Though flooding can, and does, cause a lot of damage to the towns and farm infrastructure, productive farmland on floodplains only exists because of the river flooding. When the River Murray floods water moves out on to the floodplain, as does sediment and a lot of organic matter – one of the major sources of carbon and nutrients – which activate floodplain processes. This continuous movement of water, materials and energy in rivers is what makes the land fertile.
What was noticeable about this event was that the major response to these flooding event and its associated processes in the riverine ecosystems was part of the culture of ‘anti-droughting’ and ‘flood-proofing’ with the concern being for human beings, their settlements, and their livelihoods. The ecological effects of flooding (on animals and plants) within an understanding of river ecology was pushed into the background.
Emily O’Gorman’s book Flood Country uses the case studies of four floods (Gundagai in 1852, Bourke in 1890, Mildura in 1956 and the flooding in Cunnamulla in south-western Queensland in 1990) to examine the relationships between the European settlers/farmers, natural flood events and the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin. The book provides a detailed description of how rural (and to a lesser extent, city) people behaved when faced with floods and droughts in an engineered landscape.
It does not deal with the non-human aspects of the environment to any great extent, apart from hydrology, nor does it consider the ecology of floods and droughts or river functioning.
Nourishing Terrains 
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