“The Water Dreamers is the story of the settlement of Australia: of the scarcity of water and the need to fill an imagined silence with the sounds of civilisation. From the moment the First Fleeters stepped ashore, water determined progress. The Tank Stream that flowed through what is now the Sydney CBD provided fresh water until settlers and their livestock fouled it. Then water from a nearby swamp was piped into the growing settlement. When it ran dry sights were set further afield.” (from the Text Publishing website)

Michael Cathcart is a well-known writer, broadcaster and theatre director. He abridged Manning Clark’s six-volume A History of Australia (Melbourne University Press, 1993), and currently lectures in Australian Studies at the University of Melbourne.