Deerubbin Press - Consulting

Special Offer

In this Special Christmas Offer if you order three or more books you will be sent complimentary copies of The Improvers' Legacy: Environmental Studies of the Hawkesbury and Perfect Hawkesbury Holidays: Boating on the River 1890s - 1940s, edited and compiled respectively by Jocelyn Powell. Together these retail at $28.50.

The Improvers' Legacy: Environmental Studies of the Hawkesbury
This book brings together expert contributions on both natural and human-induced impacts on the environment of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River catchment and discusses future management needs so that detrimental effects can be minimised.

An overview of the impacts of 200 years of European settlement sets the context for more detailed consideration of both Aboriginal and European impacts on the landscape and biota of the region. The destructive effect of bushfires is illustrated through documentation of fire history in the Blue Mountains. The history and current impacts of extractive industries are detailed; some 16 physical and 15 biological impacts discussed. The contribution that boat wash makes to riverbank erosion is discussed in relation to a range of other factors. The establishment of national parks and reserves bordering the Hawkesbury River is documented, their natural and cultural values outlined and their management needs considered. The need for a River Authority and the steps leading to the establishment of the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Trust are discussed and its effectiveness over the first few years of its existence.

This book is an important contribution to our knowledge of the environmental history of a great waterway and its hinterland and is essential reading for everyone seeking to promote a more natural and sustainable world. A must for any students of environmental management and good background reading for catchment managers, planners and other decision-makers.

Perfect Hawkesbury Holidays: Boating on the River 1890s - 1940s
A collection of fascinating articles published in early boating and yachting magazines. They include: an 1895 cruise from Sydney to Pittwater, Cowan Creek and up the Hawkesbury to Pitt Town in an eight ton yacht; an early Christmas camping and boating holiday in Cowan Creek involving 25 people; the Royal Motor Yacht club's 1928 Christmas cruise up to the Colo River with a regatta and ball held at Wisemans Ferry, a picture show at Berowra and another regatta and dinner at Pittwater; and the delights of winter cruising on Brisbane Water.

Included also is the report (from the Windsor & Richmond Gazette) of a 1902 excursion up the Colo River by two young men in a rowing skiff. It provides interesting and amusing descriptions of some of the early river craft seen, of the local orchards and their owners, and of other people met, including a surveyor associated with the Colo River Electric Scheme which involved building a 300 ft dam on the Colo.

A highlight of the book is the delightful diary of two young women canoeists who spent nine days in March 1941 paddling from Richmond to Lower Portland and the Colo. Published in full for the first time it describes their daily routine, the helpful farmers and others that they met, their surprise at being able to purchase what they needed from a storeboat, and their continual enjoyment of the river environment.