Remaking wetlands: a tale of rice, ducks and floods in the Murrumbidgee River region

Before the arrival of Europeans and their agriculture, Australian
ducks only had to compete with other native birds and animals, as
well as Aboriginal hunters. However, the introduction of water
intensive agricultural activity by Europeans changed all this and
in particular rice cultivation has altered most river systems in
Australia, and as a result the habitat for ducks.


The guest on this episode of the Exploring Environmental History
podcast is Emily OGorman, an Associate Research Fellow at the
Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research of the
University of Wollongong. She is an expert on Australian flooding
and river history and examines on this podcast the ways in which
ducks as well as people negotiated the changing water landscapes
of the Murrumbidgee River caused by the creation of rice paddies.


Music credits: Forecast by cdk, Where You Are Now by Zapac.