River Relations in the Murray-Darling Basin

Australia's largest river system carries more than water: it carries histories, relationships, and struggles shaped by two centuries of settler-colonial transformation. River Relations in the Murray-Darling Basin reveals the Basin as a living, contested web of communities, economies, and environments. Through vivid, place-based case studies, it shows how everyday lives and livelihoods are made through changing river relations, and why disputes over water persist. It cuts through technical jargon to explain water scarcity and contestation in clear but authoritative terms. Revealing the limits of policies that treat water simply as a resource, it foregrounds instead the cultural histories and social relations that bind people, places, and river. Timely and compelling, this book helps readers in Australia and beyond to understand a defining global challenge: how to live with, govern, and care for rivers amid scarcity, conflict, and environmental change. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.