Pipe Dreams by Rhona Van Veldhuisen

Historian Bob Mcllvena has recorded the heroic work of the people whose vision, determination and hard work in securing an assured water supply helped open up the Wimmera-Mallee.

His monumental chronology of the domestic and stock water supply, 1836 to 1997, resulted from many years of painstaking research, some of it overseas. By the end of 1997 he had compiled 1000 pages of manuscript of history including 400 photographs. His wife Ercil typed the hand-written notes.

Author Rhona Van Veldhuisen brings the story together in this readable and authoritative real-life drama which starts with the earliest days of exploration and settlement in Western Victoria.

Students of Australian history will find this book invaluable to their studies; people who like to indulge their passion for a 'good read' will find it enchanting and hard to put down.

Today, the Wimmera Mallee Water system supplies 5000 farms and 50 towns in a region spanning the Grampians to the Murray River in the north, west to the South Australian border and east to the Avoca River. The system distributes water from 12 reservoirs through 17,000 kilometres of channels.

Chapters

• Foreword V
• Acknowledgments vii
• List of illustrations xiii
• Introduction
• Chapter One: A St Patrick's Day Farewell
• Chapter Two: The Luck of the Irish
• Chapter Three: The Politics of
• Permanency
• Chapter Four: Golden Dreams and
• Uncertain Death
• Chapter Five: The Invaders
• Chapter Six: The Land Crying, Children Dying
• Chapter Seven: The Engineer-Dreamer
• Chapter Eight: The Heartland Consolidates
• Chapter Nine: The Irrigators
• Chapter Ten: Breach of Trust
• Chapter Eleven: Unity
• Chapter Twelve: The Call of the Old Country
• Chapter Thirteen: Ghosts of the Past
• Chapter Fourteen: Empty Pockets and Empty Dams
• Chapter Fitteen: The Bridge of Sighs
• Chapter Sixteen: The Drifting Sands of War
• Chapter Seventeen: The Return
• Chapter Eighteen: The Plastic Revolution
• Chapter Nineteen: Pipe Dreaming 1 - The Scene is Set
• Chapter Twenty: Pipe-Dreaming 2 - Victory
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index

ISBN: 0646415905, 9780646415901

Type: Hardcover

Has dust cover? Yes

Height 255mm

Width: 180mm

Depth: 20mm

Weight: 755g

Subjects: Australian History, Nature

Pages: 264