

Victoria--History--1834-1900.

Victoria.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (223 pages)

Place of Publication:

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

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Introduction

1. Sludge

2. Mining

3. Water

4. Fist fights and water rights

5. The sludge question

6. Turning the tide

7. Aftermath

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781743821091

1743821093