Climate, Science, and Colonization: Histories from Australia and New Zealand

Introduction Climate, Science, and Colonization: Histories from Australia and New Zealand James Beattie, Emily O'Gorman, and Matthew Henry Part I Frames, Events, and Responses Chapter 1 Australasia: An Overview of Modern Climate and Paleoclimate during the Last Glacial Maximum 19 Andrew M. Lorrey and Helen C. Bostock Chapter 2 'The usual weather in New South Wales is uncommonly bright and clear . . . equal to the finest summer day in England': Flood and Drought in New South Wales, 1788-1815 43 Claire Fenby, Don Garden, and Joëlle Gergis Chapter 3 Extreme Weather and ENSO: Their Social and Cultural Ramifications in New Zealand and Australia in the 1890s 61 Don Garden Chapter 4 Pioneer Settlers Recognizing and Responding to the Climatic Challenges of Southern New Zealand 81 Peter Holland and Jim Williams Part II Debating Human Effects Chapter 5 'For the sake of a little grass': A Comparative History of Settler Science and Environmental Limits in South Australia and the Great Plains 99 Kirsty Douglas Chapter 6 Debating the Climatological Role of Forests in Australia, 1827-1949: A Survey of the Popular Press 119 Stephen Legg Chapter 7 Science, Religion and Drought: Rainmaking Experiments and Prayers in North Otago, 1889-1911 137 James Beattie Part III Climate Understandings Chapter 8 Farming on the Fringe: Agriculture and Climate Variability in the Western Australian Wheat Belt, 1890s to 1980s 159 Ruth A. Morgan Chapter 9 'Soothsaying' or 'Science?': H. C. Russell, Meteorology, and Environmental Knowledge of Rivers in Colonial Australia 177 Emily O'Gorman Chapter 10 Imported Understandings: Calendars, Weather, and Climate in Tropical Australia, 1870s-1940s 195 Chris O'Brien Chapter 11 Destabilizing Narratives of the 'Triumph of the White Man over the Tropics': Scientific Knowledge and the Management of Race in Queensland 1900-1940 213 Meg Parsons Chapter 12 Australasian Airspace: Meteorology, and the Practical Geopolitics of Australasian Airspace, 1935-1940 233 Matthew Henry Epilogue: Future Research Directions 251