Reading Jared Diamond’s (right) book “Collapse” it becomes evident that society’s which failed and ultimately collapsed were troubled by many things, but frequently water was implicated in the community’s breakdown.
When water was abundant, populations grew and when water was scarce those same populations shrank.
Sometimes societies had too much water that lead to specific troubles and at other times, often as long as a decade, they had too little and subsequently communities struggled to grow food and, as well, sate their thirst.
Diamond found collapse was brought on by five main attributes: damage to the environment; climate change; hostile neighbours; decreased support by friendly neighbours; and finally a society’s responses to the difficulties it faced.
Much research about why communities collapse hinge on what happened, but of critical importance was how communities responded to what was happening.
Thankfully our forefathers understood that water was critical to the broad well-being of the Goulburn Valley and so built the intricate irrigation system we have all profited from.
The landscape of the valley was changed a century ago, it’s now being refreshed and the ultimate responsibility now shifts to our heirs.
However, it is not just water that they need worry about for while Europeans are relative newcomers to our continent who brought with them agricultural processes that further mined the somewhat nutrient exhausted soils meaning the next generations will need to apply themselves to the preservation of our soil structure.
Implicated in that will be the need to pay particular attention to our environment and within that be alert to everything that may worsen our climate.
The Australia we know today is youthful in the extreme and if it is to age to any extent we need an abundance of thinking such as that which first saw the Goulburn Valley’s irrigation system first set up and now refurbished.
